tv
Motherland / Detectorists review - comedy classics go at their own paceThursday, 16 November 2017
As Motherland settles down into its first series proper after last year’s pilot, it still seems to be going at a fair gallop. Read more... |
Storyville: Toffs, Queers and Traitors, BBC Four review - the spy who was a scampTuesday, 14 November 2017
“There is something odd, I suppose, about anyone who betrays their country.” It’s an excellent opening line, particularly when delivered in director George Carey’s nicely querulous narrative voice, for Toffs, Queers and Traitors (BBC Four). Read more... |
Howards End, BBC One review - EM Forster adaptation is finding its footingMonday, 13 November 2017
Can it really be a quarter-century since that finest of all Merchant-Ivory film adaptations, Howards End, was first released? Read more... |
Trump: An American Dream/Angry, White and American, Channel 4 review - a timely look at Trump and the causes of TrumpFriday, 10 November 2017
There are, as I’m sure many of you are aware, four key stages of political change. Denial, anger, acceptance and, finally, documentary film-making. Read more... |
The A Word, Series 2, BBC One review - is it turning into 'Emmerdale' with a twist of autism?Wednesday, 08 November 2017
At its weakest The A Word is just Emmerdale with a twist of autism, especially when the drama swivels away from the little boy to focus on adult infidelities, a grumpy patriarch, sibling rivalries and comedy Poles wisecracking in subtitles. Read more... |
Babylon Berlin, Sky Atlantic review – brilliantly promising Euro-noirMonday, 06 November 2017
Sky Atlantic’s German import is an intoxicating mix of intrigue and betrayal, set in the excessive days of the Weimar Republic. Gripping stories and extravagant production meet in the opening two episodes of this brilliantly promising Euro-noir. Read more... |
I Know Who You Are, Series 2, BBC Four review - get on with it, por favorSunday, 05 November 2017
Here we go again then. The “first series”, as the BBC are calling it after the fact, of I Know Who You Are slammed the brakes on and juddered to a bewildering halt back in the middle of August. Almost everyone who’d sat through the plot dodgems of those 10 episodes will have had the same reaction: eh? Read more... |
Queen: Rock the World, BBC Four review - we won't rock youSaturday, 04 November 2017
Forty years ago Whispering Bob Harris made a documentary about Queen. He eavesdropped on them as they recorded the album News of the World and then followed them around America on tour. Read more... |
Strike Back, Series 6, Sky 1 review - more stories for boysWednesday, 01 November 2017
Laughable though it frequently – oh go on then, always – is, Strike Back is obviously a target-rich environment for those of a thespian persuasion. Read more... |
66 Days, BBC Four review - Bobby Sands strikes againWednesday, 01 November 2017
There was much more to Brendan J Byrne’s engrossing, even-handed documentary 66 Days (BBC Four) than its title might at first suggest. The timeline that led up to the death on 5 May 1981 of the IRA prisoner provided its immediate context – an increasingly dramatic one as the countdown of Sands’s hunger strike nears its inexorable conclusion. Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Album: Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between
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They stopped making the BBC’s original Bergerac in 1991, so you can hardly complain that this reboot is premature. John Nettles became...
A Knock on the Roof, Royal Court review - poignant account o...
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The Last Showgirl review - Pamela Anderson stars as a middle...
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The Score, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - curious beast of...
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The Ferryman, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin review - Jez Butterwort...
Dublin theatregoers have been inundated with Irish family gatherings concealing secrets or half-buried sorrows, mixing “bog gothic” with very real...