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Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC Two, series finale review - torpor not traumaFriday, 01 September 2017
So who killed Cinnamon? Six weeks ago we saw the strangled sex-worker – packed in a pink suitcase – pushed into Bondi Bay. The finale of Top of the Lake: China Girl withheld enlightenment. Puss, the chief suspect, denied responsibility. Why would the baby-farmer destroy such a valuable (pregnant) asset? Read more...
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Educating Greater Manchester, Channel 4 review - a study of hope, humanity and heartFriday, 01 September 2017
Cast your minds back, if you will, to 2011. Remember Jamie Oliver’s Celebrity Fight School? Read more... |
The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4 review – a cake with adverts is still a cakeWednesday, 30 August 2017
By the outrage it prompted, you’d be forgiven for thinking that The Great British Bake Off’s move to Channel 4 was a national disaster. If only the public felt so indignant about the sale of the Post Office, or the creeping privatisation of a beleaguered NHS… but hey-ho, cakes it is, then. Read more... |
Trust Me, BBC One, series finale review - drama about fake doctor was also pretendingWednesday, 30 August 2017
Trust Me made an eponymous plea to the audience. Its implausible premise – that a nurse might steal a doctor’s identity and land a job in A&E – called for your credulity. Read more... |
Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling, BBC One review - JK Rowling's debut in crime bows most promisinglyMonday, 28 August 2017
There’s a new ‘tec in town. Cormoran Strike may look like one of life’s losers – he’s on the edge of bankruptcy, sleeps in the office, and what passes for a personal life is a right mess – but in Tom Burke’s portrayal I suspect he’s going to be winning audiences in a big way. Read more... |
Wasting Away, Channel 4 review - we can't fix people while the NHS is brokenFriday, 25 August 2017
Journalist Mark Austin is no stranger to conflict, having reported from war-torn landscapes including Rwanda, Iraq and even the ITN newsdesk. However, when the battle lines were drawn closer to home and involved an enemy he couldn’t see, the veteran journalist found himself in unfamiliar territory and without any kind of roadmap. Read more... |
The State, Channel 4 review - dishonest portrait of British jihadisMonday, 21 August 2017
It’s a burning question of western civilisation: what persuades young people brought up among us to walk out on their lives and join the cult of murderous fanatics who call themselves Islamic State? Read more... |
No More Boys and Girls, BBC Two – baby steps lead to great leaps for childrenThursday, 17 August 2017
Whether it’s the £400,000 that separates Mishal Husain from John Humphrys, or the 74 million miles between the metaphorical markers of Venus and Mars, there is a gulf between the genders. Despite legislation to enforce equality, the reality is that, right from the start, boys and girls are treated differently. Boys like trains, right? Read more... |
I Know Who You Are, series finale, BBC Four review - gripping, but no one to root forSunday, 13 August 2017
The first thing to say is that this wasn’t the actual end. BBC Four scheduled I Know Who You Are to run two episodes a night over five Saturdays. The innocent punter might have assumed that after 10 x 70 minutes of the Spanish import, we’d arrive at some sort of terminus. Read more... |
Citizen Jane review - portrait of a New York toughieThursday, 10 August 2017
When you’re next strolling through Washington Square Park, or SoHo, or the West Village, you can thank Jane Jacobs that those New York neighbourhoods have survived (though she'd blanch at the price of real estate). Four-lane highways almost dissected and ruined them in the mid-Fifties, but her grass-roots activism saved those higgledy-piggledy streets. Read more... |
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