tv
Election Night 2017, BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Sky NewsFriday, 09 June 2017
The latest test of the nation’s perseverance and patience – a snap election called just before the negotiations for Brexit are due to start – seemed like an extraordinary act of hubris at the start. Read more... |
Ackley Bridge, Channel 4 review – can the town's new academy bring racial and social harmony?Thursday, 08 June 2017
Welcome to Ackley Bridge Academy, home of a new Channel 4 drama and a new amalgam of two segregated schools in a Yorkshire mill town setting out to prove itself “a new school with a new attitude”. Read more... |
Lord Lucan: My Husband, The Truth review - the coldest case of allTuesday, 06 June 2017
Four years ago the BBC dramatised the story of the Lucans. Rory Kinnear donned the forthright moustache and Catherine McCormack played his spouse Veronica as a brittle victim of mental cruelty. The script speculated about the murder of the nanny Sandra Rivett using all the known sources. A year later Laura Thompson’s book A Different Class of Murder was published and last year the vanished earl’s death certificate was issued. That might have been thought to be that. Read more... |
The Handmaid's Tale, Channel Four review - triumphant dystopian dramaMonday, 05 June 2017
The second episode of Bruce Miller’s brilliant dramatisation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale on Channel 4 finds Offred (the wonderful Elisabeth Moss) being penetrated by Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes, looking conflicted). Read more... |
Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution, BBC Two review - how the Fab Four changed pop music foreverSunday, 04 June 2017
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the triumphant vindication of the Beatles' decision to quit touring and instead exploit the possibilities of the recording studio. Read more... |
Broken, BBC One review - things look bleak in McGovernvilleWednesday, 31 May 2017
This is Jimmy McGovern, so it’s no surprise to find ourselves up north and feeling grim. Read more... |
Paula, BBC Two review - Denise Gough's the real thingFriday, 26 May 2017
Playwrights have long migrated to the small screen in search of better pay and room to manoeuvre. Most don’t leave it as long as Conor McPherson, who was perhaps cushioned from necessity by the global success of The Weir. Read more... |
White Gold, BBC Two review – rattling pace and razor-edged dialogueThursday, 25 May 2017
In the dog-eat-dog world of White Gold it’s 1983, when greed was about to become good and (as the show’s creator Damon Beesley puts it) “a time when having double-glazed patio doors installed meant you were winning at life”. The streets were full of sludge-coloured cars from British Leyland, and Duran Duran and Bonnie Tyler ruled the charts. Read more... |
Three Girls, BBC One review - drama as shattering public enquiryFriday, 19 May 2017
Television dramas about catastrophic events in broken Britain are meant to be cathartic. They knead the collated facts into the shape of drama for millions to absorb and understand. Then we all somehow move on, sadder but slightly wiser. The Murder of Stephen Lawrence. Hillsborough. The Government Inspector. Read more... |
Kat and Alfie: Redwater, BBC One review – 'EastEnders' spinoff suffers from no fixed identityFriday, 19 May 2017
EastEnders habituees will be familiar with the colourful past of Alfie and (especially) Kat Moon, who have both been AWOL from the mothership since early last year. 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.
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