Olivia Colman’s default mode, as seen on any of the countless awards acceptance speeches she’s given in the last few years, is jokey self-effacement. She smiles uncomfortably, looks embarrassed at all the fuss, deflects the praise on to anyone else she can think of, and makes a crack at her own expense. You don’t, however, […]
Category archives: Uncategorized
Solve That – How British Writers Wound Up Writing a 40-hour Chinese Detective Series
Screengrab – The Getaway Car, The Comic Strip Presents… Red Top, The Story of China
I assume that Jeremy Clarkson had a clause in his contract saying, ‘No inane, embarrassing, ratings-grabbing spin-offs from Top Gear – or not while I’m on the show.’ That can be the only explanation for why crud like The Getaway Car has not dripped from beneath the wheel arch until now. The Getaway Car […]
War and Peace – episode 3 hits new heights
By the end of last night’s third episode of Andrew Davies’s adaptation of War and Peace, half way through its run, one thing was clear – this is an epic romance, the likes of which we have not seen on television since Davies’s 1995 classic Pride and Prejudice. At his best Davies is capable of […]
Screengrab – Derren Brown: Pushed to the Edge, Tracey Ullman’s Show, Crashing
Wednesday must have been a really good day for three of the four stooges who took part in Derren Brown: Pushed to the Edge on Tuesday evening. “Wow, I saw you on TV last night. You pushed someone off a building.” “Yes, but it was an experiment designed to illustrate the power of social compliance.” […]
TV Review – Fungus the Bogeyman, Harry Price: Ghost Hunter
From The Gruffalo to The Snowman and the Snowdog to this year’s Stickman, adaptations of classic young children’s books are big business. The problem is that in most cases the books themselves are very short. To make expensive animation worthwhile, and to fill a timeslot, they require enlarging, yet that can often dilute the magic […]
Review – The Christmas Doctor Who
Who’d be Doctor Who at Christmas? Granted a prime slot at 5.15 pm on Christmas Day, when many of us are just stumbling down from the dinner table and collapsing on to the sofa, the task list facing the Doctor makes merely saving mankind look like a doddle: The Christmas Doctor Who is required to […]
Inside the Tardis: behind the scenes of the Doctor Who Christmas special
Snow under foot! Christmas lights! Tinsel! If there’s one thing the set of the Christmas Doctor Who promises to deliver it’s festive cheer by the sleigh‑load. I am at Roath Lock studios, in Cardiff, and, despite it being a mild day in September, I am walking down a Victorian street decked with boughs of holly […]
Review – Luther Series 4
heads up – spoilers Since it began in 2010 each series of Luther has contained fewer and fewer episodes. Next up, says its star Idris Elba, the plan is to take the small screen’s most grizzled detective in to a movie of his own. This would suit Elba’s status as a big screen player, but […]
2015 Stunners and Stinkers
The Worst Television of 2015 SunTrap – Monstrous crime comedy misfire, the Eldorado of sitcoms. Anything on C5 about Benefits – An ocean of poverty porn, prejudice and shame. Surely we can do better? Pompidou – Matt Lucas silent comedy that attempted to combine Mr Bean with Monsieur Hulot and failed dismally Prized Apart – […]