TV
A drama set in Nazi-occupied Britain really shouldn’t be this dull: BBC1’s SS-GB reviewed
Rival law-enforcement agencies arguing about which of them should investigate a murder has, of course, been a staple of crime…
Why am I drawn to things that could kill me?
Recently on holiday I did a very bad thing. I nearly left the Fawn to die on a precipitous mountain…
Would Britain have become half so great without George III?
Before he died aged 44 (probably of a pulmonary embolism, poor chap), Frederick, Prince of Wales, compiled a list of…
Apple Tree Yard (BBC1) didn't always observe the boundary between slow burn and just slow
The mid-life crisis novel, I think it’s fair to say, is traditionally a male form. But in Louise Doughty’s Apple…
‘Real Housewives of Isis’ is dark and courageous – but the rest of Revolting is lamentable
Revolting (Tuesdays) is the BBC2 comedy series that spawned the now-infamous sketch ‘Real Housewives of Isis’. It has been watched…
‘Blimey! How did they think of that?’ said no one about BBC2’s Our Dancing Town
‘Blimey! How on earth did they think of that?’ is unlikely to be anyone’s response to Our Dancing Town (BBC2,…
BBC1’s Sherlock is peak Remain
One of the few intelligent responses from the liberal-left to our radically altered political landscape was an essay published last…
Unprecedentedly odd: BBC1’s The Entire Universe reviewed
As you’ve probably noticed, TV critics spend a lot of their time trying to identify which other programmes the one…
Why Christmas TV, all Christmas TV, makes me feel suicidal
When I was a child in the 1970s, the two big excitements of the run-up to Christmas were first the…
Would BBC1’s The Missing blow it in the concluding episode – like so many thrillers before it
BBC1’s The Missing has been one of the undoubted TV highlights of 2016. Yet, even thrillers as overwhelmingly thrilling as…
Is it curtains for BBC drama?
Power is ebbing from the once-mighty BBC drama department to the likes of Netflix. But is it terminal? Neil Armstrong has the inside story
I was so looking forward to The Grand Tour but it’s not there yet
Apart from the next Game of Thrones, there’s nothing I’ve been looking forward to quite as much as The Grand…
Stanley Gibbons – the womanising stamp-collector
If I tell you that on Monday there was an hour-long documentary about the history of stamp-collecting, then you probably…
The 1976 film that foretold the rise of Trump, invented reality TV and made suicide a spectacle
Tanya Gold on the 1976 film that foretold Donald Trump’s presidency
Glenda Jackson’s King Lear shows that men play unhinged warlords better than women
Dynastic affairs and international relations were once a seamless continuum. Royal weddings accompanied peace treaties. An heirless realm was vulnerable…
Netflix’s The Crown is so good I’m considering giving up on terrestrial TV altogether
Nairobi. February 1952. Laughing children brandishing sticks are driving an indignant bustle of ostriches up a rudimentary 1950s-Africa semi-bush runway…
Gloriously compulsive and maddening: Adam Curtis’s HyperNormalisation reviewed
‘Adam Curtis believed that 200,000 Guardian readers watching BBC2 could change the world. But this was a fantasy. In fact,…
Distinctly corny: ITV's Tutankhamun reviewed
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb may well be one of the 20th century’s great stories — but naturally that doesn’t…
Lights, camera, politics: the triumph of showbiz over argument
How statecraft became a branch of reality television
Lushly pleasing and full of existential complexity: Sky Atlantic’s Westworld reviewed
The other day James Lovelock, the sprightly 97-year-old inventor of Gaia theory, told a mildly surprised Guardian interviewer that he…
Vice TV is a con
For all its much-vaunted rebel soul, Viceland is just BBC2 in disguise, says Neil Armstrong
Appointing a former Labour cabinet minister to oversee radio is not just odd but alarming
Quite how one person is expected to oversee not just radio but also ‘arts, music, learning and children’s departments’ was…
Why do doctors think Down’s children are a disaster to be avoided at all costs?
At my wife’s first 12-week scan, I was expecting — and duly got — that much-documented sense of thrilled wonder…
Nostalgic, compulsive, edge-of-seat entertainment: Netflix’s Stranger Things reviewed
Stranger Things is the most delightful, gripping, charming, nostalgic, compulsive, edge-of-seat entertainment I’ve had in ages. Like a lot of…
ITV's Victoria is silly, facile and irresponsible – I blame the feminisation of culture
Did you know that Queen Victoria might never have married Prince Albert had it not been for an amazing stroke…
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