TV
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…
Sonya Yoncheva is sensational in Royal Opera’s triumphant new Norma
The Royal Opera has opened the season with a triumph, and in one of the most difficult of operas, Bellini’s…
BBC2’s heroic attempt to poke an unwanted nose into the world of British Vogue
With documentary-makers these days, it can be hard to tell the difference between faux-naivety and the real thing. (Personally, I…
Watching old, unPC sitcoms should be part of the national curriculum
I think I might be turning into Alf Garnett. When I was growing up I saw him as an obnoxious,…
Why Channel 4’s new reality TV series, Eden, should actually be called Die, Hippies! Die!
The unacknowledged subtitle of Channel 4’s new reality series Eden (Mondays) is Die, Hippies! Die! Obviously they’re not going to…
In Ross Kemp the Kurds have found their Byron: Sky 1’s The Fight Against Isis reviewed
Before I set about reviewing Ross Kemp: The Fight Against Isis (Sky 1), I thought I’d have a glance to…
The content was clearly a secondary consideration: Brian Cox’s Forces of Nature reviewed
Pop idol turned top boffin Brian Cox doesn’t shy away from the big issues. With programmes such as Wonders of…
Poldark meets The Exorcist: BBC1’s The Living and the Dead reviewed
It’s sadly possible to imagine that The Living and the Dead was sold to BBC1’s commissioning editors as ‘Poldark meets…
Absolutely Fabulous was too spiteful to be funny. It invited us to laugh at female failure
Absolutely Fabulous, which is about to make its cinema debut, is a comedy about women being useless. I watched it…
James Delingpole is loving Ben Elton's new Shakespeare sitcom
There’s no way of saying this without shredding the last vestiges of my critical credibility, but this new Ben Elton…
Even the sternest Leavisite critic would find it hard to resist BBC2's Peaky Blinders
The big returning show of the week began with servants laying out the silverware at a large country house in…
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