Watch some liars claim that youth and beauty don’t go together
Back in 1990, Grandpa from The Simpsons wrote a letter of protest to TV-makers. ‘I am disgusted with the way…
Riveting and titillating: BBC2’s Parole reviewed
There’s a distinct and rather cunning whiff of cakeism about the new documentary series Parole. On the one hand, it…
Bravely shows that depressed people can be quite annoying: The Son reviewed
For my money – and lots of other people’s – Florian Zeller’s 2020 film The Father was pretty much a…
Joking aside
Nick Hornby’s 2014 novel Funny Girl was both a heartfelt defence and a convincing example of what popular entertainment can…
Has Salman Rushdie become his own pastiche?
Salman Rushdie returns to India with a full-throated mix of history, magic realism and dazzling storytelling, says James Walton
A ‘look at these funny people’ doc that could have been presented by any TV hack: Grayson Perry’s Full English reviewed
For around a decade now, Grayson Perry has been making reliably thoughtful and entertaining documentary series about such things as…
Guiltily compelling: Spector, on Sky Documentaries, reviewed
On 3 February 2003, the emergency services in Los Angeles received a call. ‘I’m Phil Spector’s driver,’ a voice told…
Irresistible: Sky Max’s Christmas Carole reviewed
What’s wrong with sentimentality? The answer, I’d suggest, could either be: a) its almost bullying insistence on us having emotions…
A dismaying exercise in nostalgia: Simon Schama’s History of Now reviewed
For those who consider themselves traditional liberals (full disclosure: such as me) Sunday’s first episode of Simon Schama’s History of…
Riveting: C4’s Who Stole the World Cup reviewed
Have you ever seen film of the England 1966 football team holding the World Cup at the Royal Garden Hotel,…
Strange bedfellows: Charles Dickens and the popstar Prince
Nick Hornby yokes the two in an enjoyable jeu d’esprit – but, apart from troubled childhoods and prodigious energy, the thing they really share is Hornby’s admiration
Refreshingly macho: BBC1’s SAS Rogue Heroes reviewed
Sunday’s SAS Rogue Heroes – about the founding of perhaps Britain’s most famous regiment – began with a revealing variation…
Touchingly free of cynicism: C4's Somewhere Boy reviewed
At the start of Somewhere Boy, an 18-year-old boy is rescued from an isolated house by his aunt Sue following…
The BBC's fairly desperate new reality show: Unbreakable reviewed
On first impression, you might have thought that Unbreakablewas just a fairly desperate reality show cobbled together from I’m a…
Well-meaning thriller with moments of implausibility: BBC1's Crossfire reviewed
Crossfire was a three-part drama in more ways than one. Running every night from Tuesday to Thursday, it brought together…
Will you be able to get through the ponderous aphorisms without giggling? The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power reviewed
Amazon’s much-heralded Tolkien prequel The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power began by answering a question that has…
The fiasco of Operation Yewtree: C4's The Accused – National Treasures on Trial reviewed
At 4.38 a.m., one morning in October 2013, the radio presenter Paul Gambaccini was understandably asleep when the doorbell rang.…
Who are these pathologically liberal rozzers? Channel 4's Night Coppers reviewed
Grizzled police officers of the old school should probably avoid Channel 4’s Night Coppers for reasons of blood pressure. Like…
A very classy thriller indeed: C4's The Undeclared War reviewed
The Undeclared War has many of the traditional signifiers of a classy thriller: the assiduous letter-by-letter captioning of every location;…
A masterclass in evenhandedness: James Graham’s Sherwood reviewed
James Graham has made his considerable name writing political-based dramas of a highly unusual type: non-polemical ones. And this certainly…
On the brink of delivering something special: Sky's The Midwich Cuckoos reviewed
A youngish couple leave London and drive off excitedly to make a fresh start in more rural surroundings. They demonstrate…
A gentle soap opera with nudity and book chat: Conversations with Friends reviewed
It’s official: television has a new genre. Its features include leisurely half-hour episodes, plenty of literary chat, several scenes set…
Lacks the bite and bracing malevolence of Call My Agent!: Amazon's Ten Percent reviewed
In theory, it should be a perfect match. John Morton – the man behind the brilliantly assured sitcom W1A which…
The chief characteristic so far has been nervousness: Chivalry reviewed
Chivalry – written by and starring Sarah Solemani and Steve Coogan – is a comedy drama about post-#MeToo Hollywood life.…
An impeccably rule-observing programme from the BBC: Art That Made Us reviewed
Art That Made Us is an ambitious new series, firmly in the ‘history of something in a load of different…
