Television
Poldark review: drama by committee
By my calculations, the remake of Poldark (BBC1, Sunday) is the first time BBC drama has returned to Cornwall since…
The Great European Disaster on BBC4 reviewed: propaganda worthy of Leni Riefenstahl
My favourite bit of The Great European Disaster (BBC4, Sunday) was the lingering shot that showed golden heads of corn…
Critical on Sky1 reviewed: a new medical drama where everyone radiates an unusual degree of competence and concern
Sky1’s new hospital drama Critical (Tuesday) can’t be accused of making a timid start. Within seconds, an urgent request had…
UKIP: The First 100 Days, Channel 4, review: a sad, predictable, desperate hatchet job
Just three months into Ukip’s shock victory as the party of government and already Nigel Farage’s mob are starting to…
Better Call Saul review: the box set equivalent of a (very) well-made play
I lost count long ago of the number of dinner parties and pub conversations where I’ve had to utter the…
Arabian Motorcycle Adventures review: enthralling and constantly surprising
There were great numbers of young men who had never been in a war and were consequently far from unwilling…
Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?
In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…
Broadchurch, review: ‘unwatchable’
Probably the two greatest advances in western culture in my lifetime have been the Sopranos-style epic serial drama and the…
Channel 4’s Cyberbully: an unashamedly old-fashioned drama in being both well made and moral
Channel 4’s Cyberbully (Thursday), written by Ben Chanan and David Lobatto, turned out to be a brilliantly gripping drama, even…
It's because Corden is such a dick that The Wrong Mans was so blindingly brilliant
God, it must be awful to have been at school with James Corden. As he sat fatly at the back…
BBC1’s Esio Trot: like Fawlty Towers played at quarter speed
As a New Year’s Day treat for all the family, Esio Trot (BBC1) seemed to be taking no chances. It…
How to win MasterChef - and why salmon is the fish of the devil
If ever my near-neighbour William Sitwell is killed in a bizarre shooting accident and I end up taking his place…
BBC1’s Remember Me: the curious case of the killer Yorkshire taps
BBC1’s authentically spooky three-part ghost story Remember Me hasn’t yet revealed what’s really going on in that gloomy Yorkshire town.…
Don’t sneer at I’m a Celebrity. The show is teaching us to become model citizens
One of the great benefits of having teenage children is that they force you out of your fuddy-duddy comfort zone.…
Jaw-dropping confessions of a very un-PC Plod
There can’t have been many people who watched Confessions of a Copper (Channel 4, Wednesday) with a growing sense of…
We know that war is hell. But it doesn’t ever make us stop doing it
There’s a plausible theory — recently rehearsed in the BBC’s excellent two-part documentary The Lion’s Last Roar? — that our…
James Walton uncovers the sound of Nashville - money
Twenty minutes into BBC4’s The Heart of Country (Friday), there was a clip of Chet Atkins, country music’s star producer…
James Delingpole falls in love with Grayson Perry - and almost comes round to Chris Huhne
I love Grayson Perry. You might almost call him the anti-Russell Brand: a genuinely talented artist who also has some…
Hooray for Homeland - Carrie’s back blasting America’s enemies to pieces with drones
One of the more welcome and surprising things about television at the moment is that Homeland (Channel 4, Sunday) is…
Fellow saddoes rejoice: BBC4 has made a comedy-drama about metal detecting
Detectorists (BBC4) is a sad git’s niche comedy that would never have been commissioned if it hadn’t been written and…
We're great and baboons are losers: this week's lesson from Brian Cox
Anybody feeling a bit depressed about the shortcomings of humanity could do worse than watch Brian Cox’s new series Human…
Could the Kenyan mall atrocities happen here?
So you’ve just popped down to the supermarket for the weekly shop, toddlers in tow, when the grenades start to…
Marriage and foreplay Sharia-style
Needless to say, it’s not uncommon to hear single British women in their thirties and forties saying that all the…
I love that people assume I’m gay
At a birthday dinner over the weekend I was introduced to this delightful party girl of a certain age whose…
Now for the really tricky question: can Only Connect survive BBC2?
For some of us, the biggest TV question of recent weeks hasn’t been how Newsnight is doing without Jeremy Paxman,…
