Television
We need more opinionated English eccentrics making documentaries like, ahem, me...
Is it just me or are almost all TV documentaries completely unwatchable these days? I remember when I first started…
BBC2’s Hotel India: slums? What slums?
Viewers who like their TV journalism hard-hitting should probably avoid Hotel India, a new BBC2 series about the Taj Mahal…
Eye-gouging within the first half-hour: the edgy new rules of TV drama
Where is Jessica Hyde? If those words mean nothing to you then I have some excellent news. If not, then…
Scoops, snark and jihad – this is Vice News's war
War can reshape the medium of television. The First Gulf War was a landmark moment in broadcasting: CNN had reporters…
Gomorrah is gangsters without glamour – but it's still not as scary as Dance Moms
Gomorrah (Sky Atlantic, Monday), the new, must-see Mafioso series, started promisingly. We met two hoods — one young, shaven-headed, good-looking;…
Barbie dolls? This girl aims for the head
Channel 4’s Kids and Guns (Thursday) began with an American TV advert in which a young boy’s eyes shone with…
In which James Delingpole gets down with the kids, finds they’re sex-obsessed…
If there’s one thing everyone knows about BBC comedy it’s that it’s going downhill. According to Danny Cohen, now Director…
The quest for the perfect guitar riff is a noble one – if not quite the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe
A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old son, who’s taken up the guitar, announced that he’d learned something new. He then…
Your starter for ten: why do we Brits so love University Challenge?
‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually…
The Honourable Woman could have done with some help from an overpaid executive in a suit
BBC2’s The Honourable Woman (Thursday) began with a rather portentous voice-over bringing us the unsurprising news that ‘We all have…
Looking for a Game of Thrones substitute? Vikings is the closest you’ll get – but it ain't close
Did you know that the 8th-century Kingdom of Northumbria was the epicentre of an international exotic reptile trade? I only…
The girl who had sex with dolphins
BBC4’s The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins (Tuesday) began with the overstated-sounding claim that it would be tackling ‘perhaps the…
We need something less evil than Britain's Got Talent. How about public executions?
You know what the world needs most right now? What it needs is five good-looking-ish, talented-ish blokes dressed in a…
Is BBC1’s Quirke bravely unhurried – or too slow?
The work of John Banville — Booker-winning novelist and impeccably high-minded literary critic — might seem an unlikely source for…
The rights and wrongs of box-set viewing
Admit it. Say it! ‘My name is Blah and I am a boxaholic.’ Life on hold, marriage in bits, job…
Harry and Paul’s Story of the Twos is just too funny for its own good
On Harry and Paul’s Story of the Twos (BBC 2, Sunday), there was a particularly cruel sketch in which Paul…
So Dylan Thomas was a drunk: does this TV drama have anything else to say?
According to its executive producer Griff Rhys Jones, A Poet in New York (BBC2, Sunday) sought to rescue Dylan Thomas…
Thank God for the Game of Thrones imp – and the heaving breasts
Which character are you in Game of Thrones? For me it’s got to be the imp, Tyrion Lannister. As Ed…
Jack Bauer hits, er, West Ealing
Whatever worries Kiefer Sutherland may have had about reprising the role of Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day (Sky1,…
Generation War does something very un-German – bottles it
I was so looking forward to Generation War (BBC2, Saturday) — a three-part drama series covering the second world war…
Estate agents: we were right about the bastards all along
Television executives must be longing to make a programme about estate agents that casts the agents in a good light.…
Without a strong woman in charge, bees are doomed — just like us
God bless the BBC. And I’m not being entirely sarcastic here. There are some things the BBC does very well…
Gas gangrene, shell shock and flinty women: BBC One's new Sunday night offering is no soother
Sunday nights. What are they for? Eggs. Tea. Toast. Nerves about the week ahead. Something comforting on TV. But comfort…
The EU is worse than you thought
For me, by far the most surprising revelation in Martin Durkin’s documentary Nigel Farage: Who Are You? (Channel 4, Monday)…
Game of Thrones tells the story of Britain better than most histories
A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Having recently learnt of his father’s beheading, the adolescent —…
