Television
Downton Abbey is now a weird parallel universe of the royal family. Except with less action
Are you following the world’s most watched aristocratic family? If you recall, they recently took into their ranks a member…
James Delingpole: As a Brummie, I am aggrieved with Peaky Blinders
You wait a whole lifetime for a lavishly shot, starrily cast, mega-budget gangster drama set in Birmingham to come along.…
The Wipers Times - 100 years on, this newspaper still lives
Funny what rises from the rubble. In 1916 British army officer Captain Fred Roberts was searching the bombed-out remains of…
After watching Bad Education, Big School is as embarrassing as watching your dad trying to DJ
You know you’re getting old when TV starts getting nostalgic about eras during which you were already feeling old and…
The sight of a rose-and-pistachio cake with lychee flavouring, strewn with petals, makes Clarissa Tan’s heart lift
I’m not crazy about cookery shows. I suspect they indicate how little we are cooking, rather than how much. We’re…
Breaking Bad is so harrowing that for a while James Delingpole couldn’t watch it
One of Boy’s more annoying teenage rules of thumb is that, if Dad likes it, it must be crap. This…
Big School left me po-faced
How did our comedies become so sad? BBC1’s new sitcom Big School (Fridays) opened with a scene that would probably…
Is David Starkey God?
‘Somerset. Winter 877,’ said the subtitles below an arty, BBC-nature-doc style close-up of a coot paddling amid the reeds on…
Clarissa Tan experiences the greatest show on earth, and laughs
I watched Top Gear (BBC2, Sunday) for the first time in my life last week (the rock under which I’ve…
What was the point of Burton and Taylor?
Watching Burton and Taylor (BBC4, Monday) I felt a bit like I do when I go to the theatre —…
If you’re craving some Kiwi bush angst, Top of the Lake fits the bill
I sincerely hope you’re not watching television. With the glorious summer sun we’re having, you should be having picnics and…
Brainwashed from birth: the cult of the BBC
Last week I was on holiday with my family on the Algarve. The good news was that, thanks to the…
TV review: Get out of my way, Tessa Jowell. Women are not all touchy-feely
Luther is back, in Luther, and so is Donny Osmond, of Donny & Marie fame. Could there be two more…
