Colin Dexter: the writer who brought novel ideas to television
TV took the Inspector Morse stories of the late Colin Dexter into the homes of millions – and he wasn’t the only novelist to bathe in the glow of the small screenThe death of Colin Dexter has rightly...
View ArticleNerd-shamers and perverts: why University Challenge is going viral
With his emphatic answering style, Eric Monkman is the latest contestant on the show to light up Twitter. But too often, the contestants are mocked for their eccentric brilliance – or worse, leched...
View ArticleIn-Law Swap! Is this the most excruciating TV possible?
In the BBC’s gruesomely watchable new reality show Alone with the In-Laws, a couple about to wed are forced into four days of awkward psychoanalysis and agonising sexual questionsImagine that, as a...
View ArticleBaftas 2017: triumph for the TV shows never shown on TV
From Fleabag to Thirteen and The Crown, this year’s nominations reveal that the most daring television has now gone onlineThe Bafta shortlists offer an annual freeze-frame of trends in TV. And the most...
View ArticleWhy Locked Up has become Spain's biggest breakout TV hit
By blending Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black with impeccable plotting – and some dubious titillation – Spanish prison drama Locked Up is winning over more than just expatsPossibly because of...
View ArticleNot in this day and age: when will TV stop horrendously airbrushing history?
From Downton Abbey to Call the Midwife and now Jamestown, period dramas always fall into the classic trap – characters with laughably liberal values for their day. Stop the madness, TV-makers!When a...
View ArticleStop frothing, royalists – King Charles III is the boldest BBC show of the year
Diana’s ghost, Camilla slapping the prince, Kate as Lady Macbeth … people have been outraged by the BBC’s potentially treasonous new drama. But after watching, the response should be more ‘hooray’ than...
View ArticleBafta TV awards 2017: who will win – and who deserves to
Will The Crown sweep the board? Will Bake Off be snubbed? And can anyone beat David Attenborough? Here are our predictions for this weekend’s winnersThe 2017 Bafta TV awards (which will be presented on...
View Article'Regrettably, unfathomably safe' – the verdict on the 2017 Bafta TV awards
It looked set to be a brave year – but on the night, given the choice between the known and the fresh, almost all radicalism vanished. Here’s who won, who got snubbed and who should be most...
View ArticleIsis: The Origins of Violence – a brave documentary that will start many a fight
Historian Tom Holland asks tough questions about the roots of Islamist violence – and breaks all the rules of TV presenting by retching at the site of an Isis atrocityOne of the peculiarities of this...
View ArticleThe Trial: TV finally gets inside a jury room – with chilling results
In Channel 4’s gripping experiment, a real judge, real lawyers and a real jury preside over the trial of a man accused of murdering his wife. But where does fact end and fiction start?Channel 4’s...
View ArticleHas House of Cards been well and truly Trumped?
Despite his preposterously evil ways, President Frank Underwood now looks a bit of a snowflake. Can the new series possibly outdo Donald?In the fourth season of House of Cards, President Frank...
View ArticleDoctor Who: Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor will make this show...
It would have been an outrage if a 13th man had been cast. The BBC have made this audacious revelation at exactly the right time At 4.26pm, shortly after Roger Federer became the only man to have won...
View ArticleI am Bolt! The world's fastest man gets the best sports documentary ever made
From his insomnia to his hatred of training, this is a riveting, revelatory look at Usain Bolt as he heads to the blocks for the last timeSports stars always want to be remembered as the greatest in...
View ArticleValkyrien: this latest Scandi-noir success is more like Breaking Bad than Borgen
This new Nordic eight-parter focuses on two paranoid mavericks who end up running a secret hospital for terrorists, celebrities and politicians. It proves the pioneering TV region is still ahead of the...
View ArticleThe State: can this show about British jihadis avoid justifying extremism?
With its rapes, beheadings and joyous celebrations of martyrdom, Peter Kosminsky’s unflinching drama goes right to the heart of Isis. But how do you keep viewers onside when every major character is a...
View ArticleBake Off first-look review – exceedingly good, despite switch to Channel 4
The new series loses the BBC’s worst bits while sticking to the winning recipeFans annoyed by the big money transfer of the Great British Bake Off from the BBC to Channel 4 will be hoping to throw...
View ArticleThe Vietnam War: terror, heartbreak and helicopters ablaze in an epic...
It was the first war fought on TV – and now documentary master Ken Burns brings the most extraordinary look at Vietnam ever to the small screen. And from guerrilla truths to dead people’s testimonies,...
View ArticleChoose your own adventure – how tech is changing TV
Streaming networks such as Twitch and Amazon are working on interactivity - the industry’s next big thingAt the start of the latest season of a hit TV detective series, interviews are taking place to...
View ArticleSister Wendy Beckett: an unlikely star with an inspirational faith in beauty
The devout art historian was that beloved type of presenter: one who doesn’t seem to know what TV isBecause TV presenters can often seem careerist and ambitious, it is those occasional eccentrics, who...
View Article
