TV and Brian Donaldson

US drama Revenge suffers from an absence of likeable characters

The drama stars Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stow

22 May 2012

Now here’s a new US show that might well have ideas way above its station with an on-screen quote from Confucius hinting at the multiple tragedies which lie ahead. Revenge (E4, Mon 28 May, 9pm) is populated by characters who take boats down to Haiti for…

The Bridge continues the Scandinavian trend for top-quality television crime drama

The series follows in the footsteps of The Killing and Borgen

23 Apr 2012

Those crazy Scandics are at it again with yet another astonishingly addictive TV drama. After the success of The Killing and Borgen, The Bridge (BBC Four, Sat, 9pm) keeps up the momentum albeit with a show that is a far more raw affair. There’s almost…

US TV comedy reviews - 2 Broke Girls and Suburgatory

Two sitcoms let down by overt product placement

18 Apr 2012

There could be a theme developing here. In the pilot episode for New Girl, scatty teacher Zooey Deschanel discovered her live-in man was cheating on her and left to wind up rooming with three guys. In the opening episode of 2 Broke Girls (E4, Thu, 9pm…

Once Upon a Time is stylish but vapid TV

The contemporary American fairy tales from the makers of Lost lack substance

27 Mar 2012

Given that Stephen King pretty much owned the franchise on writing twisted tales set in Maine, it’s an act of errant folly that he’s not involved in Once Upon a Time (Five, Sun 1 Apr, 8pm). You can only imagine what fun the horror master would have had…

US drama Homeland treads familiar territory

The series, starring Clare Danes and Damian Lewis, bears some resemblance to 24

28 Feb 2012

Damian Lewis seems to be the go-to guy for US dramas about tortured souls with a secret past. In Life, he played Charlie Crews, a detective released from prison after 12 years for a crime he didn’t commit, and in Homeland (Channel 4, Sun, 9.30pm), he’s…

Fist of Fun

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's debut TV appearance given a DVD outing

28 Feb 2012

‘It’s not as good as I remembered’. Thus sprach Stewart Lee about the first series of Fist of Fun, the BBC Two show which first introduced the bequiffed comic and Richard Herring, his cohort of many years, to a TV audience. While it might not be…

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

The Boosh performer's latest TV effort abounds in surrealism but lacks coherence... and jokes

2 Feb 2012

Ahead of his new gaudily-coloured clutter-fest, Noel Fielding admitted that making this solo series left him feeling a bit unhinged. After ingesting just a few minutes of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy (E4, Thu, 10pm) only the most avid Boosh fan will…

Queen of quirk Zooey Deschanel stars in formulaic geeky comedy New Girl

The sitcom falls in neatly with The Big Bang Theory, Scrubs et al

5 Jan 2012

Adorkability. ‘Jess Daly’ has this in spades, and it’s the x-factor that led US executives to immediately order up a bunch of extra episodes after New Girl (Channel 4, Fri 6 Jan, 8.35pm) became the Fox network’s highest-rated autumn sitcom debut in a…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 25: Greg McHugh interview

Man behind Fresh Meat and Gary: Tank Commander

16 Dec 2011

When it comes to arresting openings in new TV comedy-dramas during 2011, it’s unlikely that anything came close to Channel 4’s Fresh Meat. The sight of Greg McHugh, naked from the waist down, blow-drying a row of Peking ducks won’t leave many witness…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 56: Freya Mavor

Moving on after being Mini McGuinness in Skins

16 Dec 2011

All good things, they say, must come to an end. So with the Skins policy of changing casts every two series, Freya Mavor may well be currently filming her final scenes of the popular E4 show. ‘I feel petrified of leaving my baby behind,’ Edinburgh’s…

What to watch this Christmas: TV highlights

Little Crackers, Great Expectations, Hacks and True Stories: Sarah Palin among the top TV Xmas picks

13 Dec 2011

When it comes to Christmas television traditions, you could rely on a Morecambe & Wise special, The Great Escape on Boxing Day and trying to guess who would fall asleep first at HM’s shrill message-sending. It may have some way to go to be considered a…

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights

The comedian's TV show is a mix of decent stand-up material and woeful sketches

15 Nov 2011

Curious thing the moral barometer. After the faecal flood which surrounded the original Channel 4 showing of Tramadol Nights this time last year, some judicious cutting has been made to the DVD version. Gone is the Jordan/Harvey routine from episode two…

Channel Hopper - Life's Too Short

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant team up with short actor Warwick Davis for new comedy mock-doc

15 Nov 2011

When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant set about their next major BBC project, they must have wondered whether to go for the docu-drama fakery of The Office or the celeb-heavy naturalism of Extras. In the end they squashed the two together for Life’s…

Channel Hopper - Top Boy

Affecting urban ensemble drama starring Ashley Walters and Kierston Wareing

17 Oct 2011

Vaulting ambition and its often dire consequence are at the heart of London-set Top Boy (Channel 4, Mon 31 Oct–Thu 3 Nov, 10pm) just as it is inherent in every drama from Macbeth to The Sopranos. Some observers will no doubt draw parallels between this…

Mafia drama Romanzo Criminale - preview

The Italian crime series follows in the footsteps of Wallander, The Killing and Spiral

19 Sep 2011

A trio of tough guys beat up an old man with a full wallet. Except they picked on the wrong pensioner as his immediate act of bloody retribution proves, before we are swept back in time to 1977 and to a Rome burning with political murders, bombs…

US TV boxsets: DVD round-up

Bored to Death, The Killing, Weeds and In Treatment reviewed

16 Sep 2011

If you thought that Ted Danson had delivered career-remoulding performances as ‘himself’ in Curb Your Enthusiasm, you should check out the dazzle he brings to the first series of Bored to Death (Warner Home Video ●●●●). Jonathan Ames’ Brooklyn-set…

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David's groundbreaking sitcom stays at the top of its game for an eighth season

16 Sep 2011

After the high watermark of season seven’s Seinfeld-reunion storyline, Larry David brings us dragging and cringing back into his world of petty obsessions, chronic misunderstandings and friendships permanently teetering on the brink of abrasive…

Channel 4 show Chickens set during WW1 stars Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet

Channel Hopper

24 Aug 2011

It might not have quite the resonance of ‘briefcase wanker!’ but Simon Bird’s character in Chickens (Channel 4, Fri 2 Sep, 10.30pm) has to take the slur of ‘shame on you’ like a man. But being a man is half the problem here. Or at least the kind of man…

Channel Hopper: The Hour

Taut, Abi Morgan-penned period news drama starring Ben Wishaw, Romola Garai and Dominic West

21 Jul 2011

Let’s get this straight: here we have a modern BBC drama about a 1950s BBC news programme called ‘The Hour’ with each of its six episodes lasting an hour? Yes, The Hour (BBC2, Tue, 9pm) may originate from a confusing place, but through the spandex-tight…

The Governor, Being Human and Traffik among DVD highlghts

The old school fares well against newbies in TV drama releases

29 Jun 2011

The Governor ●●●● features a curious performance from Janet McTeer, just four years before her 1999 Oscar nomination for Tumbleweeds. In the first season of Lynda La Plante’s excellent prison drama, she switches between giggling schoolgirl and feisty…

DVD review - Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Uncompromising, awkward and confrontational style and content cements reputation

28 Jun 2011

(2entertain) The second series of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle will do very little to alter the entrenched opinions on both sides of his critical fence. Those detractors will switch off in their droves at the uncompromising, awkward and…

Burnistoun - Series 1

Iain Connell and Robert Florence revive the sketch show format with aplomb

23 May 2011

(2entertain) Amid the painful nonsense that masquerades under the banner ‘comedy sketch show’, it’s a truly remarkable surprise to have a show like Burnistoun on our very doorsteps. The series is largely owned by Iain Connell and Robert Florence, two…

The TV debut of web sensation Funny Or Die is more miss than hit

Classic sketches The Landlord and Drunk History

3 May 2011

Making the move from online cult status to small screen uncertainty, the Funny Or Die project has inevitably lost some of its initial drive. Web-watchers previously had the voting power to save a sketch or have it dumped (hence the ‘funny or dying’ bit…

DVD round-up: The Governor, Skins Series Five, Being Human, Jack Rosenthal at the BBC and Traffik

18 Apr 2011

The Governor ●●●● features a curious performance from Janet McTeer, just four years before her 1999 Oscar nomination for Tumbleweeds. In the first season of Lynda La Plante’s excellent prison drama, she switches between giggling schoolgirl and feisty…

My Comedy Hero: Mock The Week's Milton Jones discusses Rowan Atkinson

14 Apr 2011

Growing up I was inspired by people in sitcoms such as Ronnie Barker and Leonard Rossiter. But, the hero I’d pick would be Rowan Atkinson. I became aware of him when he used to do sketches on Not the Nine O’Clock News and it was clear that he was the…

5 things you might not know about Trigger Happy TV's Dom Joly

14 Apr 2011

1 Born in Beirut in 1968, Joly has claimed to have attended the same school as some kid called bin Laden. He subsequently worked for the European Commission, as a researcher and producer on political programmes across the main UK channels before getting…

Celebrity memoirs: Rob Lowe, Barbara Sinatra, Stacey Solomon, Judy Golding and Bear Grylls to publish books

13 Apr 2011

While Charlie Sheen implodes in front of the world’s eyes, he could take comfort in the salutary tale of his old Brat Pack boozing buddy Rob Lowe. In 1988, grainy video footage of him having a wild time with two women became the first commercially…

The Larry Sanders Show - complete series on DVD

Garry Shandling's sitcom, starring Jeffrey Tambor and Jeremy Piven, gets new lease of life

24 Mar 2011

(Mediumrare) In the summer of 1998, the final episode of a beloved, long-running American sitcom was aired but with a conclusion hated by so many that continuous talk of a reunion seemed fuelled purely by a desire to right some terrible wrongs. That…

The James Nesbitt-starring 'Monroe' is sharp enough to keep operating (Channel Hopper)

7 Mar 2011

‘Get it right and no one is impressed. Get it wrong and it’s catastrophic’. We could be flies on the wall at an ITV drama commissioners meeting, but in fact it’s one of several memorable lines from the opening episode of 'Monroe' (ITV1, Thu 10 Mar…

Glasgow-set Lip Service may have more than just homophobes turning it off

Is new BBC3 drama just The L Word with rain?

17 Feb 2011

A recent poll by the BBC found that one in five people felt ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘very uncomfortable’ with gay people having their stories told on television. A mere 16 years after the ‘Brookside kiss’, such a stat can either be read as slow progress or…

Friday Night Dinner a bit hard to digest - Channel Hopper

New Channel Four comedy one of worst ever opening episodes of a sitcom

16 Feb 2011

'In the best traditions of Channel Four comedy, it successfully marries the ground-breaking with the familiar and best of all, it’s really, really funny.’ Grand claims made there on behalf of Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4, Fri 25 Feb, 10pm) by a very…

Boardwalk Empire gets chance to live up to ‘new Sopranos’ tag

TV series features Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter, Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald

8 Feb 2011

With the ballyhoo of its pilot being the most expensive in the history of TV and with Marty Scorsese at the directorial helm, Boardwalk Empire (Sky Atlantic, Tue, 9pm) now gets a chance to settle into its Prohibition groove and show whether it is indeed…

Scenes from a Teenage Killing profiles every teenager murdered in the UK during 2009

Morgan Matthews' BBC documentary charts aftermath of young deaths

19 Jan 2011

A couple of years back, the Beeb aired The Fallen, a funereal documentary which marked the deaths of every British soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The screen was filled with names, ages and date of death, stopping every so often to focus on a…

Whistle and I’ll Come to You and When Harvey Met Bob among Christmas TV highlights

John Hurt gest haunted and Domhnall Gleeson becomes Bob Geldof

15 Dec 2010

Quite why ghost stories go hand in hand with Christmas has never been quite clear to me. Maybe Charles Dickens is to blame, but whatever the link is, don’t spooks and spectres not get enough press at the end of October? One of the British classics of…

The Day John Lennon Died - Cast of characters recount the events of 8 Dec 1980

Channel Hopper - Only Yoko Ono emerges from this documentary with dignity intact

30 Nov 2010

John Lennon. Devoted husband and father. Pioneer of peace. Writer of landmark pop songs. Had a thing about round specs. Loved a good manly embrace. ‘I remember he immediately put his arm round my shoulder and said thanks for coming,’ notes Andy Peebles…

Storyville: Mandelson - The Real PM

Channel Hopper

22 Nov 2010

Winston Churchill once described Labour’s postwar deputy PM Herbert Morrison as a mix of ‘genius and venom’. A lot worse has been said about Morrison’s grandson Peter Mandelson, the Prince of Darkness (aka the Dark Lord) and key architect of New Labour…

Series 2 of Misfits features a grizzled Dexter Fletcher

Comedy-drama with a lot of heart, swathes of wit and genuinely chilling interludes

3 Nov 2010

In a bygone episode of Filthy Rich and Catflap, Rik Mayall’s hapless fool inadvertently murders a series of milkmen. Flash-forward a quarter of a century and, in marginally less slapstick a fashion, the BAFTA-winning ASBO cast of Misfits (E4, Thu 11…

TV comedy Whites starring Alan Davies and co-written by Matt 'Super Hans' King

Channel Hopper

23 Sep 2010

For those of you who have the deep misfortune of remembering Kitchen, a two-part Glasgow-set Five drama with Eddie Izzard as a laconic, often-drunk superchef who had a problem with motivation, Whites (BBC2, Tue 28 Sep, 9pm) may ring a couple of similar…

5 Comedy Shows Worth Watching On Telly

7 Sep 2010

Him and Her Ex-Cowards chap Stefan Golaszewski brings us his own ‘anti-romantic comedy’ about a young couple who are madly in love but with little appetite for the outside world. So the outside world decides to come to them. Russell Tovey, Sarah…

Shane Meadows' gritty-beautiful vision of This is England ‘86

Channel Hopper

7 Sep 2010

With England’s footballing lemmings about to be slapped away in Mexico by the Hand of God, back home the fist of Thatcher is coming down hard on the everyday dreams of her nation’s common people. Three years on from the point where This Is England made…

The Men Who Jump off Buildings - Base jumping

Channel Hopper

23 Jul 2010

‘I think I might die, every time’. When base jumper Dan Witchalls tells his Danish girlfriend how he feels before launching himself from one of London’s many landmark buildings, it looks like she might knock him out flat. ‘Is it worth it?’ she scowls.

The Silence overcomes cliche and shortcomings with pleasing conclusion

Channel Hopper

7 Jul 2010

It’s cliché number 64 in the film and TV thriller world to have someone already in an advanced state of vulnerability being placed into further terrible danger. This might be a child alone at home (Home Alone), a posh bint being weighed down by her…

Five Comedy Shows Worth Watching On Telly

5 Jul 2010

Important Things with Demetri Martin The former quirksome Perrier winner continues his series, which is part stream-of-consciousness sketch show, part stand-up comedy affair, mixed with animation and music. In this one, he turns his attention to the…

Daniel Sloss plays Edinburgh date

5 Jul 2010

In this slot last issue, we featured a man (Mike Wozniak by name) who couldn’t make up his kind whether he wanted to show off his thick moustache or not. This time around we go for a chap who may not even have started shaving. Still, he’s got a BBC3…

Dexter novelist Jeff Lindsay set for Glasgow appearance

5 Jul 2010

If you are a big fan of the serial killer forensic cop anti-hero of American telly show Dexter, you may want to meet the mind who created this memorable character in the first place. Or you may want to run a million miles in the opposite direction.

We need new ‘gritty’ American cop show Southland like a hole in the head

Channel Hopper

24 Jun 2010

Imagine The Wire hadn’t been created through years of painstaking research and sweat-filled toil by David Simon. Imagine, instead, that Jerry CSI/Cold Case Bruckheimer had ordered every writer he has ever known (dead or alive) to come up with a shiny…

Channel Hopper: Men Behaving Badly

28 May 2010

The late Frank Deasy had a knack of writing about the frailties of men and the long-term effects of the bad things blokes do even when they try to make amends for their past indiscretions. It’s there in 90s drug drama Looking After Jo Jo, and in his…

The Boy George story adapted for TV as Worried About the Boy

Channel Hopper

14 May 2010

There’s something of a 1980s vibe in the air right now with TV shows such as Ashes to Ashes, pop stars like La Roux and posh Tories popping champagne corks. Tapping into this hideous atmosphere is Worried About the Boy (BBC2, Sun 16 May, 9pm), a one-off…

Channel Hopper: Idris Elba's Luther is cop with obligatory quirk

Dispatches from the sofa, with Brian Donaldson

5 May 2010

Any new cop show these days must have at its heart an investigator with a quirk. They could have OCD (Monk), the ability to travel back in time (Life on Mars) or be a serial killer (Dexter) but they can’t just go around solving crimes before heading…

US Comedy TV on DVD

29 Apr 2010

It came to these shores amid a storm of publicity at the start of the year, and against almost every odd, Glee (Fox) comes up trumps. Memorable moments from season one include Kurt using a Beyoncé number to help him get ahead in American football, the…

Five comedy shows worth watching on TV

16 Apr 2010

1: Outnumbered This superb celebration of parental incompetence continues with mum (Claire Skinner) finding an inappropriate image on the family computer and launching an investigation to discover the dodgy downloader’s identity. BBC1, Thu 15 Apr…

The verdict on Matt Smith as the new Doctor Who

Channel Hopper

7 Apr 2010

He might have a name that suggests boy band membership and a tweed/bow-tie look that screamed late 70s geography teacher, but judging by the wave of acclaim which has greeted his Timelord debut, Matt Smith could have gotten away with being clad in a…

True Stories Starsuckers an example of celebrity-obsessed culture eating itself

Channel Hopper

31 Mar 2010

An entertainment magazine discussing a TV programme analysing the corrosive nature of our celebrity world might be a shocking example of culture eating itself, but True Stories: Starsuckers (More4, Tue 6 Apr, 10pm) is deserving of our attention. Sure…

Channel Hopper: Jack's Back..

19 Mar 2010

There have been many moments to unintentionally chuckle at during the previous seven series of 24 (Sky One, Sun, 9pm): Jim from Neighbours conducting a political coup to claim the US presidency; Kim Bauer being kidnapped every second episode (was I…

Channel Hopper: The Gemma Factor

2 Mar 2010

Ten years ago, something like The Gemma Factor (BBC3, Tue 9 Mar, 10.30pm) would never have been made. Quite probably in five years’ time, all programmes will be a little like this. Gemma Collinge (toothy newcomer Anna Gilthorpe) is obsessed with fame.

Channel Hopper

18 Feb 2010

A tough, highly trained US operative is chained to a wall soon to be tortured by a nasty European. Even when his captor brings out the jump leads, you just know he won’t talk. No, it’s not the 348th day of 24 but Archer (Fiver, Thu 25 Feb, 10.30pm), an…

Limmy and Rab, welcomed onto TV

3 Feb 2010

Are we actually in the midst of a halcyon period for Scottish telly comedy? Or is it easy to get carried away when, to use the vernacular of their main figureheads, two current shows aren’t actually pish. Ringing in the new is Limmy’s Show (BBC2, Mon…

Show me the funny - Limmy interview

7 Jan 2010

Limmy’s problem is that he just thinks too much. ‘I was walking through the Botanic Gardens and starting to just enjoy walking about, doing nothing. I’m not thinking about the past or holding any grudges or thinking should I have done that differently…

Tracy Beaker Returns

7 Jan 2010

Anyone who tunes in to CBBC from time to time might not know it, but it’s five years since the last new episode of the show featuring the abandoned and shouty Tracy Beaker. But that constant loop of archive 20-minute snapshots of life within the…

Comedy On TV - Reunions, Oration and Urinations

4 Dec 2009

While Larry David may be genuine in his belief that reunion shows are lame, he knows how to spin the best out of a flimsy idea. Getting the key cast of Seinfeld back together for the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (More4, Thu 3 Dec, 10.40pm…

Five Comedy Things to Watch on TV

16 Apr 2009

The Inbetweeners Series two gets into its stride as Will’s birthday looms. He’s planning a suitably grown-up dinner with a few close friends, and, naturellement, any girls they can persuade to come. E4, Thu 16 Apr, 10pm. Reno 911! More spoof…

TV - Remote Control: Christmas TV

11 Dec 2008

Christmas is a time when TV goes mad for the long-awaited comeback. Alongside Rab C, Vic ‘n’ Bob and Stanley Baxter in making a welcome return is Alan Davies’ duffle-coated sleuth with Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (BBC1, Thu 1 Jan, 9pm ●●●●). And…

TV: Rab C Nesbit: Christmas Special

11 Dec 2008

BBC2, Tue 23 Dec, 9pm With his dishevelled demeanour and manky string vest, Rab C Nesbitt may look exactly the same as he did when we last eyeballed him staggering from our screens in the summer of 1999, but the wise old nutter fae Govan is a…

TV: Christmas Documentaries

11 Dec 2008

There used to be a programme on Channel 4 about the worst jobs in history. These tended to be dodgy careers forged in medieval or Roman times, but the modern day equivalent of leech collector could well be the department store Santa. Chris Diamond has…

Cecil B Demille: American Epic

11 Dec 2008

More4, Thu 25 Dec, 1.55pm; Fri 26 Dec, 1.20pm Martin Scorsese perhaps hits the nail on the head when he admits finding it difficult to watch the movies of a number of his director heroes without experiencing pangs of regret about the political…

TV of the Year

11 Dec 2008

Dexter The Miami serial killer with a heart wins Best New US Drama category with Mad Men, Damages and John Adams just behind. The Fallen An unbearably moving three-hour documentary about the British lives lost fighting the War on Terror, told by…

TV: Also on at Xmas

11 Dec 2008

Doctor Who The Cybermen stalk Victorian London as the Timelord comes face to face with another Doctor. BBC1, Thu 25 Dec, 6pm. The Royal Family Two years after Nana passed away, the couch potatoes are back to have just another regular Christmas.

Beehive

27 Nov 2008

COMEDY The phrase ‘all-female sketch show’ shouldn’t necessarily send a shiver down the spine, but it just does. And before anyone says Smack the Pony I’ll trump you with Tittybangbang. But maybe things are changing. After a good Fringe for female…

Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger

27 Nov 2008

COMEDY The phrase ‘all-female sketch show’ shouldn’t necessarily send a shiver down the spine, but it just does. And before anyone says Smack the Pony I’ll trump you with Tittybangbang. But maybe things are changing. After a good Fringe for female…

Remote Control

27 Nov 2008

There are a few gossipy titbits in showbusiness that are generally read as fact. Madonna and Guy were not quite made for each other. Jordan isn’t the sharpest nailfile in the drawer. And the Jackson family is, well, a bit weird. Wacko you might say.

Derren Brown: The Specials

13 Nov 2008

(4DVD) 196min Almost five years ago to the week that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were threatened with being burnt at the stake, another witch-hunt was conducted for another man merely seeking to thrill us. In October 2003, Derren Brown asked a…

Remote Control

13 Nov 2008

When reading the brief synopsis of The Fallen (BBC2, Sat 15 Nov, 9.05pm) ••••• your worldview may determine how you approach this documentary: ‘a powerful and poignant film in which families and friends of those who have died fighting in Afghanistan and…

Mum Heroin and Me

16 Oct 2008

DOCUMENTARY A loving mother is driving her daughter into town for a special 21st birthday treat. In between a massage and hairdresser appointment, Hannah asks her mum to make a quick stop. But she’s not popping to the shops for a chocolate bar or a…

Remote Control

16 Oct 2008

In the bad old days of film and television, it was commonplace to see a white actor blacking up to play a part for which it was presumably deemed that no one from within that racial group was capable of taking. Happily, those days have gone, though a…

The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall

2 Oct 2008

DRAMA In January 2004, British photography student Tom Hurndall died after being left in a coma for nine months, the victim of a bullet fired by a member of the Israeli Defence Force. The fact that the killer, Taysir Hayb, was handed an 11-year…

Remote Control

2 Oct 2008

With the USA on the brink of its most epoch-making presidential election since the one four years ago, chances are that Afghan cable networks and Iraqi terrestrial channels will be doing their utmost to ignore the ensuing bunfight between Barack and…

Remote Control

18 Sep 2008

Older viewers may recall Christina Applegate as the slightly slutty teenage airhead from annoying 80s US sitcom Married with Children. And should you have not seen the cinematic likes of Anchorman or Employee of the Month in the intervening years, you…

Autumn Television

18 Sep 2008

Britain is in utter chaos. The dead have returned to life and are attacking the living who, once deceased, then get up and do some more killing. The only people unaware of this horrendous phenomenon are the occupants of the Big Brother household. But…

Merlin

18 Sep 2008

DRAMA It would perhaps be unfair to describe this new BBC1 post-teatime ‘is it ok to let the kids watch?’ show as ‘Robin Hood meets Doctor Who’, but you can see what the schedulers were going for when they plopped this fresh take on the Arthurian…

The 9/11 Faker

Channel 4, Thu 11 Sep, 9pm

4 Sep 2008

And so let's roll with the annual grief-fest which marks the day when planes smashed into the heart of New York's business sector and flattened any notions of US impregnability. In the years which followed, tales of heroism and sacrifice emerged from…

Remote control

4 Sep 2008

Brian Donaldson finds some dramas over-stretching themselves and failing, while those staying within their means do the business

Pierrepoint

21 Aug 2008

DRAMA Every now and again, the general public, as represented by the reactionary tabloid press, will rise up and demand a debate on the return of capital punishment. Fortunately, the process has never gone any further than some screeching headlines…

Sculpture Diaries

21 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY Dead Ringers once made a big impersonating deal of the rivalry between TV historians Simon Schama and David Starkey. Maybe one day we’ll see small screen art guys Waldemar Januszczak and Matthew Collings doing some doppelganger bitching…

The Wrong Door

21 Aug 2008

COMEDY There’s only one thing worse than a really bad sketch show. And that’s a really bad sketch show that has had absolutely loads of money thrown at it. So much dosh has been set aside for the special effects in The Wrong Door that no one seems to…

Perfect Vagina

Channel 4, Sun 17 Aug, 10pm

14 Aug 2008

Get set to cross your legs and grit your teeth as Lisa Rogers fronts a very different kind of scrapheap challenge as part of Channel 4’s The G-Spot strand. We’ve all read the headlines and overheard the news that women are literally queuing up round the…

Kings of London

14 Aug 2008

DRAMA Channel 4, Wed 20 Aug, 11.35pm Amid yet another summer of bland sport and tedious evictions, it’s reassuring to know that there are still programmes being made which at least try to bend our minds a bit. However, this latest instalment of C4’s…

The Cup

14 Aug 2008

COMEDY DRAMA BBC2, Thu 21 Aug, 9.30pm Do we really need another fly-on-the-wall docu-comedy-drama about flawed individuals living out their largely miserable lives? Apparently so, as The Cup smashes its way towards us with more ‘subtle’ humour and…

Spooks: Code 9

7 Aug 2008

DRAMA BBC3, Sun 10 Aug, 9pm The spin-off show is a seemingly inevitable symptom of modern TV production: when ideas are running on empty, just grab a programme, give it a shake and see what kind of sub-version can be made out of it. So, here we are in…

Make Me A Christian

7 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Sun 10 Aug, 7pm While the UK may have been founded on the rock of Christian values, its modern citizens would rather play Pro Evolution Soccer, get paralytically drunk or fritter a week’s earnings away on footwear. But would a…

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman

7 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY BBC4, Wed 13 Aug, 10pm Wouldn’t we all love to be handed a camera, go off wandering across the globe on the flimsiest of motives and stick our lens into people’s lives? But most people would at least try to capture some of the fun bits…

High Emergency

31 Jul 2008

DOCUMENTARY Five, Tue 5 Aug, 7.30pm One of the last places you’d want to find yourself stranded in the British Isles is up in the Highlands. If you thought any different you’ll change your mind after watching the first instalment of this documentary…

Car Bomb

31 Jul 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Sun 3 Aug, 7pm The scary question posed at the end of this two-part documentary is ‘will we ever see an end to the car bomb?’ The answer is a resounding ‘no’, not unless we ditch our motors for good and walk everywhere. Even…

The Kevin Bishop Show

31 Jul 2008

COMEDY Channel 4, Fri 1 Aug, 10pm Like the mighty Bobby Davro, Kevin Bishop can do a fair old impersonation or two (his Jonathan Ross and Gary Lineker are awesome) but can’t get any material around them to save his life. There have been boasts made…

Remote Control

3 Jul 2008

When it comes to making new TV dramas, being brave and original can either make or break the show. Sometimes just playing it straight off the bat and keeping things safe can help your programme reap the rewards. Two hot and hyped BBC affairs go for the…

Superstars

3 Jul 2008

SPORT Five, Fri 11 Jul, 8pm Sporting life was very different in the 1970s. Kevin Keegan had bubblier hair, the only athletes who used artificial enhancement to boost their performance seemed to be born female in East Germany and it was still possible…

Remote Control

19 Jun 2008

In an age where some people believe that the Royal Family have a secret assassination wing, it’s perhaps not a good idea to have an indiscriminate dig at those guys. So, here goes: does the estate of Princess Margaret have some incriminating photos of…

Fallout

19 Jun 2008

DRAMA Channel 4, Thu 3 Jul, 9pm The issue of young people and crime is such a hot topic that it was only a matter of time before documentary-makers got in gear and happy slapped Channel 4 commissioners into submission with a series to mark the sorry…

Remote Control

5 Jun 2008

Andrea Riseborough must have a thing about playing scary people. While she wafted in to view as a spectral ghost in the BBC3 pilot of Being Human (a one-off that was the subject of such a frenzied online petition that the show was eventually…

Peter Kosminksy

5 Jun 2008

DOCUMENTARY/DRAMA SEASON More4, Sat 14–Sun 20 Jun In the era of Play for Today, the rabblerousing TV dramatist lurked in every nook and cranny of the BBC, cropping up on primetime slots to frighten the horses. Now though, the nation’s broadcasting…