14 February 2012 12:00 AM
It may be based around a high-school American football team, but this TV series is no saccharine teen drama: it's a vivid, very human treatise on small-town US life
13 February 2012 12:00 AM
11 February 2012 12:00 AM
Britney and Justin started there – and so did Ryan Gosling. Glittering careers begin in the Disney tween machine. So how does the House of Mouse keep cranking out the pre-teen talent?
10 February 2012 12:00 AM
Television: Before I started on 'Borgen', people introduced me to some great American box-sets to convince me that TV could be good. I now watch them all the time. Amy Poehler is very funny in 'Parks and Recreation' and 'In Treatment', with Gabriel Byrne, is also really good. How can one room with just two characters be so captivating? For more laughs I watch 'Modern Family'. Rico Rodriguez is very funny as the son, Manny Delgado.
09 February 2012 12:00 AM
What pops into your head when you think of sitcoms? Middle-class households filled with Ikea furniture? Acne-dappled teenagers slumped on sofas delivering withering put-downs to their parents? Neighbours with personality disorders who don't knock before coming into the house? Scripts so rotten that their terrible stench lingers in the memory for years to come?
07 February 2012 01:41 PM
Imagine turning on the TV to watch I’m Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan’s celebrated sitcom, and hearing your name mentioned over and over again. It’s something Sue Cook has had to get used to. The comedian constantly talks about her in his show, although she insists their association is pure fantasy.
06 February 2012 12:00 AM
Miranda Hart has made the best of moving from comedy to drama, says Gerard Gilbert
02 February 2012 12:00 AM
I've never liked sport. As a person whose job basically involves listening to stuff, and whose spine has become embedded in the sofa like an ancient fossil, the last thing I want to do is have my nose rubbed in other people's physical accomplishments. I know what you are going to say: that I'm missing out, that I'm denying myself a wondrous sense of communality with my fellow human beings. There are indeed times when I wish I could lose myself in the glorious highs and gut-wrenching lows of other people's physical endeavour. But where you might see athletes bravely breaking the pain barrier in the name of international sporting achievement, I just see a group of loons running around in circles.
01 February 2012 12:00 AM
31 January 2012 12:00 AM
The Golden Globe-winning spy thriller Homeland is coming to Channel 4. Its creators explain why it's more John le Carré than Jack Bauer
31 January 2012 12:00 AM
Just as we're suffering from Downton blues and First World War fatigue (think also War Horse and Birdsong), this new saga of the family and servants at 165 Eaton Place hurtles us forward to autumn, 1938.
27 January 2012 12:00 AM
Steven Spielberg's upcoming NBC TV venture, Smash, suggests a whole new future for the story-within-a-story device. Due to air in the UK on Sky Atlantic later this year and starring Anjelica Houston, Debra Messing, and Katharine McPhee, this comedy drama, which premieres in the US on 6 February, presents the backstage politics behind the production of, and the drama of the production process of, a fictional Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe.
26 January 2012 12:00 AM
How has Desert Island Discs done it? How has it survived decades of culls and re-branding to become a broadcasting institution, seemingly impervious to change and yet still crushing the competition with ease? Of course, despite its shades of grandeur and infallibility, being an institution can be dangerous. They are liable to be remodelled or torn down altogether. You can just imagine some pipsqueak controller, desperate to ingratiate themselves with a younger audience, replacing presenter Kirsty Young with Fearne Cotton and rechristening it "Desert Island Downloads".
22 January 2012 12:00 AM
My life has changed since 'Glee' I recently went to my doctor and had no make-up on. I didn't look great, and had to put my bag in front of my face when someone tried to take my picture. Then again, when I first picked my daughter up from school, the kids were like, "It's Sue Sylvester." Now I'm just another mum.
22 January 2012 12:00 AM
A telegenic prime minister holding together a shaky coalition and fighting a battle over independence for a smaller neighbour arranges "date nights" to ensure harmony at home. What could be a description of David Cameron's hectic lifestyle sums up the challenges facing Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional prime minister in the hit Danish TV series Borgen, which has become essential viewing in Downing Street.
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