The Independent

Last night's viewing - America's Serial Killer: True Stories, Channel 4; Protecting Our Children, BBC2

14 February 2012 12:00 AM

America's Serial Killer: True Stories was a little baffling. There's that title for a start. America only has one serial killer right now? That seems implausible, and in any case you'd think people might be wary of stirring the murderously competitive element that sometimes seems to drive serial murderers. Or was it supposed to suggest that this serial killer – an unknown man who has been murdering sex-workers and dumping their bodies on Long Island – is archetypally American in his modus operandi? And then there's the film itself. What are we supposed to do with it other than feed our appetite for narratives of depravity? Perhaps that, and that alone, is the point. Audiences find serial murder fascinating, and although this particular story can't supply the catharsis of a monster brought low (the perpetrator is still out there somewhere), it can scratch our itch to know the worst.

Review of Being Human: ‘Being Human 1955’

13 February 2012 12:13 PM

Following on from an episode tinged with tragedy, this week lifted the mood with something lighter.

The Weekend's Viewing: Home of the Future, Sun, Channel 4
Toughest Place to Be...a Train Driver, Sun, BBC2

13 February 2012 12:00 AM

In Home of the Future, Channel 4 has gutted a standard family house and filled it with the kind of technology that is "predicted to turn our lives into the stuff of sci-fi dreams".

Robin Scott-Elliot: Plenty of country and western, but no taking your partners by the hand

13 February 2012 12:00 AM

View From The Sofa: Manchester United v Liverpool, Sky / Country at the BBC, BBC 2

World Have Your Say, World Service, Tuesday Outlook, World Service, Tuesday
Soul Music, Radio 4, Tuesday

12 February 2012 12:00 AM

A cry for help on air from Homs as the bombs fall...then silence

Inspector Montalbano, BBC4, Saturday
How to Grow a Planet, BBC2, Tuesday

12 February 2012 12:00 AM

Who would want to fill the 'Borgen' slot on BBC4? Sadly, mouth-watering views of Sicily and oodles of pasta do not a detective drama make

Last Night's Viewing: Super Smart Animals BBC1<br />Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War BBC4

10 February 2012 12:00 AM

In today's cliché verification news: Scientists reveal old dogs can learn new tricks and new findings suggest elephants really never forget. Well... one old dog anyway, a canine Einstein called Chaser, who has acquired a vocabulary of more than 1,000 different names for different toys and can fetch them on demand. Chaser can go further still. If you stick a new toy down in a pile of familiar ones and use a name she's never heard before, she'll mill about a bit anxiously before figuring out that that must be the one her handler means. In the second of Liz Bonnin's series Super Smart Animals, Chaser was the first act up, in a variety show programme intended to showcase the fuzziness of the once-sharp demarcation between our intelligence and that of animals. The elephants were next on, thanks to their ability to remember the location of food sources and waterholes in the Botswana bush, a knowledge they appear to be able to pass on to strangers.

Last Night's TV: Kevin Bridges: What's the Story? BBC1 / Roger and Val Have Just Got In BBC2

09 February 2012 12:00 AM

It's supposed to be fatal to explain a joke, but Kevin Bridges doesn't seem unduly anxious that he's going to kill his comedy.

Last night's viewing - Death Unexplained, BBC1; Alex Polizzi: the Fixer, BBC2

08 February 2012 12:00 AM

It's always pleasing when programmes contain practical advice and Death Unexplained delivered fairly early. It came from the police and was passed on by coroner Alison Thompson: "If by any chance you do kill your partner without meaning to, of course the best thing you can do is actually ring and say you've done it as soon as you can. Once you start prevaricating you've had it." Very understanding, the police. These things happen, just don't tell fibs about it. What's the best thing to do if you meant to kill your partner, they didn't say, but then you can't have everything.

Last night's viewing - Coppers, Channel 4; SuperScrimpers, Channel 4

07 February 2012 12:00 AM

"Is it funny or is it tragic?" asked one of the policemen in Coppers. "I don't know." Cruelly, I'm guessing that it isn't an either/or for most people. In quite a lot of instances, it's funny and tragic, as was the case with Barbara, arrested by armed response unit officers after turning up at someone's house and pointing a gun through the window. Most people, faced with four or five agitated armed police officers, might decide that a certain amount of diplomatic retreat was in order. But not Barbara, who was heavily soused on vodka and seemed to believe the police had turned up to back her up: "He's robbed my watch!" she screamed repeatedly, a picture of outraged innocence. And she didn't much help her cause when she got back to the station: "I don't believe in robbing people and hurting people," she said reasonably, before suddenly remembering the injustice of her situation, "but I'll kill that bastard!"