http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-wonderland-bbc2brmisfits-e4brconfessions-of-a-traffic-warden-channel-4-1823727.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-wonderland-bbc2brmisfits-e4brconfessions-of-a-traffic-warden-channel-4-1823727.html ]]> <p>Emma and Ben are shopping. She finds a shirt she likes and heads to the changing room to try it on. "Ben," she calls out, "do you like it?" "Yeah," he muses with all the certainty of a man who doesn't want to say the wrong thing. "It's colourful." "But," Emma counters, "you can see my tummy." "It doesn't matter," says Ben. "Who cares? I think you look beautiful." "No offence, Ben, but I don't feel comfy in it. Sorry."</p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-where-is-modern-art-now-bbc4brjimmys-food-factory-bbc1-1823032.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-where-is-modern-art-now-bbc4brjimmys-food-factory-bbc1-1823032.html <p> “We’ve seen more artists creating work than ever before and we’ve seen prices skyrocket,” said Guy Casely-Hayford, sketching in the “Golden Period”, which contemporary art has just passed through. </p> Reviews Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:33 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-week-in-radio-its-sad-to-see-the-sun-set-on-wogans-world-1823087.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-week-in-radio-its-sad-to-see-the-sun-set-on-wogans-world-1823087.html <p>Breakfast, as anyone who interacts with games kit or sleep-deprived teens will tell you, is a delicate time. Nerves are raw, the tempo of the day is still to be set and the slightest irritation, like burnt toast, or Gordon Brown saying "I feel the pain of families" on the radio, has the capacity to provoke out of all proportion. Some listeners enjoy being jolted into their day with a scrap about Conservative party selection procedure, but most others will say 'take me away from all this'.</p> Reviews Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--horizon-bbc2-imaginebbc1-storyville-hi-society-ndash-the-wonderful-world-of-nicky-haslam-bbc4-1822285.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--horizon-bbc2-imaginebbc1-storyville-hi-society-ndash-the-wonderful-world-of-nicky-haslam-bbc4-1822285.html ]]> <p>For the socialite and interior designer Nicky Haslam a surprising number of things turn out to be fun. Having a stalker, for instance: "So chic," he said brightly in <b>Storyville: Hi Society – the Wonderful World of Nicky Haslam</b>. "We should all have one." Or spending three years of his childhood paralysed with polio ("It was rather fun"). Or the hazards of pre-Wolfenden homosexuality ("It was illegal still so that made it much more fun"). He's also got a very long list of things that he thinks are common, including swans, pronouncing the last t in "trait", scented candles, wheat intolerance, loving your parents and queuing at Annabel's. Fortunately, he probably doesn't have to do a lot of the latter because Nicky is to the London scene what the silver lady is on a Rolls-Royce. He attends up to five parties a night to exchange air kisses and squeals of delighted recognition before moving on, ceaselessly driving on through the crowd to where the flash of the paparazzi cameras is brightest. </p> Reviews Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--im-a-celebrityget-me-out-of-here-itv1-the-queen-in-3d-channel-4-enid-bbc4-1821722.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--im-a-celebrityget-me-out-of-here-itv1-the-queen-in-3d-channel-4-enid-bbc4-1821722.html ]]> <p>There was always the suggestion that Enid Blyton's cuddly image and jaunty signature concealed something to taint the raspberry jelly and ginger beer. Those with only scant knowledge (me) might have been vaguely aware of marital strife and accusations of racism – she liked a golliwog, did Enid. But who knew the brains behind Noddy and the Famous Five was such a massive, well, bitch. Harsh words, but it was tough not to feel antipathy towards Blyton in BBC4's <b>Enid</b>. The sober biopic barely touched on the racism – an oblique reference during a row with husband number one – but it was unsparing in its portrayal of Blyton as a selfish, deluded, vindictive egomaniac. Or, as the writer's daughter, Imogen, put it in a recent interview: "My mother was arrogant, insecure and without a trace of maternal instinct."</p> Reviews Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/international/robin-scottelliot-national-monument-in-need-of-preservation-order-1821310.html http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/international/robin-scottelliot-national-monument-in-need-of-preservation-order-1821310.html ]]> <p>In this country we have football, cricket and horse racing, in Austria they have the Vienna Opera Ball. When it comes to television's "Crown Jewels", an opera ball, especially one where women are commanded to dress up in ball gowns, fits the bill more than an entire nation coming together to have a punt on the 3.45 at Aintree.</p> International Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-archers-radio-4brarchive-on-4-radio-hollywood-radio-4-1820753.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-archers-radio-4brarchive-on-4-radio-hollywood-radio-4-1820753.html <p> It's part of any self-respecting radio reviewer's remit to drop in on The Archers at least once a year, and now's the time to do it, with the Lilian-and-Matt-on-the-run storyline reaching its climax. For those benighted souls unfamiliar with the intricacies of Borsetshire life, Lilian, the gin-soaked bar-room queen from Ambridge, a party girl with an erstwhile taste for toyboys, has revealed hidden depths since she got together with someone her own age, businessman Matt Crawford. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:50 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-50-cent-before-i-self-destruct-shadyinterscope-1820766.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-50-cent-before-i-self-destruct-shadyinterscope-1820766.html ]]> <p> Fiddy’s latest is nothing like as apocalyptic as its cover imagery implies. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:21 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-stereophonics-keep-calm-and-carry-on-mercury-1820767.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-stereophonics-keep-calm-and-carry-on-mercury-1820767.html ]]> <p> Its title began life as a message for us, but its use here suggests a band’s memo to themselves. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:20 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-sparks-the-seduction-of-ingmar-bergman-sr-records-1820763.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-sparks-the-seduction-of-ingmar-bergman-sr-records-1820763.html ]]> <p> The 22nd album by Sparks – never ones to do things the easy way – is a biopic in opera form of a legendary Swedish art-house director, with a cast of actor-singers augmenting Russell Mael’s vocals, and a complete orchestra backing Ron’s luxurious pianos. It’s a genre and format to which the brothers, whose work is so often described as “operatic”, are immaculately suited. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:20 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/andrew-marr-the-making-of-modern-britain-bbc2brnot-forgotten-soldiers-of-empire-channel-4-1820750.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/andrew-marr-the-making-of-modern-britain-bbc2brnot-forgotten-soldiers-of-empire-channel-4-1820750.html <p> You could forgive Andrew Marr and Ian Hislop buckling under the weight of their poppies come Armistice Day. How does a popular historian tackle a subject as relentlessly researched as the First World War without staggering into the No Man's Land between rehashed old facts and obscure military arcana? Hislop, on Channel 4, was at least able to beaver away in Marr's shadow. Poor Andy is a brand these days, his name swinging awkwardly from the programme title, promising the Andrew Marr™ take on the war to end all wars, and the enormous changes it wrought on this country. Gulp. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:20 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-norah-jones-the-fall-blue-note-1820770.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/album-norah-jones-the-fall-blue-note-1820770.html ]]> <p> Another departure in the career of this unjustly resented pop girl. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:12 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--when-a-mothers-love-is-not-enough-bbc1-james-mays-toy-stories-bbc2-john-sergeant-on-the-tourist-trail-itv1-1818096.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--when-a-mothers-love-is-not-enough-bbc1-james-mays-toy-stories-bbc2-john-sergeant-on-the-tourist-trail-itv1-1818096.html Reviews Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--collision-itv1-the-execution-of-gary-glitter-channel-4-1817704.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--collision-itv1-the-execution-of-gary-glitter-channel-4-1817704.html <p>The vehicular accident that kills or injures lots of people is fertile ground for dramatists. It offers the story-teller a way of bringing together a random cross-section of folk, and therefore an opportunity to create all kinds of juicily disparate characters, whose destinies collide in the blink of an eye, or the crash of a plane, train or automobile. On the silver screen this was done brilliantly by Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning 2004 film, Crash. <b>Collision</b>, which runs every night this week in what is beginning to look like a new trend for primetime drama, rather prosaically replaces the Los Angeles freeway in Crash with the A12 in Essex, but offers similar fare: ordinary people with lives in varying states of complication, whose stories are told in flashback after those complicated lives are suddenly reduced to a simple “deceased” or “critical” on a policeman’s wall chart.</p> Reviews Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-the-children-who-fought-hitler-bbc4-br-the-secret-life-of-the-berlin-wall-bbc2-1817183.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-the-children-who-fought-hitler-bbc4-br-the-secret-life-of-the-berlin-wall-bbc2-1817183.html <p> Some small-print disclaimers first, relating to product description. The Children Who Fought Hitler, to start with, a title that conjures up images of human waves of boy-soldiers, running through the rubble-filled streets of Berlin to see who can get to the bunker first and take out Adolf with a Sten gun. </p> Reviews Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:10 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/james-corrigan-haye-goes-gaga-after-hitting-paypergawp-heights-1817323.html http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/james-corrigan-haye-goes-gaga-after-hitting-paypergawp-heights-1817323.html <p>Queen Victoria would have been amused. As would her gloating subjects. For the vast majority who paid out the obligatory £14.63, Saturday night's world heavyweight championship bout had about as much to do with the current popularity of boxing as those Bearded Lady stands had to do with the widespread thirst in Victorian England to study hormonal imbalance. Essentially this was pay-per-gawp. </p> Others Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/radio-afghanistan-british-forces-broadcasting-servicebrthinking-allowed-radio-4-1816771.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/radio-afghanistan-british-forces-broadcasting-servicebrthinking-allowed-radio-4-1816771.html <p>If memory serves, Family Favourites was a cosy listen, the accompaniment to mum cooking Sunday lunch. All seemed well with the world. Relatively speaking, all was well with the world; the programme lasted from 1945 until 1984, almost all of which was peacetime. Our brave boys may have been stuck out in Cyprus or Germany or some other remnant of Empire, but, barring accidents, they usually it home.</p> Reviews Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/into-the-storm-bbc2brspooks-bbc1brthe-fword-channel-4-1816772.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/into-the-storm-bbc2brspooks-bbc1brthe-fword-channel-4-1816772.html <p>Put a shouty man of a certain age in charge of something important enough for long enough – a nation at war; British domestic security; the F-Word kitchen – and before you know it, he's a national treasure. Or at least that's what seems to have happened to Winston Churchill, Harry out of Spooks, and Gordon Ramsay, who's from that special breed of middle-aged male broadcasters that everyone claims to thoroughly dislike, yet watches religiously (Messrs Clarkson and Cowell being other examples). But more of him later.</p> Reviews Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-brthe-schoolboy-who-sailed-the-world-channel-4brwonderland-bbc2brfearne-and-alesha-dixon-itv2-1815526.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-brthe-schoolboy-who-sailed-the-world-channel-4brwonderland-bbc2brfearne-and-alesha-dixon-itv2-1815526.html ]]> <p>When I was 16, I mainly thought about clothes and, probably, Dawson's Creek. Boys? Maybe. Friends? Probably. Sailing? Er, nope. Which may explain why I've only been on a boat a handful of times in my life, and Michael Perham has already sailed the world. The whole world. He did it aged 16, and became the youngest person ever to do so. The Schoolboy Who Sailed the World told his story. </p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-family-channel-4br-spooks-bbc-1-1814764.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-family-channel-4br-spooks-bbc-1-1814764.html <p>"I save the world everyday and keep people safe as they travel across the world," said Sunny, introducing himself in the new series of Channel 4's The Family. Sunny is a security man at Heathrow, but there was a knowing charm about the topspin he gave his job that made you understand why Shay, his wife, might have fallen for him when they met at a family wedding. Unfortunately, "fallen" was the operative word as far as Shay's mother was concerned, an unseen character who loomed over much of this first episode. She felt that Shay could have done much better for herself (something to do with Sikh castes, apparently) and they haven't talked for five and a half years, though even under the unforgiving panopticon of the Channel 4 camera setup (lenses mounted on every wall of the house), not a crack was visible in Sunny and Shay's wonderfully tender relationship. Now they were planning a full-blown Indian wedding to seal the deal, and tensions were rising about whether Shay's mother would relent and come to the party.</p> Reviews Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--black-widow-granny-bbc1-horizon-bbc2-1814129.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--black-widow-granny-bbc1-horizon-bbc2-1814129.html ]]> Reviews Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--the-great-escape-the-reckoning-channel-4-into-the-storm-bbc2-1813582.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--the-great-escape-the-reckoning-channel-4-into-the-storm-bbc2-1813582.html ]]> <p> The challenge confronting viewers of <b>Into the Storm</b>, a dramatised account of Winston Churchill's defeat in the 1945 general election, told as a series of flashbacks to some momentous episodes of the Second World War, was largely the same as the challenge to the actors. It was to avoid getting bogged down in the accuracy, or otherwise, of the looks and voices of the main players. </p> Reviews Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-wonderland-sat-bbc2br-garrows-law-tales-from-the-old-bailey-sun-bbc1-1813070.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-wonderland-sat-bbc2br-garrows-law-tales-from-the-old-bailey-sun-bbc1-1813070.html <p> The softly spoken denizens of the Isle of Skye, their craggy features sculpted by the same timeless deities that have crafted their extraordinary surroundings, are a captivating bunch. </p> Reviews Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/robin-scottelliot-welcome-to-the-parallel-universe-of-club-tv-channels-1813245.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/robin-scottelliot-welcome-to-the-parallel-universe-of-club-tv-channels-1813245.html <p>This will come as news to most of you – something of a first for this column – but one day last week was Didier Drogba day. Not sure which; Monday perhaps. He's a Monday sort of person, accompanied all over the pitch by his own dark cloud and always finding something to trip him up. It was Chelsea TV that commemorated DD-day, which actually makes it sound as though he belongs on page 3 with a speech bubble coming out of his head: Didier thinks the postman should get back to work. Unfortunately, it costs £6 a month to subscribe to Chelsea TV and so, despite a root down the side of the sofa which unearthed Dean Ashton and 17p, the events of the Drog's Day will have to remain unreported here.</p> Reviews Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-event-how-racist-are-you-channel-4brsciences-last-taboo-channel-4-1812614.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-event-how-racist-are-you-channel-4brsciences-last-taboo-channel-4-1812614.html <p>It's been quite a time for the BNP of late, hasn't it? In the aftermath of a first appearance on BBC1's Question Time 10 days ago came the party's remarkable claim that 3,000 people had joined it during or after the broadcast. Presumably they weren't won over by Nick Griffin's nervous laughter or slimy squirming out of denying he had denied the Holocaust. So what was it that drove this unprecedented surge (assuming the claim is true)?</p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/radio-3-requests-radio-3brhow-the-wall-fell-radio-4-1812615.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/radio-3-requests-radio-3brhow-the-wall-fell-radio-4-1812615.html <p>When people talk about the threat to radio from the increasing wealth of material that can be accessed for free online, my thoughts turn to Geoffrey Smith and Fiona Talkington, presenters, respectively, of Jazz Record Requests on Radio 3, and Radio 3 Requests.</p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/dvd-peep-show--ndash-series-6-for-retail--rental-4-dvd-1813041.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/dvd-peep-show--ndash-series-6-for-retail--rental-4-dvd-1813041.html ]]> <p>"Soph wants a pre-birth paternity test; it's not mine. It'd better not be mine. Oh God. Does Dobby really want me? What do you mean you're closing the office? Hmm, £2,000 to go all in with Alan. Seems sensible. Even if he has gone a bit mad. And why's Super Hans brought his snake to our party? Oh God, why? Why?"</p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-event-how-racist-are-you-channel-4brwonderland-bbc2brfearne-and-peaches-geldof-itv2-1811494.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-event-how-racist-are-you-channel-4brwonderland-bbc2brfearne-and-peaches-geldof-itv2-1811494.html ]]> <p> Jane Elliott calls herself "the Bitch" but, like most people who self-define ("I'm mad, me"), she doesn't really live up to her claims. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-week-in-radio-its-science-but-not-as--we-know-it-1811074.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-week-in-radio-its-science-but-not-as--we-know-it-1811074.html <p>Finding an anniversary that no one else has noticed is about as rare as digging up an Anglo-Saxon hoard these days. Wars are revisited, the dead resurrected and debates rerun inexorably, every time the significant date comes around. But I might just have stumbled across one anniversary that hasn't yet made a set of stamps or a theme week on BBC4. It was exactly 50 years ago that C P Snow gave his seminal lecture "The Two Cultures", in which he argued that there was a growing and dangerous divide between the arts and the sciences. Liberal intellectuals were deserting the sciences in droves. Whereas educated people would be ashamed not to have read Shakespeare, Snow said, they were completely unembarassed not to know the second law of thermodynamics.</p> Reviews Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-natural-world-bbc2br-andrew-marrs-the-making-of-modern-britain-bbc2-1811079.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-natural-world-bbc2br-andrew-marrs-the-making-of-modern-britain-bbc2-1811079.html <p>To Andrew Marr, the history of Britain in the turbulent first half of the 20th century is "dark, funny, and surprising". So, you might add, was Marr's frisky performance in The Making of Modern Britain, bounding around on screen, arms and ears akimbo, giving full vent to an hitherto unseen talent for mimicry (including what must have been first ever televised impression of Joseph Chamberlain). He also focused an unflinching eye on the darker achievements of the Edwardians. </p> Reviews Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--james-mays-toy-stories-bbc2-make-me-white-bbc1-bleach-nip-tuck-the-white-beauty-myth-channel-4-1810374.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--james-mays-toy-stories-bbc2-make-me-white-bbc1-bleach-nip-tuck-the-white-beauty-myth-channel-4-1810374.html <p>No doubt Naomi Wolf would blanch at the sinister scheduling that saw Channel 4's <b>Bleach, Nip, Tuck: the White Beauty Myth</b> clash with BBC 1's <b>Make Me White</b> last night. The Western beauty hegemony is a serious issue, and there's an interesting programme to be made about it, but unfortunately Bleach, Nip, Tuck wasn't it.</p> Reviews Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--life-bbc1-murderland-itv1-race-and-intelligence-sciences-last-taboo-channel-4-1809853.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television--life-bbc1-murderland-itv1-race-and-intelligence-sciences-last-taboo-channel-4-1809853.html ]]> <p>Forgive me for revisiting last week's TV before last night's, but I still haven't got Question Time out of my system. What struck me most about the British National Party leader, Nick Griffin, was not the repugnance of his political views, which he tried to disguise, but his physical repugnance, about which he could do nothing.</p> Reviews Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-the-thick-of-it-sat-bbc2brray-mearss-northern-wilderness-sun-bbc2-1809351.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-weekends-television-the-thick-of-it-sat-bbc2brray-mearss-northern-wilderness-sun-bbc2-1809351.html <p> It's an odd and often depressing business writing notes about a comedy show. When the comedy doesn't work you end up with a meagre stack of descriptive redundancies that are only there because you wanted to show willing. </p> Reviews Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/james-corrigan-between-the-19th-hole-and-the-bermuda-triangle-1809479.html http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/james-corrigan-between-the-19th-hole-and-the-bermuda-triangle-1809479.html <p>The things we'll do in the name of research. Once, while reporting on an Irish Open, I selflessly stayed in a hotel bar until 4am in deep conversation with Angel Cabrera.</p> Golf Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/murderland-itv1brmodern-family-sky-1-1808820.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/murderland-itv1brmodern-family-sky-1-1808820.html <p> As one cuddly TV treasure departs, so another returns. In recent days, ITV's drama department has given audiences two reasons to be thankful – not a feeling it inspires very often, it must be said. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-plight-of-the-bumblebee-radio-4brken-bruce-radio-2-1808821.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-plight-of-the-bumblebee-radio-4brken-bruce-radio-2-1808821.html <p>Honey bees are in crisis, the boffins warn. If their colonies carry on collapsing we'll all eventually starve. The fate of the human race rests with these shiny little marvels. Typical, the equally beleaguered bumblebees must be thinking. We're in schtuk, too, mate, and who's bothered about us?</p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-bigamist-bride-my-five-husbands-channel-4-brfearne-and-paris-hilton-itv2-1807208.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-the-bigamist-bride-my-five-husbands-channel-4-brfearne-and-paris-hilton-itv2-1807208.html <p>Earlier this year, Emily Horne was found guilty of serial bigamy. She married five men without divorcing one. A former glamour model and compulsive liar she was, as our narrator delicately put it, "a tabloid editor's wet dream." She was also released on a suspended sentence and, much to the bemusement of her numerous spouses, allowed to resume life with a new boyfriend. "I love him too much to marry him!" she joked. </p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100