Shockingly, I only watched Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley for the first time earlier this year. As incredibly late to the party I was, I’m glad I amended this, as the BBC crime drama encapsulates everything I love about television. As it returns to our screens later...
After a summer of sport, TV is getting its act together this autumn. Yes, the World Cup will disrupt things in November but the streamers have plenty to keep us non-footie fans occupied. Here are the shows we're looking forward to over the next few months. Minx...
I'm not the biggest fan of Netflix. It's a confused brand that offers so much to every possible viewer, that it's impossible to tell quite who they're catering for. One thing they do that I'll always be grateful for is whenever a new drama, documentary, comedy or...
In the spring of 2017, I had the rare luxury of a night to myself. I was channel hopping when I came across what looked like the climax of an action sequence on Channel 4. An aerial shot of a car skidding through a snowy landscape, sirens blaring close behind, was...
When Paul Abbott's Clocking Off debuted in January of 2000 the TV landscape looked entirely different. Abbott, who has since gone to success with his semi-autobiographical comedy-drama Shameless and his police drama No Offence, had been working in television for a...
A pair of trousers fly through the air, landing on a dusty road which an RV speeds through with panicked abandon. So begins a series that was pitched by its creator as ‘Mr Chips becomes Scarface'. Television series can naturally morph and change as they...
“You see that guy in the hat?” “The tall one?” “The one in the hat!” Does anyone actually listen to their friends’ recommendations anymore? It’s a counter-intuitive phenomenon, but the more someone goes on about the latest must-see thing on TV, the less likely I am to...
It was the show’s mastery of character that made it great. 20 years ago this month, HBO aired the first episode of The Wire. Nine months earlier, 9/11 had dramatically snatched federal law enforcement’s attention and budget away from the war on drugs and towards the...
“Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair, or f***ing beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you’ve got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man… and give some back” This could well be the mission statement for Deadwood, David Milch’s...
Like everyone else, including James Gandolfini’s own son, Michael, in preparation for his role in the prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark (as cited during his interview with Simon Mayo for Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review) I used lockdown to start watching The...
Co-written by site Editor Luke Knowles and Site Contributor Amy Beth. *Contains spoilers for season one of Severance* “You know, my mother was an atheist. She used to say that there was good news and bad news about hell. The good news is hell is just a product of the...
You can’t beat a catchy slogan. ‘MI5, Not 9-to-5’ exclaimed the trailers and advertising promotion for a new BBC spy drama that promised to bring slick intelligent thrills to prime time British television. Brilliantly produced teaser trailers dotted the BBC for weeks...
When people talk about the satire of even the recent past, the most common response is that today, it wouldn’t even pass as satire. Since The Thick of It aired its first season, some of the jokes in those early episodes actually became government policies, and...
This piece was co-authored by CustardTV Editor Luke Knowles and site contributor Eamon Hennedy It's difficult to say where 'cringe comedy' came from. The idea that you're laughing at the joke but also at the awfulness of the situation and the agony of those it...
The Nominations for this year's BAFTA TV Awards are out. https://www.thecustardtv.com/its-a-sin-stath-lets-flats-and-help-lead-bafta-nominations/ Normally, I'm miffed by obvious snubs but the nominees represent the best of 2021. I'd be happy with anyone winning the...
Before the events of the Russia/Ukraine war, I had written a piece about how The West Wing demonstrates the importance of language. About how in a world that provides open lines of communication to talk to anyone – even anonymously – that words are important to the...
Inclusivity is a good thing. A lot is made of the importance of people seeing themselves represented on screen. As a disabled person, I'm seeing more disabled people on television and whilst that's a positive thing I don't think it's entirely the only way you can see...
When The Marvelous Mrs Maisel won Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as for writing and direction and its creator Amy Sherman-Palladino took to the stage in 2018, it didn’t come as a major surprise for several reasons. The series itself has frequently proven...
When I wrote my first review of Pam & Tommy the rest of the world had yet to see it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Seeing past its more outlandish and grotesque moments (hello Tommy Lee's penis, how are you this fine evening?) to the human story at the centre. I had...
As Killing Eve careers towards its end, with the arrival of the 4th and final season, fans of the show are inevitably questioning how the thriller will leave our star-crossed protagonists Eve and Villanelle. Since MI5 agent Eve (Sandra Oh) first crossed paths with...
One of the scenes I remember most vividly from Cucumber, Russell T. Davies' underrated 2015 mini-series - which could somewhat reductively be called Queer as Folk for the 21st century - is a sequence in which three characters, all men, all queer, get ready for a night...
For most people these days, “shipping” is when an online shop adds half the price of your shopping cart which allows you to have a delivery person chuck your purchases vaguely at your front door. But there is another definition of the word is a mystery to most, except...
At some point around ten years ago, Marvel Studios figured out a system that worked for them: take the formulaic plot structure inherent to superhero movies and wrap it in different genres that fit each character. This strategy helps Iron Man feel like a war movie,...
"Great telly stays with you." I see television as a medium with the ability to bring us together more than any other. There's no greater feeling than watching the same thing together as a nation. It can generate a buzz and conversation and make you feel part of...