The turbulence of Y: The Last Man’s production has been long and well-known. October 2015 saw the Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra adaption in the works for FX, with Vaughan, then involved with a producer. Michael Green was on board to write a script a year later, and...
Sophie Willan’s larger-than-life comedy creation is Alma, a spirited, optimistic woman with a chaotic childhood, and an excellent line in fabulous furry pink coats. She’s doing her best despite life cruelly not living up to her glitzy expectations. In autobiographical...
In early 2019, BBC Three dropped the first series of Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon's comedy drama Back to Life. The series saw Haggard portray thirty-six-year-old Miri Matheson who returned to her hometown of Hythe after spending eighteen years in prison for the...
There's a good chance you won't be aware of my current obsession. It's called Only Murders in the Building, and it's streaming weekly as part of Star on Disney+. This charming, yet sophisticated half-hour comedy is the brainchild of one of its stars Steve...
Inside No. 9 concludes its sixth series with an uncomfortable ‘state of the nation’ piece, including more political and religious themes than ever before. The episode revolves around a family coming together to watch the Last Night of the Proms on...
Having previously appeared (via audio only) in series 3 episode The Devil of Christmas, Derek Jacobi becomes the first guest star to make a second voyage Inside No. 9. This week’s instalment, How Do You Plead? takes place in a lavish...
There are few writers out there whose name is as synonymous with quality television as Jimmy McGovern. Cracker might remain his crowning achievement, but even his smaller-scale projects, (like Accused or The Street) are compelling and often incredibly moving. Time is...
Although Simon Says, by the time it aired, had an accidental link to Line Duty, this week’s instalment of Inside No. 9 has an intentional one, in the form of guest star Adrian Dunbar playing a version of himself. The setup...
The following piece contains spoilers of Mare of Easttown including all six episodes that have aired to date.Mare of Easttown is a compelling, heart-rending mini-series that everyone is talking about. The story follows Mare: our no-nonsense, no makeup, exhausted and...
Reviewing Friends: The Reunion is tricky. It's difficult to judge whether the nearly two-hour reunion show gives fans what they want. At the very beginning, the Ben Winston directed special tells us that the six friends have only been in a room together once in the...
The latest episode of Inside No. 9 is a story of surveillance and secrecy. A rather drab man has booked himself into an even drabber hotel room so that he can spy on a woman across the road, worried that she’s seeing another man. But is he the only one who’s...
When you’re a fan of a long-running TV show, you’ll no doubt have expectations for its final episode. And if these expectations aren’t met, it’s only natural that you might be left feeling disappointed, underwhelmed, or even angry. But whereas in the past you would...
It’s a bold move for an anthology show to kick off a new series with possibly its most bonkers entry yet. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have talked about how (aside from budgetary constraints) they essentially have free rein to do what they...
The best comedies, the greats, often feature people you wouldn't want to spend any time with if you were unfortunate to bump into them at a dinner party or a bus stop. The best recent examples are This Country and BBC Two's Mum. We loved those shows, but we'd cross...
In my review of Line of Duty's series six opener, I spoke about the burden of expectation that the episode had given that it would naturally be compared to its predecessors. Over the course of this series, we've seen online expectation grow every episode to the point...
Noel Clarke stars in ITV's newest police procedural Viewpoint. Playing against type, he is DC Martin Young, a quiet, methodical surveillance officer. His team are called in when Manchester school primary teacher Gemma goes missing, and all eyes are on her...
Those of you who have been reading my reviews thus far know that I have struggled with some aspects of this series of Line of Duty. Although I've enjoyed some of the character arcs and several of the set pieces, the pace of the episodes has been slightly off since the...
I have to confess I started Sky Atlantic's new HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown with a degree of trepidation. This is mainly down to the fact that I had done something that I don't ordinarily do and read some of the early reviews coming from America. They branded the...
More so than its predecessors, this series of Line of Duty seems wrapped up in its past and trusting that its audience is familiar with even the minor characters from the past series. In my review of the first episode, I praised creator Jed Mercurio for...
I feel that I've been fair when it comes to my judgement on this series of Line of Duty so far. I've given Jed Mercurio and company time to let the drama play out. However, as we're more than halfway through the series, one element I'm still really...
One of the delicate balancing acts that dramas like Line of Duty must walk is the decision on how much information should be revealed to the audience that the characters don't know. Similarly, it's tricky to know when the characters discover the information that the...
In the words of Ted Hastings, 'now we're sucking diesel.' After an underwhelming start to series six, tonight's second episode was more engaging and was much better paced. It also felt like a classic episode of Line of Duty with a clear focus now being established as...
This series of Unforgotten has been one of the best ever and, perhaps because of that, the episodes have whizzed by. I cannot believe we’re nearly at the end of series four. The dark secrets of our surviving suspects are stacking up, and the past is about to...
Whether fair or not, long-running TV shows often have the burden of expectation attached to them ahead of a new series. This is certainly true with Line of Duty, which returned to BBC One tonight, as it's a series which is known for its explosive openers. Over...