I'm fed up of saying television is in a strange place at the moment. We're all in our little silos watching things on all different platforms, sampling some new stuff, or perhaps revisiting shows we've loved and it never feels like everyone is on the same page. I...
This year the BBC turns 100. Fundamental to Britain and funded by licence fee payers, the BBC has garnered a worldwide reputation for quality. For this special post highlighting the highlights of the corporation's massive contribution to television, I've decided to...
I've written a few pieces over the years about America's seemingly insatiable need to remake some of our biggest hits. Nine out of ten of those attempts fail to match the quality of the originals and end in utter disaster. Too often remakes either get lost in...
As well as being Easter Sunday, today marks the fiftieth anniversary of BBC Two which broadcast its opening night on the 20th April 1964. Although said opening night was plagued with problems BBC Two has since gone on to produce some of the nation's most loved...
Guest Blogger Dan Owen takes a look at HBOs new series Veep and compare its to the UK original The Thick Of It Veep debuted to 1.4 Million Viewers in the US Veep marks award-winning British writer Armando Iannucci's first commission for the American...
Much like the life of man or woman, brilliant comedies have three distinct stages: the astonishing, witty and original first series, which gleefully burns comedic stale tropes at the stake and dances round them laughing and naked; the second/third series in which the...
Did we like it? Perhaps it’s because we’re sick of prime ministerial political posturing, but while this episode was good it lacked the chilling momentum of usual, and flaws such as plot recycling, unrealistic dialogue and irritating characters punched through the TV...
Did we like it? We’re only a couple of days into 2007, but we may already have seen its comedic peak. What was good about it? • The absence of Hugh Abbot (Chris Langham) was smoothly navigated, as the inept minister was on a break in Australia. • The manner in which...
Thursday 3 August 2006 Did we like it? Armando Iannucci is the Halley’s Comet of TV, in that he may only be visible to the naked eye sporadically every few years, but when he is in view he is a always a unique, incandescent spectacle. What was good about it? • The BBC...
What to say if you liked it A gloriously contemporary update of Yes Minister in which the genial skulduggery of civil servants is substituted for the amoral megalomania of untethered demagogues. What to say if you didn’t like it A convoluted pile of vomit that seeks...