When it came time to compile our Best of the Year piece two things struck me. The first was that wasn't one BIG show that resonated with people in the same way Normal People and I May Destroy You did in 2020 or It's a Sin and Mare of Easttown last year. The second was...
Borgen proves TV revivals can work.
Borgen is the best political series on television. It's not an area television drama dabbles in that often. There's the original House of Cards and the Netflix version which now feels sullied, The West Wing (don't ask me my opinion of Sorkin) and Sky's OTT drama...
Netflix announce date for the return of acclaimed Danish drama ‘Borgen’
Netflix have released the first images for the highly anticipated return of Borgen. The series, titled Borgen – Power & Glory’, follows Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her staff and the media tasked with covering her, this time in her role as Minister...
The Best of 2021: From It’s a Sin to Mare of Easttown 2021 really delivered.
This without question my favourite post of the year. It's another chance to celebrate the best television had to offer. 2021 was another strong year. Standouts It's a Sin, Mare of Easttown, Only Murders in the Building and the long-awaited third season of Succession....
News Roundup: First Look At ‘The Tourist’, ‘Money Heist’ spin-off, ‘Taskmaster’ confirmed
*The BBC have released the first trailer for their upcoming drama The Tourist which stars Jamie Dornan. Written by brothers Harry and Jack Williams, The Tourist sees Dornan stars as a British man who finds himself in the glowing red heart of the Australian...
REVIEW: ‘The Investigation’ takes a methodical approach but something is lacking.
The Investigation is a Danish drama based unusually for the genre we’ve come to know and love entirely on real events. It revolves around the work of two men - Jens Moller, the Head of Homicide for Copenhagen Police and Chief Prosecutor Jakob Buch, reuniting...
NEWS: Netflix more details of the return of ‘Borgen’
In April 2020 Netflix and DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, announced that the award-winning series Borgen would return reuniting the creator Adam Price with lead actresses Sidse Babett Knudsen (Birgitte Nyborg) and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (Katrine...
NEWS: Channel 4 announce ‘Before We Die.’
Channel 4 has announced a British adaptation of Sweedish drama Before We Die. Lesley Sharp (Scott & Bailey, Three Girls, Bob & Rose) leads the cast as detective Hannah Laing who becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial...
The Top 50 of the Decade: 5 – 1
We're finally here. What have we named the THE show of the Decade? In truth, any of these final five could be Number 1. This is personal to me. So here we go. If you've missed the countdown so far you can find out what made 50-20 here and numbers 20 -...
The Top 50 of the Decade: 20 – 11
It's time for our Top 20 of the Decade. If you've missed the countdown so far you can find out what made 50-20 here Let's crack on. 20) Game of Thrones (2011, HBO) No television series defined the decade as much as HBO’s adaptation of George R R...
REVIEW: Why I fell under the spell of ‘Ride Upon the Storm’.
Occasionally even I, a TV obsessive who likes he's on top of seeing the best of what TV has to offer can miss something. So when I received a few tweets telling me I was really missing out by not watching the latest Walter Presents offering Ride Upon the Storm I was...
REVIEW: Trapped ends but something feels off.
This series of Trapped has been more about fire than ice, but despite how it all began with Gisli's self-immolation in such a public space I was not prepared for the horrific car fire at the start of episode 9. I was in denial. There's no way hat Asgeir could be dead,...
REVIEW: Trapped gets more engrossing.
Episode seven opens with the fairytale of Gutti the goat boy, his personal tragedy and how he gets trapped in a lost future. If it's meant to evoke any sympathy or understanding in steely Halla it falls flat. "Gutti was an idiot" she says. There are more myths and...
REVIEW: Trapped Episodes Five and Six
Welcome to a couple of subdued but pivotal episodes as we reach the halfway mark in Trapped, despite Andri admitting he's really back at square one in the investigation. Episode five in particular is quite slow and introspective as it centers around Gisli's funeral....
Trapped continues to thrill and confuse.
Welcome to this week's episodes of Trapped aka racist Lord of the Rings, well sort of. The Hammer of Thor group are in the ascendency, racing around in the north with various criminal enterprises, large and small. The director must have heard my complaints about...
Trapped – One of the finest foreign dramas returns
TrappedSeries 1 was an extraordinary bit of television, the first ever Icelandic drama broadcast on British TV. The first series was the highest rated series ever on RUV,watched by 86% of TV households in Iceland. In the UK it passed 1.2 million viewers on BBC Four....
Review: The Bridge – Bye Bye Saga!
So, here we are after 38 episodes, two police partners and countless dead bodies, our final hour with Saga. The Case An urgent message about the identity of the killer is left in an in-tray of a man who is on some sort of compassionate leave. Not a detail everyone...
REVIEW: The Bridge is action packed in its penultimate episode.
Happily, we still have a Henrik this week. Our brave and stupid Dane gets off with a serious pain in the leg and a severe tongue lashing from boss Lillian about his ridiculous risk-taking. As predicted the GoPro killer (what is his/ her official nickname?) didn't want...
REVIEW: The Bridge heads to the past to move forward
This week is Tommy's story. The guy Henrik picked out of the files and put at the top of the investigation board gets an 18-minute long pre-credit explainer. I'm not usually a fan of this way of storytelling, but we are presented with a perfect concise package - a...
REVIEW: The Bridge – Next week can’t can come soon enough!
This is a full review of The Bridge: Series 4, Episode 5. Catch up with all the reviewshere. Don’t read on unless you’re completely up-to-date on the BBC2 schedule! Links! Links everywhere! Finally, it's all starting to come together! After last week's wibble, my...
REVIEW: The Bridge is still edge of the seat brilliance as we reach the midway point
The Case Taariq needs penge, and quickly. You've got to admire his audacity in trying to blackmail a murder suspect, stealing his wallet and car. Someone told me Taariq was going to get a severe new haircut and I did wonder in a world as dark as The Bridge, does that...
REVIEW: The Bridge edges closer to what the devil is going on.
Episode 3 was a classic where not very much happens. Characters willfully impede the investigation and every plot point feels like a dead end, until a frantic final three minutes which leaves you shaking your head and softly repeating the word "What?" to yourself over...
The Bridge: Saga back where she belongs.
We may be only two episodes in, but The Bridge is already proving why it's one of the giants of the crime drama genre. Yes, Saga recovers a bit too quickly from the nasty stabbing that we saw at the of the opener, but no one really expected the show to kill off its...
The Bridge is as brutal & brilliant as ever
So The Bridge is back with a bang, gleefully ramping up the tension, messing with our expectations of Saga and Henrik, all while introducing the usual cast of victims, neer-do-wells, and various hangers-on, some of whom will inevitably be added to the final body...