TV Reviews
Licence to thrill. Paul Hollywood meets Aston Martin 27/12/2015
Borgen season 3 27/12/2015
I am pretty much a fan of all the Scandi dramas that have been on TV recently including Borgen. As a premise, the idea of watching a drama about Danish politics doesn’t really sounds very interesting but I have found it fascinating. This 3rd series has been excellent as well and very touching in places.
Elementary season 2 11/12/2015
Second season of the amusing American version of Sherlock.
Catastrophe Season 2 10/12/2015
Second series of the hilarious sitcom from Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney. Well worth checking out.
Storyville exposed magicians psychics and frauds 24/11/2015
Great profile of the Great James Randi who was a mentalist and magician who then dedicated his life to exposing frauds.
Secret knowledge the art of the impossible. Mc Escher and me 23/11/2015
I used to love MC Escher at university (I still think his stuff is fascinating). This documentary was really interesting, explaining a bit of his history.
SAS who dare wins 19/11/2015
Even tougher than Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week as this is solely SAS and goes on for much longer. Starting with 30 people, they run the candidates through the real SAS training and selection process (nearly exactly). Absolute hell on earth. Mental strength needed as much as physical fitness.
Murder in Successville 3 20/11/2015
This has been recommended in the Radio Times numerous times but I thought it was rather weak to be honest.
Countdown to Life – The Extraordinary Making of You 13/11/2015
6 Degrees of Separation 09/11/2015
Horizon – Are Video Games Really That bad 08/11/2015
Horizon – Cosmic Dawn. The Reality of Creation 08/11/2015
Horizon – Which Universe Are We In 07/11/2015
In Case You Missed It 06/11/2015
Girls In Bands At The BBC 06/11/2015
Girls Can Code 05/11/2015
This was surprisingly disappointing. It follows 5 teen girls as they try to get into the tech industry. They started of not interested at all but did get more enthusiastic by the end. However, absolutely nothing to do with coding. This was more a Junior Apprentice centred around the tech industry.
Calculating Ada: The Countess Of Computing 04/11/2015
Excellent BBC4 documentary on Ada Lovelace
The Interceptor 03/11/2015
This BBC series was not overly popular with the critics and I am not surprised. Dialogue was pretty cheesy and characterisation weak. Still reasonably enjoyable though.
Walking Dead Season 5 16/10/2015
I love Walking Dead. Relentlessly grim and depressing, I can’t imagine how these people continue to find the willpower to keep running. Once again, the series shows promise of salvation and then rips it apart again.
Elementary Season 1 08/10/2015
The American version of Sherlock in the modern day with Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as a female Holmes. Great fun and a contrast to the English version.
Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week. 06/10/2015
Holy crap, this looked horrendous. Recommended by a friend of work, this is effectively a game show where a group of fitness fanatics get put through their paces by various special forces including the SAS at the end. I definitely do not envy what these people had to go through.
Dracula Season 1 17/09/2015
This American version of Dracula with XXX did not really hit the mark. It was OK but not great.
Cordon S1 10/09/2015
Belgian drama this time. This focussed on an outbreak of a disease in the centre of Bruges. Very tense and exciting.
Black Books S1 03/09/2015
Re-watched this at home recently. Still great and very silly.
Catching History’s Criminals – The Forensics Story 24/08/2015
Engrenages Season 5 26/08/2015
Not Safe For Work Season 1 18/08/2015
Humans Season 1 05/08/2015
Inspector Montalbano 25 – A Voice In The Night 28/07/2015
Inspector Montalbano 26 – A Ray Of Light 29/07/2015
Horizon – Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad? 27/07/2015
Comedy Feeds 27/07/2015
Californication Season 5 22/07/2015
Dexter Season 8 16/07/2015
Dara O’Briain Meets Stephen hawking 01/07/2015
Napoleon 30/06/2015
No Offence Season 1 24/06/2015
The Brain: A Secret History 26/06/2015
How To Be Bohemian With Victoria Coren Mitchell 28/06/2015
Premium Bond With Mark Gatiss And Matthew Sweet 24/06/2015
The Secret World Of Lego 23/06/2015
90’s – Decade That Changed The World 22/06/2015
Man Down Season 2 07/07/2015
Gadget Man Season 4 01/07/2015
Nick Helm’s Heavy Entertainment 23/06/2015
The Walking Dead S5 17/06/2015
The Game 15/06/2015
Game Of Thrones S5 15/06/2015
The 100 Season 1 22/05/2015
W1A Season 2 18/05/2015
Ballot Monkeys 11/05/2015
Hostages 05/05/2015
Black Mirror Christmas Special 01/05/2015
How we got to now 01/05/2015
Inside No. 9 Season 2 01/05/2015
In And Out Of The Kitchen 27/04/2015
Dara and Ed’s Great Big Adventure 25/04/2015
Bluestone 42 Season 3 20/04/2015
Raised By Wolves 15/04/2015
The Casual Vacancy 10/04/2015
Uncle S2 24/03/2015
The second series of this Nick Helm comedy is excellent. Very funny indeed.
Joy division 20/03/2015
Duran Duran 19/03/2015
Synth Britannia 06/03/2015
Meatloaf in and out of hell 05/03/2015
Catastrophe 04/03/2015
New series from Sharon Horgan who was excellent some years ago in Pulling which I really enjoyed. This series with Rob Delaney about a one night stand that results in pregnancy and continues into a meaningful relationship is very funny and worth checking out.
Only Connect 01/03/2015
Ah, Victoria Coren Mitchell. I love the gentle ribbing she gives when contestants are too geeky for their own good. I’ve only recently started watching this but really enjoy it. I feel I could do reasonably well on this program with the right team, although doubt we’d get past the first round.
House Of Fools S2 01/03/2015
Second series of the Vic and Bob show, just as bizarre as the first. Not all the story lines (if you can call them story lines) hit but very funny in places.
Archer S5 23/02/2015
Another series of this daft American spy animation. Still excellent although difficult to watch on the train sometimes. I wish they would stop shouting all the time too.
Utopia season 1 & 2 16/02/2015
This series (or two rather) was superb and particularly good that they kept it at 2 seasons and didn’t keep extending it indefinitely as I felt it had come to a really good conclusion. To quote from Wikipedia as it is difficult to describe…
“The story follows a small group of people who find themselves in possession of the manuscript sequel of a cult graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments, which is rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the last century. This leads them to be targeted by an organisation known as The Network, which they must avoid to survive. Using the manuscript, they must uncover the meaning hidden in its pages before the disasters depicted become reality.”
Very morally ambiguous in places and some dubious acting but show real British wit.
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 05/02/2015
I’ve always enjoyed the RI Christmas Lectures each year when they put them on. Aimed at children they provide an interesting take on various subjects and I always learn something.
Rich Russian And Living In London 29/01/2015
Queen Days Of Our Lives 28/01/2015
Posh People – Inside Tatler 27/01/2015
This set of programmes won’t make you feel any more forgiving towards posh people but it is a fascinating insight into how the other half live.
Black Music Legends Of The 1980s 2: Prince A Purple Reign 21/01/2015
I’m not particularly a fan of Prince but can see that he is very talented musician. He is a complete weirdo but this biopic was fascinating. I always find it interesting to learn about people’s back stories before they made it and this is well worth checking out.
Rik Mayall – Lord Of Misrule 21/01/2015
Rik Mayall was a nut job. He is clearly not to everyone’s taste but seeing some of his old appearances including those before The Young Ones is great. Shame we don’t hear much from Adrian Edmondson though.
Only Yesterday – The Carpenters Story 21/01/2015
Ah, The Carpenters. Karen Carpenter has the most beautiful voice ever. If there is a better time to use the word mellifluous then I would like to know. It goes without saying that her story is extremely sad and it is horrible to see how her lack of confidence led to her eventual death but it is great to hear some of the old hits.
Timeshift When Wrestling Was Golden Grapples, Grunts And Grannies 20/01/2015
I used to love watching the wrestling on Saturday when I was a child, with Big Daddy, Giant Hastacks and the others. This is a great look back at the evolution of wrestling on TV from real sport to theatre
Timeshift Darts 20/01/2015
Peaky blinders 17/01/2015
Brian Pern s2 07/01/2015
Cuckoo S2 02/01/2015
Family Guy S12 20/01/2015