Television
Diary
It feels like the end, but we’ve been here before. The past months of Boris Johnson’s teetering administration have felt…
Central line
James Graham has made his considerable name writing political-based dramas of a highly unusual type: non-polemical ones. And this certainly…
Sex Pistol’s Notebook
‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,’ groans a weary Al Pacino in The Godfather…
Changing channels
The television will be revolutionised
Auntie’s issues
At long last the state of Oregon has got around to installing tampon machines in the male lavatories of its…
My crowning achievement
It’s fairly commonplace for people to wonder what, if anything, they’ll be remembered for. I’m going to be 59 later…
Heart’s content
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio Aemilianus was the first man to shave daily. The origin of the name Boeing…
The truly disadvantaged group in Britain
I’m not sure what to think about the BBC’s announcement that it wants a quarter of its staff to be…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The unseen Victoria Wood
For a few years now I have been living with Victoria Wood. That sounds all wrong, obviously, and yet no…
Sky’s the limit
When I promised my 13-year-old son, Charlie, that we would go to as many QPR games as possible in 2021-22…
Lights, camera, traction
There’s a great revival under way in the British TV and film industry, but it’s not the BBC that’s behind…
The BBC is being left behind in blockbuster Britain
There’s a great revival under way inthe British TV and film industry,but it’s not the BBC that’s behind it.Netflix is…
High life
Gstaad Good manners aside, what I miss nowadays is a new, intelligent, finely acted movie. Never have I seen…
HBO’s The Prince should leave George alone
Last year Netflix refusedto add a disclaimer to the beginning of every episode of The Crown, warning viewers that it…
Serial offenders
Modern soap operas have lost the plot
Diary
I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense…
Diary
I have just had my second jab and it poses a dilemma. As an assiduous Covid rule-taker, I have been…
The islanders who met their god – Prince Philip
Some time around 2006 my then flatmate, a filmmaker, had a good idea: why not make a programme of reverse…
Diary
The files arrived marked ‘STRICT EMBARGO’ and ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and ‘FORTH BRIDGE REVISED’ and stamped with various crests and insignia. My…
Loony tunes
The unstoppable rise of ‘background’ music
So damned French
For the past few weeks I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Call My Agent! (or Dix pour cent, as…
Mercurio rising
When a drama begins with news of a ‘Chis handler’ receiving ‘intel graded A1 on the matrix’ that causes a…
Diary
Piers Morgan may have been the UK equivalent of a TV shock-jock, but there’s another side to him. I’ve known…
Actress’s Notebook
To say that the past nine months have been tough is like saying a hurricane felt like a spring shower.…
