The Musketeers make a joyous return to our screens. ‘Keep Your Friends Close’ begins with the great circle of life and death leaving its indelible ring-stain on the coffee table of our heroes’ lives: just as the Cardinal, a very naughty (albeit rather sexy) man, is laid to his final rest, a bouncing royal baby … >
This year’s feature-length festive special is brimming with the things we love: sumptuous dinner parties, carols by the Christmas tree in the great hall, and happily-resolved plot lines. Not a single dead body anywhere. The episode opens with the Downton crowd preparing to attend a grouse-shooting party at Brancaster Castle. Lord Sinderby has rented it … >
The petty jealousy and absurd one-upmanship continues in this final instalment of BBC One’s Mapp and Lucia. My cringing discomfort at the ridiculousness of the titular characters at times moves me to want to grab them by the kingfisher blue lapels and shout at them that maybe their lives would be a little bit more … >
Insufferable is the word I keep coming back to when I try to find new and novel ways of describing the two titular characters of BBC One’s Mapp and Lucia. Insufferable, insufferable, insufferable. I’m not normally one to engage in schadenfreude; indeed, sometimes I do think my empathy for make believe characters extends far further … >
By the end of the first episode of BBC One’s new adaptation of EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia, I found myself expressing to my partner in no uncertain terms my gratitude that we live in a midsize city where we don’t know any of our neighbours. Anna Chancellor is Mrs. Lucas – known to her … >
Appropriate to the season, there’s a jolly panto atmosphere for Vic and Bob’s House of Fools Christmas special. (‘Oh no there isn’t!’) Oh yes there is. The cast are having a merry time; the Fourth Wall has been carted away (and presumably papered over with German Honeymoon Horse wallpaper); and after a successful first season … >
While Morecambe & Wise, EastEnders and Doctor Who have become bywords for Christmas television, there’s something about Victoria Wood that, despite her scarce appearances, inextricably ties her to the holiday season. Perhaps it’s her warmth, her joviality, her focus on ordinary folk just muddling through and being good to their fellow man. The point is, … >
Oh, blessums, The Boy In The Dress really is an utterly sweet tale. Based on the book of the same name (and whose author, David Walliams, makes a brief appearance as a drama teacher turned football referee), BBC One’s one-off Boxing Day film tells the story of twelve-year-old Dennis (played with masses of understated, genuine … >
Call the Midwife may have begun as a show about Jenny Lee’s experiences as a midwife in Poplar, but much has changed in three seasons. Lead actor Jessica Raine has now departed from the show, and this year’s Christmas special is its first real chance to prove that it can continue without her and grow – even … >
Much like ourselves, Doctor Who is expected to overindulge and go a bit crazy on December 25th. Time Lord and Christmas time match perfectly. They’re both mad events which people love and which many take seriously, no matter how absurd they get. So our TVs are decorated with flying sharks dragging sleighs, presents containing portals … >