The episode opens with Mr. Barrow enjoying his turn as butler while the Carsons are on their honeymoon. In typical Barrow fashion, he manages to irritate everyone at every turn, including Lord Grantham. “I don’t care for a lack of generosity,” he reminds Barrow. We’re starting to feel that the hints that Barrow is going … >
In its third and fourth instalments, the third season of Orphan Black puts a great deal of its focus on Mark. Developing this character is important, as we already know and feel like we at least slightly understand him, and to some degree it’s going to be an uphill battle getting to know the other male clones as they … >
Your Only Connect style question this week, fellow Whovians, is this: What do Christmas, The Proms, BBC’s Children in Need and the short film before the cinematic showing of ‘Day of the Doctor’ all have in common? Yes, absolutely, they’re all times when it’s acceptable to wear a fez in public. But you only get … >
The Returned – that show you were persuading everyone to ‘never mind the subtitles and give a go’ back in the summer of 2013 – has finally clambered out for its long-awaited second season. Full marks if you can remember what happened in the first season’s finale. Even after being eyes-deep in the first run, … >
The finale begins with Judy out on a run and being overtaken by a young man who shouts back “Keep up grandma”. Despite only turning forty, Judy is feeling her age! Meanwhile, at Leo’s house, Pam and Tony are busy wrapping the valuables up in newspaper in preparation for the ‘surprise’ party. It’s obvious that … >
With Unforgotten, ITV aims to fill a Broadchurch sized slot in its autumn schedule. A six-part detective drama, the story starts with DI Cassie Hunt (Nicola Walker – Spooks, Last Tango in Halaifax) and DS Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar – The Kumars) investigating a set of bones found beneath a cellar. As they try … >
As adultery drama Doctor Foster bows out this week it ironically gives us the best episode so far. Tightly constructed and with real tension, the five-part series ends on a high. Mike Bartlett’s theatrical background is put to more solid use in the confrontation scenes between Gemma (Suranne Jones) and Simon (Bertie Carvel) but especially … >
The opening titles montage for ‘One for Sorrow’ ends with a dead animal stuffed and returned to the approximation of life, as a masked Magpie is placed by the grave of a squirrel. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to cynically claim this as an appropriate metaphor for Lewis, the improbable spin-off where a … >
Doctor Who, in recent years, has been obsessed with prequels: most of them online and most of them very entertaining – although actually prologues. Here, however, we get the real deal: a partner episode to last week’s ghostly opener that deliberately spools back in time to explain how its events came about. This much you’ll … >
What a long emotional journey it’s been, seven years in the lives of nine young people growing up in England in the 1980s. This Is England has been criticized by many as to the accuracy of its portrayal of youth culture amidst this green and pleasant land, with the question “Is this England” having been … >