-
Monday 9 August 2010
-
Tom Baker at an audio recording session in London Photograph: Rex Features
Kathy Sweeney: Thanks to the likes of Dave Lamb, Tom Baker, Marcus Bentley and Michael Buerk the narration can often be more entertaining than the show itself
Continue reading... -
Sunday 8 August 2010
-
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson in BBC1's Sherlock. Photograph: BBC/Hartswood Films
Daniel Martin: Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman leave us hungry for more in the final engrossing part of Sherlock, in which the wonderfully wicked Moriarty is revealed
Continue reading... -
Friday 6 August 2010
-
Bickering like a married couple: Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. Photograph: Hartswood Films/BBC
Mathilda Gregory: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are sharing TV's finest bromance. Here we celebrate other great double acts
Continue reading... -
Likeable: Rafe Spall in Pete Versus Life. Photograph: Des Willie/Channel 4
Tonight sees the launch of Channel 4's new sitcom Pete Versus Life, in which Pete, a more-or-less hopeless twentysomething sports writer, attempts to relate to – and indeed sleep with – the opposite sex. The twist? That his exploits come with their own sport-style commentary.
It's Men Behaving Badly meets a slightly grown-up Inbetweeners, with a likeable central performance from Rafe Spall (son of Timothy). His comic timing means that, in the parlance of the show, two jokes hit the back of the net, and one just zips past the post - not a disastrous strike rate for a new sit-com. The problem is the programme's reliance on hoary old sporting cliches. Continue reading...
-
Thursday 5 August 2010
-
Jessica and Siobhan: the party is over in Mistresses. Photograph: BBC/Ecosse Films
Sarah Dempster's series blog: Where once there was rumpery, now there is only frumpery – has the romantic drama got too serious?
Continue reading... -
Mistresses: Sarah Paris, Sharon Small and Shelley Conn. Photograph: BBC
Superb news for fans of gasping sideways-sex in distressed oak stationery cupboards: tonight, 17 months after it dematerialised in a puff of softly-lit intrigue, Mistresses returns for a third and apparently – oh, cruel fate! – final series. There will be chardonnay and Boden milf-wear. There will be expressionless hunks in cufflinks performing emergency naked Heimlich manoeuvres next to Heal's floor lamps, and sobbing late-night confessionals over freestanding Smallbone of Devizes kitchen islands. Or will there? Continue reading...
-
Gathering followers: Kanye West
Johnny Dee: Kanye West's social media debut sets 1Xtra a-twitter, while the former home secretary ponders the path he didn't take
Continue reading... -
Wednesday 4 August 2010
-
Who Wants to be a Millionaire: is this the new version or the old one? You may need to phone a friend. Photograph: ITV
Who Wants to be a Millionaire will have been on air for 12 years next month, and what was once groundbreaking, must-see television has been slowly turning into wallpaper: it's always on, nobody ever wins and nothing of any worth has happened since that major's wife had her coughing fit nine years ago. And so last night we got the debut of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2.0, featuring a clutch of new ideas that producers hope will rejuvenate the show without sending regular viewers running for the hills. Continue reading...
-
Robert Robinson: eccentric, unhurried civility. Photograph: BBC
And so we are losing another great radio voice. Robert Robinson is to retire as host of Brain of Britain after more than 30 years' tenure on the fiendishly difficult, fiendishly courteous and otherworldly general knowledge quiz. He's been away for periods of time in the past decade due to illness, replaced by Peter Snow and Russell Davies, but always with the promise of a return. That's now ruled out. Continue reading...
-
The emphasis may be on entertainment in Radio 2's daytime slots, but there is still an energy there that feels very real Continue reading...
Posted by Elisaqbeth Mahoney
-
Tuesday 3 August 2010
-
Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg in Brian Clemens's most famous creation, The Avengers. Photograph: PA
It's not unusual these days for the writer of a TV show to be as well known as the stars. Most fans of the medium can rattle off names such as Stephen Moffat, David Simon, Matthew Weiner and JJ Abrams. Though more widespread than before, this is hardly a new phenomenon – only the names have changed. Continue reading...
-
JANINE DUVITSKI: Appealingly quirky and budgie-like actress. She was Angela in Abigail's Party (pictured, left), of course, but also well-known from appearances in Little Dorrit, One Foot In The Grave, Boys From The Blackstuff, Waiting For God, Brushstrokes and Benidorm. Film credits include The Madness Of King George, Dracula (1979), and About A Boy
Recognise the faces but can't place the names? Kevin Younger pays tribute to unsung TV heroes
-
The Walking Dead. Photograph: AMC
Vampires, you may have noticed, have been having something of a television moment – what with Being Human, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries it's been a fangtastic couple of years for viewers who like their TV with extra bite. But now there's some supernatural competition on its way with AMC – the US channel that gave us the Emmy award-winning dramas Mad Men and Breaking Bad – soon to broadcast the first season of its new zombie apocalypse show The Walking Dead. An adaptation of Robert Kirkman's ongoing comic series, the show will begin a run of six one-hour episodes in October in the US, and has been picked up by FX in the UK. The web is already buzzing with anticipation folllowing the recent premiere of the show's trailer at Comic-Con in San Diego. Continue reading...
-
Friday 30 July 2010
-
The IT Crowd: Roy, Jen, Moss and Douglas. Photograph: Channel 4
The fourth series of The IT Crowd has been another delight. We've watched Roy keep a girlfriend for more than one episode. Moss has joined a secret society of Countdown winners. And Jen has continued her doomed efforts to climb the corporate ladder. Perhaps if she spoke better Italian...
Graham Linehan, the creator, writer and director, has announced there will be a fifth season – and next time he'll have a US-style writing team to help him craft the script. But what will this mean for the direction of the show?
Here's a summary of how he answered that question and your many others. Click the links to see his full replies: Continue reading...
-
Nick Clegg with David Cameron. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
At least Davina waits until the Big Brother contestants are out of the house before asking them how they felt. Watching Five Days That Changed Britain prompted two questions: isn't it a little early for these vainglorious politicians to assess their places in history, and don't those chaps in the coalition have a day job? Continue reading...
On TV & radio
Last 24 hours
-
1. Sherlock finale: your verdict on The Great Game
- 2. TV review: Sherlock
- 3. In fine voice: the TV narrators that steal the show
- 4. Sartorial style of Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes points the way for British men
- 5. Meet my Grandma's House co-writer, Simon Amstell: he's a self-obsessed so and so
Last 24 hours
-
More zeitgeist
What is Zeitgeist?
Zeitgeist is an experiment in showing trending news, topics and articles from the Guardian. Find out more in our blog post.
-
Men's touch fastening canvas shoes
Buy one pair, get one free for only £19.99 (plus £3.95 p&p;)
From: £23.94
Bestsellers from the Guardian shop
TV and radio blog – most commented
Latest news on guardian.co.uk
Free P&P at the Guardian bookshop
-
- Absence of Mind
- £16.99 with free UK delivery
-
- Hugh Trevor-Roper
- £25.00 with free UK delivery
-
Sponsored features
- Hot topics