The Great British Dream Factory: The Strange History of Our National...
A history of British popular culture is learned and exuberant but fails to answer why it’s in declineIf you had told a British television executive 40 years ago that television drama would be the great...
View ArticleNeil Gaiman's Likely Stories to begin filming for TV
Four of Gaiman’s fantastical short stories are being made into a series for Sky Arts by directors who conjure ‘a state between reality and hallucination’ Filming is due to start in November on a...
View ArticlePlay All: A Bingewatcher’s Notebook by Clive James – review
The veteran critic’s exploration of the recent golden age of US TV drama is an invigorating blend of wit and insightEveryone who has written television criticism since the 1970s, including this...
View ArticlePlay All by Clive James review – how box sets saved us from reality TV and...
James almost invented witty, intelligent writing about TV. He used to analyse Dallas but now turns his attention to Mad Men and Game of ThronesWith this book – after a few decades spent making TV...
View ArticleThe Joy of Quiz by Alan Connor review – question: name an entertaining new...
From spelling bees to Only Connect to the King’s William College general knowledge paper, this sideways social history looks at the best questions and the worst scandalsOnce, on a rainy Friday evening...
View ArticleA Life in Questions by Jeremy Paxman – a Little Englander with Orwellian decency
In his memoir the TV presenter paints a vivid portrait of his childhood – though feelings are distinctly absent, as is deep analysisThe last time I saw Jeremy Paxman in action it was at a bizarre...
View ArticleWill the latest Agatha Christie adaptation be a Boxing Day hit?
An early short story by the queen of crime, The Witness for the Prosecution, will be broadcast on 26 and 27 December on BBC1All over the country, Agatha Christie fans are facing a festive dilemma: how...
View ArticleThe Secret Diary of Laura Palmer: Twin Peaks' problematic tie-in
As the dark and twisted small-town drama returns to TV, Jennifer Lynch’s tie-in novel is being reissued as an audiobook, and it is far from easy listeningTwin Peaks graced us with many a lingering...
View ArticlePraise for JK Rowling from her former teacher |Letters
JK Rowling’s former English teacher Lucy Shepherd defends her crime writing skills in The Cuckoo’s Calling after a review of TV adaptationCormoran Strike comes to life in this adaptation of JK...
View ArticleHanif Kureishi: my beautiful box-set binge
For years, the novelist resisted the lure of TV. And then he watched all 86 episodes of The Sopranos, followed by Gomorrah and Mad Men. He salutes the most vital writers of our cultureIf you really...
View ArticleAll the Pieces Matter review – the inside story of The Wire
No dialogue in the acclaimed TV series was improvised, and the intent was deeply political, as this oral history by Jonathan Abrams disclosesWhile shooting a scene for The Wire in the Baltimore city...
View ArticleLast Train to Hilversum by Charlie Connelly review – the magic of radio
A heartfelt and nostalgic guide to radio takes in birdsong, The Goon Show, and pre-digital crackles and popsOne of the 20th century’s most remarkable radio broadcasts was made from rural Surrey on an...
View ArticleAirhead by Emily Maitlis review – up close with Trump and the Dalai Lama
The chief presenter of BBC Newsnight vividly chronicles the pains and perils of news televisionEmily Maitlis’s book isn’t an autobiography. By the end we are none the wiser about what she was like as a...
View ArticleNick Fraser: ‘Documentaries can change the world’
As his book on the history of factual film is published, the former Storyville editor reveals his favourite docs and booksWhen 71-year-old Nick Fraser first encountered documentaries in the 1960s, he...
View ArticleWelcome to the raptor pit! The truth about comedy writers' rooms
Grubby banter, sexless flirting and the smell of pizza and ambition ... writer Sarah Morgan reveals the funny business that goes on behind the scenes of your favourite showsIn the recent movie Late...
View ArticleState of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts by Nick Hornby – review
This is the witty and moving companion novella to a TV series to be broadcast this autumnThis slim but pleasing volume from Nick Hornby is the companion novella to his new TV series, consisting of 10...
View ArticleWho Am I Again? by Lenny Henry review – a raw, touching memoir
The comic reflects on prejudice, being a ‘political football’ and his suspicion he’s neither black enough nor manly enoughIt was the way Lenny Henry told them. In the 1970s he would say to audiences:...
View ArticleBook clinic: can you suggest funny reads from female authors?
From witty novels to comedians in print, Viv Groskop recommends ladies who’ll make you laughA: Viv Groskop, writer, broadcaster and standup comedian, writes:I am tempted to answer with more questions....
View ArticleOne of Them by Michael Cashman review – a heroic and heartbreaking memoir
From a famous gay kiss on EastEnders to a seat in the House of Lords – a powerful account of public life, love and lossWe know Michael Cashman, or we think we do: the charmingly fresh-faced, somehow...
View ArticleThe Magic Box by Rob Young review – a spirited history of television
From spectral dreamscapes to The Year of the Sex Olympics, a lovingly researched history of British TV recalls the brilliant, the bizarre and the unworldlyI grew up in the West Country but spent much...
View Article
