Article gallery: Off the Telly

Review: Lewis: Reputation

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:31:36 +0000

Lewis showed once again that detective-show formulas are often a bigger draw than the detectives themselves. Just as Taggart outlived Taggart himself and Rebus is going strong despite the replacement of John Hannah by Ken Stott, so Inspector Morse seems to be able to go on even though Morse has passed the torch on to his former stumbling foil Lewis.

Review: Eleventh Hour

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 18:49:21 +0000

Every so often, a show comes along that is so derivative, so unoriginal, it becomes almost impossible to decide exactly what it's ripping off. So it is with Eleventh Hour, a four-part series starring Patrick Stewart as a "government scientific investigator".

Flying Near the Sun

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:52:32 +0000

Rob Buckley on Codename: Icarus, and adult drama for children

Review: Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 08:23:34 +0000

TV shows about TV shows have a long, but not very distinguished history. There have been right-to-reply programmes like Points of View, Open Air and, erm, Right to Reply. There have been critical shows like Did You See? and Late Review. And there have been industry shows like Hard News and The Media Show. Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe attempts to roll all three genres into one with only minimal success.

Review: The IT Crowd

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:41:03 +0000

From the creator of Father Ted! From the producer of The Office! Occasionally guest starring Chris Morris! If the quality of Channel 4's new sitcom, The IT Crowd, had purely been down to the pedigree of Graham Linehan, Ash Astalla and, indeed, Chris Morris, it would have been the show that emptied pubs on a Friday night. But something got lost between CV and screen, leaving us with a mysterious hybrid of both the best and worst parts of each contributor's particular school of comedy.

Review: The Apprentice

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 22:51:30 +0000

Part reality-TV car crash, part Big Boy's Book of Business, The Apprentice is a television show many people end up loving without really understanding why. It's not as if there are any likeable characters in it, after all. But as a civilised form of torture, it really can't be beaten.

Review: Doctor Who - 'School Reunion'

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:46:48 +0000

Throughout the land, grown men are crying. This isn't because of some major sporting event, the death of a cherished footballer or because the Queen is 80. It's because of the sacrifice made by a robot dog and the return of Sarah Jane Smith to Doctor Who.

Review: The F Word

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:27:51 +0000

The F Word is a double entendre. On the face it, it would appear to be a show about cookery, with the F obviously standing for food. In actual fact, it's about swearing.

Review: Property Ladder

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 22:33:05 +0000

There are few more costly ways of making money than property development. Tens of thousands of pounds, if not hundreds of thousands, are needed to be a professional developer just for the raw materials and the property. Then there’s the time and labour needed, not to mention the market research. If it all goes wrong, you could end up bankrupt or in debt for the rest of your life. Given those horrible fates, wouldn’t you at least watch Property Ladder first?

Review: The Man Whose Arms Exploded

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 16:55:50 +0000

You pretty much know what you're going to get when you watch a documentary on five entitled The Man Whose Arms Exploded. It might have been shown as part of the Hidden Lives strand, but it would have been equally at home in Channel 4's Bodyshock range, where the name of the game is medical grossness crossed with faux human interest.

Review: The Outsiders

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:11:12 +0000

It's possible for a show to be doing all the right things, yet be let down by one element so badly, that watching it becomes akin to having a kidney removed by over-enthusiastic gibbons. So it was with The Outsiders, ITV1's attempt to marry the fun spy escapism of '60s shows like The Man from UNCLE with the glamour and plots of modern US series such as 24. Top-secret spy agencies with entrances in antiquarian bookshops; bungie-jump interrogations; the Vatican's secret ninja police: it could have been fun.

Review: The Secret Millionaire

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:37:03 +0000

It's a rare production company that chooses to atone for past failings by making another TV series. RDF Media, however, has decided to make up for Wife Swap with The Secret Millionaire, a disconcertingly similar show that somehow manages to be the exact opposite of its flawed predecessor.

Review: Last Man Standing

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:24:16 +0000

It would be very easy to be cynical about Last Man Standing. The BBC has had, embedded in its DNA almost since its first day of transmission, a mission to educate and inform the nation's youth. Time was, you could stick Muffin the Mule on for an hour a day and that would be enough. But with hot and cold running X-boxes now in every house, it's becoming harder and harder to convince kids that they really want to be learning stuff while they watch the telly.