Sky Atlantic’s latest import, Silicon Valley, arrives on our shores with the same quiet fanfare as shows such as Workaholics and Broad City. It certainly has an impressive pedigree, coming from the mind of Mike […]
TV | Orange is the New Black – Back Behind Bars for Series Two
Netflix has released its second season of the original series Orange Is the New Black, and a great hype has quite rightly followed. This prison dramedy may well be the most important television show not […]
TV | 24 – Live Another Day – Absurd but adored
It’s absurd, but we adore it. 24 was always ridiculous. In the space of 24 hours, none of the main characters went to the toilet, ate or drank. The show is action thriller interspersed (undeliberately) […]
Books | One Night in Winter – A gripping and elaborate tale of Soviet Russia
Simon Sebag Montefiore is most renowned for his historical works on Stalin and Soviet Russia, but he has made a seamless transition in to the world of fiction with his new novel, One Night in […]
TV | Fargo – Finally a television adaptation that does not disappoint
‘Aw jeez, here we go again’, another television series influenced by a popular and rather brilliant film. Normally this leads only to disappointment, anger and a review including of a list of all the things wrong […]
TV | Crimson Field – WWI period drama at its best
In recent years, Sunday evenings have become renowned as prime television real-estate for period dramas, with shows such as Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife providing the perfect end to the weekend in a wave […]
TV | Star-Crossed – A desperate attempt at an extra-terrestrial Twilight
Congratulations go to the production team of Star-Crossed for their valiant attempts to sandwich not only every American high-school stereotype, but also every alien-invasion cliché into a mere forty-two minutes. It was a heroic task […]
TV | New Worlds – A history that lacks the drama
New Worlds is the long-awaited sequel to the 2008 drama The Devil’s Whore, in which Andrea Riseborough and John Simm appeared as a 17th-century pair whose beliefs drew them right to the epicentre of the […]
TV | Game of Thrones, Two Swords – A thrilling sign of things to come
Warning: contains spoilers for seasons 1-3, and for season 4, episode 1 of Game of Thrones. Two Swords begins with a cracking bit of symbolism as Tywin Lannister melts down the Starks’ ancestral blade and throws […]
TV |The unfortunate Americanisation of About A Boy
If you’re a fan of the Hugh Grant movie or the original Nick Hornby novel, then you will probably be slightly appalled by the new American sitcom adaptation of About A Boy. Upbeat, sentimental, full […]
Food | 5 exam season ready meals put to the test
It’s deadline season and you don’t want to cook. Aside from a pack of custard creams, a low cost ready meal is the obvious alternative. But which one to choose? We’ve found the worst so […]
TV | Inspector De Luca – Masterful Italian detective drama
First shown in 2008, Inspector De Luca is the new Italian detective drama to compete with the Scandinavian haven that we’ve all grown accustomed to on BBC4. The TV series is set in 1938 when Italian […]