AuthorsWoody Allen once famously declared Nazis in shiny boots as being beyond satire. For esteemed comic musician Tom Lehrer, it was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger. For the rest of…
Harry Venning
Since giving up acting in 1988, Harry Venning has worked full time as a cartoonist, writer and reviewer. Hamlet, his strip for The Stage, will be 25 in 2013 and has been the paper's TV reviewer since 1995. He also writes Radio 4 sitcom Clare In The Community, now in its eighth series, and is currently working on a sitcom for BBC1 TV entitled I Wish.
TV review: Murder on the Home Front; Life of Crime
“Those bastards have bombed my crime scene,” exclaims maverick police pathologist Dr Lennox Collins (Patrick Kennedy). The bastards in question being the Luftwaffe, the crime scene being the terraced house where a young woman’s body…
TV review: Vicious; The Job Lot
Rape offers such a rich vein of comic potential that I am bewildered as to why the world of sitcom has overlooked the subject for so long. But not to worry, because Vicious remedies the…
TV review: Watson and Oliver; The Wright Way
Comedy duo Watson and Oliver are back with a second series of sketches, despite the somewhat lacklustre reception their first outing received. So all credit to BBC Comedy for keeping faith with the duo, rather…
TV review: Britain’s Got Talent; Playhouse Presents… Hey Diddly Dee
Britain’s Got Talent returned to serve up more of the same meticulously stage-managed emotional manipulation disguised as a talent show, with Simon Cowell, David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden once more sitting in judgement….
TV review: Off Their Rockers; The Village; The Security Men
God forbid I am ever diagnosed as terminally ill, but if it happens I shall be buying the complete series of Off Their Rockers and watching it on an endless loop. It wouldn’t actually make…
TV review: Jonathan Creek; It’s Kevin; Life’s Too Short
You’d think that after 16 years and 28 episodes, Jonathan Creek might itself creak a little – how many more variations on the locked-room mystery can there possibly be? – but nothing could be further…
TV review: Wodehouse in Exile; Our Girl; Plebs
“He doesn’t have the background knowledge to be a traitor. He was just trying to be funny,” protests Ethel Wodehouse (Zoe Wanamaker) on behalf of her husband, the world renowned writer, humourist, man of letters,…
TV review: In the Flesh; The Lady Vanishes; WPC 56
If the prospect of yet another zombie thriller makes you want to dig your own grave, lie in it and pull a duvet of earth over your head, let me immediately reassure you that BBC3’s…
TV review: Shetland; Bluestone 42
Shetland. I ask you. What a mind-numbingly boring and unimaginative title for a drama. It would be dull enough if the subject matter were a pony or a pullover, but naming a police procedural after…
TV review: Broadchurch; Mayday
I should like to declare a moratorium on all TV dramas concerning the devastating effect the death/disappearance of a young person has upon a small, close-knit and invariably photogenic community. This theme has been explored…
TV review: Funny Business; Heading Out
“I don’t disturb you when you’re working, do I?” snaps stand-up comic Jimmy O at a Comedy Store heckler. “I don’t come in the alleyway and knock the cocks out of your mouth.” Having honed…
TV review: Murder on the Victorian Railway; Complicit; Sarah and Duck
Pity poor Thomas Briggs, catching 40 winks on his evening commute back home only to be bludgeoned across the head and thrown from the luxury of his first-class carriage on to the tracks. Briggs would…
TV review: The Spa; Black Mirror
The Spa stars the incomparable Rebecca Front as the long-suffering head of a health, beauty and fitness centre, where staff and clients alike prove a constant source of grief, inconvenience and aggravation. The writer and…
TV review: Dancing on the Edge; Common Ground
The problem with Dancing on the Edge is that it doesn’t have much edge. At least, precious little is to be found in the first two episodes. It has intrigue, atmosphere and ostentation in abundance,…
TV review: Moving On; Eyes Down! The Story of Bingo
Flick around the TV channels any afternoon, and soon they all begin to resemble the amorphous sludge that is ITV2. The exception to this rule is BBC1, which regularly serves up original, innovative, interesting postprandial…
TV review: Dani’s Castle; My Mad Fat Diary; Father Brown
Having achieved a highly commendable runner-up position on Strictly Come Dancing, Dani Harmer’s elevated star status is reflected in the fact her former CBBC show Dani’s House has been upgraded to the new Dani’s Castle….
TV review: World Without End; Blandings
On a cold January night, few things warm the cockles more satisfyingly than a large serving of medieval mayhem. Channel 4’s new big-budget drama series World Without End has it all – murder, intrigue, sex,…
TV review: Spies of Warsaw; Great Night Out; FIT
Adapted by Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais from the Alan Furst novel, Spies of Warsaw is a two-part drama set in the espionage-riddled, pre-war Polish capital. David Tennant stars as French military attache Jean-Francois…
Christmas TV preview
Harry Venning’s guide to what to watch on the box this Christmas
Jobs & Auditions
