Features

A Grumpy Guide to Christmas

TV's curse of the Christmas special

It's an accolade bestowed only on the best-loved shows. So why are the results often like a cracker without its bang? By Gerard Gilbert

Inside Features

Last night's television: Why high society's still a class act

Friday, 18 December 2009

Teens And Tiaras, Channel 4, The Restaurant, BBC 2

Observations: When Cranford bored Judi

Friday, 18 December 2009

It is August, 1844. Mr Buxton (Jonathan Pryce) is a newcomer to the Cheshire town of Cranford, and he threatens to bring lots of alarming new-fangled ideas with him. He asks Miss Matty Jenkyns (Judi Dench), the pillar of the local community, about a trendy new dance: "have you heard of waltzing?" A look of horror, if not revulsion, passes across Miss Matty's face as she replies, "it is not a form of dancing we have experienced in Cranford."

The Week In Radio: Poor Lamb – a hate figure on 6 Music

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Odi et amo", as the Catullus poem goes. I hate and I love, both at the same time. Well it happens with radio presenters too. There are some you like, and some who induce nothing more than mild irritation, like a headache that will go off if you stop thinking about it. But there are some who achieve that rare status – provoking a dislike so intense and addictive it has something in common with love.

When talk wasn't cheap

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

The DVD release of the incisive Sixties interview series Face to Face shows up its modern equivalent, says Andrew Roberts

The ten best DVD boxsets

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

20 Years Of The Simpsons

Sunday, 13 December 2009

Patric Verrone, one of the show's former writers, recalls how a series of 60-second shorts turned The Simpsons into a global television phenomenon.

Twelve TV treats of Christmas

Friday, 11 December 2009

Gerard Gilbert peeps under the bonnet in 'Cranford' and takes a trip with the Time Lord in a selection of the best yuletide viewing

Glee: All the right notes

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

It's not easy to predict whether a TV show will be a hit. For every Lost there's a The Nine, for every The Wire, a K-Ville and for every ER, a Three Rivers. So it's no surprise that when Fox first announced that their biggest new show of this year was Glee, a musical dramedy about a high school singing club created by Ryan Murphy, the twisted genius behind plastic surgery schlockfest Nip/Tuck and the brilliant but insane school drama Popular, most television insiders thought it would fail.

Tim Walker: 'The contestants in Saatchi's show aren't made to seem like sociopaths'

Monday, 7 December 2009

The Couch Surfer: Saatchi is the Wizard of Oz in this particular drama. His presence looms over proceedings, yet he never appears on screen, relaying his views instead via a hyper-qualified minion.