Friday’s TV: Unreported world- Child Brides, Broken lives

UNREPORTED WORLD: CHILD BRIDES, BROKEN LIVES, Channel 4, Friday 28th November 7.35pm

In the latest of Channel 4’s ongoing Unreported World series, reporter Ravita Navai travelled to Nigeria in order to uncover the murky world of child brides. The programme reveals a bizarre throwback to more traditional days, when early marriage was seen as a convenient way to avoid thorny issues of female independence and, particularly, sex before marriage.

Navai is a little overbearing, as Unreported World journalists tend to be, but her presentation is clear and never errs too far into emotional declarations whilst maintaining a very human touch. It is however, in an interview with a doctor who treats fistula (Google it, if you dare) cases that we are given the most damning verdict on Read more

Who Really Wins When Celebrities Get Divorced?

In the no-holds-barred deathmatch that is the celebrity divorce, does anyone really win? Well, the short answer would be, yes, someone usually does. Here’s a quick look at the Top 5 Celebrity Divorces and who came out victorious.

5. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey

This is a prime example of the curse of the reality TV show. No one really cared about either of these “celebrities” until they appeared in the show that focused on their newly married lives, imaginatively titled ‘Newlyweds’. We got to watch them in their honeymoon phase, and then watch them fall apart. Let’s face it, this was always going to be doomed – who could possibly have thought being filmed 24/7 would create a happy, healthy marriage?! We all knew Jessica was dumb, but I didn’t think she was THAT dumb. I suppose Jess came out on top, but only because she looks good in a pair of denim hot pants.

4. Paul McCartney and Heather Mills

One of the most expensive celebrity divorces of all time, Mills and McCartney’s split caused a massive stir and was splashed all over the papers. The vote was out on who was to become the victim in all this – Heather was set to win that one, but she did herself no favours with that Read rest of article

The Devil’s Whore entertains…for half an hour








THE DEVIL’S WHORE, C4, Wednesday 26th November 9.00pm Alert Me

I am not, I should admit, a big fan of period drama. I find the attempts of modern screenwriters to emulate the language of the old masters are usually asinine and badly pitched, full of stunted dialogue and stifled action with everything veiled in frustrating restraint. Devil’s Whore is, to some extent at least, an exception. It’s dirty, gritty and full of barely supressed anger which seeps out at the seams. Whilst the language remains archaic, it also seems more human and more properly pitched for each character rather than being a blanket of sirs and madams. Occasionally the grand speeches which creep from these old English lips can seem a little out of place, and it’s hard to believe that “Honest John” would be so eloquent, but they are never overlong and keep the plot tied together rather than being loose and unfocussed.

Andrea Riseborough vibrates with frustration at her status as a high-born woman, and there’s a touching (but not, thank god, saccharine) scene in which she and Thomas Rainsborough - played with some distinction by Michael …read more

Catastrophe Indeed








CATASTROPHE - BIRTH OF A PLANET, C4, 24th November 9.00PM

Tony Robinson fronts this new documentary series from C4 about the formation of Earth in his usual breathless, sincere way, but for once it doesn’t seem charming. The main failing of Catastrophe is the way in which it reminds the viewer of Friday afternoon physics lessons with the young teacher putting his feet up to mark a few books whilst the class settle their heads on the desks for the hour. Catastrophe’s computer generated impressions of enormous planetary collisions are …read more about Catastrophe

Critic’s Choice: Films on TV this Week

PREMIERE: This Is England – Channel 4, Monday 24th November 10:00pm Alert Me

From a wild flight of fancy to a gritty slab of realism, This Is England is a 400lb Gorilla, hitting home with brutal force. Set in 1983, an era seemingly dominated by the twin forces of Knight Rider and the Falklands war, it concerns the story of a bullied 12-year-old, Shaun (a charismatic, perfect, Thomas Turgoose), who is coming to terms with the death of his father (due to the aforementioned war). He joins a gang of skinheads, spliced with mods, who offer him acceptance and validation. It’s hard to believe that anyone could dislike Shuan, though – quick witted, funny, it makes the viewing that Read rest of critic’s choice

24 goes to Africa via Carlyle

24 Redemption, SKY1, 24TH November, 10pm

Thank heavens Fox have finally realized what everyone else concluded several months ago…January is far too long to wait for the new series of 24. Like every other die hard fan I have been doing all I can to pass the time. Whether it’s been debating Tony Almeida’s continued existence despite being injected with a lethal dose of toxins and shot at point blank range, or whether it’s been spending a day listening to the gripping soundtrack on my MP3 and shouting ‘damn it’ continuously (not to mention needlessly) I have done everything there is to do to keep in 24 mode.Even pictures of a drunken Kiefer Sutherland stumbling off his bar stall topless have given me small saviours to cling to.

But now finally 24 is back in the form of a two hour special airing on Sky1. It will certainly be a novel experience only watching two hours of the programme and not spending a day glued to the sofa surviving on ominous crumbs that have slipped through the cushions years ago, but then beggars can not be choosers.

Watching the trailer it seemed very clear from the off that everything was back to normal - The world is screwed, Jack’s on it. What was interesting to note was that while the first ever American female President is being …read more

Friday’s TV: The IT Crowd is Back

With the third series of Graham Linehan’s excellent IT Crowd looming large, OnTheBox.com takes a look at the incestuous circle of modern British comedy (left).

THE IT CROWD, Channel 4, Friday 21 November 10:00pm Alert Me

With a TV schedule that had already seen the likes of the Mighty Boosh and Nathan Barley, the IT Crowd seemed like a natural progression. The show seems like an amalgamation of a lot of the British comedy that had come before it, with the outrageous stereotypes of Nathan Barley, the sphincter-clenchingly awkward workplace interactions of the Office and the silliness of the Mighty Boosh all having been distilled into an eminently watchable and consistently funny sitcom.

Tonight’s third season premiere sees a greater depth of character imparted upon the main players. Richard Ayoade’s gleefully myopic Moss is built up from his utterly socially Read rest of review

Wednesday’s TV: New English Civil War drama- off with its head!

THE DEVIL’S WHORE, Channel 4, Wednesday 19th November, 9:00pm

Gasping young ladies in tight bodices and dashing young gentlemen whose tresses spill onto their frilly collars have long been a staple of British costume dramas. The Devil’s Whore, this autumn’s four-parter from Channel 4, has an abundance of both- but not much else.

The new drama from Peter Flannery (best known for the mid-90s series, Our Friends in the North) follows the fortunes of Angelica Fanshawe, (fictional) niece to Charles I. Set between 1642 and 1660, it charts the progress of the English Civil War through Angelica’s eyes, softening the political and religious complexities of this period with some swash-buckling human interest. (For those of us a bit rusty on our British history, Charles I was the pretty-boy monarch removed from the throne and executed on the order of Oliver Cromwell.)

Seventeen year old Angelica finds herself all mixed up in the ever tricky politics of the period not only via her uncle the king, but also through Edward Sexby, a servant of her husband who has links to the anti-monarchist cause. Damned if she’ll behave with the docility expected of a woman of her rank and sympathetic to those calling for greater civil liberties, the feisty young madam becomes embroiled in the republican struggle.

The focus here is definitely one of a scandal-loving nature, characters and their various relationships (mainly those of Angelica). The trouble with this emphasis is that …Read the rest of review

Wednesday’s TV: The Big Bang Theory- Sixty million years in the making wasn’t long enough

THE BIG BANG THEORY, E4, Wednesday 19th November, 9:00pm Alert me

Nerds unite! The new series of The Big Bang Theory has arrived! Although, I’m not entirely sure how…or why.

The first episode of season two sees sweet but romantically inept Leonard trying to fathom why his blossoming relationship with Penny has gone off the boil. Whilst the others dole out relationship advice (which is just about as sound as that given to Eminem and Kim when they were convinced to give it another shot), Penny confides to Sheldon that her own insecurities are stopping her moving forward with Leonard. Sworn to secrecy on the matter by Penny, Sheldon endeavours to keep his mouth shut without developing a nervous tick- cue “hilarious nerdy antics.”


The second season of the Big Bang Theory offers more of the same as the first, only a little bit worse. The excitement of a new comedy series has gone and yet all the characters appear to be in pretty much the same situation they were in at the beginning of the last series. Added to this, there’s only so many times you can hear …Read rest of review

Monday’s TV: A disappointing experiment

CLONE, BBC3, Monday 17th November, 8:30pm Alert me

How science has moved on. When Frankenstein went wrong he looked like a botched flat pack wardrobe with nuts and bolts hanging from his neck and a head obviously constructed with only a quick glance at the instruction manual. This latest failed attempt at a human clone certainly appears to be far more successful, but actually struggles to get the audience on his side.

Dr Victor Blenkinsop (Jonathan Price) has devoted his life to creating the first ever human clone and whilst many would see this as a more than successful innings, the creation, intended to be the prototype super solider made to replace the volunteer army, is something of a failure. Instead Blenkinsop finds himself …Read rest of review

← Previous Page — Next Page →


BLOG