BBC Four presenters rally to save channel amid closure rumours
Lucy Worsley and Waldemar Januszczak are among those to have taken to social mediaCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBBC Four presenters are rallying to save the arts and...
View ArticleOne giant leap: meet the new generation of male ballet stars
Beauty, strength and bags of energy: BBC Four’s Men at the Barre documentary gets up close and personal with the Royal Ballet dancers on the rise‘It’s a golden era of male ballet dancers.” So says Emma...
View ArticleThe Proms to go ahead this summer, but 'not as we know them'
World’s biggest classical music festival hopes to offer some live concerts at Royal Albert HallComment: The proms needs its audience just as we need the promsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our...
View ArticleLive music returns to Royal Opera House for an online audience
Collaboration with BBC will see three concerts live-streamed; Abbey Road reopens; and BBC announces its first remote access documentary featuring the Kanneh-MasonThe Royal Opera House is to host its...
View ArticleWith the BBC at bay, Sky embraces the possibilities of the arts on TV
Following a similar strategy to their sports output, the broadcaster plans to make Sky Arts available to all - a move which may worry their rivalsWhen histories of British television record the impact...
View ArticleEverything: The Real Thing Story review – the searing saga of Britain's soul...
Liverpudlian quartet the Real Thing, who tackled prejudice and challenged the pop status quo in the 70s, are the subject of Simon Sheridan’s fond and vital documentary One day in 1972, a pop picker...
View ArticleNo animal violence: BBC series offers more calming natural world
Voiceover by ex-Buddhist monk, Mindful Escapes hopes to boost viewers’ mental health during pandemicThe BBC’s new natural history programme will ignore the animal kingdom’s violent side and instead...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on Artemisia Gentileschi: triumph of a trailblazer | Editorial
An old master takes her place in the National Gallery. But this should be only the beginning of a rebalancing of the canonThere is a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, the 17th-century Roman artist, of...
View Article'Every boy’s dream is to be James Bond': Inside North Korea with 'Mr James'...
Danish film-maker Mads Brügger’s latest documentary is an absurdly brave look at Kim Jong-un’s regime that has all the intrigue of a spy thrillerPhysically, Ulrich Larsen doesn’t stand out. Polite,...
View ArticleThe week in TV: ZeroZeroZero; The Drowning; The Repair Shop; Craftivism; Ramy...
A new mafia drama boldly goes where all mafia dramas have gone before, while Ramy finally makes his debut on a UK channelZeroZeroZero (Sky Atlantic)The Drowning (Channel 5) | My5The Repair Shop (BBC...
View ArticleDavid Ireland: 'As a writer, I want to be socially irresponsible'
He’s no stranger to walk-outs and trigger warnings. So the daring dramatist is amazed the BBC is broadcasting his dark new play about a Belfast woman’s lockdown crisisA decade ago, David Ireland was...
View ArticleBBC Four to become archive channel as cost-cutting drive continues
Overhaul means channel will no longer commission original content but will broadcast performances BBC Four is to cease commissioning new programmes and become an archive-focused channel as part of the...
View ArticleA recipe for failure for the sweet-toothed | Brief letters
Covid and the flu | Lockdown in Scotland | BBC Four | Chocolate | PuzzlesIt is wrong to suggest that Covid can be regarded as just another seasonal virus “like flu” (Chris Whitty: society will have to...
View ArticleThe week in TV: Intruder; Sort Your Life Out; Sitting; This Is a Robbery;...
Channel 5’s new drama was a cliffhanger in one sense only; Stacey Solomon sparked joy; and all was revealed in Katherine Parkinson’s beguiling debut playIntruder (Channel 5) | My5Sort Your Life Out...
View ArticleArts shows star in new Radio 4 line-up after storm at axing of film programme
Mark Kermode will co-host show exploring ‘unexpected links and discoveries’ in screen historyA film show and a new weekly music programme on Radio 4 will be part of a huge shake-up of arts programming...
View ArticleJana Bennett obituary
Groundbreaking BBC executive whose list of achievements included the launch of BBC Three, BBC Four and iPlayerJana Bennett, who has died aged 66 of brain cancer, was the first woman appointed as...
View ArticleSkint review – a vivid, unflinching examination of modern poverty
Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee and film-maker Peter Mullan oversee these vivid 15-minute monologues about being poor. The uniformly strong tales they tell are too rarely seen in dramaTara is a waitress...
View ArticleBBC to cut number of programmes it makes, says director general
Tim Davie suggests more stations could become archive services, as he prepares to announce deep cutsThe BBC will cut the number of programmes it makes and consider turning more television and radio...
View ArticlePrisoner C33 review – Trevor Nunn directs a wretched, wonderful Wilde
In this dark, poetic one-man play, Toby Stephens gives it his all as the wrecked writer – imprisoned for gay sex in 1895 – as he rues his misfortunes with his younger selfWatching plays on television...
View ArticleAppearing on University Challenge was terrifying – now I’m setting the...
My mixed experiences on quiz programmes taught me that the real joy lies in acquiring knowledge, not showing it off“What is the title of the semi-autobiographical novel published in 1963 by an...
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