Why does Channel 4 insist on parading weirdos?
Channel 4 has a personality disorder. The station that broadcasts the most austere news bulletins, films and groundbreaking journalism has also given us The Word, Big Brother and Gerry Adams discussing...
View ArticleThe return of Peep Show is cause for celebration. But why is it streaming...
Lovers of excruciatingly awkward dialogue rejoice – Peep Show returns to our screens this Friday, for its seventh series. That doesn’t make it the longest-running British comedy series – to the...
View ArticleCoppers is gripping reality TV that renews my respect for the Met
It takes chutzpah for a documentary about the police to open with a tired and grouchy detective calling members of the public "subnormal and f****** useless". It takes unique talent to create a film...
View ArticleChannel 4’s Paralympics trailer is a superhuman effort
I wrote recently that many of the best short films that are made each year are adverts. Here’s one of 2012’s. It advertises Channel 4’s forthcoming coverage of the Paralympic Games and, though it is...
View ArticleSave us from a sequel to The Snowman
The first law of film criticism is “Thou shalt not pass judgment upon a film thou hast not seen.” The second law is, or at least should be, “But thou canst make an exception for a sequel to The...
View ArticleI’m Spazticus isn’t offensive and it isn’t ground-breaking. It’s just awful
I pity the able-bodied people who stumble across I’m Spazticus, Channel 4’s hidden camera comedy show in which disabled people play pranks on the public. I’ve followed their reactions on Twitter two...
View ArticleThe old order changeth, yielding place to new: and alas, John McCririck, you...
So John McCririck, the flamboyant Old Harrovian, who for so many years has been calling the odds for Channel 4’s racing – and for ITV before that – has been put out to grass. The BBC has feebly given...
View ArticleFear or ecstasy? Overcoming performance anxiety
My article from yesterday's Daily Telegraph Unlike a high-wire walker, I don’t think any musician strikes the wires of a piano or draws a bow across a violin’s strings primarily for the kick of an...
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