The clutch of new year diet programmes now dominating the schedules are enough to put you off healthy eating and exercise for good The first week of January is traditionally the time when the nation looks down at its bulging post-Christmas belly and groans. It’s when the nation feels...
TV Star
Cowell returns to save Britain’s Got Talent
Cowell may have realised that people only watch his shows when he appears in them It may have paled next to The X Factor’s slow-motion car crash, but the last series of Britain’s Got Talent was a bit of a disaster too. Michael McIntyre wasn’t a natural judge. David...
Simon Cowell is back to save Britain’s Got Talent – but will he stay?
Cowell may have realised that people only watch his shows when he appears in them It may have paled next to The X Factor’s slow-motion car crash, but the last series of Britain’s Got Talent was a bit of a disaster too. Michael McIntyre wasn’t a natural judge. David...
Festive TV: what were your favourite shows?
Tell us your holiday highs and lows – did Downton leave you reeling, Sherlock mystify you, or Treasure Island float your boat? The sexed-up return of BBC1′s Sherlock has got the Mail hot under the collar, and judging by responses to the Guardian’s review, it had viewers divided too....
Review: Sherlock and Hacks
The secret of this modern-day Sherlock? It’s elementary, my dear Watson OK, so we begin where we left off with Sherlock (BBC1, Sunday) – with Moriarty at a London swimming pool which is kind of the Reichenbach Falls. Well, it’s wet and it’s where the big showdown with Moriarty...
Endeavour: an inspector recalled
Morse is back – but in a prequel starring this man as the young inspector. Can he escape from John Thaw’s shadow? Laura Barnett searches for clues on the shoot It’s early morning at a ghostly disused RAF base, and I have just been transported back to the 1960s. A...
The best TV of 2011: factual
Wonders of the universe – from Frozen Planet to Civilization, and from Panorama exposés to the conquests of The Normans This has been a good year for programmes that inform, amaze and make you think, with the spread of HD and now 3D raising the visual bar. Professor Brian...
TV review: Earthflight; The Hilary Devey Story
Mass migration and American monuments: this was extraordinary, show-off TV In Sweden, on one side of a 20 krona note, there’s a picture of a white goose flying over farmland. Hanging on to the neck of the goose is a tiny figure. What’s being depicted here is The Wonderful Adventures of...
The best TV of 2011: comedy
This year saw more hits than misses. There were surprises too – Spy, Jack Whitehall’s acting and the end of Shooting Stars Without even a sniff of Peep Show, 2011 still managed to be a strong year for comedy. No honestly, it has. Here follow my own choices for...
The best television of 2011: drama
British drama had an ambitious but somewhat uneven year – while the Scandanavians produced a surprise hit. But what were your favourites? It would be pushing it to suggest that 2011 was a landmark year for drama but viewers were certainly not badly served, with some fine new work...