Reviews

Last Night's TV: Coming Up: I Don't Care/Channel 4
Mistresses/BBC1

Thank goodness for Coming Up. A collection of short films from Channel 4, it offers young talent a chance to show their skills with a brief slot on Thursday night. It's not just a break from the monotony of the channel's hospital/police office/chat-room-heavy roster; it's a genuinely interesting display of possibilities.

Inside Reviews

Last Night's TV: Faith Schools Menace?/More 4

Thursday, 19 August 2010

Religious prejudice may be the only form of discrimination now funded by government. We spend money – and quite a lot of it – on discouraging racial bigotry and age intolerance. We also pay to ensure that gender bias and homophobia keep their ugly heads down. But, through the agency of faith schools, the belief that one form of religious conviction is superior to others (and that pretty much any form of religion is superior to atheism) is actively encouraged by the state. That's a partisan way of putting it, of course. The proponents of faith schools don't like to think of themselves as intolerant, even as they discriminate against those who don't share their beliefs. They prefer to talk of cultural continuity and moral instruction and strong communities. Above all, they prefer to talk of parental choice.

Last Night's TV: Who Knows Best: Fighting the Fat / Channel 4
The Great British Bake-Off / BBC2

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Slim pickings for the ladies who munch

The Weekend's TV: Stephen Tompkinson’s Australian Balloon Adventure, Sun, ITV1
The Unforgettable...Jeremy Beadle, Sun, ITV1

Monday, 16 August 2010

Ups and downs for the high-flyer

Word of Mouth, Radio 4
Simply Absurd, Radio 4
Laurel Canyon, Radio 2

Sunday, 15 August 2010

I'd love to mind-map, but it's time for my lunch al desco

Grandma's House, BBC2
My Mum and Me, BBC3
Four Sons Versus Four Daughters, Channel 4

Sunday, 15 August 2010

It's hard to avoid drawing parallels between 'Grandma's House' and 'Seinfeld', even when the BBC sitcom breaks the 'no hugs' rule

DVD: Dexter Season 3, For retail & rental (Paramount)

Sunday, 15 August 2010

Police blood-spatter analyst Dexter is in the perfect job to cover up the other side of his persona: serial killer.

Last Night's TV: Beckii: Schoolgirl Superstar at 14, BBC3
Mistresses, BBC1
Natural World, BBC2

Friday, 13 August 2010

It isn't clear what, exactly, about Rebecca Flint's dancing has propelled her to international stardom. Certainly not to British viewers over the age of 16, anyway. But propel it has. Beckii (or "Beckii Cruel", as her pop alias would have her) is properly, amazingly famous – much more so than many of the Identikit faces gracing the pages of Heat. In Japan – the world's 10th most populous country – Beckii is a superstar. Her personal website is the third most visited music site in the country, and when she makes the trip over, she struggles to walk down the street without being accosted by gangs of giggling teenagers wanting a photo.

Last Night's TV: This World: Stolen Brides, BBC2
Cutting Edge: Four Sons versus Four Daughters, Channel 4
Ugly Betty, E4

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Two wars in 20 years, widespread violence, the competing mores of tribal society, Islamic law and secularist Russia all collide to make present-day Chechnya a special kind of hell. Stolen Brides, a stunning report from the BBC journalist Lucy Ash, investigates the tradition in the former Soviet republic of men kidnapping women and forcing them into marriage. This isn't anomalous – in a population of barely over a million people, at least one person a week mysteriously disappears. Some of them end up dead; many end up betrothed to a stranger.