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David Bowden
The Perfect Suit: a luxury production
Chanel and Louis Vuitton are just too good for the masses – as are BBC4’s documentaries, apparently.
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| Friday 1 July 2011 |
David Bowden
Knob gags and heart massages
Boozed up, bloodied and helpless: Sirens offered a comic view of Britain as seen from the medical frontline.
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| Thursday 23 June 2011 |
David Bowden
A grown-up, grossout approach to history
Mixing facts with bodily fluids, kids’ show Horrible Histories shows that teaching history needn’t be patronising.
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| Friday 10 June 2011 |
David Bowden
Angry Boys: a smart and funny pop at PC
Aussie comic Chris Lilley’s new mockumentary is a crude but well-observed swipe at illiberal modern society.
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| Friday 3 June 2011 |
David Bowden
Amnesty: it ain’t easy being righteous
The BBC film on Amnesty International’s fiftieth birthday was documentary as corporate hagiography.
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| Friday 27 May 2011 |
David Bowden
Bill Clinton and Ayn Rand: an unlikely affair
Adam Curtis’s new series is as visually engaging as ever, yet his arguments for once seem to fall short.
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| Friday 20 May 2011 |
David Bowden
The Wonderland of the human heart
BBC2’s subtle documentary strand on human relationships was a welcome relief from this week’s sleazy headlines.
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| Friday 13 May 2011 |
David Bowden
Made in Chelsea should be made to go away
Inspired by The Only Way Is Essex, but with none of its charm, E4’s new posho docusoap fails to entertain.
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| Friday 6 May 2011 |
David Bowden
A new era of decent British drama?
BBC1’s Exile showed that British dramatists, if they put their minds to it, can create world-class telly like The Wire.
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| Thursday 21 April 2011 |
David Bowden
What the undead tell us about the living
New series The Walking Dead makes a good Zombie drama of contemporary society’s fear and self-doubt.
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| Friday 15 April 2011 |
David Bowden
When a council house was a dream home
A riveting look at the rise and fall of the council estate casts today’s housing policy – or lack of it – in a dim light.
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| Friday 8 April 2011 |
David Bowden
Low-ambition comedy for a low-ambition Olympics
New sitcom Twenty Twelve gently mocks London’s preparations rather than taking a satire-shaped cudgel to them.
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| Friday 25 March 2011 |
Patrick Hayes
Another episode of Midsomer madness
Even fictional, homicide-plagued English rural counties cannot escape multicultural social engineering.
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| Friday 18 March 2011 |
David Bowden
Midsomer Murders: it’s escapist, not racist
Why on earth should a fictional detective drama set in a made-up English village have to reflect multicultural Britain?
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| Friday 11 March 2011 |
David Bowden
The decline of the West... again
A few years ago Niall Ferguson thought Islam would bring about the end of the West. Now he’s scared of China.
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| Friday 4 March 2011 |
David Bowden
Keep Oliver’s army out of the classroom
Schools don’t need ex-soldiers or St Jamie Oliver – they just need teachers confident in their own authority.
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| Thursday 24 February 2011 |
David Bowden
The making of the King James Bible
When God Spoke English: why everyone from Richard Dawkins to Boris Johnson worships the KJB.
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| Friday 18 February 2011 |
David Bowden
Denmark’s answer to The Wire
A recipient of whispered and tweeted praise, marvellous new cop drama The Killing deserves to be more than cult viewing.
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| Friday 11 February 2011 |
David Bowden
Laughing in the face of The Big C
The US show’s tumour humour is entertaining, but doesn’t kill off the idea that ‘positive thinking’ is the key to survival.
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| Friday 11 February 2011 |
Rob Lyons
Why I don’t buy this ‘People’s Supermarket’
Channel 4’s latest one-man mission to change consumer habits has little to do with the interests of The People.
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