Squid Game, Netflix review - murderous game show hits the ratings jackpot

★★★★ SQUID GAME, NETFLIX Murderous game show hits ratings jackpot

South Korean series mixes slaughter and greed with a dash of moral philosophy

This Korean-made show suddenly became Netflix’s all-time greatest hit, demonstrating once again the irresistible allure of a game show which ruthlessly massacres its contestants. Squid Game has some fairly obvious antecedents – for instance The Hunger Games, the Schwarzenegger vehicle The Running Man and the Japanese TV show Battle Royale – and also carries echoes of the 1960s cult mystery The Prisoner and perhaps a soupçon of Lord of the Flies.

Ridley Road, BBC One review - Jewish community fights Nazi nightmare in 1960s London

★★★★ RIDLEY ROAD, BBC ONE Jewish community fights Nazi nightmare in 1960s London

Enlightenment about a resurgence of English Fascism wrapped up in a well-acted thriller

Neo-Nazis held a Trafalgar Square rally under the banner "Free Britain from Jewish Control" in the year of my birth; I had no idea until I watched Ridley Road. Most of us know about the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, but, until now, next to nothing about the Jewish resistance against fascist Colin Jordan and his gang of thugs, some of them cynically recruited from borstals and children’s homes, 17 years after the end of the Second World War.

DVD/Blu-ray: Maigret - The Complete Series

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: MAIGRET - THE COMPLETE SERIES Entertaining, idiomatic Simenon adaptation, brilliantly cast

Entertaining, idiomatic Simenon adaptation, brilliantly cast

This weighty box set contains all 52 episodes of the BBC’s take on George Simenon's Maigret, four seasons of which were made and broadcast between 1960 and 1963. Given how much vintage BBC material has been wiped, that this series can now be watched on Blu-ray is little short of miraculous.

Thomas Hardy: Fate, Exclusion and Tragedy, Sky Arts review – too much and not enough

★★★ THOMAS HARDY: FATE, EXCLUSION AND TRAGEDY, SKY ARTS Programme does its best to shine a light on the bleak Wessex writer 

Programme does its best to shine a light on the bleak Wessex writer

Born in 1840, Thomas Hardy lived a life of in-betweens. Modern yet traditional, the son of a builder who went on to become a famous novelist, he belonged both to Dorset and London. When he died, his ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey, but his heart was buried separately alongside his first wife in the village of Stinsford in Dorset.

Schumacher, Netflix review - authorised version of the life of an F1 legend

Portrait of German race ace doesn't dig deep enough

Michael Schumacher’s skiing accident in December 2013, which left the seven-times Formula One world champion with a severe brain injury, added a shocking postscript to one of the greatest stories in motor racing. Having survived a decades-long driving career which included numerous accidents (including a motorcycle smash in 2009 which was apparently far more serious than the Schumi camp would admit), he was near-fatally stricken on a family Christmas holiday in Méribel.

The North Water, BBC Two review - a terrible voyage into the great beyond

★★★★ THE NORTH WATER, BBC TWO A terrible voyage into the great beyond

Director Andrew Haigh brings cinematic heft to this bloody whaling odyssey

It’s perhaps unfortunate that The North Water arrives on BBC Two only a few months after The Terror, since it’s impossible to avoid the parallels between them. They’re set only a few years apart (1859 for The North Water, 1845 for The Terror), both involve doomed voyages into Arctic waters, and each of them gets darker and bloodier as it depicts man’s inhumanity to man (and not just man) and the encroaching horror of a heart of darkness.

The Blood Pact, All 4 review - a (tax) inspector falls

★★★★ THE BLOOD PACT, ALL 4 Masterly denouement for third series of Dutch drama

Themes and characters entwine in the third series' masterly denouement

In Klem (meaning "clamp"’), we find ourselves in the calm, ordered and ordinary world of Amsterdam-Zuid. There are parents’ evenings to be attended, school plays to be watched. The area’s many pretty parks are just perfect for the early morning jog. Tall green bins stand in neat rows.

Clickbait, Netflix review - fiendishly cunning thriller keeps everybody guessing

★★★★★ CLICKBAIT, NETFLIX Fiendishly cunning thriller keeps everybody guessing

The dark side of social media under the spotlight

It seems Covid-19 may not be the only plague threatening mankind. The virus is nowhere to be seen in Netflix’s grippingly twisty mystery Clickbait, but it’s the use and abuse of social media that drives its tale of malice, murder and deception.

Vigil, BBC One review - murder most watery

★★ VIGIL, BBC ONE What does the Navy have to hide at its Trident submarine base?

What does the Navy have to hide at its Trident submarine base?

Submarines have delivered some memorable on-screen performances, from Run Silent, Run Deep to The Hunt for Red October. On the other hand, we must not overlook the treasurably idiotic BBC series The Deep, which featured a submarine with a “moon pool” in it (this was a big vent permanently open to the ocean). Handy for reaching the sea-bed in a hurry perhaps, but not helpful for getting back up again.