Normal People, BBC One review – adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel evokes the deep cut of first love

★★★★ NORMAL PEOPLE, BBC ONE Pain, despair and rapturous joy are captured in this richly-rendered drama

Pain, despair and rapturous joy are captured in this richly-rendered drama

Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, was a psychologically rich, emotive journey into the psyches of two Irish teenagers who fall in love. Only two years on from publication, it has been turned into a 12-part series from the BBC and Hulu. 

Berlinale 2020: Berlin Alexanderplatz review - a contemporary twist on a classic

Alfred Döblin's novel becomes a tale for our times and Sally Potter's dementia drama

Burhan Qurbani isn’t the first director to bring Alfred Döblin’s seminal 1929 novelBerlin Alexanderplatz, to the screen. First, there was the Weimar Republic era adaptation that Döblin himself worked on. Fifty years later, Rainer Werner Fassbinder brought us his 15-hour television opus.

Lights, Camera, Malta!, BBC Concert Orchestra, Malta review – a spectacular celebration of film history

★★★★★ LIGHTS, CAMERA, MALTA! A spectacular celebration of film history

Radio 2 brings Friday Night is Music Night to the Maltese capital

With sapphire blue waters, year-round sun and architecture that spans centuries and cultures, it’s little wonder that Malta is a favourite location for Hollywood. To celebrate its long featured history, Radio 2 brought the BBC Concert Orchestra to Valletta for a special Friday Night is Music Night.

Andy Hamilton, Brighton Festival 2019 review - gently amusing night of reminiscence

Comedy writing perennial spends an evening answering audience questions

Taking place at the Theatre Royal, Andy Hamilton’s show is entitled An Evening with… rather than a straight stand-up and mainly consists of the comedy writer/performer and gameshow regular answering audience questions. During the first half this is done via raising a hand and shouting out questions; during the second half by leaving pieces of paper on the stage front during the interval.

Best of 2018: TV

BEST OF 2018: TV The most nutritious nuggets and noxious no-hopers on the box this year

An appointment to review the past year's telly

Bruce Springsteen once sang about there being "57 channels and nothin' on". Those were the days. Now we have so much to watch (including Netflix's Springsteen on Broadway) that all the world's remaining elephants couldn't remember them all.

The Dead Room, BBC Four review - ghosts at the microphone

★★★★ THE DEAD ROOM, BBC FOUR Simon Callow shines in Mark Gatiss's supernatural tale

Simon Callow shines in Mark Gatiss's supernatural tale

Fired by the spirit of the MR James ghost stories which used to be a Christmas staple on the BBC, Mark Gatiss conceived this amusing bonne bouche as both a seasonal chiller and a nod to the ghost of broadcasting past. In passing, he also managed to shoehorn in a survey of changes in social and sexual mores which have occurred over the last 40 years.

Sir Cliff Richard: 60 Years in Public and in Private, ITV review - bachelor boy bounces back

★★★ SIR CLIFF RICHARD: 60 YEARS IN PUBLIC AND IN PRIVATE, ITV Bachelor boy bounces back

How the pop veteran weathered career-threatening accusations

It was when he was on holiday at his agreeable estate in the Algarve in August 2014 that Cliff Richard got a phone call telling him his Berkshire home was being raided by the South Yorkshire Police. It was the beginning of a four-year ordeal in which accusations of “historical sexual offences” threatened to crush the veteran entertainer, formerly believed to be indestructible.

The Ballads of Child Migration, St James's Church, Clerkenwell review - into the heart of darkness

★★★★★ THE BALLADS OF CHILD MIGRATION, ST JAMES'S CHURCH Into the heart of darkness

A chronicle of Britain's long and shameful history of child migration in a moving song cycle

What adjectives best describe a performance of The Ballads of Child Migration? None of those you’d normally expect to see applied to an evening of superlative music-making, for the song cycle chronicles the deprivations suffered by child migrants sent from Britain over the course of one hundred years. Mostly they were sent to Australia, poor children in need of a loving home and an education who were used as slave farm labour.

Wanderlust, BBC One review - an unflinching look at stale sex

★★★★ WANDERLUST, BBC ONE Strong cast, well-crafted script offer new take on marital infidelity

A strong cast and well-crafted script offer a new take on marital infidelity

What signals the end of a relationship? The loss of attraction? Infidelity? Or is it, as Wanderlust explores, something more innocuous? The opening episode of BBC One's latest show packed in enough domestic drama to sustain most series, but found its pressure points in unexpected places.

The League of Gentlemen Live Again!, Sunderland Empire review - going local for local people

★★★★ THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN! Going local for local people

Sketch group back on the road for the first time since 2005

When the League of Gentlemen – Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, plus non-performing writer Jeremy Dyson – reformed for an excellent series to update us on events in Royston Vasey (“portal to another world, or just a shit hole?”) for the BBC last year, they enjoyed it so much that they announced a tour for 2018, their first live show since late 2005.