TV and Radio

Laverne Cox: Trans people should not put their dreams on hold because of who they are

By Paris Lees - 11 August 11:24

The breakout star of Netflix's Orange is the New Black is a trans woman raised by a single mother in Alabama. She talks race, gender and politics with Paris Lees.

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When you think about BBC4, what comes to mind?

By Bim Adewunmi - 07 August 10:30

Everyone still needs a place to think.

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There's nothing more comforting than the sorrowful mysteries of carp or chub

By Antonia Quirke - 06 August 18:00

Fisherman's Blues on TalkSport: Keeping it reel.

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Will we miss the BBC4 biopic? Judging by Burton and Taylor, yes, I think we will

By Rachel Cooke - 06 August 17:45

Come on Tony Hall! Trim a few salaries from the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and you'll be a hero: it's that simple.

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Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi will be a Doctor of gravitas and steel

By Tom Phillips - 05 August 8:55

One of the joys of Doctor Who is that the actor isn’t limited by their human characteristics - Capaldi won’t have to play the Doctor as a 55-year-old man, because, you know, he isn’t.

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Peter Capaldi has been unveiled as the new Doctor. Photo: Rankin

Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi revealed as the new Doctor

By Caroline Crampton - 04 August 19:16

The name revealed on a special BBC1 announcement programme.

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Martin Amis: Why I had to quit the New Statesman

By Bithia Large - 31 July 10:00

The BBC's Meeting Myself Coming Back this week features the novelist Martin Amis, who remembers his days as Literary Editor at the New Statesman and explains why he had to leave.

5 Comments

In search of cricket on the BBC: shall I rend my garments now, or later?

By Rachel Cooke - 19 July 17:45

Howzat! Kerry Packer's War and Horizon: the Truth About Personality.

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In this week's New Statesman podcast

By Caroline Crampton - 19 July 16:33

Alien life, Conservative campaigning and hating on music festivals.

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This is what should be on a TV Studies degree curriculum

By Bim Adewunmi - 18 July 8:36

A swift jog through past the TV shows that laid the bedrock for the programmes we're enjoying today.

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Tanning Tales and Arthur in the Underworld on BBC Radio 4

By Antonia Quirke - 18 July 8:30

You know when you've been Tango'd.

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Am I a Luther convert? Yes. The plot might not stand up, but it's a cut above most cop series

By Rachel Cooke - 11 July 8:48

The show's garnered praise for Idris Elba's performance, but really its most important character is London.

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Glastonbury on the BBC Radio 1: Better off at home?

By Antonia Quirke - 11 July 8:35

Pyramid selling.

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BBC2's The Route Masters showed us the real London: not flat-out amazing, not all-the-way terrible

By Bim Adewunmi - 11 July 8:25

Who knows the city better than a night bus driver?

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David Dimbleby, presenter of Question Time. Photograph: BBC / Mentorn

Are women still getting short-changed on Question Time?

By James Evans - 10 July 14:34

A bit of number-crunching reveals on average in 2013, only two of the five panellists on Question Time were women. It's time for the BBC to be bold.

17 Comments

Saturday Edition on BBC Radio 5 Live: A complete waste of space

By Antonia Quirke - 04 July 11:19

The programme took a good three hours to tell us why commercial space travel has been nothing but a disappointment.

2 Comments

Two stars of the reality TV show Why am I Still Single?

Channel 4 reminds me of the Scandinavian fashion store Cos, by which I mean it used to be great and now really isn't

By Rachel Cooke - 04 July 9:00

Why Am I Still Single and Eye Spy is my evidence for this.

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The set for the finale of last year's Celebrity Big Brother. Photograph: Getty

It's finally acceptable to cast off the shackles of TV snobbery

By Bim Adewunmi - 27 June 12:11

Who knows, Bim Adewunmi might even give the next series Big Brother a go.

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John Lydon on BBC 6 Music: When he was bad, he was rotten

By Antonia Quirke - 27 June 8:53

Antonia Quirke's take on the stand-in presenter for Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service on BBC 6 Music.

1 Comment

The new Yorkist king rids off to war. Photograph: BBC

The White Queen on BBC1: A historical drama that's barely medieval at all

By Rachel Cooke - 27 June 8:49

Where are the lantern jaws and bowl haircuts, the suppurating pustules and the decaying teeth? Where is the dirt?

4 Comments

The Beach Boys' Al Jardine and Brian Johnston performing in 1966.

The Beach Boys Story on BBC 6 Music: Surfing the airwaves

By Antonia Quirke - 20 June 14:45

While there are those who will tell you that Pet Sounds is one of the most influential records of all time, the Beach Boys could be proper tedious.

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Gillian Anderson and her character's collection of silk blouses keep you hooked

The Returned and The Fall: Death warmed up

By Rachel Cooke - 20 June 14:31

A zombie thriller and a crime drama that ask you to suspend your disbelief.

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Rebecca Ferguson as Elizabeth Woodville in the BBC's "The White Queen"

The White Queen: romance, sex, magic, scowling, social snobbery and battles

By Amy Licence - 17 June 9:22

The BBC's new Sunday night drama set in the Wars of the Roses might not quite tick all historical boxes, but it's likely to become required Sunday night viewing.

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Why I can't stand Clare Balding

By Will Self - 14 June 10:16

Will Self's "Madness of Crowds" column.

31 Comments

Despite everything, television still has an extraordinary amount of power

By Bim Adewunmi - 14 June 10:12

The response to Nestlé featuring a mixed race family in an advert for Cheerios shows that the medium is still deeply conservative.

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The presenter Peter White. Photograph: BBC

Disability, a New History on Radio 4: We can't get enough

By Antonia Quirke - 13 June 10:35

We’ve hear diaries of the disabled from all centuries, discarded flyers for freak shows, letters between aristocrats disfigured by smallpox and grappling with wooden limbs, and an account of Samuel Pepys visiting a lady with a beard (“It was a strange sight to me, I confess. And pleased me mightily”).

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Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in "The Americans".

The Americans is Homeland without the hawks or the hysteria

By Rachel Cooke - 13 June 10:30

A thriller with a delicious setup - all credit to ITV for bagging it.

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Rebecca Front and Jessica Hynes in "Up the Women". Photograph: BBC

Modern feminists can learn a lot from Suffragette sitcom "Up the Women"

By Rhiannon and Holly - 12 June 11:15

Many of the questions faced by the women's movement today are played out in Jessica Hynes' new show. In a world where feminism still viewed by many women with distrust, wariness and even alarm, there's a lot we can learn from the ladies of the Banbury Intricate Craft Circle Frankly Demands Women’s Suffrage.

2 Comments

Sounds Natural on BBC Radio 4 Extra: A kind of Desert Island Animal Noises

By Antonia Quirke - 07 June 14:30

After Tweet of the Day, which is mainly about birds tweeting, comes Sounds Natural (26 May, 11am), which is mainly about natural sounds. BBC Radio 4 Extra pulled out an interview from 1972 with the Hammer Film actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994 but would have turned 100 this May, in which he requests his favourite things from the BBC’s natural history archive – a kind of Desert Island Animal Noises.

1 Comment