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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> Clive James, television critic
        
(Message started by: S J Birkill on Today at 00:07)

Title: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 00:07

Clive pre-rolls his new weekly TV column in the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8543073/How-I-fell-back-in-love-with-Television.html

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Rob Spence on Today at 08:04

That's good news. I'm hoping that the columns will be available online. Don't think I can bring myself to buy the Torygraph.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by dr_john on Today at 10:17

Me too; me neither. I have very fond memories of Clive's majestic TV columns in The Observer 1972-82.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Pete Atkin on 30.05.11 at 10:44

Oh, come on, guys. A well known saying including the words 'face', 'nose', 'spite', and 'cut' springs to mind. It has almost never been the case that the DT/ST's feature writers and critics have reflected in any way whatever the papers' supposed editorial worldview might be - very much the opposite in several notable instances, including, no doubt, the current one.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Rob Spence on 30.05.11 at 11:17

Blimey - told off by MV Deity! You are right, of course, Pete, and obviously Clive's being in the Telegraph won't mean he will suddenly adopt a Barclay Bros world view. I don't think either Dr John or I meant to imply that, just that the Telegraph is no longer the paper it was. I was never a fan, but could see that it was authoritative,and it had a good sports section. It's a shadow of its former self, but signing up Clive might be the start of a revival. I hope so.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Pete Atkin on 31.05.11 at 11:25

Don't take it too heavy, as Lionel Blue used to say. Maybe still does. The DT's not my journal of choice, either, but I do get the Saturday edition from time to time and I rarely end up feeling it was a waste, even without Clive in it.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Simon Reap on 31.05.11 at 12:08

I know one of the DT journalists - he tells me that the political views in the newsroom are far, far to the left of the stance adopted by the paper itself, and of its "unusual" brother owners.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 04.06.11 at 10:40

on 05/28/11 at 08:04:30[/size, Rob Spence wrote :

......... I'm hoping that the columns will be available online............

Today's is.......... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8552477/Clive-James-on...-Hugh-Laurie-and-The-Shadow-Line.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Rob Spence on 04.06.11 at 13:06

Indeed. Nice line about Christopher Eccleston: It even has a certain melancholy to it, like the tip of Christopher Ecclestone’s nose.
And possibly an MV in the comments, rather randomly quoting Sunlight Gate...

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 11.06.11 at 10:01

on 06/04/11 at 13:06:55, Rob Spence wrote :

Indeed. Nice line about Christopher Eccleston: ........

This week week Clive puts into print something that many of us of a certain age have ruefully observed, and that is that "during this entire long course of having his image transmitted, David McCallum has changed physically hardly at all (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8565968/Clive-James-on...-Rubicon-and-David-McCallum.html)"

http://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/gunshot.jpghttp://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/coldz70s2.jpg
http://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/camerashot.jpghttp://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/90%27shotpurple.jpg

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Rob Spence on 12.06.11 at 17:56

That's right. There must be a picture in the attic. Congrats on the 600th post, Kevin! Stout work, old chap!

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Carole on 12.06.11 at 19:51

By Gum! Hadn't spotted the 600th! Congrats from here too - above and beyond...

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Steve Bennett on 15.06.11 at 22:34

Well done Kevin on 600 plus,

to continue Robs theme, forget the proverbial picture in the attic, clive alludes to the ''perpetual picture in the box, in the corner of some room, somewhere and everywhere''

perhaps this is what keeps some people young, however having viewed a very early rawhide episode recently ( not through choice its all that was on Hospital TV... probably cheaper than sleeping tablets though), time has not been so kind to Clint Eastwood!

steve

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Keith Busby on 16.06.11 at 14:31

''perpetual picture in the box, in the corner of some room, somewhere and everywhere''.
Has all the timbre of T.S. Eliot.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 16.06.11 at 15:26

Is someone talking iPad and Netflix?

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 16.06.11 at 15:55

on 06/16/11 at 15:26:39, BogusTrumper wrote :

Is someone talking iPad and Netflix?

I'd like to think we are talking iPad (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/12/ts-eliot-waste-land-ipad-app), and not just because the reader there has worked with Pete in relatively recent times.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.06.11 at 08:24

on 05/28/11 at 08:04:30, Rob Spence wrote :

...... I'm hoping that the columns will be available online. ......

This week, the leading poetic hope of the whole planet earth meditates on Television's use of "the most beautiful adult female human being in the world" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8579790/Clive-James-on...-Springwatch-and-Kate-Humble.html).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.06.11 at 10:13

In a week in he which finds himself temporarily hospitalized, the critic takes as his main subject The Kennedys (BBC Two) and explains why the programme is "merely a cause for despair (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8594553/Clive-James-on...-The-Kennedys-and-Luther.html), not for writhing on the carpet with a melted spine and your brains running out of your ears."

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by dr_john on 28.06.11 at 13:02

"tin eye" is particularly fine.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.07.11 at 19:18

In this week's column, Clive reviews Beyonce's performance at Glastonbury Festival (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8611142/Clive-James-on-Glastonbury-and-Wimbledon.html) and suggests that it's got everything “except the kind of emotion we would get from Amy Winehouse if she were organized to cross the road successfully”.

At the end of his piece, he writes that he must face the fact that Wimbeldon (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8611142/Clive-James-on-Glastonbury-and-Wimbledon.html) "is not what it was. It’s gone sane”.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Gerry Smith on 02.07.11 at 13:43

Well, to each his own! Truly amazed to see such a resounding endorsement of this vacuous chanteuse!

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.07.11 at 17:02

In what is the centrepiece of this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8625862/Clive-James-on...-Stolen-Wimbledon-and-Margaret-Tyzack.html), Clive gets to the heart of what’s really happening to the BBC when it broadcasts, as it did on News at Ten, an obituary for the actress Margaret Tyzack which used an image of the actress Siân Phillips.

Quote:

.........The story of the Beeb now is that there are too many higher management layers concerned with nothing except the size of their salaries and they not only don’t set a tone of judgment and scruple, they don’t seem to know how..............

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.07.11 at 17:00

In the what I consider to be the best passages of this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8640083/Clive-James-on...-Newsnight-and-Rupert-Murdoch.html), Clive gives readers good reasons for watching 5USA’s Justified (“Justified would be a riveting creation even if it starred Steven Seagal, because it is just so brilliantly plotted and written”), explains why the the Yanks have confounded our expectations not mucking up the remake of the Danish thriller The Killing (Channel 4), and argues Alan Yentob’s "beautifully illustrated encounter on Imagine (BBC Two) with the Chinese genius Ai Weiwei” was the “documentary of the week, the year and possibly of Alan Yentob’s whole career”.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 23.07.11 at 15:34

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8652445/Review-how-TV-and-Twitter-mocked-the-Murdochs.html) wis written by The Telegraph's cultural critic Michael Deacon (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/michaeldeacon/), deputising for Clive who, the paper tells us, "is away".

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 29.07.11 at 16:19

The Telegraph’s TV and Radio features editor Michael Deacon (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/michael-deacon/) has written column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8670853/Review-A-tour-of-France-by-bike-boat-and-train.html) again this week.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.08.11 at 10:55

The Sunday Telegraph's TV John Preston (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/john-preston/) has written today's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8684880/Great-Thinkers-In-Their-Own-Words-BBC-Four-review.html).

As I sit here on the island of Malta, I cannot help thinking that Clive might have got more out of watching Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (Monday, BBC Four) than Preston does.

Quote:

By now it was clear that Great Thinkers (of which GTITOW is part) had fallen into that familiar telly trap of biting off far more than it could chew. While it’s true that television has never been a great chewing medium, a little light jaw movement, however cursory, does at least make viewers feel as if they’re not completely wasting their time.

Is it presumptious of me to suggest that Clive might have had a bash at suggesting at what it is programme makers must do to make people "as if they’re not completely wasting their time."

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 12.08.11 at 12:38

This week he's back in print with reviews (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8697412/Clive-James-on...-The-Proms-Wallander-and-The-Impressionists.html) of Elgar at the Proms (BBC Four), the Swedish detective drama Wallander(also BBC Four) and Waldemar Januszczak's The Impressionists(BBC Two).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.08.11 at 09:31

This week Clive contemplates (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8711685/Clive-James-on...-Matt-Damon-The-Impressionists-and-the-Hour.html) , among other things, actors “who look most human when performing impossible feats”.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Rob Spence on 20.08.11 at 11:16

on 08/20/11 at 09:31:42, Kevin Cryan wrote :

...and a potential Midnight Voice in the comments...

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 22.08.11 at 16:25

For some obscure reason all I get is a vast expanse of virgin white paper

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.08.11 at 17:04

That is odd. Try this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8711685/Clive-James-on...-Matt-Damon-The-Impressionists-and-the-Hour.html

Kevin

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 26.08.11 at 09:14

This week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8722723/Clive-James-on...-The-Man-Who-Crossed-Hitler-and-Inspector-Montalbano.html), Clive watched The Man Who Crossed Hitler(BBC2) and found much to admire in Ed Stoppard's performance as Hans Littenk, the baptized Jewish lawyer who, in 1931, brought Hitler into court in an effort to expose him as being less a man of peace than he was then pretending to be .

He also concludes that Luca Zingaretti, who stars in Inspector Montalbano(BBC4), is a fine "example of the most employable category of thespian law-men, the natural baldie".

Kevin Cryan

For Bogus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8722723/Clive-James-on...-The-Man-Who-Crossed-Hitler-and-Inspector-Montalbano.html

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 28.08.11 at 20:52

Ta

:D

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 02.09.11 at 18:49

In this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8737557/Clive-James-on-Page-Eight.html), Clive notes that if you scrambled the plots of the film Defence of the Realm (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089009/) and the TV series State of Play (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Play_(TV_serial))you would get Page Eight (BBC Two), and wonders whether or not we have seen the last of Bill Nighy as Page Eight’s hero Johnny Worricker.

Quote:

Fairly soon, I imagine, David Hare, under the pressure of this latest success, will have to contemplate the return of his suavely knackered hero. Who better to lead MI5 than the man who best knows its ins and outs?...... Arise, Sir Johnny Worricker.

Kevin Cryan

For Bogus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8737557/Clive-James-on-Page-Eight.html

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 02.09.11 at 21:12

The problem is, living in the U S of A, I don't follow 90% of what he is saying. But whatever he is saying, he says it beautifully

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 09.09.11 at 10:07

Clive's main contribution this week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8750481/Clive-James-on...-Dominic-West-in-Appropriate-Adult.html) deals with his viewing of part one of Appropriate Adult, ITV1's two-part drama about the serial killer Fred West. He does his readers areal service of addressing the central question that must have occurred to them while watching.

Quote:

we have to ask ourselves whether invading the memories of those whose lives were wrecked by the cheerful madman’s career can ever be worth it……

His conclusion:

Quote:

… If you believe that memories have to be invaded, or else the alternative will be a blanket of stupor covering a whole population as every sensitive issue is put under wraps, then here, in Neil McKay’s excellent Appropriate Adult (ITV1), was the way to invade them.

It was the conclusion I arrived at, but I cannot say that it's the conclusion I'm comfortable with.

Anyway, before Clve gets around to dealing with Appropriate Adult , he's revisited The Hour (BBC Two), and concluded that " everyone involved in the production had a tin ear", and seen repeats of Spiral (BBC Four), "back on the air with all the same atrocities that you have already seen once but somehow can’t help watching again" and The Killing (BBC Four), a programme he watches for very similar reason that he watches Spiral.

Quote:

In the case of either serial, the way the camera behaves is a crucial study. Shooting and editing add up to a language in itself.

Kevin Cryan

For Bogus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8750481/Clive-James-on...-Dominic-West-in-Appropriate-Adult.html

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 16.09.11 at 10:49

For this week's column, Clive reviews (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8766088/Clive-James-on...-Red-or-Black-Strictly-Come-Dancing-and-Appropriate-Adult.html) ITV1's "perfectly brainless" game show Red or Black? , points up the lessons to be learned from the return of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One), and has a few interesting remarks to make about the conclusion of Appropriate Adult, ITV1's drama about the serial killer Fred West.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 23.09.11 at 21:00

This week Clive explains why (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8785200/Clive-James-on-the-Jonathan-Ross-Show-and-Downton-Abbey.html) Jonathan Ross has lived up to expectations by being unembarrased by his move from BBC to ITV1, and argues that Downton Abbey(ITV1), now in its second series and set during WW1, has not lived up to expectations, especially the expectations of those of the viewer with a sense of history.

To wind up this week's piece, he offers at least one good reason for preferring the 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still(Film 4) the more recent version starring Keanu Reeves,

Yes, Clive, I too thought that Patricia Neal had what it took in oodles I can openly admit that my repeated viewings of Martin Ritt’s Hud are not always because I think it’s a good movie. It's certainly a good movie, but it's also a good movie in which the Neal gets the opportunity shine.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 30.09.11 at 11:55

This week, Clive, having spent a lot time in hospital where" a constant stream of television images was part of the life support" asks (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8796170/Clive-James-on...-Billy-Connollys-Route-66-Sandhurst-and-Downton-Abbey.html) how does a film "get quite as bad as Donovan’s Reef (FILM4), expressses great admiration for the "strangely wonderful" Anna and the King (Film4) - "I never saw a movie that was more beautiful from frame to frame in my life"- and reports that "of made-for-television things that I saw the whole of, Billy Connolly’s Route 66 (ITV1) was by miles the best"

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02012/bikeweb_2012600c.jpg
Billy Connolly aboard his 'powerfully motorised tricycle' on his ITV1 travelogue series, Billy Connolly's Route 66. Photo: ITV/Mark Atkinson

Quote:

A two-part “journey” number in the standard format by which the narrator follows a trail laid out for him by an advance research party, this was rich proof that old formats never die, they just wait patiently for exponents worthy of them. Billy is worthy. It’s not just that I love him, although anybody who has ever spent half an hour with him does. It’s that I admire the wealth of knowledge and appreciative taste he puts into his reactions, as if he were trying to communicate the exuberance of the whole of life along with the muted buzz of a single researched factoid, which might be something as dumb as a giant rocking chair…………….

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Douglas Fergus on 30.09.11 at 16:56

If you didn't catch last night's Billy Connolly's Route 66, check it out on BBC i-Player.
The scenes filmed at the rodeo of the 5-year olds riding sheep are absolutely hilarious.
Only in America........

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Douglas Fergus on 04.10.11 at 11:08

on 09/30/11 at 16:56:35, Douglas Fergus wrote :

Er, sorry.......it was broadcast on ITV :-[

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.10.11 at 09:17

This week The Telegraphs strapline (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8810423/Clive-James-on...-Grand-Designs-and-Dragons-Den.html) writer says that "Clive James reviews Kevin McCloud's Grand Designs (Channel 4) and Dragons' Den (BBC Two)" but fails draw readers' attention to the really interesting things to say about Teenage Kicks: the Search for Sophistication (BBC Four), a film about how those of who are "turning into old-timers" once were, and more especially about the luxury items we hankered after, thinking that they were what made us sophisticated.

Quote:

On BBC Four there was an especially good show called Teenage Kicks: the Search for Sophistication, produced by Lucy Kenwright, who has an eye for a mad visual moment and an ear for a sane person who might comment well. Her stable of commentators built up a picture of just how big a commitment a young man had to make to his hair when he wished to grease it without having washed it. The males remembered their own smell of sweat, although not as well as the females remembered it. Brut was a good name, evoking, as it did, a warthog wreaking its will.

But being female, even then, was a hard gig, as it always is. The brilliant journalist Zoe Williams did a short piece to camera that was almost an aria, so closely did it focus her despair at having been unable to cope with the requirements of her role. “I was just so uncool for so long,” she wailed, and Verdi could have set the rest to music, ending with a plunging theme as the victim dived nose-first from the castle wall into the courtyard.

Kevin Cryan

PS. This programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0126vdf) no longer available to watch again

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 14.10.11 at 09:32

At the very heart of this week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8821890/Clive-James-on...-TV-science-David-Croft-and-Strictly-Come-Dancing.html) is a well-timed reminder of what of what it is that makes The World at War (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+world+at+war&tag=googhydr-21&index=dvd&hvadid=5931141836&ref=pd_sl_4q7tsxucgw_e) (currently getting another re-run on Yesterday) a classic which even the voice-over of Laurence Olivier (" giving false line-readings all the way") cannot spoil.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 21.10.11 at 09:33

This week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8838521/Clive-James-on...-Comic-Strip-Presents...-The-Hunt-for-Tony-Blair-The-One-Show-The-Golden-Age-of-Coach-Travel-and-Faust..html) Clive screwed up more courage than I could muster to watch Comic Strip’s The Hunt for Tony Blair (Channel 4) before deciding that around the "shaky fulcrum … gave Jennifer Saunders the chance to enact scenes from Sunset Boulevard …deserts of unfunniness stretched far away". It's just possible that he watched because he did not see, or refused to be put off by, all the trailers which Channel 4 put out before the arrival of the main event. There was nothing funny in those either.

The Hunt for Tony Blair was probably one the worst thing he had to watch in the last seven days. It's not altogether clear whether or not he was watching The House of Eliott (ITV3) – the re-run of the third series ended last evening - but its presence on the small or not-so-small screens gives him the opportunity of reminding viewers like myself why it is we hopelessly hooked all over again.

Quote:

What an excellent series it still is, with two young stars vying for the camera, as in The Professionals, although without the pursed lips and the absurd big hair. When the show was new I liked both these women – the wavelets of Stella Gonet’s hair were practically audible as they collapsed on the white beach of her forehead – but I can’t deny now that my favourite was the fine-featured brunette Louise Lombard, largely because she guested on one of my End of the Year shows and the audience loved her crisp verve. She should have had a huge career here at home. Instead she chose to go to America, where they dyed her blonde and gave her a gun to hold while she disappeared into the echoing wastes of CSI-land.

Read on.... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8838521/Clive-James-on...-Comic-Strip-Presents...-The-Hunt-for-Tony-Blair-The-One-Show-The-Golden-Age-of-Coach-Travel-and-Faust..html)

Kevin Cryan

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3e/The_House_of_Eliott_title_card.jpg/250px-The_House_of_Eliott_title_card.jpg
The House of Eliott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Eliott) Wikipedia

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 28.10.11 at 17:22

It’s reassuring to read (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8855956/Clive-James-on...-Hidden-BBC-One.html) that Clive found Ronan Bennett’s three–part thriller Hidden (BBC1) as difficult to fathom as I did.

Quote:

There are suggestions that everything is connected to everything else, but one grows increasingly less certain that anything is connected even to a wall socket.

However his having more or less given up on trying to what was going on means that he's got time and space can say a lot of interesting things about tv acting, Robert Glenister’s in particular.

Quote:

But what the personable, sympathetic Glenister – quondam hero of the genuinely complex thriller Life on Mars, beside which this one is just a kit of parts spilled on the floor – must really guard himself against is a tendency to act with his mouth open, like Brian Cox.

The penalty for acting with the mouth open is that the public will deduce that the actor is posing, and may even have prepared in front of a mirror. You can imagine the mirror fogging up as the actor practises a key line about how the hidden forces on high tracked down the beautiful girl after he had taken her to a safe house through the riots in the streets. “I… don’t know.”

Read on..... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8855956/Clive-James-on...-Hidden-BBC-One.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 04.11.11 at 10:21

In this week's batch of reviews (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8867955/Clive-James-on...-Frozen-Planet-BBC-One-The-Impressions-Show-BBC-One-and-The-Slap-BBC-Four.html) he finds lots of nice things to say about Frozen Planet (Sir David Attenborough's latest series for BBC One) and admits that Australian friends were right to recommend their home-grown drama series The Slap, now showing on BBC4.

He also allows that BBC One's The Impressions Show is great deal better than he'd thought it would be.

Quote:

This current show could have been a bad formula, with nothing to appreciate except the fidelity of the mimics’ inflections and gestures, all cribbed from the original after deep study. But someone has ensured that the standard of writing is quite high: rather higher, in fact, than almost any other comedy show on the air at the moment. So there is wit to fall back on.

In his comments on the latest showing of the Agony & Ecstasy (BBC Four) devoted to the Wayne Eagling production of The Nutcracker, he shows why repeats are not necessarly bad things.

Quote:

The programme is infinitely rewatchable because there is something eternal and magnificent about Eagling’s restrained anger as, day after day during rehearsal, the basket full of characters is lowered to the stage but the balloon that is supposed to be holding it aloft fails to appear….

[bgcolor=Yellow]Read on... [/bgcolor] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8867955/Clive-James-on...-Frozen-Planet-BBC-One-The-Impressions-Show-BBC-One-and-The-Slap-BBC-Four.html)

Kevin Cryan

www.clivejames.com (http://www.clivejames.com/)

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 11.11.11 at 17:54

Here is this week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8881524/Clive-James-on...-Frozen-Planet-BBC-One-The-Culture-Show-BBC-Two-and-Imagine-BBC-One.html) which, for various reasons, I've not had time to read fully.

Actually, I should own up and say I have read just enough to know that what he finds annoying about Symphony (BBC Four) I have found so annoying that I've tempted more than to to hit the off button on my remote.

Quote:

in the first instalment of the big series you were lucky to hear half a minute of music before Mark Elder or Simon Russell Beale and sometimes both started gassing again.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 18.11.11 at 16:20

This week Clive finds reasons to be cheerful (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8899320/Clive-James-on...-Art-for-Heroes.html) about what he been watching on the box of late.

Quote:

Having been unwell lately, I naturally hope that television, which I see a lot of, can make me feel better. Often it does. For the afflicted, a lot of tender loving care shows up on the screen. It is hard not to suspect that Britain’s Fattest Man is being looked after with some impatience among his platoon of carers, but on the whole you can turn on the box and comfort yourself with a mass of evidence that the human race has a soul after all.

Nominally concerned with the arts, The Culture Show usually gets them in sideways while talking about something else. Last week’s edition, Art for Heroes (BBC Two), showed us the pictures that sufferers from post traumatic stress disorder paint while they’re getting better, or not. PTSD, as they call it, is a serious business and the suffering is likely to last, but the chance to paint a reaction to what is going on in your own head has been found to be beneficial. What’s going on, of course, is turmoil.

[bgcolor=Yellow]Read on......[/bgcolor] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8899320/Clive-James-on...-Art-for-Heroes.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 25.11.11 at 11:58

I'm too busy at the moment to read this week's offering (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8915117/Clive-James-on...-The-Billion-Dollar-Art-Heist-BBC-Four.html).

Kevin Cryan

I appear to be experience some difficulty with the link. If it does not right itself by the late afternoon, I'll have a go at getting it fixed.

KC

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Douglas Fergus on 25.11.11 at 16:04

Link seems to be working Kevin.

Good article this week; I can endorse "George Martin: Living in the Material World."
Still available to watch on BBC i-Player.
I always thought George's solo output was by far the best of the Beatles' post split; the quality of the material on All Things Must Pass shows what was left off the band's albums presumably at the behest of Lennon and McCartney.
CJ seems to like him anyway.

Douglas

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by dr_john on 28.11.11 at 09:27

(Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing a Martin Scorsese documentary about George Martin.)

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 02.12.11 at 10:18

I, like Clive (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8930190/Clive-James-on...-The-Leveson-Inquiry.htm), watched The Cassandra Crossing ( Film 4) this week. I cannot say for certain if I'd been scheduled for an eye operation –as Clive had been – I could have brought myself to watch it. Mind you, it is such an compellingly awful film that just thinking about it probably takes the mind off other things that that might be preying on it.

Quote:

There are episodes of badness in the movie – almost any scene involving Richard Harris and his pursed lips, for example – which should be enough to keep today’s young critics making the same mistake I did: they will think that because the thing is decaying, it will eventually disappear. But a big movie with lots of names in it – even if one of the names is OJ Simpson, not yet guilty of anything except a questionable choice of material – is hard to stop. It just goes rattling on forever towards the Cassandra Crossing, powered by the very thing that its tedious script looks dedicated to eliminating: the unexpected. And here, finally, as the train’s dummy carriages crash into the gorge, is my point.

Read on... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8930190/Clive-James-on...-The-Leveson-Inquiry.htm)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 02.12.11 at 14:27

on 12/02/11 at 10:18:19, Kevin Cryan wrote :

I, like Clive (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8930190/Clive-James-on...-The-Leveson-Inquiry.html), watched The Cassandra Crossing ( Film 4) this week. I cannot say for certain if I'd been scheduled for an eye operation –as Clive had been – I could have brought myself to watch it. Mind you, it is such an compellingly awful film that just thinking about it probably takes the mind off other things that that might be preying on it.

Read on... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8930190/Clive-James-on...-The-Leveson-Inquiry.html)

Kevin Cryan

I somehow managed to mess up in creating the link to Clive's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8930190/Clive-James-on...-the-cult-of-celebrity-Nothing-to-Declare-Sky-Living-Old-Jews-Telling-Jokes-BBC-Four-review.html). Sorry.

Here by way of compensation is the part -mentioned by Clive - in which the "train’s dummy carriages crash into the gorge" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHLpBNQ9a3g).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 16.12.11 at 09:26

Clive's column will be In tomorrow's print edition of The Telegraph:

Quote:

Clive James on... Strongmen, Strictly Come Dancing and other highlights

Clive James looks back at the TV highlights from 2011, including Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One, Rich Hall's Continental Drifters on BBC Four, Bobby Fischer: Genius and Madman on BBC Four, The Great British Property Scandal on Channel 4 and 100 Years of the Palladium on BBC Two.

or it's here today (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/8958626/Clive-James-on...-Strongmen-Strictly-Come-Dancing-and-other-highlights.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 23.12.11 at 09:29

In his latest bulletin (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culture-review-of-the-year/8947246/From-Frozen-Planet-to-Strictly-Come-Dancing-Clive-Jamess-TV-shows-of-2011.html) Clive tackles, among other things, the tricky question of how it is Scandinavian crime programmes could “be so dull and still make you watch”

Quote:

The conundrum first came to light last year, when Wallander got going. Three different actors including our own Kenneth Branagh played him at various times, but with due respect for Branagh’s eminence, it must be said that he doesn’t have what it takes to be that boring. Obviously he had prepared for the role by sleeping for a few nights on a bed of nails, but he still came up looking far too sprightly.

Read on... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culture-review-of-the-year/8947246/From-Frozen-Planet-to-Strictly-Come-Dancing-Clive-Jamess-TV-shows-of-2011.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on 23.12.11 at 11:54

Thanks are overdue to Kevin for keeping us informed, nay reminded, of Clive's ongoing published works, and providing links to the online versions. I expect few MVs are regular Telegraph readers, and we might easily overlook this weekly column which also serves as a barometer of Clive's fluctuating health. Please keep it up, Kevin.

As for Clive, we should all be reading his A Point Of View collection, despite its dodgy cover art (was he ever in the same room as that Neumann condenser microphone?) The postscripts alone are well worth the purchase price, even if the essays themselves remain familiar. We wish him good luck in maintaining the energy he needs to complete his current writing projects.

Steve

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 30.12.11 at 13:50

In this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8981242/Clive-James-on...-his-Christmas-TV-viewing.html) Clive mulls over a number of questions, not the least of which is whether the omnipresent Professor Brian Cox’s trick of speech is legitimate or not.

Quote:

“How can the same think be in different places?” It’s a regional think and therefore quite legitimate, but it always leaves me wonderink whether people who talk like that can hear themselves. Still, I imagine they’re wonderink the same think about me.

And then there is the question of when it may be legitmate – nay, advisable – to present as documentary something that is filmed under controlled conditions.

Quote:

Brian Cox has not so far run into the problem currently faced by Sir David Attenborough, where the production team cuts a corner and the front man has to take the rap. It was the week before Christmas, and all through the house people were talking about how, in the latest chapter of Frozen Planet (BBC One) those little polar bears were being looked after by their mother under the snow. And so they were, but the burrow wasn’t in the Arctic, it was in a Dutch zoo. Attenborough’s voice-over narrative just about allowed you to believe that he had not been as conniving as his production staff, but it was a close one. And it would have been so easy to say: “Meanwhile, in a Dutch zoo, a mother polar bear called Margarete is giving us a picture that would be impossible to obtain in the wild without great danger to our cameraman, Mick Bloggs.”
Sometimes you simply have to employ sleight of hand, or someone will get eaten. As Attenborough explained later when he got busy extricating himself from the hole his staff had dug for him, if you tried that trick in the wild the mother bear would kill either the cub or the cameraman.

And then of course there is the crucial question of Holly Valance’s looks

Quote:

As an ugly old person I shouldn’t preach on behalf of the beautiful young, but I can preach on behalf of Australia, and say that the answer to the question “Do they all look like that where she comes from?” is before your eyes in Home and Away, the imported Aussie show in which the screen is full of youngsters who, even in the midst of doing dope, look as if they stepped off Mount Olympus.

And finally therere is tha most puzzling of all big questions, the one about Barry Manilow and his face.

Quote:

So determined is he to stay the same as ever that he has done weird things with his face, which makes you wonder where it will fly to when the fastenings finally snap.

Full text here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8981242/Clive-James-on...-his-Christmas-TV-viewing.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.01.12 at 17:11

A lifetime spent studying the fictional detective informs most of what gets unto this week’s offering (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8997442/The-elementary-world-of-the-TV-detective.html). It’s worth reading carefully in full.

Many of the things he has being saying recently about crime fiction can be usefully viewed as footnotes to the emarkable essay he publisedf in the New Yorker on the sunject of crime fiction of a few years ago, Blood on the Borders (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/04/09/070409crbo_books_james). Check it out, as they say nowadays.

Kevin Cryan

http://www.newyorker.com/images/2007/04/09/p233/070409_r16086b_p233.jpg
Blood on the Borders (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/04/09/070409crbo_books_james). The New Yorker

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.01.12 at 20:26

In this week’s piece (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9013889/Clive-James-on...-Celebrity-Mastermind.html) Clive passes on some advice on how not to make a fool of oneself as a contestant on Mastermind (BBC One)

Quote:

In Mastermind you must choose a narrow subject or you run the risk of making a chump of yourself. Thus “Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory” is a good subject but “The British Navy at the time of Trafalgar” is a very dangerous one. With too wide a subject, you can sit there racking up no points while you drown in self-loathing, the word “Pass” escaping repeatedly from your lips like a despairing bubble.

Having watched A Renaissance Education (BBC Four), he comes to the same conclusion as most of us who watched it must have.

Quote:

Since Shakespeare was one of the system’s products it could scarcely have been a dead loss but you can’t help thinking we live in more civilised times after all.

His viewing of The Grammar School: a Secret History (BBC Four) and Mad and Bad: 60 Years of Science on TV (BBC Four) brings him face to face with some thoughts about the two Davids, Attenborough and Bellamy. who for a good part of the 6o years covered by Mad and Bad were - or appeared to many to be - almost all that there was of science on television.

Quote:

There can be no doubt that Attenborough is a saint but what we need now is a special channel for programmes he is not in, so those of us marked for death can get a rest from those unchanging features.

The absence of even a mention of David Bellamy during Mad and Bad prompts this question.

Quote:

Had he said the wrong thing about global warming, or was there some other reason for his having been erased from history like a member of the Politburo in a Soviet official photograph? Of this much one may be sure; if there is a section in a science programme about whacko presenters, and Bellamy is not in it, then something strange is going on.

This week’s piece in full (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9013889/Clive-James-on...-Celebrity-Mastermind.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.01.12 at 16:17

In the course of this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9027411/Clive-James-on...-Sherlock-Borgen-and-Public-Enemies.html) Clive explains why he thinks Endeavour (ITV1) “was a complete success right up to the moment when the plot collapsed into the usual tangle”, what it is about Sherlock (BBC One) that drives him up the wall and why his theory that Scandinavian drama plays well with us because we need to be soothed has had to be revised after watching the Danish political drama Borgen (BBC Four)

Quote:

There is nothing boring about Borgen as long as the camera stays close to the heroine, Birgitte Nyborg, a potential prime minister who incarnates liberalism, tolerance, and, indeed, sheer fun. Clearly her success will bring great tension to her family life but if anyone can sort things out, she can. The actress, Sidse Babett Knudsen, is so winning that it’s practically no contest.

Birgitte’s male opponents are nowhere, barging about in vain search of an answer to her sense of nuance. Unlike The Killing or Wallander, Borgen has no dead bodies that need explaining: the only corpse got that way from too much sex, which doesn’t sound like a bad way to go. But the intricacies of the exposition, and above all the range of emotion shown by Birgitte as she copes with the realities that tempt her to compromise, are so tightly argued by the narrative style that the result is the viewing equivalent of unputdownable. I saw the first four episodes twice each.

He’s come away from this week’s viewing with renewed respect for the House of Commons, Roy Jenkins and Michael Portillo. Who said that television was losing its power to shape some of our thinking? Not me, m’lud.

Kevin Cryan

Read full text... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9027411/Clive-James-on...-Sherlock-Borgen-and-Public-Enemies.html)

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 27.01.12 at 16:31

I can do no better than recommend the reading of this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9043824/Clive-James-on...-Above-Suspicion-Meades-on-France-and-Stargazing-Live.html) in full. It's vintage James - in other words its jam-packed with the kind of observations that made him a pleasure when he was television critic with The Observer and makes him a pleasure to read now that he seems to have settled for that role with Rhe Telegraph.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 03.02.12 at 19:53

I think that it’s not unreasable to suggest that if there were one programme that really did impress Clive this week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9059663/Clive-James-on...-the-Australian-Open-Final-Jonathan-Meades-on-France-Tracks-of-Empire-and-Sicily-Unpacked.html) it was Jonathan Meades on France (BBC Four)

Quote:

Experts are always on tap, but a wise presenter tries to do without them. I mustn’t bang on too often about Jonathan Meades on France (BBC Four), although it became evident that this would be a landmark series from the moment that Meades began to speak. Far from discussing French history with any experts on French history, Meades discusses the whole vast, intricately ramified subject with himself.

This self-sufficiency leaves him plenty of room to employ language at a high level: quite the most attractively written commentary I have heard on television in years, if you don't count Rich Hall, who can do it too, but with a less baroque vocabulary. As Meades dominates the shot like a close-up of an eloquent gargoyle that has broken loose from its cathedral, his dizzy powers of articulation remind you that the baroque, at its best, always had the Renaissance inside it: a discovery, not just a refinement.

“Concupiscent popes with chancels full of nephews.” Meades’s use of words is as kinky and eclectic as one of those French rooflines he is always warning us against, but underneath the floridity there are firmly held moral principles. Treating the subject of the French female professor of gender studies who started her career as a terrorist (score: killed four, maimed 40) he evoked her and those like her in a single sentence “There are countless instances of the scum rising to the top.”

The wonderful thing about Clive in this mode is that while telling the reader what is good about a particular piece of work he is also setting up in his readers' minds a set of criteria by which they will judge all future pieces of work of that kind. He is preaching without being preachy.

Kevin Cryan

Read on (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9059663/Clive-James-on...-the-Australian-Open-Final-Jonathan-Meades-on-France-Tracks-of-Empire-and-Sicily-Unpacked.html)

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 10.02.12 at 16:43

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9074337/Clive-James-on...-Call-the-Midwife-Terror-at-Sea-the-Sinking-of-the-Concordia-and-Climbing-Great-Buildings.html)

Kevin Cryan]

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.02.12 at 09:55

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9088121/Clive-James-on...-Inside-Men-Bomber-Boys-Climbing-Great-Buildings-and-Film-2012.html)

If, for some reason, you cannot read the whole thing, then I urge all who take the television documentary as a form seriously to read what he has to say about Bomber Boys (BBC One).

Quote:

A more than usually engaging documentary about the Second World War was Bomber Boys (BBC One), starring the actor Ewan McGregor, his ex-RAF jet pilot brother, and the last remaining Lancaster in Britain that can still fly. The gimmick of the show was that the brothers would find out what they needed to know before they went for a trip in the plane. In other words, they were on a Journey. It’s always a word to dread when used in connection with a documentary but this time it would have been all right except for a strange omission that set me furiously thinking about whether this kind of show is worthwhile at all if it can’t transmit the facts.

Throughout the programme, everyone spoke as if the Lancaster had been the RAF’s only type of four-engined bomber. A veteran German night fighter pilot mentioned the Halifax, but nobody explained what he was referring to. He was, in fact, referring to one of two other types, because as well as the Lancaster there were the Halifax and the Stirling. A lot of young men died in them, too, as well as in Lancasters.

Isn’t it a kind of blasphemy to leave facts like that out, in the name of simplicity? If the simplicity amounts to an untruth, what use is it? Anyone old enough would spot the fudge, but these programmes are surely made to educate the young, by saying what things were like. Most galling lapse of all, a single paragraph and a couple of photographs would have supplied the necessary information. But the boys were too busy being prepared for their Journey by being told what they already knew.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 22.02.12 at 23:48

Interesting to hear Clive praise The Singing Detective so highly, since most of his reviews of Dennis Potter's programs were decidedly mixed--which lead to the irony of Potter providing a ripely enthusiastic blurb for the collected edition of Clive's TV criticism. Perhaps Clive wrote some positive reviews that never made it into the book...

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.02.12 at 16:55

As I recall it, Clive very often expressed reservations about Potter, but then as I also recall it, this was at a time when many of the cultural critics were hell-bent making us believe that Potter was a genius of some standing. He - Potter - was good. but not that good. We needed someone who could spot the flaws and write them up. Xlive was the man.
-------------

In this week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9103218/Clive-James-on...-The-Diamond-Queen-Montalbano-The-World-Against-Apartheid-and-Putin-Russia-and-the-West.html), writing about Connie Field’s series The World Against Apartheid (BBC Four), Clive admits that in the past he had some reservations about handing power to the blacks.

Quote:

To prove that racism was a global thing, there were several appearances by the head of the International Olympic Committee, that condescending old bore Avery Brundage. I remember him well from the newsreels, but I can’t remember that my opinions were all that different from his. When young, I never thought the blacks had a chance; or that they should have one, in their current state of “development”. They would need time. I might have grown old in that opinion: the mind will play almost any trick to avoid facing the scale of the horror that was revealed at Sharpeville in 1960. One says “revealed” because the horror had been there for as long as white men had ruled the country: injustice, torture, the whole works.

When I first read that paragraph, I wondered why he had unflatteringly self-revealing as to admit that he was not always unswervingly “on the right side” of the race question. It took me a little time to realise that he couldn’t possibly write honestly about history, as he is here, without being honest about his own history. He may not always been "on the right side" on the "race question", but he is I'd suggest on the right side of the history question.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 02.03.12 at 19:52

The 350 or so words he Clive writes this week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9119190/Clive-James-on...-the-Academy-Awards-Homeland-Melvyn-Bragg-on-Class-and-Culture-Lucian-Freud-Painted-Life-and-Brit-Awards.html) about Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture (BBC Two) should be read over and over/ Here the lucky reader is faced with a critic who is not just satisfied with telling the reader what he thinks of a programme but who is suggesting ways in which the programme might develop and be viewed.

Quote:

Unchanged in his rugby-playing bohemian beauty, the presenter of Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture (BBC Two) is the personification of upward mobility. Surely the old class system must be over, if a boy from Wigton can make it all the way to the House of Lords.

To do Lord Bragg credit, he didn’t say anything as crude as that. In the first part of his new series he showed how the old stratification was shaken up as the working class extended its cultural expectations from brass bands to ballroom dancing and then to the cinema. For that last thing, the poet C Day Lewis had a famous line about the workers as they sat there in darkness: he said the darkness was “a fur you can afford.” Melvyn didn’t quote that but he quoted a lot of other literature, always to pointed effect. He really has read a lot of books. Heaven knows how he does it, on top of all the books he has written.

Hidden loosely under this familiarity of his with the cultural heritage was a subject that he will no doubt treat more fully later on: access to education was the decisive liberating element. As the 20th century went on, it became more and more tolerable to be in the working class or the middle class, but few people from those lower orders made it into the upper class without a grammar school education. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Labour Party, with its eye less on those who escaped upwards than on those who were left behind, shut the grammar schools down.

The grammar schools were the most striking manifestation of what Melvyn called “the will… to pull the working class up the ladder.” But now that the grammar schools are gone, we are left with the question of whether any comparably effective mechanism has taken their place. Millionaire rock stars will hob-nob with royalty at the Jubilee parties, but that isn’t quite the same as the mobility that could be achieved when those on the way up were taught to know what the toffs knew, and know it better.

It will be difficult for anybody who watches the later episodes Bragg’s excellent series not to have Clive’s thoughts on whether the demise of the grammar schools was a good or bad thing in mind. In that he has done the viewer the sevice of reminding him or her that tellevision viewing is an activity in whch he or she can very frutifully engage.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 09.03.12 at 16:18

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on... Upstairs Downstairs, Melvyn Bragg on Clive James on... Upstairs Downstairs, Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture, and Make Bradford British..
Clive James reviews his pick of the week's TV, including Upstairs Downstairs, Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture, and Channel 4's reality show Make Bradford British

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02155/bradford_2155803b.jpg
Rashid took part in Make Bradford British Photo Channel 4

In Upstairs, Downstairs (BBC One) Ed Stoppard makes a believable head of the grand household, but unfortunately he is not always in the grand household: he is in places like Munich, trying to stop Hitler. So a show that is mainly a lesson in sociology becomes a lesson in political history, where it is less sure-footed. Couldn’t we have heard from the fascinatingly sinister lady Persephone about just why she finds the Nazis so attractive?

The Nazis did quite a lot to break down the old class system in Germany. They also did quite a lot to introduce an era of unlimited terror, but until the day when nobody with eyes and ears could ignore their level of violence, they looked like a force for social mobility. Lady Persephone, clearly modelled on Unity Mitford, was probably impressed. There are always a few members of the upper orders ready to pledge allegiance to any force promising to drive a plough through the background that gave them their privileges.

Read on...., (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9133636/Clive-James-on...-Upstairs-Downstairs-Melvyn-Bragg-on-Class-and-Culture-and-Make-Bradford-British..html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 16.03.12 at 13:03

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on... White Heat, Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey, Horizon and Empire (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9147954/Clive-James-on...-White-Heat-Orbit-Earths-Extraordinary-Journey-Horizon-and-Empire.html)

Previously the title of a famous movie starring James Cagney, White Heat is currently the title of a new TV series on BBC Two, but in the course of not very much time the movie will probably get its title back, because the TV series, at first blush, looks pretty ordinary.

Forty or more years on, a bunch of quondam students are assembling at the London house they used to share. One of their number has died, but as yet we don’t know which. Once they were seven, now they are six. So The Big Chill meets The Return of the Secaucus Seven, with southern overtones of Our Friends in the North.

Not only does it taste like plot soup, one is soon on the alert to see if there is any standard plot that the writer, Paula Milne, has missed out: Bad Day at Black Rock? The casting of the younger selves is visually sumptuous but Sam Claflin, as the young toff rebelling against his background, rants on so exactly like Jimmy Porter that you can see John Osborne pulling his strings. We know that Claire Foy will one day turn into Juliet Stevenson but her younger self looks and behaves like the heroine of An Education.

In the first episode the strongest individual voice belonged to Roger Daltry, raving ….read on (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9147954/Clive-James-on...-White-Heat-Orbit-Earths-Extraordinary-Journey-Horizon-and-Empire.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 23.03.12 at 17:42

I am setting this link up in Zurich and using a keyboard that has been reconfigured. So the usual neatness has to go out the window..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9160284/Clive-James-on...-Frost-on-Interviews-White-Heat-A-Sentimental-Journey-Doris-Day-Dirk-Gently-and-Nothing-to-Declare.html

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 30.03.12 at 15:34

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9175699/Clive-James-on...-Titanic-University-Challenge-The-Tube-The-Secret-Life-of-a-Superpower-She-Wolves-The-Hidden-Life-of-Islam-and-Return-to-the-Falklands.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.04.12 at 10:19

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9189413/Clive-James-on...-The-Big-Spring-Clean-Homes-from-Hell-Titanic-Nothing-to-Declare-Homeland-and-Folk-at-the-BBC.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 13.04.12 at 20:58

I found this week's Telegraph column to be Clive's most entertaining yet. Though I had never expected Clive's Telegraph columns to match the pyrotechnics of his work for the Observer, they didn't read like Clive at full capacity, perhaps due to health issues. But that and Clive's work seem to be on the up-spring.

Incidentally, a new essay of Clive's has appeared in The Atlantic today, on one of his critical heroes, Dwight MacDonald. And it too represents Clive at full capacity. Read it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/style-is-the-man/8944/

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 14.04.12 at 15:36

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

This week’s column… . (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9200057/Clive-James-on...-The-Syndicate-Queen-of-Savannah-and-The-Doors-The-Story-of-LA-Women.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 26.04.12 at 01:49

I see Clive's column didn't appear this week. I hope the reason has nothing to do with ill-health or all the garbage the media has been printing about him recently.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 21.05.12 at 19:27

Clive's back!

"In my frail old age, my idea of a holiday from reviewing television is just to lie around and watch television, which I have been doing for the last four weeks, getting myself in shape to resume expressing the critical attitude appropriate to my advanced years, the unhurried overview..."
More at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9279804/Clive-James-on...-Homeland-The-Bridge-and-the-rest-of-his-holiday-viewing.html

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.05.12 at 09:06

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... Homeland, The Bridge and the rest of his holiday viewing

Clive James reviews Homeland, The Bridge, The Good Wife, Twenty Twelve and World Championship Snooker.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02225/TheBridge_2225525b.jpg
The Bridge: Sofia Helin as detective Saga in a drama which threatened cuteness from the start

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9279804/Clive-James-on...-Homeland-The-Bridge-and-the-rest-of-his-holiday-viewing.html)

Welcome back.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 22.05.12 at 14:20

I suddenly feel vindicated! One of my guilty pleasures has been watching The Good Wife. As Clive likes it I can now remove the "guilty" :D

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 25.05.12 at 10:28

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Diamond Jubilee Armed Forces Tribute, Lewis, Silk, Episodes and The Two Thousand Year Old Computer

Clive James on the current crop of courtroom dramas. Plus reviews of The Diamond Jubilee Armed Forces Tribute, The Bridge, Episodes and The Two Thousand Year Old Computer.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02229/silk-for-web_2229032b.jpg
Courtroom queen: Maxine Peake as QC Martha Costello in the BBC One legal drama Silk Photo: BBC

A second column for the week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9287372/Clive-James-on...-The-Diamond-Jubilee-Armed-Forces-Tribute-Lewis-Silk-Episodes-and-The-Two-Thousand-Year-Old-Computer.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.06.12 at 08:03

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on... Harlots, Housewives and Heroines, Eurovision and The Fall of Singapore: the Great Betrayal
Clive James looks back at last week's television, including Lucy Worsley's new BBC Four history series Harlots, Housewives and Heroines.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02233/harlotweb_2233495b.jpg
Dr Lucy Worsley riding side saddle at Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire Photo: BBC, Photographer: Sam Mitchell

And it's all to be found right here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9298206/Clive-James-on...-Harlots-Housewives-and-Heroines-Eurovision-and-The-Fall-of-Singapore-the-Great-Betrayal.html).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.06.12 at 20:05

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
An amazing parade the rain couldn’t ruin

Clive James on last week's television, including coverage of the Jubilee Weekend, and BBC One's documentary series on Chatsworth

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02241/jubileecrowd_2241453b.jpg

Long to rain over them: but the downpour did little to dampen the Jubilee spirit of the London crowds Photo: Getty Images

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9316153/An-amazing-parade-the-rain-couldnt-ruin.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.06.12 at 13:31

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... the French Open, the Jubilee Pagaent, America this Week, The Elgin Marbles and Romancing the Stone
Clive James on last week's television, including the French Open on ITV4, and the BBC's coverage of the Jubilee Pagaent.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02249/federer_2249180b.jpg
Feet of clay: Roger Federer lost to Novak Djokovic at the French Open, but were his socks to blame? Photo: Getty

This week’s offering (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9333471/Clive-James-on...-the-French-Open-the-Jubilee-Pagaent-America-this-Week-The-Elgin-Marbles-and-Romancing-the-Stone.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.06.12 at 21:39

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Secret History of our Streets, The Men Who Made Us Fat and Silk
Clive James looks back at last week's television, including Jacques Peretti's The Men Who Made Us Fat. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02254/new-fat_2254932b.jpg
The Men Who Made Us Fat by Jacques Peretti

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9346685/Clive-James-on...-The-Secret-History-of-our-Streets-The-Men-Who-Made-Us-Fat-and-Silk.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.07.12 at 11:27

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... Euro 2012, You Cannot Be Serious!, Shakespeare Unlocked, Shakespeare's Women and Elegance and Decadence: the Age of Regency

Clive James on last week's television, including Shakespeare Unlocked, You Cannot Be Serious! and the TV coverage of Euro 2012.
.http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02264/schamabard_2264654b.jpg ‘Voice of maturity’: Simon Schama was the ideal presenter of BBC Two’s Shakespeare Unlocked Photo: BBC

This column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9369809/Clive-James-on...-Euro-2012-You-Cannot-Be-Serious-Shakespeare-Unlocked-Shakespeares-Women-and-Elegance-and-Decadence-the-Age-of-Regency.html) was published late for reasons which Clive elplains, and posted late because I was incapacitated for a few days earlier this week.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.07.12 at 19:59

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Shakespeare, Ethan Hawke on Macbeth, The Strange Case of the Law, The Secret History of Our Streets, The House the 50s Built
Clive James on last week's television, including Wimbledon and The Hollow Crown.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02268/Sharapova_2268428b.jpg

Wimbledon 2012: Maria Sharapova Photo: Paul Childs

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9378780/Clive-James-on-Wimbledon-The-Hollow-Crown-Richard-II-Simon-Schamas-Shakespeare-Ethan-Hawke-on-Macbeth-The-Strange-Case-of-the-Law-The-Secret-History-of-Our-Streets-The-House-the-50s-Built.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.07.12 at 10:04

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... the British Grand Prix, Wimbledon, 7/7: One Day in London, Line of Duty, Wallander, India's Hospital Train, Romancing the Stone, The Culture Show and Henry IV Part I
Clive James on last week's television, including 7/7: One Day in London and India's Hospital Train.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02275/lineofdutyweb_2275878b.jpg
Femme fatale: Gina McKee stars as Jacqui Laverty in the BBC Two thriller 'Line of Duty’ Photo: BBC/World Productions

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/9397489/Clive-James-on...-the-British-Grand-Prix-Wimbledon-77-One-Day-in-London-Line-of-Duty-Wallander-Indias-Hospital-Train-Romancing-the-Stone-The-Culture-Show-and-Henry-IV-Part-I.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.07.12 at 07:48

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on Twenty Twelve: the funniest ensemble since Dad's Army

Clive James reviews The Newsroom on Sky Atlantic, America This Week on BBC Parliament, Henry IV Part II, Twenty Twelve and Engineering Giants on BBC Two, and Wallander on BBC One

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02282/twentytwelveforweb_2282016a.jpg
Twenty Twelve, BBC Two: Hugh Bonneville's Head of the Olympic Deliverance Committe Ian Fletcher is flanked by, l to r, Jessica Hynes as Head of Brand Siobhan Sharpe, Vincent Franklin as Nick Jowett, Head of Contracts, Karl Theobald as Graham Hitchins, Head of Infrastructure, Samuel Barnett as Daniel Stroud, PA, Amelia Bullmore as Kay Hope, Head of Sustainability and Morven Christie as Fi Healey, Head of Legacy.

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9413027/Clive-James-on-Twenty-Twelve-the-funniest-ensemble-since-Dads-Army.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 27.07.12 at 12:10

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Hollow Crown: Henry V, Shakespeare Uncovered, the British Open Championship, The Toilet: an Unspoken History, Can Anyone Beat Bolt?, Britain Through a Lens

Clive James on last week's television, including The Hollow Crown and Can Anyone Beat Bolt?.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02290/HenryV_2290008b.jpg
Rising star: Tom Hiddleston as Henry V in the close of BBC Two’s 'Hollow Crown’ season Photo: Nick Briggs

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9431830/Clive-James-on...-The-Hollow-Crown-Henry-V-Shakespeare-Uncovered-the-British-Open-Championship-The-Toilet-an-Unspoken-History-Can-Anyone-Beat-Bolt-Britain-Through-a-Lens.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.08.12 at 14:35

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on... the London 2012 opening ceremony and the BBC coverage

Clive James on last week's television, including the BBC's coverage of the London 2012 Olympics.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02291/Olympic-Rings_2291063b.jpg
The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics Photo: AP

What he thinks of the BBC's coverage of the London 2012 Olympics so far. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9440944/Clive-James-on...-the-London-2012-opening-ceremony-and-the-BBC-coverage.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 02.08.12 at 20:43

the show started with a pastoral scene which would have made you worry about the threat of morris dancing if the Industrial Revolution hadn’t taken over.

:D

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 09.08.12 at 20:32

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on... week two of the BBC coverage of London 2012 Olympics
Clive James on last week's television, including the BBC's coverage of the second week of London 2012 Olympics.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02301/ennis_2301531b.jpg
Games face: Jessica Ennis proudly flies the flag for Great Britain Photo: REUTERS

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9465195/Clive-James-on...-week-two-of-the-BBC-coverage-of-London-2012-Olympics.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.08.12 at 15:30

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... the end of London 2012 and the Olympics closing ceremony

Clive James rounds up the Olympic coverage and says London 2012 reunited a nation.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02311/Ben_Ainslie_2311515b.jpg
Ruling the waves: Ben Ainslie celebrates his fourth Olympic gold medal off the coast of Weymouth.

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9479177/Clive-James-on...-the-end-of-London-2012-and-the-Olympics-closing-ceremony.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.08.12 at 15:33

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... Amish: A Secret Life, Accused and The Dark: Nature's Night-time World

Clive James reviews his pick of the week's TV, including Amish: A Secret Life, Accused and The Dark: Nature's Night-time World

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02106/seanbean_2106895b.jpg
Sean Bean playing the part of school teacher, Simon Gaskell, seen here as Simon's alter ego, Tracie Tremarco, during the making of BBC1's courtroom drama Accused. Photo: PA

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9497032/Clive-James-on...-Amish-A-Secret-Life-Accused-and-The-Dark-Natures-Night-time-World.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 31.08.12 at 20:19

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... Parade's End, Britain’s Hidden Heritage and A History of Art in Three Colours

Clive James reviews his pick of the week's TV, including Parade's End, Britain’s Hidden Heritage and A History of Art in Three Colours

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02322/rebeccaweb_2322524b.jpg
Serial adulterer: Rebecca Hall plays Sylvia Tietjens in Parade’s End, Tom Stoppard’s enigmatic new period drama on BBC Two Photo: BBC This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9505880/Clive-James-on...-Parades-End-Britains-Hidden-Heritage-and-A-History-of-Art-in-Three-Colours.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.09.12 at 10:53

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... the Paralympics, Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies, Horizon: How Big is the Universe?, the Republican Party Convention and Natural World

Clive James on the week's TV including the Paralympics and Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02329/highjumpweb_2329674b.jpgVaulting ambition: Poland’s Lukasz Mamczarz competes in the men’s final of the F42 High Jump in the Olympic Stadium. Photo: Action Images

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9522502/Clive-James-on...-the-Paralympics-Jet-When-Britain-Ruled-the-Skies-Horizon-How-Big-is-the-Universe-the-Republican-Party-Convention-and-Natural-World.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.09.12 at 08:56

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Last Leg, Parade's End, The Culture Show, Darwin’s Struggle: the Evolution of the Origin of the Species, Treasures of Ancient Rome and Dallas

Clive James on the week's TV including The Last Leg and Darwin’s Struggle: the Evolution of the Origin of the Species

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02337/bugsweb_2337905b.jpg
Beetle-mania: Darwin’s lifelong study of insects was explored in The Evolution of the Origin of the Species on BBC Four Photo: Alamy

This weeks column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9539342/Clive-James-on...-The-Last-Leg-Parades-End-The-Culture-Show-Darwins-Struggle-the-Evolution-of-the-Origin-of-the-Species-Treasures-of-Ancient-Rome-and-Dallas.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.09.12 at 08:55

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Thick of It, Parade’s End, Leaving, Citizen Khan, Dallas, The Bletchley Circle and Downton Abbey

Clive James on the week's TV including Parade's End, Leaving and Dallas
______________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02344/dallasweb_2344732b.jpg Timeless entertainment: JR (Larry Hagman) and his son John Ross (Josh Henderson) in the new Dallas on Channel 5 Photo: Rex Features

This weeks column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9553729/Clive-James-on...-The-Thick-of-It-Parades-End-Leaving-Citizen-Khan-Dallas-The-Bletchley-Circle-and-Downton-Abbey.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 28.09.12 at 13:31

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on Parade’s End, The Thick of It, Love and Marriage: a 20th Century Romance, Vikings, Masters of Money, The Bletchley Circle, Horizon and The Three Rocketeers

Clive James on the week's TV including the final episode of Parade's End and The Bletchley Circle.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02351/paradesendweb_2351311b.jpg Power of three: Benedict Cumberbatch, Adelaide Clemens and Rebecca Hall in the climactic confrontation in Parade’s End Photo: BBC

This weeks column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9567809/Clive-James-on-Parades-End-The-Thick-of-It-Love-and-Marriage-a-20th-Century-Romance-Vikings-Masters-of-Money-The-Bletchley-Circle-Horizon-and-The-Three-Rocketeers.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.10.12 at 09:04

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on Room at the Top, The Culture Show, Servants: the True Story of Life Below Stairs, The Paradise and Inspector Montalbano

Clive James gives his verdict on the past week's TV including Room at the Top (BBC Four), The Culture Show (BBC Two), Servants: the True Story of Life Below Stairs (BBC Two), The Paradise (BBC One) and Inspector Montalbano (BBC Four).
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02361/Clive_james_room_a_2361629b.jpg Room at the Top: Matthew McNulty and Maxine Peake starred in BBC Four’s faithful retelling of John Braine’s 1957 novel.Photo: BBC

This weeks column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9590757/Clive-James-on-Room-at-the-Top-The-Culture-Show-Servants-the-True-Story-of-Life-Below-Stairs-The-Paradise-and-Inspector-Montalbano.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on 08.10.12 at 01:03

Have just watched the final episode of Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, and noticed more than one occurrence of the phrase "No more parades", which is also the title of the second volume of FMF's tetralogy. Surely Clive is referencing this in the song Payday Evening (http://www.peteatkin.com/d12.htm), from which our forum also draws its name?

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.10.12 at 15:33

on 10/08/12 at 01:03:43, S J Birkill wrote :

Here is a piece (http://www.clivejames.com/pieces/metropolitan/madox-ford) which suggests that Clive in all probability had read much of Ford Madox Ford's output by the time he wrote the song.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.10.12 at 15:59

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on Hunted, Homeland Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip, Health Before the NHS, Panorama and the Best Possible Taste has yet to appear on The Telegraph's website.

Those of you who depend on the link provided here for your weekly "fix" of Clive should take the precaution of getting a print copy of said paper from you nearest newsagent.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.10.12 at 14:58

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on.... Inspector Montalbano, Good Cop, Homeland, and Servants

Clive James reviews the week's television, including Inspector Montalbano and Homeland.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02371/goddcopweb_2371906b.jpg Justice with a gun: Warren Brown stars as the ‘handsomely earthy’ PC John Paul Rocksavage in Good Cop on BBC One Photo: BBC

This weeks column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9615858/Clive-James-on....-Inspector-Montalbano-Good-Cop-Homeland-and-Servants.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 19.10.12 at 18:52

on 10/13/12 at 15:59:26, Kevin Cryan wrote :

Clive James on Hunted, Homeland Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip, Health Before the NHS, Panorama and the Best Possible Taste has yet to appear on The Telegraph's website.
Those of you who depend on the link provided here for your weekly "fix" of Clive should take the precaution of getting a print copy of said paper from you nearest newsagent.

The Telegraph seems to have had a brain fart and still hasn't remembered to upload Clive's column from last week, despite having posted this week's. Since some of us live outside the UK and would have a hard time tracking down old editions, could some kind Samaritan scan and post the missing column here?
But if no one can, no worries--I'm sure the column will appear in Clive's next essay collection.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.10.12 at 20:15

on 10/19/12 at 18:52:41, Revelator wrote :

Clive James on Hunted, Homeland, Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip, Health Before the NHS, Panorama, Masters of Money, Best Possible Taste, Strictly Come Dancing

Clive James on the week's TV including the start of the second series of Homeland and the return of Strictly Come Dancing.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02361/claire_danes_homel_2361415b.jpg Made in Beirut: Claire Danes stars as CIA agent Carrie Mathison in Channel 4's epsionage drama Homeland Photo:Channel 4

Last week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9621543/Clive-James-on-Hunted-Homeland-Ian-Hislops-Stiff-Upper-Lip-Health-Before-the-NHS-Panorama-Masters-of-Money-Best-Possible-Taste-Strictly-Come-Dancing.html) has finally been posted.

Kevin Cryan

PS. I failed to notice until no that an apostrophe has gone walkabout for few weeks. It has now been restored to its proper place.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.11.12 at 10:57

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... The Thick of It, Miranda and Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including The Thick of It and Miranda.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02378/malcolmweb_2378099b.jpg
In the thick of it: a judicial inquiry puts demonic spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) on the spot in the BBC comedy Photo: BBC

Last week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/9631358/Clive-James-on...-The-Thick-of-It-Miranda-and-Ian-Hislops-Stiff-Upper-Lip.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.11.12 at 11:15

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg
Clive James on Brad Pitt's Chanel No5 commercial

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Brad Pitt's atrocious Chanel commercial.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02384/bradweb_2384713b.jpg
Scent and sensibility: Brad Pitt’s upiquitous TV commercial for Chanel No5 is a ‘compressed crash-course in how to ham it up’

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9646375/Clive-James-on-Brad-Pitts-Chanel-No5-commercial.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.11.12 at 12:28

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV, including Brazil with Michael Palin

Clive James reviews the pick of the week's TV, and finds Michael Palin's travelogue about Brazil out of date.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02391/palin2web_2391321b.jpgLord of the dance: the intrepid Michael Palin enjoys a tribal display as he explores Brazil for his new BBC One travelogue Photo: BBC/Prominent Productions/Basil Pao.

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9661230/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-including-Brazil-with-Michael-Palin.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 16.11.12 at 08:31

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV, including the BBC's US Election coverage, Exposure and The Sunday Politics

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including BBC One's coverage of the US Presidential Election.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02398/dimblebyweb_2398904b.jpg
‘A masterly hand’: Amid crisis at the BBC, David Dimbleby covered the US elections and Remembrance Sunday with aplomb Photo: BBC

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9678867/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-including-the-BBCs-US-Election-coverage-Exposure-and-The-Sunday-Politics.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.11.12 at 09:14

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: Attenborough's Ark, Chateau Chunder, The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler

Clive James gives his verdict on the week's TV including BBC Two's Attenborough's Ark and Chateau Chunder: When Australian Wine Changed the World.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02405/quollweb_2405369b.jpg
Poor, tiny, spotted, mouse-like cuddlekins: David Attenborough argued for the preservation of the quoll in Attenborough's Ark. Photo: Jean Paul Ferrero/ARDEA

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9693470/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-Attenboroughs-Ark-Chateau-Chunder-The-Dark-Charisma-of-Adolf-Hitler.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 30.11.12 at 08:14

Clive James on the week's TV, including Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild, The Hour and The Killing

Clive James reviews the week's TV, celebrating David Attenborough and relishing series two of The Hour.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02411/hourweb_2411198b.jpg
Dangerous liaison: news anchorman Hector Madden (Dominic West) cosies up to Kiki (Hannah Tointon), a showgirl, in The Hour Photo: BBC/Kudos

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9706353/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-including-Attenborough-60-Years-in-the-Wild-The-Hour-and-The-Killing.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.12.12 at 10:10

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: Crossfire Hurricane, Charlie Is My Darling and The Dark Ages: An Age of Light

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including two documentaries celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02419/stonesweb_2419393b.jpgTime is on their side: the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones was celebrated with a slew of documentaries on BBC Two Photo: Hulton Archive

This week's column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9725172/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-Crossfire-Hurricane-Charlie-Is-My-Darling-and-The-Dark-Ages-An-Age-of-Light.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.12.12 at 07:10

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

TV in 2012: Clive James picks out the year's best television

The Telegraph's TV critic Clive James charts the decline of Homeland and Downton Abbey, and salutes the achievements of Miranda Hart, Rich Hall and Twenty Twelve.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02428/TwentyTwelve1_2428258b.jpg]
Race against the clock: Jessica Hynes and Hugh Bonneville in the BBC's Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve.

The end of year report. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9745913/TV-in-2012-Clive-James-picks-out-the-years-best-television.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 21.12.12 at 14:28

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James: 'I want to strangle Bruno Tonioli'

Clive James looks forward to the climax of Strictly Come Dancing.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01786/bruno-tonioli_1786817b.jpg Bruno Tonioli, one of the panel of judges on Strictly Come Dancing

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/strictly-come-dancing/9758734/Clive-James-I-want-to-strangle-Bruno-Tonioli.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 04.01.13 at 08:53

Clive James on TV: Downton Abbey, Restless and The Girl

Clive James reviews the Christmas TV highlights, including Downton Abbey's festive offering and William Boyd's spy thriller Restless.
__________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02441/downtonweb_2441150b.jpg
Pulling ahead of his time: Branson (Allen Leech, c) was given the anachronistic phrase “learning curve” in ‘Downton Abbey’

The beginning of year report. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9776263/Clive-James-on-TV-Downton-Abbey-Restless-and-The-Girl.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 11.01.13 at 15:11

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on TV: Queen Victoria’s Children, Borgen and Africa.

Clive James on this week's TV, including Queen Victoria’s Children, Climbed Every Mountain, Borgen and Africa.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02447/vicweb_2447608b.jpg The original V and A: Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and family in 1846, painted by Franz Xavier Winterhalter Photo: Bridgeman Art Library

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/9791761/Clive-James-on-TV-Queen-Victorias-Children-Borgen-and-Africa..html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.01.13 at 15:32

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on TV: University Challenge, Tankies, The Battle for Malta, Time Shift, Metroland and Borgen

Clive James on this week's TV, including University Challenge, Tankies and Borgen.
__________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02453/louisweb_2453551b.jpg
Starter for 10: University Challenge contestants failed to identify Louis MacNeice Photo: Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9806573/Clive-James-on-TV-University-Challenge-Tankies-The-Battle-for-Malta-Time-Shift-Metroland-and-Borgen.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 25.01.13 at 20:36

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on TV: Borgen, Funny Business and The French Riviera: A History in Pictures.

Clive James on this week's TV, including Borgen and Funny Business.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02459/RichEGrantFrance_2459082b.jpg Nice to see you, too see you...: Richard E Grant presented a 'visually delectable' history of the French Riviera on BBC Four Photo: BBC/Mhairi Anderson

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9819150/Clive-James-on-TV-Borgen-Funny-Business-and-The-French-Riviera-A-History-in-Pictures.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 31.01.13 at 19:30

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Why Clive James can't tear himself away from Splash!

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Tom Daley's celebrity diving show Splash!
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02466/tomdaleyweb_2466628b.jpg Olympian Tom Daley teaches celebrities to dive in ITV’s Splash! Photo: GETTY

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9837900/Why-Clive-James-cant-tear-himself-away-from-Splash.html)

Kevin Cryan.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 09.02.13 at 10:09

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James: Climate sceptics care about the planet too

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Professor Brian Cox's Wonders of Life.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02475/brian_cox_2475438b.jpg Wonders of Life: Professor Brian Cox rubs shoulders with a robber crab on Christmas Island in his BBC Two science series.

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9858868/Clive-James-Climate-sceptics-care-about-the-planet-too.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 12.02.13 at 17:06

And now the Telegraph seems to have gone subscription :(

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.02.13 at 09:44

It has had a limited paywall since November 2012.

Quote:

The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/01/telegraph-paywall)
Josh Halliday
Thursday 1 November 2012 12.34 GMT

The Telegraph Website (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) has launched its long-awaited digital paywall with a metered system, charging non-UK users £1.99 a month to visit the site after 20 free page views.

Telegraph.co.uk is moving to a metered paywall model similar to the New York Times on Thursday after years of planning. The new payment system was introduced at 12.00 GMT according to an internal email seen by MediaGuardian.....

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by BogusTrumper on 13.02.13 at 15:47

So I will be OK if I only read Clive every week :D

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.02.13 at 18:50

You will certainly be all right with that (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/9647772/Telegraph.co.uk-launches-subscription-packages-for-international-audience.html).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.02.13 at 14:04

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James: Princes, prejudice and all that jazz

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Richard III: the King in the Car Park and Dancing on the Edge.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02479/edgeweb_2479990b.jpg
Beautiful: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Janet Montgomery in Stephen Poliakoff’s jazz-inspired ‘Dancing on the Edge’

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/9868162/Clive-James-Princes-prejudice-and-all-that-jazz.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.02.13 at 15:17

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: Africa, Nashville and Spiral

Clive James gives his verdict on the week's TV including Africa and Nashville.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02487/attenboroughweb_2487085b.jpg Blunder: in the final episode of ‘Africa’ David Attenborough offered an ‘absurd’ figure about climate change. Photo: BBC/David Chancellor

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9882826/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-Africa-Nashville-and-Spiral.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.03.13 at 08:56

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: The Good Wife, Dancing on the Edge, Complicit

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including The Good Wife, Dancing on the Edge, Complicit.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02494/penguinsweb_2494560b.jpg
Beyond cute: baby penguins from BBC Two’s disguised-camera documentary series ‘Penguins – Spy in the Huddle’ Photo: John Downer Productions

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9898051/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-The-Good-Wife-Dancing-on-the-Edge-Complicit.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.03.13 at 19:44

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: Mayday, Spiral, Black Mirror

Clive James gives his verdict on the week's television, including Mayday, Dusty Springfield at the BBC and Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02503/mayday_2503344b.jpg Sophie Okenedo and Hannah Jean-Baptiste star in Mayda Photo: BBC
This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/9915736/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-Mayday-Spiral-Black-Mirror.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 14.03.13 at 09:53

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James: why Broadchurch trumped Mayday

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Broadchurch, Story of Music and Dallas.

____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02508/churchweb_2508565b.jpgDavid Tennant and Olivia Colman in ITV drama Broadchurch.

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9928038/Clive-James-why-Broadchurch-trumped-Mayday.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.03.13 at 16:06

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on the week's TV: Is Parks and Recreation the new Twenty Twelve?

Clive James gives his verdict on the week's television, including Parks and Recreation and Ford’s Dagenham Dream on BBC Four and Red Nose Day.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02517/parks-and-rec_2517509b.jpg Armed with gags: Amy Poehler, front, stars as the irrepressible Leslie Knope in the BBC Four comedy Parks and Recreation

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9948596/Clive-James-on-the-weeks-TV-Is-Parks-and-Recreation-the-new-Twenty-Twelve.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 27.03.13 at 10:00

on 02/13/13 at 15:47:43, BogusTrumper wrote :

So I will be OK if I only read Clive every week :D

It looks like we'll all be in the same boat very soon.

The Telegraph: subscribe to Britain's finest journalism

Telegraph Media Group, the publisher of Telegraph.co.uk, is extending its successful international web subscription model to UK readers.

5:05PM GMT 26 Mar 2013

Since The Daily Telegraph's creation in 1855, our newspaper has aimed to bring readers Britain's finest journalism. We were the first national UK newspaper to go online in 1994 and our commitment to bringing you the best writers has not changed. A record global audience, exceeding 60 million a month, is enjoying our award-winning website.

The Daily Telegraph continues to have more subscribers than any British national newspaper. We are proud of that fact, and we want to reward our loyal subscribers. So from today, we will be extending our successful international web subscription model to UK readers. Here's how it will work:

• Newspaper subscribers will have unlimited access to our website, in addition to our tablet editions and smartphone apps, at no additional charge.

• Subscribers to our tablet editions also get unlimited access to our website and smartphone apps at no additional charge.

• Readers who are not subscribers will continue to get access to 20 free articles a month on telegraph.co.uk. To go beyond that limit, readers will be invited to choose between two digital subscription packages; our Web Pack, which combines unlimited web access with our smartphone apps, for £1.99 a month; or our full Digital Pack, which includes our tablet editions, for £9.99 a month.

With both packages, readers will be offered a one month free trial before they are asked to commit to a subscription. To find out how to subscribe, visit telegraph.co.uk/subscriptions. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/subscriptions/?WT.mc_id=601872)

For customer enquiries, email digitalservices@telegraph.co.uk.
We have exciting plans for coverage of key events this year: a glorious summer of sport featuring Wimbledon, the Lions rugby tour and the Ashes; unrivalled coverage of all the key political events; and cultural highlights including the British Museum’s blockbuster Pompeii exhibition.

Please join us on our journey.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 28.03.13 at 20:53

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on Mr & Mrs Smith, X-Men Origins and The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track

Clive James on the week's TV, including X-Men Origins and The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02520/xmenweb_2520917b.jpg Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman in X-Men
This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9956673/Clive-James-on-Mr-and-Mrs-Smith-X-Men-Origins-and-The-Railway-Keeping-Britain-on-Track.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.04.13 at 14:30

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on Wodehouse in Exile, Foyle’s War, Boris Johnson: the Irresistible Rise

Clive James on the week's TV, including a documentary devoted to Boris Johnson.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02526/boris3web_2526098b.jpg
Ordinary politicians must watch Boris Johnson with alarm Photo: Paul Grover
This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9969120/Clive-James-on-Wodehouse-in-Exile-Foyles-War-Boris-Johnson-the-Irresistible-Rise.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.04.13 at 08:45

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Clive James on... How TV Ruined Your Life, Channel 4 News, Getting On, The High Art of the Low Countries and Coriolanus

Clive James on the week's TV including Andrew Graham Dixon's latest series The High Art of the Low Countries.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02532/grahamdixonweb_2532112b.jpg
Andrew Graham-Dixon on an artistic tour of the Netherlands in The High Art of the Low Countries on BBC Four Photo: BBC

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9984127/Clive-James-on...-How-TV-Ruined-Your-Life-Channel-4-News-Getting-On-The-High-Art-of-the-Low-Countries-and-Coriolanus.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.04.13 at 17:31

Michael Deacon deputises (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10001437/Michael-Deacon-on-Royal-Paintbox-If-Memory-Serves-Me-Right-Decision-79.html) for Clive this week.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 26.04.13 at 20:23

Michael Deacon is in the hot seat (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10016120/Ben-Eltons-new-sitcom-is-political-correctness-gone-bad.html) again this week.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on 26.04.13 at 20:42

Rats! -- Come back Clive! But I concur re the slug...

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 03.05.13 at 20:23

Another week without Clive (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10030217/Vicious-was-it-a-wind-up-aimed-to-enrage-bilious-homophobes.html), I'm sorry to say.

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 10.05.13 at 13:59

The good news: Clive James returns next week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10044007/The-Apprentice-designed-to-ridicule-the-deluded-conceited-and-inept.html).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 18.05.13 at 14:15

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/Julies%20Images/telegraph%20banner.jpg

Ronnie O'Sullivan: 'the Coriolanus of the Crucible'

Clive James returns, and reveals he's been watching the snooker, AN Wilson's documentaries, and The Politician's Husband.
.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02563/ronnyweb_2563806b.jpg
Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won the World Snooker Championship for the fifth time, at the Crucible in Sheffield Photo: Getty Images

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10060019/Ronnie-OSullivan-the-Coriolanus-of-the-Crucible.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 31.05.13 at 17:57

Clive James falls for The Fall

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including the BBC's compelling new thriller The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02570/gillianweb_2570350b.jpg
Gillian Anderson stars as domineering DS Stella Gibson in BBC One’s compelling new crime drama The Fall

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10074355/Clive-James-falls-for-The-Fall.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.06.13 at 15:56

Jackson Brodie: 'a modern Philip Marlowe'

Case Histories' Jackson Brodie rings the same bells for Clive James as Raymond Chandler’s freelance sleuth Philip Marlowe.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02576/casehistoriesweb_2576020b.jpg Jason Isaacs stars as brooding private eye Jackson Brodie in BBC One’s Case Histories
Photo: Ruby Films

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10086986/Jackson-Brodie-a-modern-Philip-Marlowe.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.06.13 at 08:49

Clive James: my nightmare week of mutilation and torture

Clive James overindulges on recent TV highlights including BBC Two's Tudor season.

______________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02584/boleynweb_2584106b.jpgThe Other Boleyn Girl: Natalie Portman (right) stars in the film adaptation aired as part of the BBC’s season on the Tudors Photo: REX

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10105913/Clive-James-my-nightmare-week-of-mutilation-and-torture.html
)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.06.13 at 09:13

Clive James: the agony and the eggstasy

Clive James reviews recent TV highlights, including the albumen-heavy Britain's Got Talent final.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/eggweb_2590315b.jpg A protester confronts Simon Cowell during the final of BGT Photo: Ken McKay/Thames / Rex Features

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10120577/Clive-James-the-agony-and-the-eggstasy.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 21.06.13 at 09:13

Clive James: Why I was wrong to scorn Abba

Thanks to his daughter, Clive James has learned to love the Swedish super group. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02594/abba_2594635b.jpg
Top of the pops: Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson photographed in 1975 Photo: Bengt H Malmqvist

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10130473/Clive-James-Why-I-was-wrong-to-scorn-Abba.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 29.06.13 at 14:15

Clive James: The Returned made my remaining hair stand on end

Clive James is impressed - and terrified - by Channel 4's French thriller The Returned. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02600/returnweb_2600497b.jpg Clotilde Hesme and Pierre Perrier star in the supernatural French thriller The Returned on BBC Four

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10143289/Clive-James-The-Returned-made-my-remaining-hair-stand-on-end.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.07.13 at 08:53

Mick Jagger: the immortal teenager?

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including The Americans, Wimbledon and Glastonbury, and applauds the show The Rolling Stones put on.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02607/mickweb_2607721b.jpg Mick Jagger, with Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards, makes his Glastonbury debut at 69 Photo: AP

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10158099/Mick-Jagger-the-immortal-teenager.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 12.07.13 at 16:19

'The Beeb’s tennis Brits made Wimbledon a misery'

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Horizon, Wimbledon and The CSI Movie: Fallen.
____________________________________________________________________________

-no photo-

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10171222/The-Beebs-tennis-Brits-made-Wimbledon-a-misery.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.07.13 at 16:46

Clive James on Ashton Agar and the Ashes

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including how Ashton Agar caught his imagination and a BBC Four cricketing drama about Kerry Packer.
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02619/cricketweb_2619831b.jpg Clayton Watson and Damon Gameau as Ian and Greg Chappell in ‘Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War’ on BBC Four Photo: BBC/Southern Star Entertainment

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10184956/Clive-James-on-Ashton-Agar-and-the-Ashes.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 26.07.13 at 16:13

Clive James: On stage, Liz Taylor was lost

Burton and Taylor was let down by Helena Bonham Carter's inability to act badly, says Clive James.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02626/burtonweb_2626593b.jpg
Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West star in a BBC biopic about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10200531/Clive-James-On-stage-Liz-Taylor-was-lost.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.08.13 at 19:02

Clive James: Was Cleopatra the film that ruined Hollywood?

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Cleopatra: the Film That Changed Hollywood, Top of the Lake and Caligula
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02632/cleoweb_2632295b.jpg Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963)

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10214669/Clive-James-Was-Cleopatra-the-film-that-ruined-Hollywood.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 09.08.13 at 15:24

Clive James: Cate Campbell made this Australian proud
Clive James reviews the week's TV, including the World Swimming Championships, Horizon and The Trip.
______________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02639/swimming_2639929b.jpgAustralia's Cate Campbell smiles as she holds the gold medal she won in the Women's 100m freestyle final at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Photo: AP

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10229380/Clive-James-Cate-Campbell-made-this-Australian-proud.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on 09.08.13 at 19:47

Congratulations, Kevin, on helping the total 'views' on this thread pass the 100k mark!
[I only just reformatted the index in time, to prevent the extra digit buggering up the justification :) ]

SJB

PS: I was walking on Jesus Green (among other places) a couple of nights ago, lamenting to myself CVLJ's plight, and regretting I wouldn't be able to make Pete's O2 concert this weekend. All: don't miss this one! The maestro has a few new songs in his gig bag that I haven't heard yet.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.08.13 at 13:01

Clive James: The Germans are giving us an inferiority complex

This week's television, including Make Me a German and Das Auto, grappled with the subject of Germany's post-war success, says Clive James.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02644/germanweb_2644034b.jpg In BBC Two’s Make Me a German, Justin and Bee Rowlett set out on a mission to overcome cultural differences.

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10243227/Clive-James-The-Germans-are-giving-us-an-inferiority-complex.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.08.13 at 20:10

Clive James: We all must satisfy our inner rabbit

Clive James reviews the week's television, including The Burrowers (BBC Two), Pistorious: The Key Questions (Channel 5) and Top of the Lake (BBC Two).

___________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02650/4462047-high_res-t_2650463b.jpg‘The most exciting kind of science’: in ‘The Burrowers’ Chris Packham observed rabbits, badgers and water voles below ground Photo: BBC

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10259258/Clive-James-We-all-must-satisfy-our-inner-rabbit.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 30.08.13 at 16:20

Clive James: Alan Whicker's way with words
Clive James reviews the week's TV, including BBC Four's posthumous tribute to Alan Whicker, The Social Network and The Newsroom.
___________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02657/alanwhicker_2657192b.jpg Are you going to…? The late presenter Alan Whicker visited San Francisco in a repeat broadcast of Journey of a Lifetime on BBC Four Photo: September Films

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10275868/Clive-James-Alan-Whickers-way-with-words.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.09.13 at 14:20

Clive James: The secret power of Cliff Morgan

Clive James reviews this week's television, including Cliff Morgan: A Lifetime of Achievement (BBC One), Breaking Bad (Netflix) and What Remains (BBC One).
______________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02663/PD189155_Cliff-Mor_2663415b.jpg
Sports commentator and former rugby player Cliff Morgan, who died last month
Photo: Phil Shephard-Lewis

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/10291011/Clive-James-The-secret-power-of-Cliff-Morgan.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by S J Birkill on 07.09.13 at 09:42

on 09/06/13 at 14:20:35, Kevin Cryan wrote :

Clive James reviews this week's television, including Cliff Morgan: A Lifetime of Achievement (BBC One), Breaking Bad (Netflix) and What Remains (BBC One).

Anyone else bingeing, like Clive, on the excellent Breaking Bad, please be assured that the actor playing protagonist Walt 'Heisenberg' White is one Bryan Cranston, and not anyone else you might know...

http://www.peteatkin.com/images/heisenberg.jpg

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.09.13 at 08:38

Clive James: If Berlusconi ran the BBC...

Clive James reviews this week's television, including Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One), Formula One (BBC One) and What Remains (BBC One).
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02663/strictlygroup_2663848b.jpg The Tess factor: presenter Tess Daly takes to the floor to prove she does more than pretend to be amused by Bruce Forsyth’s jokes. Photo: BBC

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10302759/Clive-James-If-Berlusconi-ran-the-BBC....html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 19.09.13 at 14:59

Clive James: Our primal awe for great movie music

Clive James reviews this week's television, including Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews (BBC Two), Battle: Los Angeles (Channel 4) and Sound of Cinema: the Music that Made the Movies (BBC Four).
_____________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02675/PD70026511_BA29CA1_2675616b.jpgEnthralling: James Stewart and Kim Novak in Vertigo – Bernard Herrmann’s score was discussed in Sound of Cinema on BBC Four Photo: Alamy

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10316079/Clive-James-Our-primal-awe-for-great-movie-music.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 26.09.13 at 18:04

Clive James: My envy of David Attenborough

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates (BBC Two), The Making of Merkel with Andrew Marr (BBC Two) and Sound of Cinema (BBC Four).
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02683/PD69935357_Dawn-of_2683868b.jpg Undying energy: David Attenborough, an example of a particularly successful vertebrate

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10336223/Clive-James-My-envy-of-David-Attenborough.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 03.10.13 at 15:52

Clive James: I’m not sure I trust this science rock star

Clive James reviews the week's TV, including Science Britannica (BBC Two), Sound of Cinema (BBC Four), Marvel's Agents of Shield (Channel 4) and Atlantis (BBC One).
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02689/PD70063910_4032769_2689963b.jpg Floppy-haired deep thinker: Brian Cox’s smile ‘sometimes switches itself on for no reason, like a refrigerator door loose on its hinges’

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/clive-james/10349312/Clive-James-Im-not-sure-I-trust-this-science-rock-star.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Murray McGlew on 05.10.13 at 17:40

Thanks Kevin for putting this up each week. I know that in theory I could log on to the Telegraph myself, but I'd probably almost never get around to it and it's so easy to click on your link. Yes I've sometimes been trapped into following other leads and used up my monthly quota but I can usually catch up within a week or so.

Incidentally I subscribe to one online paper here (I live on a farm and it's easier and cheaper) and I've often thought that I should do the same with a UK and a US paper to broaden my horizons. Do you have any suggestions on which ones. Probably to the heavier side of center but still accessible to someone of (approximately) average intelligence.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 14.10.13 at 12:13

Clive James: The West depends on Sophie

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One), Young Montalbano (BBC Four) and Breaking Bad (Netflix)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02694/strictly-come-danc_2694127b.jpg Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Brendan Cole Photo: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10377165/Clive-James-The-West-depends-on-Sophie.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 18.10.13 at 14:02

Clive James: Mariella’s compromising position

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Sex Box (Channel 4), Masters of Sex (Channel 4) and Peaky Blinders (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02704/Sex_Box_2704280b.jpg The appliance of science: Mariella Frostrup with her team of "experts" talked to couples who had had sex in a box

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10383699/Clive-James-Mariellas-compromising-position.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.10.13 at 11:12

Clive James: Wayne Rooney is a man I identify with

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including the England-Poland match (ITV) and Stephen Fry: Out There (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02711/Wayne_Rooney_2711687b.jpg 'The look of a disconsolate potato': Rooney appears bewildered by what life has turned out to be. Photo: Rex

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10399708/Clive-James-Wayne-Rooney-is-a-man-I-identify-with.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 31.10.13 at 10:56

Clive James: Olivier’s hardest role - playing himself

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Arena's documentary about Britain’s National Theatre (BBC Four), The One Show (BBC One) and Homeland (Channel 4)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02718/Laurence_Olivier_2718790b.jpg
All the world’s a stage: in the early years of the National Theatre everything revolved around its artistic director, Laurence Olivier Photo: Rex

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10415793/Clive-James-Oliviers-hardest-role-playing-himself.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.11.13 at 09:03

Clive James: Hendrix was an early master of the twerk

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Imagine: Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin' (BBC One), Autmnwatch (BBC Two) and The Escpae Artist (BBC One)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02727/Jimi_Hendrix_2727241b.jpg Peacock, poet and perfectionist: Jimi Hendrix was the subject of a recent ‘Imagine’… documentary Photo: Rex

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10433688/Clive-James-Hendrix-was-an-early-master-of-the-twerk.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.11.13 at 09:20

Clive James: Daniel Craig and the art of pouting

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Defiance (BBC Four), Atlantis (BBC One) and Cold War, Hot Jets (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02734/Defiance_2734142b.jpg
Act of defiance: Craig played a Jewish refugee fighting against the Nazis

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10449012/Clive-James-Daniel-Craig-and-the-art-of-pouting.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 21.11.13 at 12:45

Clive James: Transfixed by beautiful Birgitte

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Borgen (BBC Four), Reel History of Britain (BBC Two) and Masters of Sex (Channel 4)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02740/Borgen_2740119b.jpg
Now lighting up Saturday evenings: Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg in BBC Four’s ‘Borgen’

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10462007/Clive-James-Transfixed-by-beautiful-Birgitte.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 28.11.13 at 12:51

Clive James: Doctor Who was just for the fans

Clive James reviews The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02748/Doctor-Who1_2748047b.jpgSpace-time continuum: three Doctors met in the anniversary episode Photo: BBC

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10478965/Clive-James-Doctor-Who-was-just-for-the-fans.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.12.13 at 09:36

Clive James: Am I to blame for I'm a Celebrity?

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! (ITV), Kangaroo Dundee (BBC Two), Nature’s Lost Kingdom: Wild Burma (BBC Two) and Homeland (Channel 4)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02755/I_mACelebjpeg_2755324b.jpgThe law of the jungle: Amy Willerton (left) doesn't understand the jealousy of the other contestants Photo: ITV

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10495425/Clive-James-Am-I-to-blame-for-Im-a-Celebrity.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.12.13 at 18:18

TV review of the year 2013: Why Borgen dominated our living rooms

Television in 2013 saw Doctor Who celebrate its 50th anniversary and Scandinavian Cultural Imperialism peak with Borgen, says Clive James in his TV review of the year
__________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02753/Borgenkatrine_2753533b.jpg Birgitte Hjort Sørensen plays Katrine Fønsmark, who becomes Birgitte Nyborg's media adviser, in the third series of Borgen Photo: BBC Films

This week's column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10520169/TV-review-of-the-year-2013-Why-Borgen-dominated-our-living-rooms.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 23.12.13 at 18:13

Clive James: Still looking for Lucan

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Lucan (ITV), Borgen (BBC Four) and Nelson Mandela's memorial service
___________________________________________________________________________________http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02771/lucanjpg_2771692b.jpg Repellent hero: Rory Kinnear starred as Lord Lucan alongside Catherine McCormack as his wife Photo: ITV

Last week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10530211/Clive-James-Still-looking-for-Lucan.html)

Kevin Cryan

PS. What I described as "this week's column" in my last posting under this heading should have been called "review of the year's viewing". Apoligies for that.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 02.01.14 at 13:11

Clive James: Why I went for vintage comedy this Christmas

Clive James reviews last week's Christmas TV including Victoria Wood’s Mid Life Christmas (BBC Two), Tommy Cooper’s Christmas Special (Channel 5), Morecambe and Wise (BBC Two) and Call the Midwife (BBC One)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02779/tommycooperjpg_2779258b.jpgTimeless comedy: a lot of what used to be funny has gone out of date, but not Tommy Cooper Photo: Rex

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10546729/Clive-James-Why-I-went-for-vintage-comedy-this-Christmas.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.01.14 at 07:47

Clive James: Why the long face, Sherlock?

Clive James reviews last week's TV, including Sherlock (BBC One), The Bridge (BBC Four), Spy in the Pod (BBC One) and Diamonds are Forever: The Don Black Songbook (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02781/sherlocknew_2781382b.jpg
Made for one another: Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch, right) was best man at the wedding of Watson (Martin Freeman)
Photo: Hartswood Films

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10555398/Clive-James-Why-the-long-face-Sherlock.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.01.14 at 18:34

Clive James: The suburban strife of Bletchley’s angels

Clive James reviews recent TV highlights including The Bletchley Circle (ITV), The 7.39 (BBC One),Silent Witness (BBC One) and Timeshift (BBC Four)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02796/bletchleycirclejpg_2796608b.jpg
Breaking the code: Sophie Rundle, Rachael Stirling and Anna Maxwell Martin in ‘The Bletchley Circle'
Photo: ITV/World Productions

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10584416/Clive-James-The-suburban-strife-of-Bletchleys-angels.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.01.14 at 15:16

Clive James on Benefits Street: Don't argue with White Dee, she might sit on you

The Channel 4 documentary series was always going to end up showing us the extreme, says Clive James
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02796/BenefitsStreet_2796844b.jpg
White Dee with her daughter Caitlin, residents of Benefits Street Photo: Richard Ansett

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10587108/Clive-James-on-Benefits-Street-Dont-argue-with-White-Dee-she-might-sit-on-you.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.02.14 at 15:11

Clive James: The end of The Bridge? I might die of despair

Sofia Helin's Saga Noren in The Bridge is a case to be solved in herself, says Clive James
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02804/thebridgesagajpg_2804714b.jpgAn acidic personality: Sofia Helin as Saga Noren in The Bridge Photo:ZDF

This week’s column (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10602238/Clive-James-The-end-of-The-Bridge-I-might-die-of-despair.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 07.02.14 at 08:08

Clive James: did the lower orders really pay the greater price in the First World War?
Clive James reviews last week's TV including Britain’s Great War (BBC One), The Taste (Channel 4), The Jump (Channel Four), Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness (BBC Four) and The Bridge (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02812/britainsgreatwarjp_2812768b.jpg Jeremy Paxman visiting a former munitions factory Photo: BBC

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10619356/Clive-James-did-the-lower-orders-really-pay-the-greater-price-in-the-First-World-War.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 12.02.14 at 15:23

Clive James: the Winter Olympics has been going downhill since the opening ceremony

Clive James reviews last week's TV including the BBC's Winter Olympics coverage, Torvill and Dean: The Perfect Day (BBC Two), Death in Paradise (BBC One), Salamander (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02820/ice_2820049b.jpg Russia can be legitimately proud of some of their skaters: Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov Photo: REUTERS

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10633747/Clive-James-the-Winter-Olympics-has-been-going-downhill-since-the-opening-ceremony.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 24.02.14 at 19:59

Clive James: How I learnt to speak fluent Sochi

Clive James reviews last week's TV including the Winter Olympics (BBC One and Two)

_________________________________________________________________________http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02832/lizzyyarnoldjpg_2832490b.jpg Speed racer: Lizzy Yarnold takes skeleton gold for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics
Photo: PA

Last week’s TV (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10657760/Clive-James-How-I-learnt-to-speak-fluent-Sochi.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 28.02.14 at 20:05

Clive James: Keeley Hawes will win every award

Clive James reviews the week's TV including Head to Head (Aljazeera), Line of Duty (BBC Two), the Winter Olympics (BBC Two), Salamander (BBC Four) and Is Amanda Knox Guilty?(Channel 5)
__________________________________________________________________________________http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02836/lineofdutyjpg_2836616b.jpgStrong armed: Keeley Hawes’s DI Denton finds prison a dangerous place in BBC Two’s ‘Line of Duty’ Photo: BBC/Steffan Hill

This week’s TV (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10666157/Clive-James-Keeley-Hawes-will-win-every-award.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 06.03.14 at 14:21

Clive James: Battle of the historians

Clive James reviews the week's TV including The Necessary War and The Pity of War (BBC Two), The Brits Who Built the Modern World (BBC Four) and Salamander (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02844/niallfergusonjpg_2844308b.jpg
Dubious victory: Niall Ferguson claimed that Britain’s entry into the Great War had been a terrible mistake in ‘The Pity of War’
Photo: Chimerica Media

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10680491/Clive-James-Battle-of-the-historians.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 13.03.14 at 13:30

Clive James: What a cast, what costumes, what talk

Clive James reviews the week's TV including 37 Days (BBC Two), Hostages (Channel 4), Game of Thrones (HBO), The Good Wife (More 4) and Salt (Film4)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02850/37daysjpg_2850032b.jpg Suave: Nicholas Asbury, Tim Pigott-Smith and Ian McDiarmid in ‘37 Days’
This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10693065/Clive-James-What-a-cast-what-costumes-what-talk.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 20.03.14 at 13:20

Clive James: Mary Beard’s sexual odyssey

Clive James reviews the week's TV including Oh Do Shut Up Dear! The Public Voice of Women (BBC Four), In Their Own Words: 20th Century Composers (BBC Four) and Dancing in the Blitz: How World War Two Made British Ballet (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02857/marybeardjpg_2857755b.jpg
Mary Beard Photo: Clare Molden

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10710538/Clive-James-Mary-Beards-sexual-odyssey.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 27.03.14 at 16:05

Clive James: Line of Duty lost the plot

Clive James reviews the week's TV including Line of Duty (BBC Two), Great Barrier Reef (BBC Four), Weird Nature (BBC Four), W1A (BBC Two), Inside Rolls Royce (Channel 4) and Martin Amis' England (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02864/lineofdutyjpg_2864212b.jpgDetective Inspector Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes) in Line of Duty Photo: World Productions/Mark Bourdillon

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10726437/Clive-James-Line-of-Duty-lost-the-plot.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 03.04.14 at 13:09

Clive James: It’s us versus the Yanks Clive James reviews the week's TV including Salting the Battlefield (BBC Two), Endeavour (ITV), The Americans (ITV), Channel Four News and W1A (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02870/saltingthebattlefi_2870290b.jpgThe spy who loved me: Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) and Margot Tyrell (Helena Bonham Carter) in ‘Salting the Battlefield’Photo: Carnival Film & Television Ltd 2013

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10739686/Clive-James-Its-us-versus-the-Yanks.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 10.04.14 at 11:22

Clive James: Philby: the ‘right sort’ of spy

Clive James reviews the week's TV including Kim Philby: His Most Intimate Betrayal (BBC Two), The Great British Sewing Bee (BBC Two) and Darcey’s Ballerina Heroines (BBC Four)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02877/philbyjpg_2877337b.jpg
Spot the traitor: spy Kim Philby, far right, who famously protested his innocence to the press, including Alan Whicker, in 1955
Photo: Rex

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10755407/Clive-James-Philby-the-right-sort-of-spy.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.04.14 at 12:48

Clive James: Keeping up appearances

Clive James reviews the week's TV including New Hidden Killers: The Edwardian Home (repeated on BBC Four), the Masters (BBC One), Mammon (More4), The Trip to Italy (BBC Two) and W1A (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02885/suzannahlipscombjp_2885317b.jpg
Suzannah Lipscomb presenter of New Hidden Killers: The Edwardian Home Photo: Modern Television

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10772159/Clive-James-Keeping-up-appearances.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 25.04.14 at 11:35

Clive James: the range of human evil in Fargo

Clive James reviews the week's TV including New Hidden Killers: The Edwardian Home (repeated on BBC Four), the Masters (BBC One), Mammon (More4), The Trip to Italy (BBC Two) and W1A (BBC Two Clive James reviews the week's TV including Fargo (Channel 4), Jesus of Nazareth, Public Enemies (ITV4), Boardwalk Empire and the World Championship Snooker (BBC One)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02886/martin-freeman-far_2886737b.jpg Luckless: Martin Freeman as insurance broker Lester Nygaard in Channel 4's adaptation of ‘Fargo’ Photo: Channel 4

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10785621/Clive-James-the-range-of-human-evil-in-Fargo.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.05.14 at 13:01

Clive James: Orphan Black is Twin Peaks all over again

Clive James reviews the week's TV including Orphan Black (BBC Three), Mammon (More4), The Good Wife (More4) and Rolando Villazón 's Don Giovanni (BBC Two)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02897/orphanblackjpg_2897181b.jpg
Tatiana Maslaney as Sarah Manning (front) in Orphan Black Photo: Orphan Black Productions Limited / BBC WORLDWIDE

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10799100/Clive-James-Orphan-Black-is-Twin-Peaks-all-over-again.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 01.05.14 at 20:10

The recent article on Clive in The New Statesman (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/04/clive-james-poetry-family-and-illness-i-m-bit-terrified-really-mark-end) states that "he plans to abandon journalism over the coming months in order to start work on a new book – or two." If so, this means the TV reviews will cease later this year. I have a mixed reaction--I'll miss my weekly dose of Clive, but I can't pretend that his TV criticism for Telegraph matched that of the Observer. And I am all for a new book (or books), whether it's a valedictory sequel to Cultural Amnesia or a final set of memoirs.

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 08.05.14 at 12:08

Clive James: Are nature programmes souping up their science with science fiction?

Clive James reviews the week's TV including the repeated Australia with Simon Reeve (BBC Two), Generation War (BBC Two), Love for Sale with Rupert Everett (Channel 4) and Dylan Thomas: A Poet at War (BBC Wales)
____________________________________________________________________________________________ http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02564/reeve-red-centre_2564434b.jpg Simon Reeves during filming for his series on Australia Photo: Matt Brandon

This week’s column. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10815677/Clive-James-Are-nature-programmes-souping-up-their-science-with-science-fiction.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Revelator on 15.05.14 at 00:28

The Pete Atkin and Clive James Appreciation Society on Facebook have posted a scan from a recent issue of Private Eye, which claims that the Telegraph's Editor-in-Chief James "Psycho" Seiken has sacked Clive, who no longer provides "value for money."

Though Private Eye has knocked Clive in the past, this article is thoroughly in his corner and calls him "the most esteemed TV reviewer of the age." Seiken on the other hand is reviled as "a heartless shit" with "no understanding of British journalism."

If all this is true, which circle of hell does Seiken belong in?

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.05.14 at 11:30

The Guardian has this take on the story.

Clive James to leave Daily Telegraph (http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/15/clive-james-to-leave-daily-telegraph-tv-critic)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Clive James, television critic
Post by Kevin Cryan on 17.05.14 at 15:02

Clive James: Conchita's voice sounded like incoming artillery

The Austrian winner of Eurovision looked like an upright carp with a bad shave, but then that was the secret of her success, says Clive James
_______________________________________________________________________________http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02911/conchitajpg_2911957b.jpgAustria's Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst Photo: AFP[

This week’s TV (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10832868/Clive-James-Conchitas-voice-sounded-like-incoming-artillery.html)

The Telegraph
Quote:

After this Saturday, Clive James will no longer be writing a weekly television column in the Telegraph. He would like to focus more of his time and energy on completing two books. However, it is our intention that Clive will contribute major essays and other extended pieces for the newspaper in the future, specifically on the publication of his forthcoming books.

Kevin Cryan