Sarah Dempster

The second series of Ludwig continues to follow crossword-setting introvert John “Ludwig” Taylor, who impersonates his missing identical twin and solves low-stakes murders through accidental insight and exceptional puzzle-solving ability. The review praises the show's whimsical mysteries, wordplay, social-awkwardness comedy and nostalgic cosy-crime atmosphere, while highlighting Anna Maxwell Martin's expanded role as Lucy and her increasingly strong friendship with John. It concludes that Ludwig's eccentric blend of cerebral silliness and gentle mystery is best appreciated on its own terms.

Richard E Grant’s Very Modern Odyssey follows the actor through Malta and other locations associated loosely with Homer’s epic, mixing travel, food, history and mythology rather than pursuing historical certainty. The review praises Grant’s exuberance, emotional reactions and willingness to embrace ambiguity, highlighting Valletta, St John’s Co-Cathedral, Gozo and Troy. It argues that the four-part series is a genuine success and more engaging than the reviewer’s dismissive view of Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Odyssey film, while emphasizing the epic’s continuing relevance to issues including refugees, climate change and political crisis.

The review finds ITV’s six-part nature documentary compelling in its photography but excessively melodramatic in its treatment of extreme weather and climate change. Featuring animals including owls, cheetahs, elephants and polar bears, the program frames their struggles as a disaster movie, with thunderous music, sensational language and Andrew Lincoln’s emphatic narration. The review argues that this approach obscures the reality that the animals are victims of a human-made climate crisis, even as the footage vividly documents the threats they face.

Sally Phillips plays Lily Petal, a hairdresser who becomes an amateur detective in the eccentric BBC daytime cosy-crime series The Hairdresser Mysteries. Set in the village of Blossom Vale, the show combines murders, eccentric characters, 1970s nostalgia, singalongs and deliberately implausible comic set pieces. The review finds it both brilliant and awful, ultimately admiring its audacious, surreal entertainment value.

A fast-paced review of the Apple TV thriller Lucky praises its performances and energetic chase-driven plot while criticising its inconsistent tone and reluctance to fully embrace either lighthearted absurdity or serious themes. The show follows conwoman Lucky as she flees the FBI and a crime boss, with standout turns from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Annette Bening. Despite calling the series overwrought and uneven, the piece concedes that its chaotic, glossy escapism suits summer viewing.

A review of the Sky Documentaries series Katie Price: Nothing to Hide describes the first episode as unexpectedly revealing and emotionally draining, charting Price’s early life, turbulent relationships and lifelong need for attention. Family members offer exasperated but affectionate insights, while the production by Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse is praised for its sensitivity and depth. The programme portrays Price as both self-aware and unable to change, balancing chaos with vulnerability.

The review dismisses Netflix’s eight-part adaptation of Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You as formulaic, implausible and poorly written, while acknowledging that it remains difficult to stop watching. Sam Worthington plays David Burroughs, a Maine prisoner serving a life sentence for his son’s murder, while Britt Lower plays his ex-sister-in-law Rachel Mills, a disgraced journalist who discovers evidence that the boy may still be alive. Their escape leads into a sprawling global conspiracy involving corrupt or inept authorities, mysterious figures and numerous plot twists. The reviewer argues that the series offers little originality or narrative coherence, but is sufficiently eventful to carry viewers through all eight episodes.

John Dower’s three-part documentary revisits the notorious 1995 alien-autopsy footage, which Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield claimed came from a 1947 Roswell crash but later acknowledged had been recreated in a Camden living room using a dummy and butcher’s off-cuts. The review praises the film’s playful, farcical style and its colorful cast of hoaxers, believers, skeptics and former military personnel, while emphasizing that the truth remains contested and that some witnesses still claim classified alien footage exists.

The review describes Every Year After as a glossy, escapist romantic drama set in Barry's Bay, Ontario, where Percy Fraser returns after a decade to confront unresolved feelings surrounding Sam Florek and the death of his mother. Adapted from Carley Fortune's novel and showrun by Amy B. Harris, the series features a love triangle, extensive lake scenery and conspicuously muscular male characters. Although the reviewer criticizes its predictable plot and strained dialogue, they find its sweetness, visual beauty and knowingly trashy appeal difficult to resist.

Antoni Porowski’s four-part National Geographic travel series visits London, Paris, Mexico City and New York, presenting loosely connected tourist attractions, food and local encounters through rapid editing, lavish visuals and vague soundbites. The review finds the programme shallow, arbitrary and reminiscent of destination marketing, though Porowski’s warmth and spontaneous interactions with contributors provide its main appeal. Its intended audience and overall purpose remain unclear.

The second season of Rivals, adapted from Jilly Cooper’s novel, is praised as wildly extravagant, knowingly comic escapism. The story returns to Rupert Campbell-Black and Cameron Cook as they hide from Tony Baddingham while facing sexual intrigue, the 1987 general election and a battle over a television franchise. The review celebrates the ensemble cast, lavishly absurd imagery and period dialogue, arguing that the series handles its treatment of outdated attitudes toward homophobia and AIDS with a playful tonal confidence.

ITV’s five-part espionage drama follows MI6 agent Kate Henderson, played by Gemma Arterton, as she investigates a possible Russian asset within the British cabinet amid a prime ministerial leadership contest. The review finds the series polished, well acted and confidently directed, but relentlessly solemn, derivative and devoid of humor, with its political and national-security themes delivered through heavy-handed statements rather than fresh ideas.

The second season of Criminal Record follows corrupt detective DCI Daniel Hegarty, played by Peter Capaldi, as he attempts to use former colleague DS June Lenker, played by Cush Jumbo, to track a far-right extremist linked to a teenage boy’s murder. The review praises Capaldi’s devastating performance, Jumbo’s work and the series’ oppressive depiction of London and police corruption. Although the plot is relatively straightforward, its tension comes from morally compromised characters, mounting suspense and the uneasy question of who is really in control.

The review harshly rejects Kevin, an eight-part adult animated comedy about a self-doubting cat who moves to a Queens animal rescue centre after his owners split up. Despite its high-profile creative team and voice cast, the series is criticized for crude, incoherent jokes, weak emotional depth, lack of character development and a preference for cruelty over empathy. The review concludes that the show fails both as gross-out comedy and as an emotionally resonant dramedy.

The review finds Channel 4’s Your Song to be a confused and nightmarish talent show in which ordinary people sing songs tied to personal stories. Although contestants are supposedly judged on both their backstories and vocal ability, the selection process is unclear and performances are repeatedly cut short for judges’ reactions, emotional interviews and footage of Alison Hammond with relatives. The programme is criticized for prioritizing manufactured sentiment over music, leaving its purpose and criteria almost impossible to understand.

Twenty Twenty Six brings Hugh Bonneville back as Ian Fletcher, now overseeing integrity for a fictional international football organization preparing for the World Cup in Miami. The mockumentary retains the corporate doublespeak and returning character Will Humphries from Twenty Twelve and W1A, but the review finds its caricatures blunt, its jokes uneven and its mockumentary style dated. Some performances, particularly Hugh Skinner, Alexis Michalik and David Tennant, work well, but the series avoids meaningfully satirizing FIFA or football and instead settles for less rewarding jokes about corporate incompetence and Americans, including stereotypes that feel uncomfortable.

Stefan Golaszewski’s six-part drama follows Lisa and Stephen as they cope with repeated miscarriages while struggling to communicate their grief, alongside the troubled relationships of Stephen’s friend Dave and Dave’s girlfriend Amanda. The series is praised for its emotionally precise writing, direction, performances, unsettling humor and detailed depiction of fertility treatment and hospital experiences. It explores grief, selfishness, emotional repression, toxic masculinity and generational trauma, though some themes are seen as overplayed and the theme tune is criticized.

Martin Dohrn’s documentary follows more than 60 bee species in his Bristol garden during the spring and summer of 2020. Using specially adapted cameras and magnifying equipment, the film presents bees in remarkable detail while exploring Dohrn’s growing bond with a leafcutter bee named Nicky. The review praises the film’s leisurely, sensory style, its miniature “Bee City” habitat and its ability to make companionship and ecological concern feel immediate, although it criticizes the documentary for offering little substantive discussion of the global decline in bee populations. Dohrn ultimately says the project changed his view of bees and the world.

The Madison, Taylor Sheridan’s six-part Paramount+ drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer, relocates a wealthy New York widow and her family to a Montana ranch after the deaths of her husband and brother-in-law. The review argues that the series reduces the contrast between urban and rural life to a simplistic moral lesson, presenting New York as decadent and Montana as wholesome while relying on cloying aphorisms, weak jokes and sentimental depictions of grief. Its reverence for rural conservatism is described as a milder version of Yellowstone, but the overall verdict is that the drama is dull, unsubtle and thematically predictable.

Gone is presented as a six-part ITV crime drama centered on Michael Polly, an emotionally inscrutable private-school headteacher whose wife Sarah disappears. Set around Bristol, the series uses the missing-person investigation as a framework for exploring guilt, co-dependence, professional pressure, emotional repression, and the banality of evil. Detective Annie Cassidy becomes increasingly suspicious of Michael’s unnaturally calm behavior as additional mysteries emerge, including a troubled schoolboy and a cold case involving a missing teenager. The review concludes that the drama’s slow-release clues, unsettling atmosphere, and sustained tension make it one of the year’s most engrossing television shows.

Guy Ritchie’s eight-part Prime Video series reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a young Oxford porter drawn into a sprawling mystery involving a princess, ancient manuscripts, espionage and secret government activity. The review finds the show’s loud, fast-paced violence, Cockney banter and stylized capering entertaining in places but overly familiar and less fresh than Ritchie’s 2011 Sherlock Holmes film. Hero Fiennes Tiffin is criticized for lacking the charisma required for the lead, while Dónal Finn’s Moriarty and Colin Firth’s supporting performance receive strong praise.