Author: Arianne Dunne

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Love Island is a Dystopia – so why are we addicted to it? TV editor Arianne Dunne explores her love-hate relationship with telly's latest ratings triumph

Reader, I watched Love Island so you don’t have to. (Who am I kidding? You’re all watching it too.) During my odyssey into Love Island, I, as much as anyone, was dragged into its ludicrous non-drama (if the rest of … Continue reading Love Island is a Dystopia – so why are we addicted to it? TV editor Arianne Dunne explores her love-hate relationship with telly’s latest ratings triumph

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Keeping Up With Poldark: Series 4, Episode 2 Traditional hand-to-hand combat! Mysterious illnesses! Elections…?

“How far is London?” young Jeremy asked his father at the beginning of this week’s installment of Poldark. “Hundreds of miles,” answered Ross (Aidan Turner), which naturally meant he’d be off to the big city within the hour. “The ends … Continue reading Keeping Up With Poldark: Series 4, Episode 2 Traditional hand-to-hand combat! Mysterious illnesses! Elections…?

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Keeping Up With Poldark, Series 4, episode 1 There's trouble down in Cornwall once more with the return of Poldark

●●●●○ Batten down the hatches, saddle up your finest horse and set your tricorn hats to an angle: it’s that Poldark time of year again. Ross (Aidan Turner) always knows how to make an entrance – whether it’s coming back … Continue reading Keeping Up With Poldark, Series 4, episode 1 There’s trouble down in Cornwall once more with the return of Poldark

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“You can’t get much bigger or bolder than this”: Troy: Fall of a City // Review Deputy TV Editor, Lily Casson, shares her views on the first season of the new BBC drama.

●●●○○ When it comes to adapting the epics, you can’t get much bigger or bolder than the BBC’s lavish eight-hour plunge into the fall of Troy. Long before the creation of the camera, scripts or decent lighting, this was a … Continue reading “You can’t get much bigger or bolder than this”: Troy: Fall of a City // Review Deputy TV Editor, Lily Casson, shares her views on the first season of the new BBC drama.

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Comedies to Cure Your Derry Girls Withdrawal TV Deputy Editor, Lily Casson, recommends some top female-led comedy shows to keep you ticking over until season two of Derry Girls.

Derry Girls was a sleeper hit, launching unexpectedly into the stratosphere of tender, witty new comedy (it’s almost as if TV is finally realising women can be funny). Set in the early ‘90s, the series follows Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) and … Continue reading Comedies to Cure Your Derry Girls Withdrawal TV Deputy Editor, Lily Casson, recommends some top female-led comedy shows to keep you ticking over until season two of Derry Girls.

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Crying Out for More “Call the Midwife” What "Call the Midwife" has cracked is a recipe for introducing change while appearing to stay the same.

Call the Midwife is perhaps the BBC’s most unexpected long-running series of the 2010s. A cynic might be forgiven for asking, “But who would want to tune in to a guaranteed hour of women screaming and babies crying every week, … Continue reading Crying Out for More “Call the Midwife” What “Call the Midwife” has cracked is a recipe for introducing change while appearing to stay the same.

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BBC One’s “Gunpowder” – review It’s 1605, Elizabeth I is dead, James VI of Scotland has become James I of England, and Protestant persecution of Catholics is escalating.

●●●○○ This dark, seventeenth-century historical thriller takes its lead from Tom Hardy’s Taboo and Peaky Blinders, bringing shady alleys and violence to period drama. There’s something of the vanity project to this three-parter – Kit Harington co-produces and stars as … Continue reading BBC One’s “Gunpowder” – review It’s 1605, Elizabeth I is dead, James VI of Scotland has become James I of England, and Protestant persecution of Catholics is escalating.

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“It Only Happens in the Movies” – review The novel is Bourne’s most obvious feminist critique yet, though it lacks some of the humour and warm friendships that made the 'Spinster Club' series bearable.

●●●○○ Holly Bourne has come a long way from her semi-supernatural debut Soulmates, which presupposed the existence of its titular phenomenon and had a secret international organisation apparently prepared to expend resources and time keeping two teenagers apart simply because … Continue reading “It Only Happens in the Movies” – review The novel is Bourne’s most obvious feminist critique yet, though it lacks some of the humour and warm friendships that made the ‘Spinster Club’ series bearable.

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Tangleweed & Brine – Interview with Author and Illustrator Tall and twisted tales

Fairytales remain one of the most enduring forms of human storytelling. Having emerged long before the blockbuster reboot, they have provided centuries’ worth of spoken, written and artistic material ripe for reinterpretation according to the needs or beliefs of the … Continue reading Tangleweed & Brine – Interview with Author and Illustrator Tall and twisted tales