TV
MTV for Tories
Julian Fellowes’s Downton Abbey epitomises the worst features of the culture he claims to challenge
They Never Saw The Crash Coming
The boom years lasted so long that writers and artists lost their nose for trouble
Media Myopia
Simplistic and divisive, the media response to the riots was utterly predictable
Writers Blocked
The odd script may show promise but TV executives are stifling British dramatists
Prisoners of Bad Conscience
BBC 4 failed to deal impartially with Amnesty International’s shameful loss of impartiality
A Marriage of Convenience
The sycophantic coverage of the royal wedding sidestepped the essential debate on the monarchy
They Missed the Story
Ignoring the silenced millions, Western journalists got the Middle East all wrong
ONLINE ONLY: A Key Truth and a Broken Promise
The biased historiography of Channel 4’s mini-series The Promise is just one recent example of innumerable and programmatic efforts to demonise Israel
Murder Most Mundane
British crime drama should emulate a Danish series as good as anything from America
The Moral Low Ground
American TV dramas are often realistic and authentic, unlike their British counterparts
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal