‘Downton Abbey’ Christmas 2014 special review

This year’s feature-length festive special is brimming with the things we love: sumptuous dinner parties, carols by the Christmas tree in the great hall, and happily-resolved plot lines. Not a single dead body anywhere. The episode opens with the Downton crowd preparing to attend a grouse-shooting party at Brancaster Castle. Lord Sinderby has rented it … >

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‘Mapp and Lucia’ Episode 3 review

The petty jealousy and absurd one-upmanship continues in this final instalment of BBC One’s Mapp and Lucia. My cringing discomfort at the ridiculousness of the titular characters at times moves me to want to grab them by the kingfisher blue lapels and shout at them that maybe their lives would be a little bit more … >

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Rewind: ‘Hex’ revisited

It hardly seems like ten years since Sky1 brought their edgy and original drama series Hex to our screens. In an important move by the channel, Hex helped to promote more original output from Sky, highlighting home-grown acting and writing talent. Here we celebrate the show’s tenth anniversary and look back at why the show … >

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10 of the Doctor’s best quotes about himself in ‘Doctor Who’

The Doctor usually has plenty to say for himself so it is little wonder that, hot on the heels of last year’s entertaining Who-ology book of trivia, comes a volume containing choice cuts of Doctor Who dialogue from the show’s first 50 years. Compiled by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, Wit, Wisdom and Timey-Wimey Stuff: … >

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‘Downton Abbey’ Season 5 episode guide

Downton Abbey returns to ITV this autumn for a fifth season. The period drama is back for eight new episodes and a Christmas special, guest starring Richard E Grant, Anna Chancellor, Rade Sherbedgia, Dame Harriet Walter, Peter Egan and Sue Johnston. Returning cast members include Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Hugh Bonneville, Joanne … >

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‘Broadchurch’ creator: Season 2 has ‘a different shape and energy’

Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall has revealed that fans should expect “a different journey” in the crime drama’s new season. Season 2 begins next week on ITV. > Order Season 2 on DVD on Amazon. Chibnall commented: “It’s been a whirlwind. But our focus has always been: what happens next. In the time we’ve been off … >

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‘Mapp and Lucia’ Episode 2 review

Insufferable is the word I keep coming back to when I try to find new and novel ways of describing the two titular characters of BBC One’s Mapp and Lucia. Insufferable, insufferable, insufferable. I’m not normally one to engage in schadenfreude; indeed, sometimes I do think my empathy for make believe characters extends far further … >

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‘Doctor Who’ exec Moffat defends ‘In the Forest of the Night’ ep

Steven Moffat has defended the recent “scientifically inaccurate” episode of Doctor Who, ‘In the Forest of the Night’. Written by children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce, the episode aired in October and featured a forest growing overnight and taking back the Earth. > Read our review of ‘In the Forest of the Night’. Speaking at the … >

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Matt Smith’s ‘Lost River’ won’t be getting a cinema release

Warner Bros. has decided not to release Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River – featuring Doctor Who star Matt Smith – in US cinemas. Previously titled How to Catch a Monster, the movie also stars Iain De Caestecker (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Eva Mendes and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men). Filmed in Detroit last year, Lost … >

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‘Foyle’s War’ Season 8 trailer

Michael Kitchen is back as Senior Intelligence Officer Christopher Foyle this weekend in the new season of ITV’s Foyle’s War. Written by creator Anthony Horowitz and inspired by real events in the early Cold War, the three new feature-length films follow Foyle’s battles in the dangerous world of espionage, at a time in our country’s … >

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