How Peter Kay changed British comedy
The beloved Bolton comic, now going on tour for the first time in over a decade, became a national phenomenon…
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The sick satisfaction of torturing Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity
Not only did I feel like a bully, I enjoyed feeling like a bully. But is reality TV the right place…
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Mirror of the nation
For 100 years, the BBC has informed and infuriated. Would Britain be Britain without it?
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Advertisers, please stop exploiting cost-of-living anxiety
At best, it’s an unhelpful reminder of the financial issues we face. At worst it’s cynically capitalising on our anxieties.
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Matt Hancock is taking the Tories’ last shred of dignity with him to the jungle
I do not want to see him eat a kangaroo’s penis. I do not want to see spiders crawl into…
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Inside the BBC reckoning over its economic coverage
With austerity looming, a review is investigating whether journalists have been prone to bias and misleading analogies.
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Why the political panel show is dead
Controversy-ridden Mock the Week is the latest show to bite the dust – is it any wonder when politics is…
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The unlikely revival of the Daily Star
How the once downmarket tabloid began lighting up a gloomy news agenda.
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Fi and Jane: live and uncensored
Former BBC stalwarts Jane Garvey and Fi Glover have moved to Times Radio. Is it more of the same?
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How “deliver” became an unavoidable political buzzword
On 5 September, Liz Truss declared, “we will deliver, we will deliver, and we will deliver”. What, if anything, does…
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Underestimate local radio at your peril, Liz Truss
It was a mistake to absent herself from the Today programme, believing she’d have an easier time elsewhere.
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From Jeffrey Dahmer to Adnan Syed: can true crime as entertainment ever be ethical?
Real life crime stories have long been treated as entertainment, but with the rise of global phenomenons like Serial and…
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True crime’s legal pay-offs give it a righteous gloss – but it’s still only shallow, manipulative entertainment
The thrill of the genre is that it lends a factual story a dramatic twist. In fact, it is as…
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The right-wing press were dismayed by the lack of dissent from the royalist consensus
The BBC let them down so badly that even the Daily Mail was compelled to admit that the broadcaster “caught…
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How to play the Queen
Elizabeth II’s reign was shaped by television. How will portrayals of her on screen determine her legacy?
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Olivia Wilde discovers Hollywood misogyny is as virulent as ever
Gossip from the set of Don’t Worry Darling shows the outrageous standards female filmmakers are still held to.
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What Emily Maitlis did next
The News Agents sees former BBC presenters finding their voice – and also their feet – in the world of…
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Why everyone wants to be friends with Edward Enninful
The editor of British Vogue is one of a select few magazine editors who has come to transcend his title.
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Spin to win your energy bills? We’re living in a Black Mirror dystopia
This Morning’s tone-deaf prize shows up our late-capitalist hellscape.
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How University Challenge became a British institution
In its 60 years on the air, this arcane and obscure programme has become the nation’s best-known and longest-running quiz…
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