The dark heart of Strictly Come Dancing
The show, once celebrated for its wholesomeness, is now emblematic of an uncomfortable truth in TV entertainment.
ByBBC
Discover our latest in-depth features, special reports and analysis on the BBC, the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom.
Starmer suffers while Rayner goes raving – and the press can’t decide which is worse
The Sun dispatches a reporter to spy on Angela Rayner in Ibiza. Plus: what would a world without X look…
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Why Sherwood matters
The second series of James Graham’s Nottinghamshire-set BBC drama is event television at its best.
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The BBC has finally grasped how to manage a scandal
Jermaine Jenas must be surprised the Beeb dealt with a case so swiftly and soundly. Plus: has Labour killed print…
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How we broke the Huw Edwards story
Also this week: front-page thugs and swinging elections.
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The Huw Edwards crisis reveals the failures of BBC governance
A corporate culture, created over decades, has led the BBC into crisis.
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The BBC’s younger, sharper Rebus
This new adaptation – the bastard child of early Taggart and Happy Valley – reimagines Ian Rankin’s detective.
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Michael Sheen’s The Way is audacious, intellectual TV
This collaboration between James Graham, Adam Curtis and the actor asks big questions, and has things to tell us about…
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Why is The Traitors so addictive?
It’s just a game, and yet this elaborate wink murder is full of betrayal, revelation and bitchiness. It is so…
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Can anyone save the BBC from itself?
The cuts to Newsnight are a symptom of a broadcaster increasingly devoted to unchallenging content.
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How to save Newsnight
The show must rediscover what made it so radical in the first place.
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My role in the BBC’s Hamas controversy
Also this week: Margaret Thatcher’s candour and the loss of a wise friend.
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Two cheers for the mainstream media
Organisations like the BBC are the last defence against a post-journalistic world.
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The BBC’s Jimmy Savile drama is entirely gratuitous
The Reckoning exposes a rotten culture that serves up stories about abused women for entertainment.
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Russell Brand’s career was defined by misogyny – and audiences delighted in it
What a comedian chooses to joke about is revealing – and has a bearing on the world at large.
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The Woman in the Wall turns the Magdalene laundries into offensive melodrama
Ireland’s unfathomably cruel “mother and baby homes” are here just as set-dressing for a shlocky horror – as if the…
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Michael Parkinson – The last interview
The veteran talk-show host on broadcasting’s halcyon days, car-crash interviews and today’s “charlatans in high office”.
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The Huw Edwards crisis has revealed the BBC’s editorial blind spot
If the corporation is to survive, it needs a robust policy for covering celebrity scandals.
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Behind the rise of Amol Rajan
Former colleagues recall being “flabbergasted” by his success, but soon he’ll be presenting University Challenge. What’s his secret?
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Why Wimbledon is made for radio
I thought I had to see tennis to believe it – but BBC Radio 5 Live’s commentary has transported me…
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