Happy Valley is back – and still richer and deeper than any other police procedural
Sarah Lancashire’s performance is marvellous in Sally Wainwright’s small town saga.
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Discover our latest in-depth features, special reports and analysis on the BBC, the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom.
The New Statesman’s best TV shows of 2022
The highlights of the year, from The English to The White Lotus.
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Why brass music has such a special relationship with Christmas
There is something particularly cheering about horns playing festive favourites as the temperature drops.
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Is Robbie Gibb out of control at the BBC?
The former Tory aide’s lecture to Newsnight staff over impartiality has intensified concerns over his role at the broadcaster.
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The highs and lows of Christmas TV 2022
From the Motherland special to the return of Happy Valley.
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Nick Robinson’s Media Notebook: On Berlin’s dark past, and in defence of the Today programme
Gazing down from the Reichstag’s glass dome, I was reminded that Britain is not alone in facing unstable politics.
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The last bell foundry in Britain
This peek inside the John Taylor bell foundry is a ringing endorsement for BBC radio storytelling.
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Even Claudia Winkleman can’t make The Traitors watchable
The BBC’s latest stab at a reality show, with a murder mystery-style twist, is a convoluted extravaganza of tedium.
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The hypocrisy of Zara McDermott’s disordered eating documentary
The BBC can’t pretend a show hosted by a fitness influencer who posted restrictive meal plans on Instagram is a…
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Ofcom chair Michael Grade: “My opinions are valueless here – it’s liberating”
The Tory peer is 79, doesn’t use social media and abhors “woke apparatchiks”. Is he the man to regulate Big…
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How The Shipping Forecast became the nation’s favourite lullaby
In the BBC podcast The Sleeping Forecast, the distinctive maritime weather report is read over classical music – with soporific…
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The unbearable complacency of the Today programme
Arch presenters, clichéd reporting, soft interviews: no wonder BBC Radio 4’s stale morning show is rapidly losing listeners.
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Why do humans kiss? Procrastinate? Take risks?
In a new radio series, the palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi reveals how science can help us rethink our behaviour.
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Phil Jones’s Diary: Climate change up close, the nightmares of history and working with my old friend Jeremy Vine
Dying trees on a trip to Germany are a reminder that politicians are doing too little to address the climate…
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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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The male, pale Haçienda myth
A new BBC documentary cements the dull cult of nostalgia around Manchester’s acid house scene and neglects the black and…
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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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Daisy May Cooper’s Am I Being Unreasonable? is dark, strange comedy
Cooper’s follow-up to This Country is part Julia Davis, part Motherland – with the odd flash of genius.
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Have I Got News For You creator: “Being good on telly is not necessarily a good CV for being prime minister”
Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of Hat Trick Productions, wants no credit for Boris Johnson’s career but wouldn’t have him back on…
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