The highs and lows of Christmas TV 2022
From the Motherland special to the return of Happy Valley.
ByBBC
Discover our latest in-depth features, special reports and analysis on the BBC, the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom.
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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Adam Curtis’s magic lantern through Russia
The documentary-maker’s new series shows how a country traumatised by the failures of communism and capitalism ended up with Vladimir…
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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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The Elon Musk Show is a portrait of a disturbingly boyish billionaire
This BBC documentary reveals Musk to be more of an overgrown toddler than a visionary. His success seems almost accidental.
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The last thing Tories like me want is cuts to BBC World Service
Foreign language broadcasting, so often a vehicle for soft power, is exactly what justifies the licence fee.
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