MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Whither the art of fictional TV crime? It feels like most new whodunits nowadays fall into the increasingly crowded genre of “true-crime drama”. Try not to roll your eyes but here comes yet another series plundered from news headlines, rather than a writer’s … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Meet Rudolph and Hedwig Höss (Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller): a young, attractive, well-to-do German couple who live with their five children in a neat, spacious house in the bucolic Polish countryside. Friends and family often come to visit: their large, well-tended garden … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE When one reads something by a person termed a “royal expert” or “royal insider”, one normally expects to be served 80 per cent speculation by someone the Princess Royal once told to “naff off”. This is not so with Robert Hardman. For a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE “I’ll be home for Christmas, You can plan on me, Please have snow and mistletoe, And presents by the tree,” so sang American crooner Bing Crosby eighty years ago on his winsome wartime song I’ll Be Home for Christmas. The 1943 track was … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE 4. The Marriage Question by Clare Carlisle A luminously warm and intelligent reading of the courageous life, writing and philosophy of George Eliot, the 19th century’s wisest novelist. FWRead our full review. Buy the book. 3. Israelophobia by Jake Wallis Simons This powerful analysis … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There are two writers named Nicholas Royle: there’s the Nicholas Royle who’s a novelist and critic and used to teach at Manchester Metropolitan University; and there’s the Nicholas Royle who is a novelist and critic and used to teach at the University of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Trouble Every Day (2001) From that insidious Tindersticks soundtrack, to those predatory, unsettling hotel scenes, everything about French director Claire Denis’s deliciously dismal cannibal love story will haunt you for days afterwards. It might fall on the slower, sadder, more arthouse end of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Britney Spears holds nothing back in her short, bittersweet and extremely powerful memoir. Once America’s teen pop princess, she reveals that she was drinking, smoking and having sex by the time she was 14. She went through a horrific home abortion at the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE We’re just one week shy of Halloween, and it’s Eddie Kadi who has the most to fear going into tonight’s Strictly results show. He finished dead last on the leaderboard after performing an underwhelming samba on Saturday, and could well be heading into … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Paul Auster’s last novel, 4321 (2017), was an uncharacteristically sprawling affair. It contained many of his familiar meta-text games, but it painted them on a wider canvas than ever before. Baumgartner, Auster’s 17th work of fiction, is contrastingly modest: an aside, rather than … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Do tougher border controls – whether stricter visa regimes or more patrols at ports and beaches – reduce immigration? Government policy and ministerial speeches would certainly suggest as much. Yet the evidence suggests otherwise. Making it harder to cross borders can in fact … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from the dramas of Strictly Movie Week – particularly that bizarre early 10 from Shirley Ballas. Will Eddie Kadi nab another 10 in Week 4? He’s doing an American smooth to Sex Bomb, so … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Eileen could not be more of a cross between the midcentury noir of Patricia Highsmith and Jim Thompson if Carol had conceived a child with The Killer Inside Me. Commuting its way around wintry Boston in the 1960s, this teasing, wrong-footing semi-thriller, adapted … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It was a seriously dramatic Movie Week on Saturday night, with plenty of award-worthy performances and a few flops – plus head judge Shirley Ballas shocking everyone by awarding the series’ first 10 to Eddie Kadi’s freestyle Men in Black number. I reckon … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Are the celebrities ready for their close-up? Let’s hope so: it’s Strictly Movie Week! The first of this season’s regular theme weeks, it’s an extra excuse for the wardrobe department to pull out all the stops – either fuelling or overwhelming the actual … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Which celebrity will fill that ignominious role of first boot from the ballroom in 2023? Last year it was Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams (who frankly seemed relieved). Looking at the leaderboard after Saturday’s show, it could well be Nikita Kanda and Les … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Nigel Harman is the drama king Another smouldering acting performance from Harman, in a well-crafted storytelling routine by Katya Jones – their Viennese Waltz to Until I Found You by singer-songwriter Stephen Sanchez (aka Elton John’s distinctly underwhelming “surprise guest” at Glastonbury) was … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Why are our contemporaries so keen on buying, and presumably reading, new translations of the Iliad’s Iron Age reminiscences of Bronze Age combat? Some years ago, I asked the same question at the start of a lengthy article on the composition and editing … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Lupin, series 3, review: old-fashioned fun with Bond thrills and Gallic charm (and bad wigs) . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE So, is he or isn’t he? Dead, that is. If you’ve been hanging on since the end of Brassic’s (Sky Max) season four finale to find out exactly what became of Dylan (Damien Molony), as two masked thugs set about him on a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The title of Máiría Cahill’s searing account of sexual abuse describes, at one level, the appalling individual allegedly responsible. At another, it is a reference to WB Yeats’s poem, The Second Coming: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It was not a tremendous start for Martin Johnson and co in Grand Slammers, ITV1’s documentary in which members of the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning squad reunite to assemble a rugby team inside HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire. “Hello, mate. You interested in … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Worst programme title of the week, without question: Moulin Rouge: Yes We Can-Can! But that’s BBC Two’s arts coverage for you. It’s a documentary taking us behind the scenes at the Parisian cabaret venue, and it would make perfect daytime viewing if it … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Boys, which has delayed its fourth season owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike, is savagely satirical. Its most famous character, Homelander, is essentially a gonzo cross between Superman, Donald Trump and Hitler. Gen V is nowhere near as ferocious. But there are … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Had Edward I been a cricketer, argues David Mitchell, he would have played spin badly: “A smasher of the ball, not one for glancing or nurdling, or using his pad. Any edge he got on a delivery would have flown straight into the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE *spoilers below* The showstopper challenge was to make a cake in the shape of an animal; for Bake Off aficionados, this summoned fond memories of Cecil the Bread Lion in series six. Only Amos chose an animal that could kill you – an … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Michael Wolff is the biographer who, in his 2018 book Fire and Fury, brought us the image of Donald Trump tucked up in bed by 6.30pm, watching three screens simultaneously while eating a cheeseburger. Never mind the politics, it’s that image of the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Documentaries are all about how they are edited. “If anybody in this documentary, who you interview, says that Barry George did it, I think they need to see somebody… get help,” says Jill Dando’s former agent, Jon Roseman, in Netflix’s absorbing three-part reinvestigation … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Lydia Davis did not invent flash or super-short fiction; think of that one-line story sometimes attributed to Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” But she has, in recent years, become its most successful and prominent practitioner. Her work often plays with the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE What do novelists have against tech billionaires? Several recent books have used Elon Musk types as bogeymen, from the excellent (Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood) to the dire (Sebastian Faulks’s The Seventh Son). Done well, their inclusion gives real-world crunch to outsized conceits. Done … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Strictly Come Dancing 2023 week one: Golden oldies know how to get the party started . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Let’s face the music and dance! Last week, we saw our new celebrities paired with their pro partners; tonight, the competition begins in earnest. Each contestant is performing either a ballroom or a Latin dance – we’ve got plenty of cha cha chas, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE While the current fashion is for micro-history that examines a particular group’s relationship to the Empire, there’s much to be said for the kind of top-down vision that this book provides. For the colonisers, this is often deeply unflattering – no attempt is … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Given the widespread hostility to the costly occupation, the civilians of the Control Commission for Germany and the British Armed Forces stationed in the ravaged country had to produce tangible results fast. The men and women charged with that task form a colourful … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It’s often said of contemporary literature that too many novels look inwards, prioritising the experience of the self at the specific expense of the form’s imaginative and linguistic possibilities. Escoffery’s sourly funny If I Survive You might sound, on the face of it, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Sex Education, season 4, review: a series that once eschewed soppiness ends up encrusted in schmaltz . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE One of the many problems with our increasingly tribal world is that life can be especially difficult for those people whom no tribe is willing to admit. Trelawny, the central character in Jonathan Escoffery’s debut novel, If I Survive You, is the Miami-born son of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Mel Gibson’s biggest success was directing a gory retelling of the Crucifixion in The Passion of the Christ. So it’s fitting that Gibson should himself be subject to a bloody resurrection as one of the stars of The Continental: From The World of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The exhibition putting a human face on Britain’s prisons . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE To those who wonder why television revisits the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust with such regularity, the opening statement from Justice Robert H Jackson, speaking at Nuremberg, explains it in the simplest and most powerful terms. “The wrongs which … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE For a book whose subject is the raw grief of an 11-year-old mourning the death of her mother, Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane is surprisingly unemotional. Its sentences are softly-spoken, its affect mostly flat, its novella length – 161 pages – brisk and contained. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Make no mistake, however, this is not a hit job by Ashcroft. At least not on Sunak, anyway. Pitching him as an inherently low-tax Tory compromised by Johnson’s “desire to throw money” at any situation, the former party deputy chairman denies claims of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE If the lame pun in the title of Sex: A Bonkers History didn’t inspire much confidence then the sight of Amanda Holden as the lead presenter of this six-part history was a complete turn off. Holden is not known as either a budding … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Juice (BBC Three/iPlayer), a surreal comedy from 31-year-old actor and stand-up Mawaan Rizwan, throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. It is the kind of show that, in order to make the point, would literally have people throwing things at walls … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The 1922 Committee may not excite most people, but this account of its first century – for, as Philip Norton writes, it was actually founded in 1923 – exhibits impeccable scholarship and a degree of charm. Norton has not only, as a Conservative … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Elaine Feeney’s debut novel, As You Were (2020), followed a woman with terminal cancer whose fellow female patients, on the ward they shared, were reckoning with the shadows of shame and punishment cast by the Catholic Church. It was a masterwork of polyphonic … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Private HWB Palin drew one of history’s shorter straws. Having survived Gallipoli in 1915, in 1916 he fetched up on the Somme. His body, known only unto God, was never recovered. To participate in one of humanity’s bloodiest battles may be counted a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE A quietly beautiful novel, full of grief and English poetry . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It functions well as a history documentary because, as British Vogue editor Edward Enninful points out, these days models are booked based on their Instagram follower count. Back then, models came up the traditional way, doing catalogue shoots and entering competitions. Before the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The horrific story of infected blood in the NHS (and beyond) . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Elsewhere, daring twirls and plucky pirouettes were to the fore as the ratings juggernaut returned with a fresh batch of contestants vying for the Glitterball Trophy. Among the celebs stepping into the spotlight in a fast-paced and enjoyable first episode were newsreaders Angela … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Tina Turner, Dairylea Lunchables, RuPaul’s Drag Race, a Shetland pony. Dolmio sauce, a protractor, Abraham Lincoln, Alison Hammond. This is Picture Slam, a new Saturday teatime quiz, for which the four answers would be: BBC One, shiny studio, Alan Carr, just-killing-time-until-Strictly-comes-on. Whoever commissioned … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE 16 September 2023 • 6:20pm 6:20PM The professionals are ready Can Jowita Pryzstal repeat that astonishing success from her debut year? She certainly has both the talent and the determination. But the rest of Strictly’s returning pros will be eager to get their … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE In 1911, Ethel Proudlock, a married British woman living in Kuala Lumpur (then in British Malaya), shot dead a local manager called William Steward in the grounds of her bungalow. Proudlock claimed that Steward had tried to rape her; yet she was found … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Wúràolá is a doctor from a wealthy Lagosian family, cruising through the early stages of her medical career. Yet her family are more fixated on her fast-approaching 30th birthday and her marriage prospects to Kúnlé, a superficially charming family friend who in reality … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Record numbers of children have been missing from school since the pandemic, according to Helping Our Teens (BBC Two). The attendance officer at Beacon Hill Academy in the Midlands explained why: “Young people have got used to being at home. Parents have got … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Snowman, Peacock Theatre Bill Alexander’s gentle adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s eternally beloved book is still, in its 26th year, a pretty unbeatable first theatre outing for kids. Although it won’t just be the youngsters who are transported by that heart-stopping Walking in the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Four years have now passed, and I still struggle to get my head around the fact that David Gauke is no longer in the Conservative Party. The man is sceptical of utopian schemes, uncomfortable with current spending levels, distrustful of radical change and … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The title of this fantasy, Impossible Creatures, might just as well refer to Katherine Rundell herself, whose career seems almost too extraordinary to be true. At the age of 36, she has written eight books and an award-winning play; she has been appointed … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Then Cara, the other woman (played by Ashley Benson), bumps into them on the trip. What are the chances? The stage is set for a murder, which comes with an episode three twist so obvious that a toddler could see it coming. It’s … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Tolstoy said that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way, but anybody who reads a lot of novels may well think they’ve seen every possible permutation of familial unhappiness. Not the least of Paul Murray’s many achievements in his fourth novel, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE But the writers wimped out in the middle of series two by killing off Mitch. With that, the show’s dramatic engine puttered out. And so for series three, we’re left with a monotonous workplace drama with no decent storylines. Abortion rights in Texas, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Other Black Girl, review: a messily inconsistent take on racist workplace culture . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It’s 1988, and Sunday, a woman with autism, is living in a close-knit but sometimes unfeeling part of the Lake District. Having inherited her parents’ house, she has crafted an independent life, and is bringing up her headstrong teenage daughter, Dolly, who yearns for independence … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE New dating show My Mum, Your Dad (ITV1) arrives on screen billed as the “middle-aged Love Island”. Cause for alarm. Will we get a bunch of 50-somethings with ice-white teeth and those up-the-bum bikinis? Or will they spend their time in the villa … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE “Incredible hypocrisy by Boris Johnson.” “Baroness Hale’s behaviour was disgraceful.” “There are many words I’d use to describe what Michael Gove did. Betrayal. Deceitful.” Plenty of the salty old tunes came out again in Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos (BBC One) as a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The danger with writing about a person as mercurial as Elon Musk is that by the time your book comes out, they will have done something outrageous that you couldn’t include. For instance, Walter Isaacson’s approved biography of the tech billionaire is published … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The old guard are joined by marquee signing Mischa Barton, former star of The O.C., cannily cast to add international appeal. As a mysterious American stranger staying at Lassiter’s hotel, she’s a Dynasty-style femme fatale. Shaggy rescue dog Trevor proves a scene-stealer in … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE I didn’t get on with the first episode of The Woman in the Wall (BBC One). It was too odd, too disjointed. Was that bit a dream sequence, or did it really happen? Why is Ruth Wilson’s character so nuts? How come some … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The winner of Channel 4’s survival series, Alone, lasted 34 days in the wilderness. Well done to him, but for the viewer it felt like 34 years. The show involved 11 people being deposited at separate points in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with no … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Sasha Swire’s debut, Diary of an MP’s Wife (2020), gave us an insight into the kind of cliquey people who run Britain, not least one Alexandra Patrusha Mina Swire and her husband, Hugo, since elevated to the Lords. Set in the world of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE In a satire of his own imperial predecessors, the fourth-century Roman emperor Julian described the first, Augustus, as a “chameleon”. It was an apt metaphor. An emperor had no written job-description, and much of his success lay in his ability to adapt – … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE One of the unwritten rules of popular sitcoms is that things stay the same. Everyone wanted Joey from Friends to just keep on saying “How you doin’?” and not move away from the others to try his luck in Hollywood (and so the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Happily, we don’t have to wait 60 years for the Ellroy of the future to do a similar number on the Hollywood of today: Jordan Harper is on the case in his third novel, Everybody Knows (Faber, ★★★★☆). Although Harper cannot make hay … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Lovers review: old-school romantics will fall head over heels for this Belfast romcom . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE So it’s perfectly clear why Allan carefully overcomes his qualms when propositioned by Candy. She’s offering pleasure-based no-strings motel hook-ups, and she looks like Elizabeth Olsen. What Candy sees in such a quiescent lump of dough is a mystery that may need explaining. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It’s “the darkest / hour of the darkest / day of a Berlin black-milk winter”, and two women are sitting in a fifth-floor apartment. The opening of Yelena Moskovich’s fourth novel, Nadezhda in the Dark, is almost oppressive in its quietness. Nadezhda and … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Top Boy, series 5 review: a fittingly brilliant – and bloody – goodbye . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Ever wondered why factual TV has such boring, on-the-nose titles? It’s because programme-makers need to snare the scrolling channel-hopper, and they’ve got a split second to do it. Hence Mel Giedroyc and Martin Clunes Explore Britain by the Book (ITV1). That title tells … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Question. How many Geordies does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: 50. One to change the lightbulb, 49 to tell you (in a Geordie accent) “how great the people are!” Geordie Hospital (Channel 4) is back and as ever its mission is … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There’s been a change at that hinge hour in weekend current-affairs broadcasting. Sophy Ridge has migrated away from her regular berth and branched out to weekdays, to be replaced by her holiday cover. Hence Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips (Sky News): out with … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Rory Stewart was never going to be prime minister. He had far too many glaring flaws. For one, he’d held a variety of difficult jobs in the real world (soldier, diplomat, professor at Harvard), rather than becoming a Spad straight out of Oxford, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Ed Owens is a serious-minded academic, which can be a difficult gig when your specialism is royalty – a subject never given the weight it deserves. His new book, After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?, accordingly takes itself very seriously indeed. This … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Mick Brown, longstanding feature writer at this paper, most often covers art, culture and music; but he has an equally established sideline in the history of spirituality and religion. His previous books include American Heartbeat: Travels from Woodstock to San Jose by Song … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Has the internet sounded the death knell for children’s non-fiction? Such was the view of 26 children’s authors who, a few years ago, wrote to the Guardian warning that the genre was in terminal decline, with “endless” Horrible Histories imitations and not much … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Brooding clouds have gathered over Venice – and not just the ones that brought rain sluicing down on the heads of arriving critics as they scuttled down the alleyways to their hotels last night. The 80th edition of the city’s film festival is … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Richard Osman’s first three Thursday Murder Club mysteries are among the 10 bestselling hardback novels since UK records began; I suspect only nuclear armageddon or an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant plague can prevent this fourth entry in the series from muscling onto the list. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Abuse of Power is a promising title for Theresa May’s book. There is much she could say on the theme: how she ran government as a triumvirate with two unelected special advisers, keeping her Cabinet colleagues in the dark about things such … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Either way, few have begun to explain the phenomenon, and in this, Mounk excels. Compared to so many shrill denunciations and poor intellectual histories, which often reduce the problem to “blame Hegel” or “blame Foucault”, Mounk’s painstaking and thoroughly researched account is a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE ‘I’m going to have no space soon,” said David Hockney, 86, to Melvyn Bragg, 83. Space, for artists, tends to mean the place where they show their work. But that wasn’t the sort of space Hockney was referring to. “I’m going to die,” … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The first thing to say about The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies (BBC One) is that it’s unusual. That title for starters. Shows with titles that go on forever are already testing an audience’s patience, and must be damn sure … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Sebastian Faulks is the author of 15 previous novels, four works of non-fiction, and the best line of literary criticism I can remember. “Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel,” he once wrote, “is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Forget Oppenheimer – meet the wild scientist who invented ‘The Maniac’ . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Tower (ITV1) returned for a second series but since its debut run, seemed to have mislaid all its main selling points. When it arrived in 2021, this police procedural was characterised by the orange anorak worn by lead detective Sarah Collins (Gemma … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Who needs Barbie when we’ve got Cindy? In a summer of blockbuster blondes, villainess Cindy Beale made her Albert Square comeback after 25 years away. EastEnders (BBC One) was a camp, compelling Bank Holiday treat. Cue fireworks, face-slaps and a shot in the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Given the profound importance of the Hundred Years War – conducted between 1337 and 1453 between England and the French – on the subsequent history of both combatants, and indeed on much of Western Europe, it is astonishing that its details are so … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Kilkinure, boasts the roly-poly sergeant (Simon Delaney), “is a very boring town. I’m proud of that. It’s my job to make sure things don’t get interesting.” Not many writers can make this forthright blend of Grand Guignol and quipping levity come off. Shakespeare? … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The world of Midsomer Murders (ITV1) never gets less fanciful. This episode’s crime scene involved mysticism, sorcery, tarot readings and other manifestations of the hocus pocus industry. Meanwhile, on the undercard was a subplot about great crested newts, beavers and – oh hello … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE On the face of it, George Orwell’s novels don’t leave much room for sequels. Time and time again, the same story repeats itself: an attempt to break free from overwhelming social forces (money, middle-age, imperialism) ends right where it started, with all hope … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the University of California Berkeley’s Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging – but it makes for salutary reading. It demands that a low score be given to any applicant who “states the intention of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Brexit Derangement Syndrome is a terrifying condition. It can take intelligent people and turn them into the type of activists you see outside Parliament wearing blue berets with yellow stars. Consider the case of Peter Foster who, for many years, wrote sensible reports … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Remember the UK intelligence claim that Saddam Hussein could strike the UK with a ballistic missile within 45 minutes? The story goes that this was spun out of a two-year-old conversation with a taxi driver on the Iraq-Jordan border. One thing’s for sure: … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Who needs Cape Canaveral when we’ve got Cornwall? Forget Nasa, how about Newquay? From the farce-style title to the parochial theme, A Very British Space Launch (Channel 4) promised to be a gently wry documentary. A whimsical look at us peculiar Brits and … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Director Fred Scott’s excellent film about the London Bridge terror attack on 29 November 2019 was laced with bitter ironies. First among them was that two of the three men who tackled and stopped Usman Khan, after he had killed Saskia Jones and … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There are hurdles in life, there are hurdles in sport, and then there’s choosing to have your leg amputated seven months before competing in the Commonwealth Games. Luckily Alice Tai, a paralympic swimmer, has spent most of her 24 years overcoming hurdles with … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Irish writer Paul Lynch’s Booker-longlisted fifth novel, Prophet Song, is a book of encroaching terror, an atmosphere of foreboding seeded from its opening lines where “the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees. It gathers the last of the leaves and the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There are many things that didn’t make sense about the second season of And Just Like That… (Sky Comedy). Carrie’s aversion to saying the word vagina, despite the fact she earned millions writing columns, then books, about sex. How Miranda went from the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Her new brainchild would feature fairy grottos, a hobgoblin prison and the world’s largest play structure. Dream big, your Grace. One began to feel for the team tasked with making her fantastical visions a reality. “Working with Jane is a challenge,” said operations … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Mildly anxious that uncontrolled AI threatens to plunge civilisation into a dystopian hellscape? A tad alarmed about surrendering the future to superintelligences without human essence, conscience or heart? A Cambridge political philosopher wants you to calm down, dear, and listen carefully: we sold our … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Ahsoka represents an unashamed bid for the hearts and minds of hardcore fans. As with the titular character, General Thrawn is a big box-office draw in the Star Wars universe. Portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen, he’s kept intriguingly off-screen in the first two instalments. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Shelter opens with Mickey watching his father die in a car crash. He is promptly whisked from LA to small-town New Jersey, where he is put in the care of his slacker Gen X aunt, Shira (Constance Zimmer). He also makes a girlfriend … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There is a love interest for the redoubtable Lady Denham (Anne Reid, marvellous as ever) in the shape of an old flame, played by James Bolam. Meanwhile, Georgiana Lambe – the West Indian heiress who was Austen’s first black character – is the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE A recent Telegraph feature explored the idea of “eating like it’s the 1970s”. In this instance, it was a sensible consideration on the virtues of smaller portion sizes (as opposed to ‘“portion distortion”), and featured a fillet of salmon accompanied by two lettuce … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Henpocalypse! review: Strippers, bridezillas, Armageddon… hurrah for Britain's bawdiest new comedy . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The couple are also proud of their gypsy roots. Venezuela left school at 11 in the “traveller tradition”. Fury’s happy place is a caravan site a mile down the road, to which he takes off whenever he feels bored. Retirement doesn’t suit him. … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Everyone loves a ghost story. In the late 1990s, a farmhouse in North Wales gained notoriety as one of the most haunted houses in Britain. English couple Dr David Gower and his wife Rose-Mary moved into Penyffordd Farm in 1997. Soon they were … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE What makes a good documentary? Access to the subject. Compelling characters. A window into a closed-off world. Court Martial: Soldiers Behind Bars has all of this in spades, and shows how far Channel 5 has raised its game in recent years. The setting … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE “It’s all the drama, Mick, I just love it!” When the definitive list is written of TV’s great comedy characters, Alison Steadman in Gavin & Stacey has to feature. She and Larry Lamb played Gavin’s parents, Pam and Mick Shipman, and they were … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The 19-year-old star Millie Bobby Brown – known for Stranger Things, Enola Holmes and the Time 100 list of the world’s “most influential people” – has now written her debut novel. Nineteen Steps, set in the Second World War, is apparently based on … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It was a simpler time. Sinew, firepower and muscle mass would save the day, whatever day needed saving. Forget “Iron Man” or “Captain Marvel”: heroes could be identified by their first names – Sly, Arnie, Bruce – regardless of what roles they took. In … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE In June 1934, the story goes, the Russian poet Boris Pasternak received a call from Joseph Stalin. Osip Mandelstam – Pasternak’s contemporary, but a more forthright critic of the Soviet regime – had just been arrested. What, the tyrant wanted to know, did … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It was most notoriously the case in the 1930s, consideration of which forms a substantial part of Victory to Defeat (★★★★☆), Lord Dannatt’s and Robert Lyman’s detailed account of the Army from the eve of the Armistice to the Fall of France. Both … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Andrea Constand was a young employee of Temple University in Philadelphia when she met Bill Cosby. She had every reason to trust him: he was on the institution’s board and one of its most generous benefactors. More than that, he was the beloved … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Inside, a menagerie of spooks are wreaking havoc, and Ben has to work alongside a medium (Tiffany Haddish, with some funny lines) and a professor (Danny DeVito, with fewer) to neutralise the source of the ghosts’ disgruntlement. Perhaps inevitably, that disgruntlement can be … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Painkiller is framed as a testimony by Edie Flowers, a prosecutor who led the fight against Purdue. Flowers is fictional – unlike the equivalent character in Dopesick, Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard). She is played with impressive forthrightness by Orange Is the New Black’s … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE “Oh no, she’s about to talk to the camera again.” This thought will likely go through your head many times when watching Nicola Walker in Annika, which started life as a Radio 4 drama set in Norway and then became a Scotland-set television … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE I miss Ruby Wax’s interviews. The best ones were great. Rifling through the Duchess of York’s drawers, messing around with Carrie Fisher, sparring with OJ Simpson – they changed the face of celebrity encounters. Only Louis Theroux gets close to that kind of … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Salman Rushdie – still recovering from the attack last year that cost him the sight of one eye – has never been shy of confronting the excesses of British imperialism. Nor, quite rightly, has he been alone in doing so. Critiques of Britain’s … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Billions (Sky Atlantic/Paramount+) is back for a seventh and final series. It is not so much a grand farewell as a discreet truck to the glue factory. Having left after series five to spend more time with his family – his wife, Helen McCrory, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Remarkable Places to Eat used to be a series on the BBC, in which Fred Sirieix accompanied chefs to their favourite restaurants around the world. The chef bit was the programme’s USP: if Angela Hartnett (Venice) or Michel Roux Jr (Paris) say these … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Docusoaps can entertain even when the subject matter is mundane. One of the first reality stars in this country was Maureen Rees from Driving School, which was not a show exactly filled with thrills. A couple of years ago, Channel 4 had a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Billions (Sky Atlantic/Paramount+) is back for a seventh and final series. It is not so much a grand farewell as a discreet truck to the glue factory. Having left after series five to spend more time with his family – his wife, Helen McCrory, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE A book on parliamentary sleaze? Talk about perfect timing. Well, almost. These days, there’s so much parliamentary sleaze that no author could possibly keep up with it. I received my review copy of Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament more … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE At the risk of upsetting any readers who live there, the Bishops Avenue in London is the most overrated address in Britain. It’s lined with hideous houses that could just as easily be in Texas or Kazakhstan. The road straddles the A1. The … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Stranding people in the wilderness is not a new concept for reality shows. Ben Fogle and co did it in Castaway. There was a great Sunday lunchtime hangover show called Shipwrecked, in the early 2000s. The BBC is about to bring back Survivor, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE On waking up one day this January in Valencia, I was cheered by seeing from the window the burning colour of oranges against green leaves. They were just ripe for harvest. For breakfast, I was offered toast smeared with garlic and tomato, sploshed … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE A whole forceful and eloquent chapter of The Bible and Poetry is devoted to the futility of theological efforts to construct a consistent theory of the Lord’s Supper and of Jesus’s words, “This is my body”. Theologians, says Edwards, need a prior education … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Ever since Alien, no one has had any trouble seeing Sigourney Weaver in the role of ballbreaker-in-chief. More than forty years on from Ripley, she’s still at it. In The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Amazon Prime Video) she wears a broad-brimmed hat … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE True-crime documentaries give you all the drama of a fictional detective series but with none of the clichéd characters. We do not learn that the police officers have a tragic past, drink problem or tricky relationship with an ex. The focus isn’t on … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Let’s face it, as there has been no competent artist since the death of Augustus John, a pig wielding a brush is as good as any. Joanne Lefson, who describes herself as the “personal assistant, creativity mentor and curator to a 300-kilogram-plus painting … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Will we ever be able to look Gregg Wallace in the eye again without thinking of human meat? The presenter was last seen in Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat, a mockumentary in which he sampled steaks made from cash-strapped NHS workers and … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Anton Du Beke has always been a consummate performer – not just on the dancefloor, but in all his public appearances. I remember sitting in the studio audience during an early series of Strictly Come Dancing, and while the other professional dancers gave … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Once, when trying to articulate why some sports appeal to me and others do not, I produced a formula. Balls = good. Boats/wheels/quadrupeds = zzz. This watertight theorem sprang a massive leak when Brits on bikes started winning. And none won more than … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Idris Elba saves the day in the finale of Hijack. I don’t think this needs a ‘spoiler alert’ because, really, were you expecting anything else? The ending was signposted from the moment Idris Elba strolled onto flight KA29 in episode one. His character, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Pipework needed to be routed from the couple’s garage through the loft. All the radiators had to be upgraded. A team of six workers would take more than a week to complete it. Some homes will need extra insulation, and perhaps double glazing, … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE In America, there is exactly one universal health program that has somehow escaped the rhetorical alarums about “socialised medicine”. Anyone who needs dialysis for kidney failure can get it, free at the point of use. The service may be provided by big corporations … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein This is the haunting tale of a woman going to live in a “cold and faraway land” as housekeeper to her recently divorced brother, who lives in a rural mansion near a village where the inhabitants seem to … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Shadow of Truth (BBC Four) is an absorbing true-crime series that challenges your assumptions. What appears at the beginning to be an open-and-shut case turns out to be anything but. Or maybe it is, and the police did get it right in the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Now, you could say there is a decent mystery in who these two really are and why they are targeting this particular family. But it is obscured by a sheer unpleasantness that taps into our deep-seated fears: of home invasion, torture, the threat … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE How to Be a French Girl is deceptive. Rose Cleary’s debut novel follows a nameless receptionist, who, on the basis of very little interaction, falls in love with Gustave, a French businessman. This could have led to a familiar tale: from online flirting … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that’s actually good? Cowabunga to that! . MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE What is British nature-writing trying to tell us? The last few decades have given us biographies of birds and animals; journeys through wild places; histories of homes built on islands and beyond borders. Writers and readers (not to mention publishers) continue to pay … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE While the BBC was in convulsions over Huw Edwards, Irish television was rocked by a scandal of its own, involving undeclared payments to top presenter Ryan Tubridy (imagine Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross and Alan Partridge rolled into one). What angered payers of the … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The sights, sounds and smells of royal life across the centuries were brought quirkily to life in Buckingham Palace with Alexander Armstrong (Channel 5). For better or worse, it was the smells that stayed with you. Pointless quizmaster Armstrong, joined by archaeologist Raksha … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE “Doesn’t everybody want to learn, to explore,” one narrator asks in Diane Williams’s 12th collection of often very short stories. The list of universal desires continues: “interpret the actions of people”, “add in what romance I can”, “play with what little I have … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE This review contains spoilers Could the endless revivals of the 1980s and 1990s finally be over? Based on the opening to BBC One’s new sitcom, The Power of Parker, both decades deserve to be banished to Room 101. Here we are, being walloped … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE It’s been a good month for wondrous guest stars. First, Olivia Colman rocked up on The Bear, in a scene that could almost have been captioned, ‘We’ve got Oscar-winner Olivia Colman on our show, how’s your week going?’ and now Meryl Streep, no … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE But then the show delivered a powerful shot of nostalgia, which is the reason we’re all here. Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda went for lunch, without any of their boring plus-ones. Just like the old days! Miranda scored a hot date with a woman … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Take an expired cultural obsession or briefly profitable fad, dig around for what made it boom, and/or bust, give it a slick spin and day-glo visuals, and you’re off to the races. In theory. The Beanie Bubble – it’s about Beanie Babies, a … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE The Great British Bake Off’s sister shows continue to captivate as much, if not more, than the mothership contest. The Great Pottery Throwdown has become a kiln-fired winter treat, thanks to adorably soppy judge Keith Brymer Jones. Now the latest series of The … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Yorkshire and Cornwall are so last season, darlings. Channel 5 departed from its usual UK travelogue beat for a jolly jaunt around the southwest. Dorset: Country and Coast (Channel 5) rambled around the picturesque county’s rural landscapes, ravishing seasides and colourful characters. Narrated … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE There have lately been complaints that novelists are spurning old-fashioned children’s adventure stories, in favour of domestic dramas about mental health and family breakdown. The judges of one fiction prize recently complained of a “depressing children’s literary landscape”. But Judith Eagle bucks any … Read more
MY NUMBER 1 RECOMMENDATION TO CREATE FULL TIME INCOME ONLINE: CLICK HERE Or maybe there isn’t a lot of plot to begin with. Series one, retelling the novel in full, saw Aziraphale and Crowley jinxing the Anti-Christ and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This time, there is no book to adapt. Working from a … Read more