On Television
Memories of a massacre
Rinder’s documentary is the kind of television at which the BBC excels, says Adam Lebor
The universal appeal of self-pity
Zeinab Badawi’s ‘The History of Africa’ (BBC World News)
Learning to love Big Brother
A contemporary political drama uses the double whammy of Covid and Brexit to reanimate older, primeval forces
Reviving the inner anarchist
A new series shows Britain sliding into authoritarianism. Sound familiar?
Lost dream of coexistence
Adam LeBor delves into The Bureau, the utterly absorbing French spy thriller series
A trauma that never ends
Adam LeBor commends the BBC’s latest documentary on the Iraq war
Rave that runs out of puff
Summertime and the streaming is easy, but Netflix’s White Lines leaves Adam LeBor cold
Shakespeare in the West Bank
Adam LeBor has found one of the most immersive, and exhausting, experiences television has to offer
We have been here before
A 1970s drama played on a nagging sense that modern life was fragile
A tale of two Harrys
Adam LeBor on the sharply written TV show: The Windsors
Defend the arts … before it’s too late
It will take more than a new government and a bonfire of policy documents to put things right
Portraits in cowardice
Conservative MPs need to rediscover their spines if they want to be effective
The porn Olympics
Porn puts young men and women in a degrading race that most of them are doomed to lose — so why are athletes lending it credibility?
Diversion, disruption and distinction
Being memorable and sticky guarantees a novel a long and healthy life
The hollowness of postliberalism
Its vagueness and sentimentality encourage political opportunism
A neglected radical
Guillaume Guillon-Lethière was an artistic and social pioneer
Swiftism’s role in saving the V&A Museum
The unconventional Englishness of the Taylor Swift phenomenon
The riots and the social media blame game
Politicians blaming social media for the riots are hiding from state failings
Where are the real statesmen?
Neither populists nor managerialists can rule
Just stop
A new wave of disruptive protest is openly criminal, yet is minimally policed. It is time to say enough — and ban them all
The final death of left v. right?
Old political categories are losing their value
