Bob Saget’s death last month stemmed from an accidental blow to the head, his family said in a statement Wednesday. The comedian and Full House star was found dead on 9 January in a Florida hotel room. He’d performed in the area the night before as part of a stand-up tour. “The authorities have determined that Bob passed from head trauma,” the Saget family said. “They have concluded that he...
If the polymathic Bamber Gascoigne was ever irked by the fact that he was best known to the British public for the phrase: “Fingers on buzzers … your starter for 10,” he never showed it. More than 30 years after his retirement as the quizmaster on University Challenge – a post he had held for a quarter of a century between 1962 and 1987 – the phrase still dogged his footsteps, despite everything...
Absurd as it seems, and resist it though we may, the universe continues to insist that the 90s were 30 years ago instead of 10 minutes. Thus, we are increasingly confronted by dramas that take the headlines of our youths and examine them as the pivotal moments of history they in fact were. At least they are not (quite yet) ancient enough to be treated with reverence or mystification. We 70s...
Everything about Gaslit (StarzPlay) is at the pinnacle of prestige television as it stands in 2022. It is based on a highly acclaimed podcast, Slow Burn (the Watergate season); it is a period drama that looks the business; it reframes a well-known historical story; and it is led by A-list movie stars, in this case Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Once, this combination of ingredients would have made...
Around the age of 11, I came close to being on Jim’ll Fix It. I was keen on cricket and my dad wrote to the Saturday-evening TV show asking if I could spend a day practising with the world-beating West Indies team, who were touring England at the time. The producers were apparently keen on the idea but in the end, the West Indies’ busy schedule prevented Jim from Fixing It for me. This would...
Worlds Collide: The Manchester BombingFive years on from the bombing of Ariana Grande’s concert at the Manchester Arena, this two-part documentary takes a personal approach in examining the lives that were affected by the terror attack. Tonight’s episode concerns victim Martyn Hett, who grew up only 10 miles from bomber Salman Abedi. Hett’s friends remember his caring nature and we hear how both...
June Brown, the actor best known for portraying Dot Cotton in the BBC soap EastEnders, has died at 95. Brown, who played the chainsmoking Christian and Walford stalwart between 1985 and 1993 and then from 1997 onwards, died on Sunday, according to the BBC. “We are deeply saddened to announce our beloved mother, June, passed away very peacefully at her home in Surrey on Sunday evening, with her...
There are few things these days that help keep together the tattered remains of a belief in the universe’s moral arc bending towards justice, but the continuing renaissance of Jean Smart is one of them. After substantial supporting parts in the television series Fargo, Watchmen and Mare of Easttown, the actor who started in the business in 1979 is now front and centre in HBO Max’s new comedy...
No one wants to hear this when Netflix drops a seven-hour miniseries, but Midnight Mass only really gets going in episode three. And, when it finally sets off, it doesn’t seem to know where it is heading. Directed and written (mostly) by Mike Flanagan of The Haunting of Hill House fame, this is a more philosophically ambitious take on spooky horror that searches for something profound, but...
Anew series of The Great British Bake Off is upon us. In just one week, 12 contestants will enter a big tent and be judged on their ability to create a wide variety of impractical food on demand. It must be daunting for them, but not as daunting as this – I am about to rank The Great British Bake Off 2021 contestants purely on the state of their biographies. Come back in a few weeks and you’ll...