“The claustrophobia of a small community is well-portrayed”

The Chemistry of Death

The Chemistry of Death, Paramount+

“The director has done a good job creating a sense of macabre eeriness in this village, which is full of odd people; a sort of Twin Peaks-lite vibe in rural England. There’s a great cast, including Lucian Msamati as the rather odd local GP and Alex Price as Gary, the world’s angriest, shoutiest man. Unless you’ve read the book (I haven’t) you really can’t know where it’s going.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Harry Treadaway is a soulful actor and the production is atmospheric, although it could make more of the Norfolk landscape. The claustrophobia of a small community is well-portrayed, and the film-makers deserve credit for eschewing a chocolate box, Midsomer Murders-style village for something that feels more commonplace.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

Britain’s Notorious Prisons, ITV1

“There is always a danger that programmes such as this fetishise the violence and those who perpetrate it. The talking heads were all former hard men who spoke of being shot through the eye or having part of their ear bitten off or beating someone to a pulp. They have all since turned their lives around, but I’m not sure what their recollections added to the sum of our knowledge, particularly when many of the stories were of their exploits on the outside. Thankfully, the programme featured other voices, including a former prison governor and GP. It also revisited George Blake’s escape from prison, which will always be a great story.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

That ’90s Show, Netflix

“You can come to it nostalgic for the halcyon days of the late 90s to mid 00s when (I’m going to play the odds here) you were younger and happier and watching a warm-hearted comedy that launched the careers of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Topher Grace and Laura Prepon. Or you can be nostalgic for the 1995 of the show, with all its carefully curated mid-90s sartorial and musical details. Or, as more of the old faces turn up, you can lose yourself in misty reminiscences about the original show, its carefully curated version of the 70s or even (if you can bear so much brown nylon reality) the 70s themselves.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

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