TV: Ripper Street
It still feels like a mystery that this pleasingly grimy period procedural was so readily cast aside by the BBC. But Auntie’s loss continues to be Amazon’s gain as it unveils the fourth season. As cutting-edge technology (in the shape of the telephone) hits Whitechapel nick and Queen Victoria prepares to celebrate her diamond jubilee, Bloom’s murder conviction still casts a long shadow. But Jerome Flynn’s Drake has more immediate issues to contend with, not least a murder in the docks that has caused ructions between angry locals and assumed interlopers from the colonies.
Amazon Prime
TV: War And Peace
Andrew Davies’s adaptation of the Tolstoy tome has received some criticism for feeling a shade too much like a conventional costume drama, with the Guardian’s Stuart Jeffries describing last weekend’s opening episodes as “the delusive Sunday night fantasy of a past that never existed”. That may be the case, but as Sunday night fantasies go this is a pretty high-quality one, boasting a superior cast – Paul Dano, Gillian Anderson, Mathieu Kassovitz – and some lovely visuals. The mud and muskets of the battle scenes, meanwhile, add some welcome bite to proceedings. Catch the opening episode on the iPlayer.
TV: Kabul Kitchen
This comedy-drama is one of the more intriguing offerings on C4’s new Walter Presents platform. Taking the entirely justifiable view that even the world’s more troubled corners can be mined for humour, this show was a big hit in its native France as the co-creator Marc Victor dramatised experiences he had while running a French restaurant in Afghanistan in the mid-00s.
TV: F Is For Family
Political correctness comes face to face with ironically deployed 70s gender politics and the distancing effects of animation in this Netflix original. F Is For Family takes the Family Guy template and applies it to an era when an all-American dad could crack open a Bud on a quiet stretch of road and not expect raised eyebrows. How long the joke can be sustained remains to be seen but it will be fun while it lasts.
Netflix
Audio: The Adam Buxton Podcast
In what will have been the best present many Black Squadron members received this Christmas, December saw Joe Cornish join old pal Adam Buxton for two brand new hours of chat. The greatest duo ever to grace the airwaves (and that’s a fact), the pair retired their 6 Music show in 2011, making rare reunions like this events to be cherished.
