The Four Seasons to Flintoff: the seven best shows to stream this week
Netflix, from Thursday 1 May
With a botched surveillance operation followed by a shameful attempt at covering tracks, the killing of innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was a tragedy that became first a scandal, and then an insight into issues at the Metropolitan police. Jeff Pope's drama is a tense rendering of the events of summer 2005, dramatising the bombings on 7 July and the feverish atmosphere of the following weeks. It's rightly severe on the Met's top brass but, crucially, never forgets the story of the blameless victim – played stoically and sensitively by Edison Alcaide.
Disney+, from Wednesday 30 April
The first act of Andrew Flintoff's life – a brilliant cricket career during which he was the central figure in the greatest Ashes series of all time – was remarkable enough. What followed would have stretched the bounds of fiction if it wasn't true: Flintoff sustained life-altering injuries in a car crash before attaining national treasure status all over again thanks to his moving series Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams. This intimate documentary sees him in vulnerable mode, talking frankly about the anxieties of life in the public eye and the still-lingering trauma of his accident.
Disney+, out now
Chef's Table is 10 years old this month. And after a decade of luxuriously produced food porn, it's having a party. This anniversary show looks back over the decade and salutes a selection of chefs who have made a significant impact. These include Alice Waters, a passionate pioneer of the 'farm to table' movement that emphasises personal relationships with producers and regional terroir; José Andrés, who has combined high-end cuisine with humanitarian work; and our very own Jamie Oliver, who has democratised good cookery on reasonable budgets.
Netflix, from Monday 28 April
Sign up to What's On
Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday
after newsletter promotion
Back in 19th-century France, Antonin Carême became the first celebrity chef and laid the foundations of the French culinary tradition. After beginning his career in a cheap restaurant, he rose through Parisian society – first as a pioneer of exquisite and absurdly lavish table decorations, then as a master chef. This glossy drama depicts Carême (Benjamin Voisin) as an incorrigible sensualist – a man for whom food was simply one facet of the decadence with which he lived his life. It's a melodramatic and frequently risque telling of an enjoyably wild story.
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 30 April
Adapted from a graphic novel by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, this metaphorical and literal chiller from Argentina has vague echoes of The Day of the Triffids. A group of men in an underground bunker avoid a midsummer snowfall in Buenos Aires; what they find when they reach the surface is baffling and terrifying – the snow is toxic and precedes an alien invasion of Earth. With most of the population dead, there's an enemy army to fight and not many people left to do the fighting. Full of overfamiliar apocalyptic tropes but entertaining hokum all the same.
Netflix, from Wednesday 30 April
Is there anything new to add to the discourse around the Vietnam war? Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's 2017 series felt definitive but it's an itch that TV just cannot help but scratch. This latest offering marks 50 years since the war ended and benefits from an influx of Vietnamese witnesses: too often it's a story told exclusively from an American perspective. With its exploration of the effects of the war on US national identity, it also feels piquant in the context of the current turmoil across the Atlantic – Vietnam was a generational trauma whose effects are still being felt.
Netflix, from Wednesday 30 April
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Don't feel like you have to stop at one': the shiny, thrifty brooch revival
The white gold and diamond brooch set like a moving snake was not the first time Zendaya wore the jewellery category most associated with grandmothers. But due to its placement, it might have been the most talked about. In attendance at the Met gala, the Dune actor pinned the Bulgari brooch to the back of her white Louis Vuitton suit. 'The Met Gala really was prime time for brooches,' Melbourne stylist Stuart Walford says. While fashion critics have heralded the brooch's return to menswear for several seasons, lately it has found its way to women's lapels too. Also at the Met Gala, Sarah Snook pinned a cluster of silver brooches from Rahaminov Diamonds and Saidian Vintage Jewels to her blazer, Aimee Lou Wood and Doja Cat both wore brooches in the shape of flowers covered in tiny diamonds (by Cartier and David Webb respectively), while the event's host, Anna Wintour, complimented her pale blue suit with an antique brooch by Lydia Courteille. At the SNL 50th reunion Tina Fey wore an art deco T-shaped brooch, Cynthia Erivo wore several to the 56th NAACP Image Awards and, more than once, the fashion writer Leandra Medine Cohen has featured a 1930s Jean Cocteau fish pin on her Substack, The Cereal Aisle. The brooch also remained the accessory of choice for men at the Oscars with Kieran Culkin, Adrien Brody and Colman Domingo prettifying their suits with ones shaped like tear drops, feathers and ribbons – in that order. Perhaps unsurprisingly given their prominence on the red carpet, it's hard to find a major fashion house that doesn't have a brooch in its recent collections, from Gucci to Loewe and Schiaparelli. In Australia, designers Carla Zampatti, Edward Cuming and Mimco are also selling brooches. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning For Sydney jeweller Lucas Blacker, a brooch is 'almost like a tattoo'. 'It is a sign from the wearer to show their personality,' Blacker says. At his studio, Black Cicada, he is seeing more clients wanting to repurpose inherited jewellery or pieces they aren't wearing by turning them into brooches. Olivia Cummings, the jewellery designer behind Cleopatra's Bling, says: 'Brooches require care in their placement and a sense of ceremony in their wearing. I think people are craving that now.' The personal statement brooch has deep roots, evolving from simple pins used to hold garments closed in the bronze age to intricate adornments that communicated class, religion and marital status in ancient Rome. In the 18th and 19th centuries, brooches became the original Instagram-holiday-post, featuring micro mosaics of the European tourist towns they were bought in. More recently, the brooches of Madeleine Albright and Queen Elizabeth II were rumoured to carry coded messages. 'Brooches are conversation starters, that's what makes them so special,' Walford says. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion In some ways the brooch's rising popularity is consistent with the lipstick indicator, which suggests when economic times are tough people cut back on big purchases and turn to small, affordable luxuries – such as lipstick or, according to Walford, brooches. The financial appeal is twofold: they are a great item to thrift and they help the wearer freshen up their existing wardrobe without buying an entirely new outfit, he says. When styling brooches, Walford recommends balancing the proportions with the size of your lapel. 'If it's narrow, keep things small and delicate. For a large and oversized 80s-style lapel, you could go big.' 'Don't feel like you have to stop at one – if we learned anything from this year's Met Gala, it's that a brooch can be layered and stacked.' Alternatively, take a leaf out of Zendaya's book and fasten one to the back of a coat or dress – just watch out for your handbag strap if you do it. 'There are no rules,' Cummings says. 'I also love to wear them over the top button of a shirt or pinned to a straw hat in summer.' A brooch is a great way to break up an all-black outfit, to fasten a scarf thrown over the shoulders or to add some sparkle to a basket or handbag. If you're looking to start, or add to, a brooch collection, try searching for vintage brooches on secondhand sites such as Vestiaire Collective or online marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay and 1stDibs – the results page feels like rifling through a wealthy, bohemian grandmother's jewellery box. Antique stores and vintage markets also often have extensive brooch collections, if you prefer to peruse in real life. From gold nose-and-mouth sculptures by Salvador Dalí to 1980s Lanvin flowers and enamel and rhinestone sea shells – each pin contains the possibility of another, fancier world. At their best, brooches should feel like small sculptures – striking from afar but still full of detail when you come closer, Cummings says. 'Weight and balance are important but above all it should carry a sense of story.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The BBC's Unforgivable asks if we can ever forgive a child sex offender
Warning: contains spoilers It must be galling for the BBC to be reminded that it didn't make Adolescence. Four months post-release and it's still creating news: as Netflix's most watched show of the year with 145 million views, or picking up 13 Emmy nominations. The closest thing the BBC can offer is Unforgivable (BBC Two), a new one-off drama from Jimmy McGovern that mines a similar seam of social realism, and is also about a family coming to terms with one of them committing a terrible crime. As with all of McGovern's work, it is well written and impeccably acted. Those are the two elements on which Unforgivable needs to sell itself, because nobody thinks, 'A drama about a man who sexually abused his nephew? Must sit down to watch that.' Maybe that's why it's buried on BBC2 on a Thursday night. Also, there isn't much of a plot. It's more a study of a family torn apart. They are related both to the abuser and the victim, and how do they navigate that? For Anna (Anna Friel), it's straightforward. Her brother abused her son. She will never forgive him. She has been left to pick up the pieces: her boy, Tom (Austin Haynes) has stopped speaking since the abuse, save for 'yes' and 'no'. Anna, a single mum, has to homeschool him while also trying to hold down a job on the supermarket tills. Her mum has just died, so she is grieving and also supporting her newly-widowed dad (David Threlfall). It's a lot. Friel gives the best performance of her career, managing to make her lines sound improvised even though they're not. 'I'm a lousy mother who's doing the best I can,' she tells her kids. The real focus, though, is on the perpetrator. Joe (Bobby Schofield) is released from prison near the start of the drama. He moves to a hostel run by an ex-nun, played with unnerving stillness by Anna Maxwell Martin. He hates himself, but feels more guilty about the pain he caused his mother than the damage he did to Tom. It emerges, via therapy, that Joe was abused himself by a predatory football coach. This complicates things. Joe is both the abuser and the abused. That is true in many real-life cases, although a fellow victim of the coach points out that he was abused too but didn't turn out to be a 'nonce'. It's not a given. It's an unpalatable truth that the vast majority of children who are abused have been preyed upon by someone they know, many of them family members. McGovern isn't afraid to go there, but he also goes further by asking us if we can feel compassion for Joe. At times, this seems too big an ask, even if Schofield is impressive in scenes where the tears flow. Tom, by contrast, is a mute presence; we understand that this is a response to trauma – even if his mum, oddly, asks if he's doing it for attention or a bet – but rendering him voiceless feels unfair. Perhaps that's deliberate. Anna complains bitterly that she has been unable to get child mental health support for Tom, because the system is overloaded, yet Joe has therapy on tap. The ending is too neat, as if McGovern was told he needed to wrap it up on a positive note. Until that point, though, it's a thought-provoking piece on a subject that most writers would avoid.
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Stranger Things re-review: my verdict on episode 1 and 2
Join me in taking a trip back to Hawkins, Indiana as we rewatch Stranger Things from the start 📺 Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Stranger Things will conclude later in 2025. Before the final trips to Hawkins, let's go back to the beginning. Join me on a full week-by-week rewatch of Stranger Things. It is hard to believe but in a little over five months time, Stranger Things will be finishing up for good. Netflix's signature show and calling card has recently celebrated nine years since its debut - if you can believe it. In the near decade since it first burst onto our screens, The Duffer Brothers' 80s-themed sci-fi/horror adventure has ballooned into the kind of blockbuster you only see once, or maybe twice, a decade. The fifth and final season is bound to be an event unlike any in the history of Netflix. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But since more than three years have passed since the monster-length fourth season finale was released, you might (like me) be considering rewatching the show ahead of its conclusion. After all, you may want to jog your memory and relive the biggest moments once more. So I decided to put together a Stranger Things re-watch schedule, covering the months between now and the first part of season five on November 26 (in the UK). I will be watching and re-reviewing two episodes every Thursday starting today (July 24), and you can join me. For the first week of our Stranger Things rewatch club, we are going all the way back to the beginning. Let's take a look at the first two episodes of series one - que the theme music. Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Stranger Things | Curtis Baker/Netflix Synopsis: On his way home from a friend's house, young Will sees something terrifying. Nearby, a sinister secret lurks in the depths of a government lab. It might be hard to imagine, given what Stranger Things has become, but the show initially arrived as just another 80s-inspired show back in the summer of 2016. Yet going back to the first episode, it is no surprise that it quickly became an absolute word-of-mouth juggernaut. Right from the opening sequence, it has an air of extreme confidence and trust in its audience. Perhaps it is a lack of budget, but the restraint (something that can't be said for future seasons) is really impressive. The opening sequence sets the tone so completely in just a few moments - an unnamed scientist running for his life, scared of something the audience can't see, before being grabbed by whatever was hunting him. As a scene, it is tense and spooky, but most importantly it leaves you desperate to know more. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Truth be told, the whole opening episode is like that. It quickly gets its hooks into you in a way that not all pilots do. I remember back when most American shows had 22 episodes a season, the rule of thumb would be to give a show at least three episodes before deciding whether to continue or stop. Stranger Things does not need that. We get a real feel for the core characters in just this 50-minute episode - the dynamic of Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas is beautifully set up through the opening D&D game. It drops enough breadcrumbs about the adult characters like Joyce, Hopper and the teens, to leave you wanting to find out more. And we start to get a sense of geography and place about Hawkins. The restraint shown in the opening sequence at the lab is maintained during the scene in which Will disappears. Like the chase with the scientist, we do not see whatever it is that is hunting him - just ominous sounds and flickering lights. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It really does capture the vibe of reading a Stephen King novel on a chilly autumn night. I found myself wishing I had a blanket I could pull up to my chin during this scene. The elements that would go on to define Stranger Things are already present in this first episode. Shady government agents, unnatural goings on, references to Dungeons and Dragons and of course that pumping synth score. I am very glad that I could instantly hit play on the next episode. Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street Barb and Nancy in Stranger Things ep 2 | Curtis Baker/Netflix Synopsis: Lucas, Mike and Dustin try to talk to the girl they found in the woods. Hopper questions an anxious Jouce about an unsettling phone call. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Oh Barb, we hardly knew ye! If you weren't around in the early days of Stranger Things, you will not believe me when I say that the fandom around this extremely minor character was enormous. People started hashtags about Barb and there was a campaign called 'Justice for Barb' - which ended up influencing a part of season two. Think pieces were penned about the character, and what better time to bring that up than in her big moment. After the confident opening episode, chapter two is dealt the task of actually making Stranger Things into a proper television series. Will has disappeared, the plot has begun, the vibe of the show has been established, but how will it look episode by episode? Fortunately, The Weirdo on Maple Street picks up the baton and really runs with it. The trio of Mike, Dustin and Lucas (as well as Will) were so well introduced in the first episode - it was time for the rest of the cast to be expanded upon. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This is the episode where Eleven starts to become a character and not just some piece in the mystery. Sure, there are lots of questions about her powers and who she is - but we get the feel of her as someone who is looking for a place to belong and a flashback to what she is running from. Eleven's blossoming friendship with Mike (in particular) and the slapstick-esque moments when the boys are trying to keep her hidden are a highlight. The injection of levity really does help the show to maintain that 80s Spielberg adventure vibe - to counter the horror. This plotline also starts to introduce some of the wider 'mythology' of the show. It is the first time we get a reference to the Upside Down - as El recognises Will in a photo and uses D&D figures to explain where he is and what took him: the demogorgon. David Harbour continues to add deeper shades to Hopper, who could be simply a clichéd tortured detective figure. You can feel his grief and his feeling of being lost. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But it is really Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) who get the most to do in this episode. A lot is asked of both characters - and if the actors didn't absolutely nail the assignment, it could sink the whole show. Winona Ryder manages to keep Joyce from slipping into being a one-note hysterical caricature. Charlie Heaton also imbues Jonathan with a deep sense of melancholy that counters the more 'creepy' stalker vibes that the character can give off - the whole sneakily taking pictures thing is not it, chief. Steve and Nancy are yet to really step up and become the fan favourites they inevitably will - and they feel like the weakest part at this point. Although Nancy's friendship with the soon-to-be-doomed Barb does work well in this episode, the actors manage to imbue it with a sense of history. You can feel Barb's sadness as she worries about losing Nancy now that she is entering the 'cool' circle. It is a human moment that perhaps goes a long way to explain why people latched onto it so quickly back in 2016. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This earlier moment foreshadows the end of the episode, when Barb is left alone outside by the pool after being dragged to a 'party' at Steve's by Nancy. Alone and dejected, she drips blood from a wound into the pool and is snatched away. It is another tantalising cliff-hanger and concludes an episode that is just as strong as the premiere. Stranger Things really does come out swinging and makes one seriously good first impression on viewers. Now I have to resist the urge to hit play next. See you all next week. If you love TV, check out our Screen Babble podcast to get the latest in TV and film.
