Tim Stanley, Author at Catholic Herald

Tim Stanley

Why is Civiltà Cattolica attacking American Christians? I have a theory

July 16, 2017

If the essayists are allowed to engage in corny psychoanalysis, then permit me to do the same

Television: Love Island girls who just want a husband

June 22, 2017

Love Island (ITV2, weekdays, 9pm) isn’t a reality show, it’s a wildlife documentary. Take six horny girls, put them with six horny guys and whichever couple proves to be the horniest wins. It’s mostly tongue-in-cheek, but sometimes touches upon important issues. During a saucy game of “I have never”, the host asked: “Who here has

Television: Dystopian drama takes aim at liberals

June 15, 2017

The Handmaid’s Tale (Channel 4, Sundays, 9pm) isn’t an easy fit for the small screen. It’s the story of Offred, a woman living in an American dystopia called Gilead. Here, infertile nutcases harvest fertile women for surrogate breeding, under the guise of religious fundamentalism. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel is told entirely from Offred’s point of

Television: A drama that grasps the Church’s mystery

June 08, 2017

Catholicism runs right through the writing of Jimmy McGovern. Sometimes it’s a seam of gold, other times it’s poison. The movie Priest (1994) portrayed the Church as a barrier to genuine Christianity: bigotry conspires to defrock a good cleric. In Broken (BBC One, Mondays, 9pm), however, the Church comforts the desperately poor. Sean Bean plays

Television: A comical trial of Britain’s legal system

June 01, 2017

It’s hard to tell what The Trial is supposed to be. Channel 4’s reality drama puts Simon Davis on trial for the murder of his ex-wife, Carla Davis. The Davises, their lovers and character witnesses are played by actors; the judge, lawyer and jury are ordinary chaps like you and me. So the murder is

Television: Lost girls sacrificed to liberal ideology

May 25, 2017

Watching Three Girls (BBC One, Tuesdays, 9pm), I kept thinking: “This is how people are.” Not all people, thank God. But in a part of Rochdale – half forgotten, half ignored – there were three girls, three of many, who were raped repeatedly by older men. The girls were mostly in care; the authorities didn’t

Television: This is the perfect comedy for 2017

May 18, 2017

I have to say a word in defence of All Round to Mrs Brown’s, the BBC One series that has just ended (but can be found on iPlayer). Leftie columnists say it’s the embodiment of Brexit – a 1970s-era, live-audience sitcom dredging up memories of a cosy past. And what’s wrong with that? Not all

Television: A drama that made me feel sick to my soul

May 11, 2017

Benedict XVI once noted that in the early Church, converts were asked to renounce not just the Devil’s sins but also his pomp. Pomp partly referred to the ancient theatre where it was considered entertainment to watch men torn apart by animals. Centuries of horror in art implies that man has a cathartic need to

Television: Humbled by the good Brothers of Bradford

May 04, 2017

Don’t you find that good Catholics embarrass you? The BBC documentary Bronx to Bradford: Friars on a Mission (available on iPlayer) left me feeling morally inadequate. The show follows the lives of the Franciscan Brothers of Bradford, a town that tells the story of Catholicism in modern Europe – a tale of decline and, one

Television: Doctor Who? It’s more like EastEnders in space

April 27, 2017

Doctor Who is showing his age. His ratings are down; critics are bored. The problem is this. Classic Who, which ran from 1963 to 1989, reinvented itself about once every three years. There was hippie Who, gothic Who, scary Who and silly Who. New Who has been running since 2005 and only really had two

Television: Prudish Waugh would approve of this Decline

April 13, 2017

The genius of Evelyn Waugh was his ability to be both moral and malicious, to find joy in just how wicked we really are. Decline and Fall (Fridays, BBC One, 9pm) is an adaptation of his first novel – the story of Paul Pennyfeather, an innocent undone by the selfishness of other people. Paul had

Television: Thriller that sends us to bed with shaking bones

April 06, 2017

I hate it when people describe television as a rollercoaster ride, but there is one sense in which Line of Duty (BBC One, Sundays 9pm) fits the description: your heart is racing before it even begins. Four seasons of this cop drama have trained the body to expect thrills. Each one has been nastier and

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