Tim Stanley, Author at Catholic Herald

Tim Stanley

Television: In Sunderland, no one can hear you scream

March 30, 2017

Every detective has to have a gimmick. Vera Stanhope’s is that she’s from the north. Apart from wearing a floppy hat, I can’t see that she’s got much more going for her than that – although on television nowadays, a regional accent is as rare as a ballet. Vera (ITV, Sundays 8pm) works for the

Television: The bored youths of Brexit Britain

March 23, 2017

I had some very bored summers as a child. And that was pre-internet. The suburbs are not designed for teenagers – is anywhere? – and there’s only so much adolescent angst that mini-golf and Top Trumps can cure. Occasionally, a friend and I would prank-call strangers. We’d pretend to be deaf Latvians, jilted lovers, that

Television: In Broadchurch no one looks innocent

March 16, 2017

There’s quite a lot wrong with Broadchurch (ITV, Mondays 9pm), the whodunnit set in a village of the damned on the English coast. It’s a village of the guilty, actually – for every character acts guiltily even when they’re alone and even when they’re innocent. Even the victim behaves as if she’s up to no

Television: A most Anglican Sunday evening in

March 09, 2017

The Rev Richard Coles has that classic Anglican vicar look. A half-smile containing lots of teeth. Wise, but wise enough not to let it show. Wild hair. A big belly. His kitchen is probably full of unopened jars of parishioners’ jam. He also co-hosts a television show about painting, which is par for the course

Tim Stanley: Why the West should envy India

March 09, 2017

I wouldn’t say you “see” India so much as experience it. I’ve just returned from a two-week tour and my abiding memory is rubbish. Rubbish, rubbish everywhere. There is no refuse collection, and plastic lasts forever – so the ground was littered with white knives and forks. Even in the Himalayas, where it looked like

Television: Mum, you’re right: SS-GB isn’t very good

March 02, 2017

Mum likes nothing more than to turn the television volume up to the highest setting and put the subtitles on at the same time. She says the actors mumble. I say she’s going deaf. When SS-GB (BBC One, Sundays) premiered on Sunday night, I decided to take a stand. The show started, Mum reached for

Television: A dangerously alluring Hitler documentary

February 23, 2017

Netflix has put Hitler: A Career online, which is a bit of a surprise. When this two-and-a-half-hour documentary first hit cinemas in 1977, Germans queued around the block to see it. It purported to be the first objective analysis of how Hitler mesmerised the voters and came to power. Siegfried Lenz, the novelist, called it

Television: Cheap, predictable and an absolute joy

February 16, 2017

Designated Survivor (Netflix) must have been easy to pitch: “It’s Homeland meets House of Cards.” “Sounds good.” “Plus we add Jack Bauer from 24.” “Ooo!” “And get this … Jack’s the president.” “I love it! But is Kiefer Sutherland happy to be hated by everyone?” It’s the most cynical bit of rehashing since Police Academy 12:

Television: Midlife affair is more disturbing than saucy

February 09, 2017

Apple Tree Yard (BBC One, Sundays, 9pm) sounds like a children’s television series, featuring a singing pig and dancing ducks. Instead, it’s where married mother Yvonne Carmichael, played by Emily Watson, meets her phantom lover for adulterous intercourse. She is a scientist; the phantom is a mystery man she met in Parliament who claims to

Television: To be a great talent show, it has to be bad

January 19, 2017

The BBC is simply too polite to do a talent show. The X Factor, which remains the best, is cheerfully chavvy and rude. Girls in tight dresses singing Under My Umbrella like a cat trapped in a tumble drier. “You’ve got no talent, darlin’ – sling yer ’ook!” Fun. Let It Shine (Saturdays, 7pm) brings

Silence shows that priests aren’t therapists – they’re here to help save our souls

January 13, 2017

Critics have reduced Silence to a missile in the culture wars. It's so much more than that

Television: This Sherlock Holmes is a poor imposter

January 12, 2017

I do find it hard to watch a lot of modern television. I am, for instance, probably too old to enjoy Sherlock (BBC One, Sundays, 9pm). It moves too fast; the characters mumble. There’s a lot of snappy wit that, to me, sounds like old jokes sped up. And I have happy memories of a better

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