Culture
/
Screenwriter

Donald Clarke

Whingeing about cinema and real life since 2009

Television

A glimpse of Gary Oldman as George Smiley.

You may not care, but a sad cadre of maniacs — let’s call ourselves The Lamplighters — are faintly obsessed with Tomas Alfredson’s upcoming adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I’m not altogether sure the film version …

Mark Gatiss’s History of Horror

Hang on a moment! I completely forgot to say anything about A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss on the BBC. If you’re reading this immediately after it was posted, you will still be able to catch the last episode on …

Sherlock Holmes won’t go away.

And why should he? Throughout the entire history of cinema, film-makers have enjoyed playing with the persona of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s cerebral, faintly demented private detective. The Internet Movie Database lists a truly impressive 231 film and TV projects featuring Holmes …

What is Benicio del Toro up to?

No, we’re not talking about the dodgy Wolfman movie. The issue is, rather, that deeply strange commercial for Magnum Gold choc-ices. You may have first noticed the campaign in its billboard form. Mr del Toro and his (more anon) co-star …

The Ten Best Sitcoms of All Time

Hey, June is here. What better way of frittering away the silly season than compiling some sort of pointless list? So here is the definitive chart of the best ever situation comedies. For the record — just to avoid confusion …

You, sir, are no The Ascent of Man!

Did you watch The Story of Science the other night on BBC2? It was all right. Michael Mosley is an engaging enough host and the programme brought us to some pretty locations. But, like too many documentaries these days, it …

Was Kermode pushed or did he jump?

I was just sitting down to write a piece on the strange case of Mark Kermode and the Film 2010 job when events suddenly made the story irrelevant. Way back in 1997, when Barry Norman left the BBC’s flagship movie …

One of the five best sitcoms ever is nearly available.

A little over a decade ago, RTÉ began repeating The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the middle of the day. Visiting favourite TV series from one’s youth is always a tricky business. Dad’s Army still looks like a 24-carat classic; …