I’m just going to say it: Basil Brush is brilliant. Funny, fast-paced, clever and cheeky. The canned laughter is weirdly appropriate, the funny sound and video effects make the thing seem really contemporary, and the super-ironic scripts respect the parents watching. Basil, a very small fox as I’m sure you’ll remember, has been integrated into [...]

Made in England by Seth Lakeman

Entirely satisfactory clash-of-cultures music doc from Devon folkie Seth Lakeman and Brummie hip-hop crew Moorish Delta 7 (MD7). Creativity and curiosity on both sides make for a thoroughly convincing ‘mash-up’ (I think that’s what the young people call this sort of thing). Heartwarming.
(Sorry, only two days to go on this one. Thought it was worth [...]

Citizen Smith: Corby

I really don’t know why this terrific series about being English works. It’s very unassuming. Presenter/writer Michael Smith is opinionated but modest, setting out with no assumptions. He travels around the country talking to people.  In the end, there’s no resolution. He didn’t figure it out: being English is just complicated. The final sequence of [...]