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PADAM MADAM (KYLIE)

  KYLIE Inevitably, a streaming service has a documentary about Kylie Minogue. Why wouldn't they? Celebrity documentaries are surefire hits, with oven ready audiences ready to lap them up. Over the years, we've seen docuseries on  The Beatles ,  David Beckham ,  Charlie Sheen ,  Arnold Schwarzenegger ,  Wham ,  Martin Scorsese ,  Steve Martin  and  Simone Biles . Some are tightly controlled affairs - especially if the subject is executive producing.  Others are bit more loose and revealing Irish filmmaker Michael Harte's three part documentary 'Kylie' has landed on Netflix after the Australian pop singer negotiated a deal with the streaming service on 2024. Like 'Beckham,' which Harte produced, it's never going to wield a cudgel as it pores over her life. You know from the off that in all likelihood, it will paint her in the best possible light. However it feels like a little less controlled, as its subject opens up her archive and ...
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CUSTOMS MADE (LEGENDS)

  LEGENDS In recent years, Dundee writer Neil Forsyth has been making a name for himself as one of the best television dramatists working in the UK. The creator of the much loved Brian Cox led sitcom ' Bob Servant Independent ,' he caught a lot of critics' attention with the BBC4 television film ' Eric, Ernie and Me ' in which Stephen Tomkinson played the comedy Eddie Braben who worked for Morecambe and Wise. Fellow Scot Mark Bonnar, who played Eric Morecambe in that drama, teamed up with Forsyth again for three series of the dark BBC Scotland comedy drama ' Guilt ' with Jamie Sives, Emun Elliott and Ruth Bradley. A show about two brothers in Leith who get sucked into Edinburgh's underworld after being involved in a hit and run accident, it was both a critical and ratings success. Forsyth further cemented his place as one of British television's best contemporary dramatists with ' The Gold ' on BBC1 with Hugh Bonneville, Emun Elliott, Charlot...

QUESTION TIME (THE ASSEMBLY UK & THE ASSEMBLY IRELAND)

  THE ASSEMBLY UK, S2 Now that the novelty factor around 'The Assembly UK' has gone, does ITV's probing interview show still impress? For the uninitiated, 'The Assembly' sees celebrities facing a grilling from people with autism, other neurodivergent conditions and learning disabilities. After a BBC pilot with Michael Sheen, Series One saw actors Danny Dyer and David Tennant, singer Jade Thirwall and footballer turned broadcaster Gary Lineker take part in a show where no questions are too hard or out of bounds. It made for gripping viewing as some of the celebrities shifted uncomfortably in their seats and occasionally teared up. The show was critically acclaimed, winning a Royal Television Society award for Formatted Popular Factual Programme and earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Factual Entertainment Programme. However it was not without its critics, with some in the autistic community accusing it of being patronising and  treating its interviewers like "zo...

MEET THE FECKERS (BEEF, S2)

BEEF, S2 Can lightning strike twice on Netflix for Korean American screenwriter and director Lee Sung Jin? Two years ago, it did when he paired Steven Yuen and Ali Wong in ' Beef ' - a cautionary tale about an escalating feud between two strangers, arising from a road rage incident. Now he's back with a new story about people behaving abominably, turning 'Beef' ino an anthology series. But does the new version of 'Beef' hit the heights of its predecessor? This time, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny,  Oscar winner  Youn Yuh-jung from ' Minari ' and ' Parasite ' star Song Kang-ho are there to add some acting heft to proceedings. Isaac and Mulligan play Josh and Lindsay Crane Martin, a power couple with a wobbly marriage who run a Californian country club. Returning home from a function at the club, the couple get into a fierce argument about Josh's debts and the state of their marriage. Josh has left his wallet behind at the club ...

TOO LATE FOR GOODBYES (THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: FINALE)

  THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: FINALE It was never going to be a normal episode. But that didn't deter the host, writers and producers of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' from trying to stick to the formula the best they could. As usual, there was a monologue, a rather iffy sketch, a 'Meanwhile' slot, a big celebrity interview and even a Colbert Questionnaire. However no matter how hard Colbert and his team tried, it was hard to shake off the overwhelming sense of sadness that this wasn't just the end of his reign but the end of 'The Late Show'. As a result, the whole show felt flat. Hollywood stars from Bryan Cranston to Ryan Reynolds to Billy Crystal and Robert de Niro hadn't come to just praise Colbert but bury a talk show. Rather surprisingly, Colbert's monologue felt uncharacteristically timid with no mention of President Donald Trump. Interruptions from Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, all pretending to be expecting to be the...

THE WRITE STUFF (ROOSTER & AMANDALAND, S2)

ROOSTER Looking for a show to fill the void left by having to wait for the next season of ' Shrinking '? Then maybe Steve Carrell's new sitcom is the answer. Set on a university campus in New England, 'Rooster' sees Carrell play Greg Russo, the author of a series of popular novels about a private investigator. Invited to speak to Ludlow College students by Danielle Deadwyler's English professor Dylan Shephard, going to the university enables him to rekindle his relationship with his daughter, Charly Clive's Katie Russo who is a lecturer. Katie's marriage to Phil Dunster's fickle academic Archie has, however, fallen apart. Archie has left Katie for Lauren Tsai's grad student Sunny who is pregnant with their child. Katie is so distraught by his betrayal, she breaks into Archie's home and burns his prized possession, a first edition of 'War and Peace' by throwing it in the fire, only for his entire house to go up in flames. With Katie fa...

MEAN STREEP (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 & IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU)

  THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 Occasionally a film comes along that's light and frothy which still makes a huge cultural impact. David Frankel's 2006 comedy drama ' The Devil Wears Prada ' was that kind of movie. It wasn't a great journalism film like Billy Wilder's ' Ace In The Hole ' or Alan J Pakula's ' All The President's Men '. Its story wasn't very taxing. But it did look good and it had memorable performances from Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep who  picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy . More importantly for the studio, Frankel's $41 million 2003 adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's novel made a shed load of money for 20th Century Fox - $326 million to be precise. Twenty years is a long time to wait for a sequel, though. But if Tim Burton's ' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ' could earn $452 million on a $100 million budget for Warner Bros 36 years after its original w...