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UNFORGIVABLE  When Jimmy McGovern finally gives up writing for film and television, he should do so with immense pride. No British television dramatist has matched McGovern when it comes to regularly creating quality dramas that confront the toughest of subjects. From male rage to racism, sexual repression to disability, miscarriages of justice to poverty, the Liverpudlian appears to have covered it all. Yet here is again shining a light on another difficult subject with compassion and consummate skill. 'Unforgivable' tackles paedophilia or, to be even more precise, the aftermath of it. Bobby Schofield is Joe, a man imprisoned for abusing his nephew, Austin Haynes' Tom. Ostracised from the rest of his family at the start of the BBC2 one-off drama, he runs a gauntlet of rage from the other inmates every day every time he steps out onto the prison landing. When Joe's mum dies in the family home after illness, his father, David Threlfall's Brian doesn't want him to...

  STICK, S1 "Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated," Arnold Palmer once mused. "It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening. "And it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented." While devotees of other sports would dispute the last claim from the seven time Major champion, few would quibble with his depiction of the sport. Golf is unique. There are few sports where mere mortals can play on the same hallowed turf as their icons. Golfers can tee off on legendary courses like St Andrews, Valhalla and Royal County Down when they're not hosting big tournaments. Few sports offer spectators too the opportunity to get right up close to their heroes like golf  - particularly when stars like Rory McIlroy, Bryson de Chambeau or Jordan Spieth get a bit errant off the tee. As those who were privileged to attend the Open golf championship last week at Royal Portrush will testify, wh...

HAPPY GILMORE 2 Twenty nine years after he first appeared in Dennis Dugan's original film, Adam Sandler's pro golfer Happy Gilmore is back on our screens. 'Happy Gilmore 2' sees Sandler return as the ice hockey fanatic turned unconventional golf pro in Kyle Newacheck's Netflix sequel. But does the comedy written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy justify a second outing? The first 'Happy Gilmore' film was a modest comedy hit that developed a cult status when top golf pros started to champion it and even mimic the character's eccentric ice hockey slapshot swing. Newacheck's star studded sequel, however, finds Happy on a downswing after his hugely successful golf career comes to a screeching halt on Mother's Day. Unleashing another one of his trademark monster drives, he accidentally kills the love of his life and mother of his five children, Julie Bowen's Virginia Venit Gilmore in a tournamebt. Tormented by her death, Happy gives up golf, loses the f...

  HAPPY GILMORE If you Google search 'Happy Gilmore,' one of the first questions that appears is: what's the point of 'Happy Gilmore'? It's a good question. Watching it 29 years on from it's original release, I'm not quite sure. Yes, it's supposed to be a comedy vehicle for  'Saturday Night Live' alum Adam Sandler . But watching it in the UK and Ireland on Netflix ahead of its  hugely hyped sequel  on the streaming service, it feels hugely overrated. Sandler is, of course, Happy Gilmore, a working class lad who aspires to be a NHL hockey player whose love of the game was instilled by his father. Unfortunately, his dad, played by Louis  O'Donoghue, dies when Happy is a kid in a freak spectator accident at a hockey game and he is sent to live with his grandma. Fortunately, Frances Bay's Grandma Gilmore is a lovely woman, greeting his younger self, played by Donnie MacMillan, dressed like  Gene Simmons from Kiss. In adulthood, Happy stru...

  FRIENDSHIP If you know Tim Robinson from his work on Netflix, you'll know he specialises in the kind of comedy that thrives in cringeworthy moments. A comic who cut his teeth in Chicago's Second City Theater and who subsequently went from being a performer to a writer on ' Saturday Night Live ,' his sketch show ' I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson ' debuted on the streaming service in 2018. Over three seasons, its brand of absurd and grotesque comedy built around a lot of humiliating scenarios earned him acclaim as well as Writers Guild and Primetime Emmy awards. So it comes as no surprise to see the Detroit-born comic finally get his shot at a lead role in a movie after gaining big screen experience in minor roles in ' Brother Nature ,' ' American Pickle ' and ' Scream VI '. Writer director Andrew DeYoung has cast Robinson as an everyday loser in 'Friendship,' a comedy that plays right into his comic brand as a king of ...

THE BEAR, S4 As the phrase goes: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. But which character in Season Four of Disney+ and Hulu's acclaimed comedy drama 'The Bear' will do exactly that? Could it be Jeremy Allen White's talented but tormented head chef Carmy Berzatto, whose strict adherence to a menu that changes every day in his fine dining restaurant is destroying it? Will it be Ayo Edebiri's up and coming chef Sydney Adamu who is fielding an offer from Adam Shapiro's Chef Adam to join a new venture that she's not really sure she wants to be a part of? Or is there a chance that the Berzattos' honorary family member Ebon Moss-Bachrach's combustible Richie Jerimovich will lose it after finally mastering the role of front of house manager? These are the possible scenarios that emerge during a tightly plotted season of the Chicago show, where the fate of Carmy's troubled restaurant The Bear hangs in the balance. At the start of Seas...

   LIVE AID AT 40: WHEN ROCK N'ROLL TOOK ON THE WORLD Looking back on it now, the mid 1980s really do feel like innocent times. In the UK, there were just four terrestrial TV channels - BBC1 , BBC2, ITV and Channel 4. Ireland had two - RTE1 and RTE2. Satellite television was still in its infancy, with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television about to woo viewers with the promise of live football and a dedicated film channel. There were significantly less radio stations than there are now. There was no Spotify, YouTube, no Internet, Amazon, no social media, no tablets or smartphones  People learned about the latest music on ' Top of the Pops ' or, in Ireland, ' MT USA ' with Vincent Hanley. If you were discerning, there was always ' The Old Grey Whistle Test, ' ' The Tube ,' BBC Radio One's John Peel or RTE's Dave Fanning if you weren't already buying the NME, Melody Maker or Rolling Stone. MTV was also in its infancy. Newspapers like The Sun a...

  SQUID GAME S2 When 'Squid Game' became an international phenomenon  with its inaugural season on Netflix  in September 2021, it was such a rare thing. A subtitled, edge of your seat thriller about down on their luck people literally gambling their lives away in a series of deadly games in South Korea for a huge pot of money, Hwang Dong-hyuk's show had as big a cultural moment as  Bong Joon-ho's groundbreaking Oscar winning movie 'Parasite'. As word of mouth spread, the show quickly became a talking point in offices, shops and factories, on train and bus commutes, on social media, TV and radio shows and print and online media. Like 'Parasite,' Hwang Dong-hyuk's series made history too at a host of awards ceremonies, with Critics Choice, People's Choice, Screen Actors Guild and Primetime Emmy awards going to its lead man Lee Jung-jae, a Lead Actress SAG for Jung Ho-yeon and a Golden Globe for Supporting Actor for O Yeong-so. Not bad for a TV show...