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  THE TEN BEST TV SHOWS OF 2025 2025 served up some great television shows just like any other year. But what were the best in Pomona's view? As we head into 2026, grab your last mince pie and guzzle your last glass of mulled wine. Here's our Top Ten countdown of the TV shows we reviewed this year, with a bulky list of honourable mentions.  10. BIG BOYS, SEASON THREE (Channel 4) It's no mean feat starring in a sitcom like 'Derry Girls' which managed to end perfectly. But to do it twice, take a bow Dylan Llewellyn. From the off, it was clear that Jack Rooke's sweet sitcom about his university years was heading towards  a tragic denouement. However in a magical final episode, Rooke chose not to give us that outcome and instead gave us a glimpse of what life might have been like for Jon Pointing's Danny. It was a masterstroke for a sitcom whose third series was hugely impressive. 9. WHAT'S THE MONARCHY FOR? (BBC1) David Dimbleby's three part examination...

  TEN WORST FILMS OF 2025 When it came to cinema, there were plenty of great movies to celebrate in 2025. But just like every other year, there were movies that bored, repulsed and just made you wince. So what were the duds that haunted our cinema screens and smart TVs this year?  Here's our view on the ten worst films of 2025, with a few dishonourable mentions thrown in. 10. THE ALTO KNIGHTS (Barry Levinson) Take a good director like Barry Levinson.  Get Robert de Niro to play two legendary gangsters and throw in rising star Cosmo Jarvis for good measure. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, it seems because while de Niro wasn't terrible, this gangster movie was just dull. An idea that had been in gestation for some time, Nicolas Pileggi's screenplay felt stale and formulaic.  The film also felt like the dual roles came way too late in de Niro's career. 9. AFTER THE HUNT (Luca Guadagnino) There are some filmmakers who just frustrate. Luca Guadagnino is a case in poi...

  THE TEN WORST TV SHOWS OF 2025 It's customary to celebrate the best television at the end of each year. But what were the absolute turkeys that Pomona reviewed this year?  Pomona runs down the Worst Ten shows we watched in 2025, with a few dishonourable mentions thrown in - just for the hell of it. And, let's be honest, it was hell....  10. SECRETS OF THE CONCLAVE (BBC2) Sometimes a documentary comes along that promises so much on the strength of its title alone. 'Secrets of the Conclave' was one such documentary, coming at the end of a year when the world and the Catholic Church said goodbye to a popular Argentinian Pontiff and elected its first American Pope. Fresh from Edward Berger's Oscar nominated thriller 'Conclave,' BBC viewers could also have been forgiven for believing they were in for a real treat with insights in this show beyond those depicted in the movie. How wrong they were. What they got instead was a series of Cardinal interviewees who mo...

  THE MASTERMIND Kelly Reichardt is one of the most fascinating American directors over the past three decades. As anyone who has followed her career can tell you from her 1994 debut 'River of Grass' right through to 2019's  'First Cow' and 2022's 'Showing Up,' she's ploughed her own furrow in indie cinema. And while other talents have been lured away from indie film and have dipped their toes in formulaic studio fare with mixed results, she has remained resolutely indie. Her ninth feature 'The Mastermind' is a typical Reichardt movie. Loosely inspired by real life events, it is a throwback to classic low level crime films. Josh O'Connor plays James Blaine Mooney, an unemployed carpenter and father of two boys who is married to Alana Haim's Terri and who regularly visits a local art museum with his family. Using his children as cover, JB is actually scouting out the gallery for possible opportunities to rob paintings and even nicks a ...

  RIOT WOMEN Sometimes what sounds like a good idea just doesn't translate well on the screen. That's the problem with BBC1's six part comedy drama 'Riot Women' - a 'Calendar Girls' style drama about a menopausal rock band in Yorkshire. The series boasts a cast that you'd pretty much want for a show of its kind. But surprisingly, 'Happy Valley' creator writer Sally Wainwright and her fellow director Amanda Brotchie are unable to deliver. Joanna Scanlan plays Beth Thornton, a woman flirting with suicide but who has a good ear for music. Approached by Lorraine Ashbourne's pub landlady Jess Burchill about forming a group to perform ABBA at a local talent contest, they persuade Tamsin Greig's retired cop Holly Gaskell and Amelia Bullmore's Yvonne Vaux to come on board  The magic ingredient is found, however, when she stumbles across Rosalie Craig's troubled Kitty Eckersley performing karaoke in a bar who naturally becomes the lead sin...

  THE UNHOLYLANDS Belfast's Holylands area has become infamous over the past two decades for its cheap student housing and it's anti social behaviour. Every St Patrick's Day, in particular, the area is the scene of boorish, alcohol and drug fuelled parties that have sometimes resulted in students being arrested. Although the truth is anti social behaviour and boorish partying is a problem the whole year round and that has created tension between long term residents of the area and the universities who have also invested a lot of time, resources and money trying to curb their students' worse excesses. First time Enniskillen director Paddy Duffy has a different view of it, however, as anyone who has seen his execrable "comedy" movie 'The Unholylands' can tell you. The story of two law undergraduates, Ciaran McCourt's Michael Brennan and his stepbrother, Peter Jeffries' Scott, the premise is simple. Both have aspirations to work in the family law ...

  SENTIMENTAL VALUE/ AKFESSJONSVERDI Sometimes you come across a film that just defines what grown up cinema should be. Joachim Trier's Nordic family drama 'Sentimental Value' is such a film. Easily his most Ingmar Bergman like film to date, it begins with a defining sequence that focuses on the home of the Borg family. Drawing from an essay by Renate Reinsve's Nora Borg from when she was a child, the narration gives the house human traits - wondering if it is happy when it is full of people and objects or empty and whether it also feels pain. Nora's home has witnessed life and death through various generations and also the pain of her parents' marital break-up - a heartache that still haunts the family to this day. As the movie unfolds, we learn Nora, who is a respected theatre actress, has been more deeply impacted by her parents' break-up than her sister, Inga Ibsdotter Lileass' Agnes. While Agnes has married Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud's histori...

  WHAT'S THE MONARCHY FOR? If you had told people in January there David Dimbleby would be fronting a documentary later in the uear that was cynical about the British Monarchy, there would have been a lot of raised eyebrows. Yet here we are with the former 'Panorama' presenter raising his own eyebrows about the Royals' influence over politicians, their huge wealth and their efforts to control their image. 'What's The Monarchy For?' finds Dimbleby interviewing a range of public figures from ex Prime Minister David Cameron and former Irish President Mary McAleese to Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn, former Conservative ministers George Osborne and Jacob Rees Mogg, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, journalist Ash Sarkar and former BBC Director General Greg Dyke about their experiences of the House of Windsor. Stretched over three episodes, the docuseries trades off Dimbleby's history as a commentator of major Royal Events and as a probing interviewer. What's su...

  GOODBYE JUNE The term "nepo baby" has been bandied about a lot in recent years in social and mainstream media. Originally coined by New York  Magazine in an article in 2022, it has become a term of derision aimed at the daughters and sons of famous celebrities who follow a parent into the entertainment industry. It's the perfect way to put rising stars of the movie and music industries down if they have celebrities in their family. However it is also incredibly petty. Why recognise ability when you can imply they have simply ridden on the coattails of family members? Among those who have had the label placed on them are Zoe Kravitz, Lily Rose Depp, Jack Quaid, Eve and Elijah Hewson. Also on the list are Mia Threapelton and her half brother Joe Mendes, the son of Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes. In am interview with the BBC,  Winslet understandably lambasted those who liked to bandy about the accusation. With  Mia building a promising career in acting  and Joe emba...

  AMANDALAND: 2025 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL It's quite a feather in the cap for a sitcom to get a Christmas episode. To get that episode aired on a primetime slot on Christmas Day is even more special. However to be gifted that after just one series is extraordinary. Such is the high regard BBC commissioners have for ' Amandaland ' - the ' Motherland ' spin-off that was a big critical and ratings hit earlier this year - that it was given that honour this Christmas. The 2025 Festive special saw Lucy Punch's deluded would be influencer and Queen Bee, Amanda packing her two kids, Alexander Shaw's Manus and Miley Locke's Georgie off to the Cotswolds to spend Christmas Day on the country estate of her aunt, Jennifer Saunders' Joan. In typical Amanda fashion, heading to the estate was less about family and more about trying to gain traction on social media by recreating a "hilarious photo" from her childhood involving a pavlova. Also in typical Amanda f...

  AFTER THE HUNT Some directors are clearly talented but their work can be infuriating. Ken Russell , Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway, Francis Coppola, David Fincher, Yorgos Lanthimos and Lars Von Trier fall into this group - delivering some truly dazzling films during their careers  but also a high proportion of really pretentious duds. Luca Guadagnino  is a director who falls into this category. When he is on song in films like ' A Bigger Splash ,' ' Call Me By Your Name ' or ' Queer ,' the results can be thrilling. However he can also make hugely overblown movies like ' I Am Love ,' ' Suspiria ' and ' Challengers ' that get dragged down by the weight of their own pretentiousness and a desperate need to impress on audiences his technical bravura. The Italian's latest 'After The Hunt' is in the latter camp, unfortunately. A self important tale about cancel culture in American universities, it begins with a pompous onscreen d...