October 2026 Culture Highlights Some hits and misses this month

04/11/2026

Discover what was great and what disappointed in our monthly round up

This is what we thought was great and disappointing in our October round up/

Television

Time  BBC  IPlayer

★★★★★

When the first of Jimmy McGovern’s prison trilogy aired in 2021 and despite glowing reviews, I wasn’t attracted to what on the face of it would be a tough watch. McGovern has a reputation for hard hitting dramas that rightly have won multiple awards.

Not even a star cast led by Sean Bean and Stephen Graham could persuade me. When Series 3 was released this month to universal acclaim, it was a persuasive factor, and McGovern was responsible for one of my all-time favourite series – Cracker starring Robbie Coltrane.

Within a week or so, I had consumed all three series and how brilliant they are. Series 1 is set in a male prison where Sean Bean is starting a four-year stretch for killing a cyclist whilst under the influence. Sean Graham is a righteous prison officer who is compromised when his son serving a sentence elsewhere is threatened. Series 2 deals with female inmates headed by a drug addicted mother-to-be and a woman who killed her baby. The third instalment, and in many ways the most emotionally charged, is a juvenile offenders’ institution and stars David Tennant in one of his best performances.

The only common character in all three is the prison chaplain, played by Siobhan Finneran a lapsed Catholic who has a crisis of faith following an affair with a priest. She’s the moral and emotional heart of all three series and the one who shows compassion and understanding for those banged up.

McGovern has spent his writing life exacting a rawness, honesty and empathy that few writers can match, frequently fuelled by a righteous anger. In Time that surfaces when dealing with the prison service as it loses out in the intensifying competition for investment from an ever-shrinking public purse.

Out of the subject matter comes redemption and for that alone, it’s well worth watching. McGovern is one of our foremost dramatists and dealing with subjects such as this is also a ringing endorsement for the BBC and public broadcasting.

Mobland  Paramount TV

★★★★

All though both deal with crime, Mobland and Time couldn’t be more different.

It’s easy to take a pop at Mobland, now in its second series as the body count mounts and London becomes a playground for warring factions involved in all manner of criminality. 

Pierce Brosnan plays Connor Harrigan, veteran gang boss of a family of misfits and married to a psychotic matriarch, Maeve, played by Helen Mirren. Yes, Brosnan hasn’t mastered an Irish accent in two series and yes, Mirren is miscast but somehow this is just great fun and an easy target for critics who fail to appreciate that sometimes this is what we want.

Another major plus is Tom Hardy as the family fixer who could not be better cast. He’s the one who is always one step ahead of the others especially when the family is threatened by a new fixer played by Johnny Flynn. Whenever he and Hardy share the screen, they are mesmeric and hence our rating.

You’ll either love or hate Mobland. We are firmly in the former camp – great stuff.

The Diplomat  Season 4 Netflix

★★★

The bar for political dramas set by The West Wing is extremely high and many have tried and failed to match the standards of Aaron Sorkin’s drama.

The West Wing succeeded because the quality of writing gave plausibility to whatever domestic or international crisis the White House had to resolve aided by a cast of well-rounded and interesting characters.

I’ve enjoyed previous seasons of The Diplomat but the fourth reveals its weakness – muddled writing and a failure to engage. Whilst we like that Netflix allows us to binge a whole series, there are times when this becomes a disadvantage because unless we are engaged, there’s a temptation to be distracted by another show and our intention to return just doesn’t happen. This is what has befallen me and The Diplomat.

The writing is too dense and complicated in a way The West Wing never was even though it tackled issues just as complex. Then there is the bickering relationship between the diplomat, US Ambassador to the UK, played by Keri Russell and her husband, now Vice-President, played by Rufus Sewell that frankly has become boring.

Whether the series becomes more interesting, I can’t say as I lost interest after a couple of episodes. Perhaps I will go back once I’ve exhausted all other viewing options.

Slow Horses  Season 6 Apple TV

★★★

There was nothing slow about how Slow Horses adopted a cult following. I’ve found some of the series’ a bit hit and miss. In the main very good but Series 2 was a disappointment as is the latest.

The issue is that this Slow Horses plays out as a conventional thriller as past Slough House members are being picked off by two assassins. The joy of Mick Herron’s invention was that the MI5 rejects did not behave like spies with the exception of River Cartwright (Jack Lowdon) and ringleader Jackson Lamb’s slobbishness (Gary Oldman) camouflaged his smartness compared to his counterparts.

 In this Lamb is in danger of becoming a parody as his underlings are either fleeing from or chasing the assassins. Plausibility was never an issue with Slow Horses but here it is as you can only dice with death so many times before the audience loses interest.

The One About Matthew Perry  Netflix

★★★★

This three-part documentary series was always destined to be streamed. It has all the ingredients; an actor whose life is turned upside down by a starring role in one of television’s juggernaut series – Friends – earning at its height a reputed $1million an episode; the quest for something more when he does become famous and then the descent into addiction.

Ultimately this is a sad tale and whilst those interviewed including his sister and ex-girlfriends don’t shy away from his faults, there is an overwhelming affection for Perry. His failed attempts at rehab, reputedly costing $7 million gave warning to what was going to happen but not the lifelong associate who ultimately betrayed him.

There is an absence in the three parter – no interviews with fellow Friends cast members other than historic contributions. It wasn’t a collective decision not to participate but it did almost derail the project and that would have been a shame as this is an unexpectedly candid, thoughtful and genuinely intimate film.

Books

Partita Barbara Kingsolver

★★★★★

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver confirms her reputation as one of the great American writers with her latest, Partita.

From the moment, Livia, a music student estranged from her family, sees Sigruid handing out leaflets on a street corner, you know this will be no ordinary infatuation and so it proves. As the relationship develops, we know something devastating will occur. Years later when Livia is married and living on a farm, a phone call reconnects her to those events and what she sacrificed.

This is an intelligent book in which music is an important character and the real love affair. It’s a novel that reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition and is never stronger than when Livia and Sigruid are discussing their beliefs and hopes.

Detective Miller  Mark Billingham

★★★★

Best seller lists are dominated by crime thrillers and Mark Billingham has created a distinctive and unique voice with Detective Miller. Miller is driven by the loss of his fellow detective wife and a lack of respect for anyone in authority.

This dialogue with his new partner. Sara Xiu as they investigate a double killing which took place in adjacent hotel rooms, describes some of Miller’s characteristics:

“Were you like this before your wife died?” “You’ll need to be more specific,” Miller said. “Annoying.” Xiu paused, but only to take a deep breath. She’d obviously compiled a healthy list. “Bloody minded. childish…” “Are you actually doing them alphabetically?” “Insensitive, inappropriate, pig-headed, rude…stupidly over-confident and completely dismissive of authority…Inattentive, flippant, sarcastic, annoying, erratic, unreliable, flaky—”

He’s all of those and more and if Miller makes it to our television screens, he’ll be more worthy and entertaining than many currently occupying the medium.

A Past Without Pictures Jonathan Ames

★★★

A novella featuring an LAPD, Maria, investigating the murder of her ex-con estranged father whilst settling the estate in Alabama.

Tight-lipped locals don’t take kindly to her questions, and she has to tangle with corrupt small-town officials, bigoted cops, and home-grown criminal conspiracies to get answers. In the process, she uncovers shocking revelations about her father’s life—and her own.

Gripping, tightly plotted, and action-packed, A Past Without Pictures is a twisty noir narrative that condenses its sprawling scope into a forcefully fast-paced novella.

We Tell Lies  K L Slater

★★★

Starting a new life whilst hiding from the past is nothing knew and that’s the premise of this novel.

Emily and Oliver Sharpe move into The Coach House on Orchard Lane and seemingly a perfect place for two con artists to go straight. However, when a murder is committed. secrets emerge.

The issue we had is that in the absence of a sympathetic character, do we care how it plays out whatever the twist.

Catch up on our other monthly highlights for watching, reading or listening to.