Benji Wilson

London

Journalist and Critic at Freelance

journalist and critic | https://t.co/28xTMYfxFX

Articles

the TV equivalent of an airport read

1 week ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

Anyway, The Stolen Girl is the TV equivalent of an airport read, schlocky trash that moves at a breakneck pace.
no surrealist flight of fancy is left unflown

1 week ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

TV producers sometimes like to boast that, "We've put all the money on the screen." It means that rather than fritter the multiple millions on poster campaigns and fancy catering, it's all gone on production design, locations and making the thing look as good as it can. Which really, is exactly how it should be. Government Cheese (Apple TV+), a new nine-part comedy-drama from Apple TV+, has put all the money on the screen. This being Apple, there's a lot to put there.
The Stolen Girl Reviews

1 week ago | metacritic.com | James Hibbs |Carol Midgley |Tom Philip |Benji Wilson

Coming in at just five 45-ish-minute episodes, it doesn’t stick around long enough to become a slog. It will be easy for such a miniseries to get lost in the streaming shuffle, but for those looking for a fleet, twisty distraction, The Stolen Girl won’t leave anyone feeling robbed. Read More
a domestic thriller that is startling in its unoriginality

1 week ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

Channel 5's new domestic thriller, The Feud, written by Aschlin Ditta, is essentially Abigail's Party Wall Agreement. It tells the story of an idyllic suburban street where everyone falls out after one of the happy families decides to do a kitchen extension. Anyone who has popped round to the neighbours to show them some plans over a nice cup of tea, then opened their laptop to see a slew of objections from people worried that this manifest outrage will stuff their hydrangeas, will know the drill.
an excellent thriller, told with BSL, that shows silence is a powerful weapon

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Benji Wilson

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
thriller told with BSL shows that silence can be a powerful weapon

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

In a TV landscape dominated by emotive soundtracks, shouting and explosions, silence is a powerful weapon. Reunion (BBC One), a revenge thriller about a deaf man released from prison after 10 years who sets out on a mission to right some corrosive wrongs, uses that weapon to shrewd effect. Written by deaf scriptwriter William Mager, it's a bilingual series featuring a mixture of British Sign Language, spoken English and some subtitles.
a film so powerful it's tempting to turn away from it

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

There is a temptation when confronted with a film like Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz (BBC Two) to turn away. His story of how the Holocaust was a European-wide crime of complicity is overwhelming, horrific, atrocity layered upon atrocity until it's just easier to change the channel. The film's primary message, however, is that apathy is deadly. As 98-year-old survivor Marian Turski says to Schama at the film's close, " Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. Evil comes step by step.
emotional storytelling has to make way for the crime-of-the-week

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Benji Wilson

Any long-running police procedural gets caught in its own shadow. Episode after episode, recurring characters like DI Roy Grace ( John Simm) build up a history, and for fans of the show what's gone before needs to be acknowledged. But at the same time the crux of a successful weekly detective drama is that week's investigation.
Hannah Fry jumps on the air fryer hype-wagon

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Benji Wilson

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
The Secret Genius of Modern Life, review: Hannah Fry jumps on the air fryer hype-wagon

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Benji Wilson

OpinionThe Secret Genius of Modern Life, review: Hannah Fry jumps on the air fryer hype-wagonWed, April 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM UTCHannah Fry investigates the rise of air fryers in The Secret Genius of Modern Life - Marco Cervi/BBCThree series in, this was the episode of The Secret Genius of Modern Life (BBC Two) I’d been waiting for. Because let’s face it, a good 97 per cent of all of my conversations in the last five years have been about air fryers.