Meryl Streep

In 1940s New York, Florence Foster Jenkins won a certain affectionate notoriety as "the worst goddam singer in the world", a socialite-turned-diva who nevertheless attracted a following. Meryl Streep is marvellous as Jenkins, undaunted by the physical frailty left by syphilis; Hugh Grant matches her as her partner, St Clair Bayfield. Frears is note-perfect in a poignantly funny biopic.

Florence Foster Jenkins review

While the tonal shifts between the comic and tragic sides of the story aren't resolved and leave some residual discomfort, the film also reminds us of the importance of the arts, especially when bigger world events may make such concerns appear trivial. In today's climate of increasing austerity and cuts for this sector, Florence Foster Jenkins shows that music and performance can offer a little escapism and a lot of therapy.

Florence Foster Jenkins review

Meryl Streep shines as New York's unforgettably talentless soprano.

Florence Foster Jenkins -- film review: 'A deft comedy'

Meryl Streep is a perfect fit as the notoriously tuneless singer in Stephen Frears' film.

Review: Florence Foster Jenkins

Meryl Streep is typically divine as the socialite singer who became a legend for all the wrong reasons.

No doubt who is the biggest star on Graham's sofa tonight, as three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep visits the studio to discuss playing Florence Foster Jenkins in Stephen Frears's biopic of the tuneless opera singer. Streep's co-star Hugh Grant also appears, as does Keeley Hawes, promoting The Durrells. Music arrives from Eurovision hopefuls Joe and Jake, performing You're Not Alone, hopefully not a fateful choice of title given how many Eurovisions have ended with Britain's acts looking very lonely indeed.

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Flights of fancy were evident in the glossy BBC drama Material Girl, an hour that felt a bit like a day of blistering sunshine and horrendous hailstorm: funny then not funny; sharp, then suddenly, lamentably pedestrian. The story of a plucky young fashion designer and her evil former boss had all the Cinderella elements of Ugly Betty, the show it most obviously resembled. However, whereas the latter glorifies in its absurdity, its camp cartoonishness, Material Girl allowed Dervla Kirwan as Davina to dress up as Cruella de Vil, and snarl and scowl icily, but then the tone receded and became all workmanlike and clunky. British, in other words.

Lenora Crichlow as Ali, who had left the evil Davina to set up on her own, slugged beer from a bottle (to show she was a regular gal), she didn't want some fancy-schmancy star to wear her dress to the Baftas (yeah right!). Her boyfriend is just a regular guy courier who rides a motorbike and who puts her, chaste and untouched, to bed after she gets hideously drunk. What a prince.

Material Girl isn't as bad as some critics say, but it's not as fun as it could be. It's not really new to identify fashion as vapid and fashion people as empty, self-serving egotists. (Oh and for all the men to be bitchy, camp gays: there are not enough of them on TV, thanks!) There's a great moment in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep tells Anne Hathaway she can pretend to be all superior about this empty world, but what about the blue jumper she's wearing ... which Streep then deconstructs piercingly. Material Girl could be very funny, if it had a sharper, more knowing respect for the world it sets out to satirise.

Another adaptation of Imogen Edwards-Jones Babylon books, this one "peeks up the skirts" of the fashion industry - and finds it's wearing no knickers. The story is your typical fairy tale. Talented young designer Ali Redcliffe (Leonora Crichlow) works for Davina Bailey (a splendid-looking Dervla Kirwan, all red lipstick and pearls), an international fashionista who has no qualms about taking the credit for her staff's hard work. Eventually, Ali teams up with Marco (Michael Landes), a mercurial entrepreneur with a dodgy reputation, and sets herself up in direct competition to Davina. I think we can all see where this is going. It's glamorous, bitchy, frothy and utterly shallow. Kirwan does her best to out-ice Meryl Streep's glacial performance in The Devil Wears Prada and everyone else does their best to look ravishingly gorgeous. So... Hotel Babylon with Manolo Blahniks on.