This article was originally published in The Courier on 9th March 2019.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
CHEAT
Monday
to Thursday, STV, 9pm
Deep
within the bowels of ITV Towers is an airless chamber where contracted writers
are forced to churn out pot-boiling thrillers starring familiar faces. Cheat is the latest product of this
heinous abuse of human rights. Katherine Kelly (Coronation Street) plays an upmarket university lecturer whose life
comes a cropper when a ruthlessly ambitious student (Molly Windsor from Three Girls, who deserves better) mounts
a weird campaign against her. Cards on the table, folks, we dedicated members
of the press were only given preview access to episode one – Cheat is generously stripped throughout
the week - but I think it’s fair to predict that this Richard & Judy Book
Club folderol won’t improve after such a risible opening chapter.
24 HOURS IN POLICE
CUSTODY
Monday,
Channel 4, 9pm
The
acceptable face of cop-trailing crime documentaries, this sombre hardy
perennial works because it swaps the genre’s usual tabloid sensationalism for a
more socially responsible and detailed approach. The latest series begins with an
extended edition in which police officers search for a dangerous predator who
sexually assaulted a woman at knife-point during broad daylight. The rapist was
unknown to his victim – statistically, a fairly rare occurrence – and his DNA
wasn’t stored on the police’s extensive nationwide database of known sex
offenders. As always, the programme follows the investigation from its initial
stages to the eventual, claustrophobic interrogation of a chief suspect. It
provides some valuable, sensitive insight into how severe cases such as this
are handled.
AUSTRALIA: EARTH’S
MAGICAL KINGDOM
Friday,
BBC Two, 9pm
It
may boast all the panoramic and granular pleasures you’ve come to expect from world-beating
natural history documentaries, but by far the most satisfying aspect of this
new series is its unlikely yet entirely apt choice of narrator. The great Barry
Humphries is a much loved and highly respected Australian superstar, but he
doesn’t usually lend his dulcet tones to programmes of this nature. It’s rather
wonderful listening to him enthuse about colourful species of wildlife about
which little is widely known. He begins by revealing how animals have learned
to adapt across Australia’s dramatically disparate weather extremes. Star turns
include a platypus cousin who can lower its body temperature to endure icy
winters, and some remarkably intelligent cockatoos.
SHOWBANDS: HOW IRELAND
LEARNT TO PARTY
Friday,
BBC Four, 9pm
Ardal
O’Hanlon is your warm, witty guide to the history of a uniquely Irish showbiz
phenomenon. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, hundreds of showbands –
“versatile, hardworking mobile jukeboxes in shiny suits” – freely crisscrossed
the north and south of Ireland. Many of them became household names. The
showbands saw themselves purely as entertainers, but they transformed the lives
of young people living in rural backwaters, triggered a kind of social
revolution in the dancehalls and broke down religious and political barriers. O’Hanlon
finds out what their success said about Ireland during a tumultuous era of
cultural isolationism and bitter sectarian violence. As the tragic fate of the
Miami Showband illustrates, they weren’t always immune to their surroundings.
LAST WEEK’S TV
JERK
Monday
4th, BBC One
Tim
Renkow is the star and co-creator of this charmless comedy in which he plays an
American slacker with cerebral palsy who happily exploits his condition to
secure a Visa. The sole joke is that Tim is a chaos-causing prankster who gets
away with being endlessly rude to awkwardly well-meaning able-bodied idiots. No
one wants to offend him. It’s supposed to be a challenging satirical comment on
ridiculous social attitudes surrounding disability, but it’s neither funny nor
clever enough to pull that off. Renkow’s character is a smug irritant. That
wouldn’t matter if he was an entertaining smug irritant, but Jerk is utterly tiresome and routine.
DERRY GIRLS
Tuesday
5th, Channel 4
This
delightful sitcom about an awkward gang of Northern Irish teenagers growing up
in the Troubled 1990s was a big sleeper hit when it debuted last year. Comedy
shows can sometimes lose focus and start playing to the gallery when
unexpectedly showered with praise, but there was no sign of that curse as
series two began. By sending her girls (and boy) on a ‘Friends Across the
Barricade’ weekend aimed at bringing Catholic and Protestant kids together,
writer Lisa McGee managed to mock the lunacy of religious prejudice without a
hint of self-righteousness. It was another gag-packed, acutely-observed
episode, beautifully played as always by a faultless cast.
LEAVING NEVERLAND:
MICHAEL JACKSON AND ME
Wednesday
6th and Thursday 7th, Channel 4
Jackson
evaded justice during his lifetime, but this gut-punching documentary held him
to unequivocal account. It focused on Wade Robson and James Safechuck, both of
whom allege they were sexually abused by their childhood idol over a period of
several years. Their relentlessly graphic and entirely credible testimonies were juxtaposed with
recollections from their mothers attempting to explain how they were hoodwinked. As their
stories unfolded like a horrifying family scrapbook, a consistent portrait
emerged of Jackson as a devious predatory paedophile who exploited his status and
innocent man-child image to groom children and their parents. He destroyed
lives. Jackson’s legacy won’t recover from this damning expose. It can’t.
TRAVELLING BLIND
Thursday
7th, BBC Two
Amar
Latif has been blind since he was eighteen, but that hasn’t stopped him from travelling
the world in search of adventure. All he needs is a sighted person to act as a
guide. His assistant during this bright and breezy Turkey travelogue was
comedian Sara Pascoe, lest anyone avoid an educational programme informed by
disability due to an unacceptable lack of celebrity involvement. To be fair, it
did achieve Latif’s goal of illustrating that blindness isn’t a barrier to
enjoying a rich and fulfilling life. A decent introduction to the BBC’s new Crossing
Divides season, which explores how people can be brought together in this
fragmented world of ours.
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