TV Column: OUR DEMENTIA CHOIR WITH VICKY McCLURE + LINE OF DUTY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 27th April 2019.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

NEXT WEEK’S TV

OUR DEMENTIA CHOIR WITH VICKY McCLURE

Thursday, BBC One, 8pm

People with dementia often recall the melodies and lyrics of their favourite songs, which can be a calming influence leading to significant moments of clarity. In this moving series, the Line of Duty star teams up with leading experts to test our emotional and physical responses to music. They assemble a 20-strong choir comprised of people living with dementia, following them over three months as they rehearse for a live performance. Why McClure? Well, as we know, television law decrees that programmes of this nature must be fronted by a famous face, but she does have first-hand family experience of the illness. It’s a valuable experiment aimed at proving that life doesn’t end with a dementia diagnosis.

BANGED UP: TEENS BEHIND BARS

Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

In this new series, eight wayward British teenagers are sent to one of America’s toughest jails for seven days as part of a radical intervention programme. The basic goal is to put the fear of God into them to ensure that they never end up in prison for real. They find themselves rubbing shoulders with hardened criminals and tough guards, including the star of the show, Lieutenant Robbie Stokes, an army veteran and barking disciplinarian straight out of a sweaty US chain gang drama. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably laugh when he yells “What in tarnation are you crying about?!” at some poor kid. Naturally, he’s more subdued during his interview segments. It’s all part of the game.

BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS

Tuesday, Channel 4, 8pm

Twelve new teams of professional patisserie chefs pick up their spatulas and hope for the best as this popular series returns. You know the score: over the first two days, the first six teams face a series of challenges, after which they’ll be ranked. Whoever is in last place will be asked to leave the competition. It really is as simple as that. During the opening heat they’re tasked with reinventing Linzer tortes, the Bakewell tart and the red velvet cake, a dessert classic, in under five hours. As usual, co-hosts Liam Charles and Tom Allen are joined by exuberant judges Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin. “Wow me, excite me and blow my mind away!” exclaims Finden. No pressure.

FORENSICS: THE REAL CSI

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

By my reckoning, ‘real CSI’ documentaries probably outnumber the fictional CSI shows they set out to debunk. We all know these crimes aren’t solved by genius maverick cops, hence why we presumably find some comfort in programmes such as this in which diligent, unglamorous experts go about their duties with the utmost seriousness. The actor David Caruso isn’t going to help you in your direst hour of need, but these people might. In Newcastle, a single shot is fired through a window in the dead of night. Neither the injured woman nor her boyfriend who made the 999 call saw anything, so it’s up to the forensics team to piece the incident together. Please, don’t have nightmares.

LAST WEEK’S TV

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR

Saturday 20^th, BBC Two

Spread over 90 generous minutes, this revealing tribute to the genius of Oscar Wilde featured presentations of key scenes from immortally witty and profound works such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, plus learned contributions from the likes of Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, and – inevitably - Stephen Fry, who examined the myriad ways in which Wilde’s life influenced his work. 

LINE OF DUTY

Sunday 21^st, BBC One

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I still can’t decide what shocked me more: Ted’s incorrect spelling of ‘definitely’ seemingly confirming that he’s the powerful bent copper who’s been pulling the strings, or undercover cop Corbett (very special guest star Stephen Graham) getting offed by the OCG for being a rat. And we still have two episodes to go. What a show. What a grin-inducing fairground-ride.

JOHN LEE HOOKER: THE BOOGIE MAN

Friday 26^th, BBC Four

One of the greatest bluesmen of the 20^th century, Hooker was an idiosyncratic innovator with a raw, sensual, funky, hypnotic sound all of his own. He only needed one chord to create his volcanic boogie. This solid doc traced his journey from extreme poverty to living deity status, via warm contributions from family members and disciples such as Keith Richards and the lesser-spotted Van Morrison.

TV Column: THE LOOMING TOWER + BACK TO LIFE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 20th April 2019.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

NEXT WEEK’S TV

THE LOOMING TOWER

Friday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

Inspired by actual events, this taut US drama is set in the years just prior to the September 11^th attacks. The CIA and the FBI were supposed to be working together to combat the rising threat of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The Looming Tower contends that an absurd rivalry between their counterterrorism divisions resulted in vital information being withheld, information which could’ve prevented the largest ever terrorist attack on American soil. It begins with them struggling to cooperate while predicting Bin Laden’s next move. In the background, the American media remains preoccupied with the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. A sense of impending doom pervades. The solid ensemble cast is led by Jeff Daniels as the FBI’s irascible counterterrorism chief.

MARK KERMODE’S SECRETS OF CINEMA

Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

It comes as no surprise to learn that the young Kermode watched The Towering Inferno three times in the same week in 1975. He’s been preparing for this typically persuasive essay, in which he examines the disaster movie genre, for most of his life. Although they reached their heyday in the 1970s, disaster movies have been around in various forms since the 1920s. Always at the cutting edge of effects technology, these spectaculars usually involve all-star casts facing off against fires, floods and earthquakes. Why do we love them? Kermode: “Disaster movies, like horror films, often work as modern morality tales, reminding us of the natural order of things by terrifying us with visions of chaos and apocalypse.”

YOUR HOME MADE PERFECT

Tuesday, BBC Two, 8pm

Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs would doubtless raise a wry eyebrow (a wrybrow) at this rather brash and flashy home improvement series in which moneyed young couples are given the luxury of choosing from computer-generated virtual interior designs. Call me old-fashioned, but I much prefer McCloud’s drily mocking, seen it all before approach over the smart-aleck hipster bravado of the YHMP team. The whole enterprise is far too pleased with itself. In this episode, James and Vicky enter the architect’s studio with a major problem on their hands: they can’t agree on how their spacious detached property should look. James fancies a modern open kitchen, but Vicky prefers a more traditional approach. My heart, it bleeds for them.

THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE: SAN FRANCISCO

Friday, STV, 9pm

As this pulpy period espionage drama continues, a bloodied and battered young man collapses on the doorstep of Jean (Julie Graham) and Millie (Rachael Stirling). He’s looking for one of their English government associates, but why? And off goes the plot, its arteries thickening with every fizzy twist and turn. It involves heroin smuggled inside one of those new-fangled reefer cigarettes, Nietzsche-quoting beatniks, violently oppressed homosexuals and ancient Greek cipher techniques. The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco will never be mistaken for a prestigious drama – its dialogue and plotting are so amusingly ham-fisted, it makes Murder She Wrote look like Edge of Darkness – but it’s quite good fun if you’re willing to disengage your taste buds. Glossy drivel.

LAST WEEK’S TV

NINJA WARRIOR UK

Saturday 13^th, STV

I can’t watch arena-based rumbles of Saturday night folderol such as this without thinking of Peter Cook as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling. The only television show the crumbling patrician ever watched was Gladiators as it gave him an idea “of what was going on out there.” Its only selling point is co-host Chris Kamara, a man both bewildered and thrilled by the mere idea of existing.

BACK TO LIFE

Monday 15^th, BBC One

Over the last ten years, the excellent Daisy Haggard has become a familiar supporting fixture in several British TV comedies, but this droll black comedy, which she also created, is her first starring vehicle. She plays a middle-class woman struggling to rebuild her life after spending 18 years in prison on a murder charge. She seems normal, so what happened? It’s an intriguing show, low-key and quite unusual.

THE COMEDY YEARS

Friday 19^th, ITV3

We’ve witnessed countless versions of this superficial yet harmless series before, but any clip show featuring segments on Cannon and Ball, Yootha Joyce, Only When I Laugh and the obscure Rowan Atkinson showcase Canned Laughter is always going to sit well with me. It began in 1979, the year Thatcher seized power, and served as a reminder that alternative comedy didn’t demolish the old guard overnight.

TV Column: GHOSTS + CHIMERICA

This article was originally published in The Courier on 13th April 2019.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

THIS WEEK’S TV

GHOSTS

Monday, BBC One, 9:30pm

This promising new sitcom from the talented team behind Horrible Histories follows a surrogate family of ghosts who decide to embrace haunting for the first time in their afterlives. The object of their ire is a young woman (Charlotte Ritchie) who inherits their dilapidated mansion home and decides to turn it into a hotel. Prominent ghouls include a Neanderthal man, a witch trial victim, a romantic poet, a Tory MP who died without his trousers on and, inevitably, a 17^th century gent who carries his severed head around with him. While obviously not suitable for very young children, apart from one rather dark twist it’s not self-consciously adult either. On the contrary, it’s a typically broad, silly, likeable affair. Why it’s being shown at this late hour, I have no idea.

TRUST ME

Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

Series one of this medical thriller was an implausible load of old toot in which Jodie Whittaker played a nurse masquerading as a doctor in a fictional Edinburgh hospital. She’s since been cast as the Doctor, so it’s back to the drawing board with a completely new cast and premise. They needn’t have bothered as it still fails to convince on any level. When a paralysed soldier with PTSD finds himself trapped in the James Stewart Spinal Unit (a very kind donation from the late Hollywood legend), he begins to suspect that a spate of patient deaths have been caused deliberately. Is he paranoid? It doesn’t matter. Even John Hannah and Ashley Jensen can’t rescue this laughable, clumsily written chore.

EARTH FROM SPACE

Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm

Thousands of satellites are currently orbiting the Earth. Some of them capture images of the planet’s surface in such extraordinary detail, we can now chart the activities of individual animals. Blessed with suitably Godlike narration from actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, this lofty new series depicts “our home as we’ve never seen it before.” The devastating effects of climate change are exposed by following a herd of African elephants struggling through a vicious drought. Meanwhile, satellites uncover previously unknown colonies of penguins and reveal mysterious ice rings that could put seal pups in danger. The programme also makes some surprising discoveries in Earth’s most remote areas. It’s a beautifully made yet sombre study of a planet in severe trouble.

CHIMERICA

Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

Based on the Olivier Award-winning play by Lucy Kirkwood, this engrossing drama examines the predominance of China and America in modern geopolitics. A fictional story inspired by real events, it begins with a young American photojournalist covering the violent government response to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. He becomes one of the photographers who captured the iconic Tank Man image. 27 years later he’s sent back to Beijing to cover Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s controversial ties with China. While there he gleans tantalising new information about Tank Man, whose identity and subsequent whereabouts have never been proven. After being accused of faking a photograph, he becomes obsessed with finding the legendary unknown protester to restore his credibility.

  

LAST WEEK’S TV

THE WIDOW

Monday 8^th and Tuesday 9^th, STV

A solemnly ambitious thriller based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? On ITV? Hats off to the House of Cowell for trying something different. Unfortunately, The Widow is a monumentally turgid misfire in which Kate Beckinsale is helplessly cast adrift in a sea of disjointed storytelling. It’s written by Harry and Jack Williams, whose work outside of The Missing and Baptiste never fails to disappoint.

TV Column: THE VICTIM + LINE OF DUTY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 6th April 2019.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

NEXT WEEK’S TV

THE VICTIM

Monday to Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

Port Glasgow and Edinburgh are the settings for this engrossing drama about Anna (Kelly Macdonald), a mother accused of plotting to kill a man by the name of Craig (James Harkness) who she believes is responsible for the murder of her son. After serving his time in prison, the young killer was given a new identity, a ‘luxury’ that Anna insists he doesn’t deserve. As for Craig, he appears to be an innocent family man. An intelligently written examination of victims’ rights and the rights of people accused of high-profile crimes, it boasts strong performances from Macdonald, Harkness and John Hannah as the policeman investigating Craig’s attack. Key line: “Public opinion doesn’t exist, it was invented by the media.”

A HOUSE THROUGH TIME

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Historian David Olusoga returns for another thorough excavation of the secrets buried within ordinary British houses. The subject in this series is a Georgian end-of-terrace property in Newcastle upon Tyne. Delving deep into the archives, our softly-spoken host – who was raised in the area where the house is located - studies the personal lives of its various residents “to uncover an epic story spanning 200 years”. What follows is a revealing alternative history of Britain told from within the same four walls. Its first resident was William Stoker, a privileged Victorian lawyer who eventually became Newcastle’s town coroner. Olusoga struggles to sympathise with Stoker as he charts a saga involving poverty, hypocrisy and appalling rough justice.

DON’T FORGET THE DRIVER

Tuesday, BBC Two, 10pm

Despite being billed as a black comedy, this new series is more of a drama peppered with mild attempts at downbeat humour. Toby Jones, who co-wrote it with experimental playwright Tim Crouch, plays a bored, lonely coach driver whose days consist of ferrying pensioners from the soporific seaside town of Bognor Regis to various destinations (Dunkirk in episode one). He’s also dealing with a disaffected teenage daughter, a mother with dementia and a twin brother (also Jones) living the high life in Australia. Meanwhile, an asylum seeker stows away on his coach and a body washes up on the beach. It certainly captures the bleak beauty of Bognor, but it’s neither funny nor dramatic enough to invite much enthusiasm.

ROCK ISLAND LINE: THE SONG THAT MADE BRITAIN ROCK

Friday, BBC Four, 9pm

Billy Bragg is such a devout socialist, he even looks like Jeremy Corbyn these days. It’s uncanny. In this sturdy documentary he explains how a 1930s railroad song originally written in Little Rock, Arkansas eventually became one of the most important recordings in the history of British pop music. Lonnie Donegan’s hit version from 1955 inspired a generation of post-war British teenagers. It’s no exaggeration to state that the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks et al wouldn’t have picked up their guitars were it not for Rock Island Line and the DIY skiffle craze it ignited. Bragg, a huge fan of the late skiffle king, traces the song’s fascinating history with assistance from various music historians and Donegan’s son, Peter.

  

LAST WEEK’S TV

LINE OF DUTY

Sunday 31^st, BBC One

When hit shows such as Line of Duty become known for incorporating certain signature elements, they risk a descent into self-parody. Based on the hard evidence of series five’s first episode, there’s life in this old feller yet. 

While scoring off your Line of Duty bingo card – compromised officers; initialism-heavy police jargon; itchy interrogation scenes; DCI Ted’s colourful exclamations; AC-12 gazing meaningfully at persons of interest as they enter or leave their headquarters – you presumably fell prey to a delightful piece of misdirection. 

We were introduced to a deep undercover agent embedded within a crime gang led by Stephen Graham, an actor known for playing villains. Nervous, secretive, she fitted the bill. However, it transpired that Graham is the undercover agent. What’s more, this time they didn’t kill off their famous guest star at the end of episode one. A wise move, as that once effective gimmick has worn out its welcome. 

Even after all these years, this addictively Byzantine and heroically bonkers thriller can still wrong-foot its audience. Here we go again.