This article was originally published in The Courier on 20th April 2019.
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 11th 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
13th, 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
15th, 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
19th, 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.
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