TV Column: THE UNWANTED: THE SECRET WINDRUSH FILES + DRAG SOS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 22 June 2019.

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

NEXT WEEK’S TV

THE UNWANTED: THE SECRET WINDRUSH FILES

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Historian David Olusoga traces “70 years of political panic, bad faith and racial prejudice in the corridors of power” in this damning documentary. As every schoolchild knows, the Windrush Generation is the term used for the black migrants who arrived in Britain between 1948 and 1972. Following the introduction of Theresa May’s “hostile environment policy” in 2014, the surviving members faced deportation when they were instructed to prove they lived here legally. A national scandal ensued. Assisted by personal testimonies and access to shocking internal documents, Olusoga reveals how successive British governments have attempted to stop immigration from the Caribbean, despite those migrants being citizens of the British Empire with every right to live and work in the UK.

A YEAR TO SAVE MY LIFE: GEORGE McGAVIN AND MELANOMA

Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

Last year, scientist and broadcaster George McGavin was diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer. Remarkably, when he received this frightening diagnosis, a new drug had just been licenced by the NHS, one that could potentially save the lives of people afflicted by malignant melanomas. In this moving documentary, the avuncular McGavin provides, with typical scientific inquisitiveness, a study of these pioneering medical developments: “I want to know everything about it and I want to know now.” The good news, as he observes, is that we’ve now reached a stage where people with terminal cancer can survive for decades. He undergoes a painless regime of targeted drug therapy which should give hope to people affected by this illness.

DRAG SOS

Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

In this tender new series, five drag queens embark upon a mission to encourage people, whether straight, gay, male or female, to embrace their inner drag. Wit, warmth and wisdom – the vital three W’s - abound as they oversee a week of rehearsals for a lip-synching dance routine to be performed in front of friends, family and a home crowd. A camp explosion of all-inclusive fun, yes, but at heart this is a sincere, responsible experiment. They meet a gay man who puts his dad forward in the hope of solidifying their bond, a young woman with anxiety, and a stressed mum whose children have behavioural issues. The uplifting results will restore your faith in human nature.

WHO SHOULD GET TO STAY IN THE UK?

Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

This series concludes with more sensitive case studies of people struggling to navigate Britain’s increasingly complex and controversial immigration system. It focuses on couples who could potentially be torn apart by a Home Office ruling. Doaa from Egypt has a British husband. She faces deportation as a result of her innocently applying for the wrong type of visa online. Nigerian Onyi is forced to answer an exhausting series of trivial personal questions to prove she loves her husband. It’s like a sinister, Orwellian Mr and Mrs. We also meet an exasperated immigration lawyer who admits that he can’t keep up with the ever-changing laws. Anyone who thinks our immigration policies are too lax needs to pay attention.

LAST WEEK’S TV

PUNJAB UNITED: OUR LIVES

Monday 17^th, BBC One

Gravesend, Kent is home to one of the UK’s largest Sikh communities. The lower league football team Punjab United is one of its most recent success stories. This slight yet fairly charming documentary followed the team as they went about their grassroots business. It didn’t amount to much, but I’m glad that BBC One still has room in its schedules for minor diversions such as this.

HEY TRACEY!

Monday 17^th, ITV2

In the unlikely event of civilisation surviving into the next century, I hope remnants of this nano-celeb-based quiz will be shown in schools as a grave warning from history. We must never let Joe Swash happen again. The premise? A bunch of idiots receive pay cheques for doing nothing of any consequence. Imagine a rolled up copy of Heat being smacked on a human face forever.

ACKLEY BRIDGE

Tuesday 18^th, Channel 4

Series three of this award-winning multicultural school comedy-drama – the modern-day equivalent of Grange Hill, albeit aimed at an older audience – has lost none of its frank humour and sharp social commentary. Despite the plaudits it’s received, Ackley Bridge has never really caught on with the wider public. Hats off to Channel 4 for standing by what is, at most, a cult hit.

TV Column: CATCH-22 + STILL GAME + KILLING EVE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 15th June 2019.

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

NEXT WEEK’S TV

CATCH-22

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Joseph Heller’s classic satire of military bureaucracy, injustice and the madness of war was adapted for the screen with mixed results in 1970. This six-episode miniseries is clearly intended as a more faithful and possibly definitive adaptation. Set during World War Two, it follows a sharp young US Army Air Force bombardier as he struggles to rebel against a system that’s stacked against him. When he tries to get out of flying his remaining missions – suicide missions, essentially - he discovers a horrifying logical loophole: Catch-22. Boasting a large ensemble cast including Hugh Laurie and George Clooney (who also co-produces and directs), it succeeds in capturing the acerbic, absurdist, darkly comic tone of Heller’s antiauthoritarian masterpiece. Impressive.

THE FAMILY BRAIN GAMES

Monday to Thursday, BBC Two, 8pm

Dara O’Briain plays host to “eight of Britain’s cleverest families” as they cross their wits in “the ultimate test of cross-generational brain power.” In a laboratory overseen by academic experts, they take part in various problem-solving games designed to test different facets of their intelligence. The basic idea is that, by performing as a team, these competitive high achievers will provide an interesting study of family dynamics. And to an extent, they do. What’s more, you can play along at home. While I wholeheartedly welcome unabashed celebrations of intelligence, there’s no getting around the fact that The Family Brain Games is the most middle class TV gameshow since the Robert Robertson-fronted iteration of Ask the Family.

THE RESTAURANT THAT MAKES MISTAKES

Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

This commendable series revolves around an experimental restaurant staffed by volunteers living with some form of early onset dementia. Like the recent BBC series Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure, it aims to raise awareness of this condition while illustrating that it doesn’t preclude people from achieving new goals. In episode two, they welcome an influx of food critics who politely yet firmly refuse to give the restaurant special treatment. That would be patronising and counterproductive. For the participants, the project seems to renew their self-confidence. Waiter Peter, a former business owner, sums up the frank yet poignant tone: “Dementia takes away many things… our memories and ability to do things. But what it doesn’t take away is feeling.”

STILL GAME

Friday, BBC One, 9pm

If you missed the final series when it premiered earlier this year on the BBC Scotland channel, now’s your chance to say farewell to Jack and Victor. Even the most devout Still Game fan would admit that it’s long since passed its prime, but this valedictory run marks a slight return to form. It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as the other post-return outings: it actually contains some decent jokes and glimmers of the warmth which made us love it in the first place. Make no mistake, Still Game in its heyday was a modern sitcom classic. Admittedly, this opening episode is average at best, but at least it isn’t embarrassing. The series improves as it goes on. RIP.

LAST WEEK’S TV

KILLING EVE

Saturday 8^th, BBC One

Series two of this multi-award-winning black comedy thriller picked up directly from the violent climax of series one. Sympathetic MI5 agent Eve (Sandra Oh) was suffering from PTSD after stabbing – fatally, she assumed – psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). The oddly likeable villain was alive and fairly well, of course: she’s an unstoppable force of dark nature. Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) has stepped down as head writer to focus on other projects, but new boss Emerald Fennell (hitherto best known for playing Nurse Patsy in Call the Midwife) slipped into her shoes with ease. Killing Eve is still a fast, funny parody of spy thriller tropes which also functions as an actual captivating spy thriller. It has its cake and eats it on the fly. Also, Comer is utterly outstanding

YEAR OF THE RABBIT

Monday 10^th, Channel 4

The ubiquitous Matt Berry stars in this dreary sitcom about a tough, maverick Victorian cop patrolling the mean streets of London’s East End. It’s a charmless affair in which unfunny swearing and strained silliness offer no substitute for wit. The one-note Berry, who can’t even affect a passable cockney accent, is acted off the screen by a supporting cast which includes Paul Kaye and Alun Armstrong.

TV Preview: WILD BILL + I CAN GO FOR THAT: THE SMOOTH WORLD OF YACHT ROCK

This column was originally published in The Courier on 8th June 2019.

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

WILD BILL

Wednesday, STV, 9pm

Just when you thought the world couldn’t get any stranger, here’s Hollywood actor Rob Lowe in an ITV cop show. He plays a high-flying American police chief who, together with his teenage daughter, relocates to Boston in Lincolnshire. Why? Boston, so we’re told, has a worryingly high crime rate, so he’s been shipped in to bring down the numbers. If episode one is anything to go by, it makes Midsomer look like Toytown. The tone is all over the place, it bounces messily between laconic humour, bog-standard police procedural shenanigans and gruesome violence, seemingly uncertain of what the hell it’s trying to be. Still, the incongruous spectacle of Lowe navigating the means streets of Brexit Britain is something to behold. For about five minutes.

THATCHER: A VERY BRITISH REVOLUTION

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

The penultimate instalment of this rigorous examination of Margaret Thatcher’s epic reign of terror shows how her stubbornness, hubris and lack of empathy sowed the seeds of her undoing. It begins in the mid-‘80s, when rapidly escalating unemployment and wanton free market capitalism triggered rancorous public dissent. Did Thatcher care? She was certainly stung by the criticism, but couldn’t understand where it came from. Her lack of self-awareness was astonishing. Nevertheless, she won a third term in 1987. Packed with fascinating reams of rare archive footage, including her uncharacteristically emotional interview with Dr Miriam Stoppard, plus frank contributions from the likes of cadaverous lickspittle Norman Tebbit and avuncular mortal enemy Neil Kinnock, it’s another sturdy chapter in a highly impressive series.

DEATH ROW: COUNTDOWN TO EXECUTION

Thursday, STV, 9pm

Here’s a sobering fact: there are currently more American death row convicts being profiled by documentary crews than ever before. In this unsurprisingly grim series, Susanna Reid travels to Huntsville, Texas, the execution capital of America (it even boasts a death row-themed museum). She’s there to meet maximum security prison inmate Patrick Murphy, who was once part of a notorious crime gang responsible for the biggest prison breakout in Texas history. This is his final television interview. We also hear from his Buddhist priest advisor and the wife of the police officer he’s convicted of killing. However, Murphy didn’t actually pull the trigger. Even the pro-death penalty locals Reid meets agree that this broaches a murky grey area. It's a vaguely acceptable piece of tabloid television.

I CAN GO FOR THAT: THE SMOOTH WORLD OF YACHT ROCK

Friday, BBC Four, 9pm

Though never considered a genre at the time, the slick, soulful Californian pop recorded from the mid-‘70s to the mid-‘80s by artists such as Steely Dan, Hall & Oates and Michael McDonald has since been defined and re-evaluated as Yacht Rock. In this excellent new series, Katie Puckrik, a devout acolyte, is your witty, charming, erudite guide to a deep blue bay of tidy beards, aviator shades and satin bomber jackets. An array of journalists and academics help her to place this “millionaire’s make-out music” in acute historical and socio-political context. They begin by tracing its sensitive singer-songwriter and soft rock roots, when popular music mounted an introspective campaign against the tumult of the ‘60s.