TV Column: THE TRIAL OF RATKO MLADIC + CATCHPOINT

This article was originally published in The Courier on 30 March 2019.

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

NEXT WEEK’S TV

FOR FOLK’S SAKE! MORRIS DANCING AND ME

Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

This wryly affectionate documentary peers into a peculiar subculture. Morris dancing is widely regarded as an embarrassing emblem of tiresomely twee British eccentricity. But, asks filmmaker Richard Macer, is this parochial world of bells, beards and beer facing extinction? What can be done to inflate the membership of ageing Morris groups? Macer follows Britain’s oldest Morris organisation as they deal with a monumental change to their constitution: allowing women to join hitherto male-only groups for the first time. Traditionalist leader Barry is dead against it. “It’s important to maintain the artistic purity of the style,” he insists while dressed as a May Queen. However, Macer also meets dancers who welcome their female saviours. It’s like Brexit in microcosm.

STORYVILLE: THE TRIAL OF RATKO MLADIC

Monday, BBC Four, 10pm

In 2017, Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life in prison. This sobering documentary goes behind the scenes of his five-year inquisition at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the most important war crimes trial since Nuremberg. During the Bosnian War of the ‘90s, Mladic became synonymous with the siege of Sarajevo in which nearly 14,000 people were killed and the murder of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. The film boasts extraordinary access to Mladic’s defence team and celebrates the painstaking efforts of the prosecutors who brought this evil tyrant, known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, to account.

JACK THE RIPPER: THE CASE REOPENED

Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

We’ll probably never know the true identity of Jack the Ripper, but we’ll always have a stream of documentaries purporting to shed new light on his horrific crimes. The latest unearthing of the world’s most famous cold case investigation is hosted by none other than Silent Witness star Emilia Fox alongside leading criminologist Professor David Wilson. He’s also a practiced media professional, hence his unfortunate tendency to come across as a bit too slick and actorly when discussing brutal murders (Fox, despite being an actual actor, is more subdued). Using modern techniques and technology, including a bespoke computer system used by the police to detect patterns in criminal activity, they attempt to whittle down the list of historic suspects.

PILGRIMAGE: THE ROAD TO ROME

Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

It’s one of the core tenets of modern television production: when in doubt, round up a group of B and C list celebs and send them off on an overseas adventure. Voila! Another few hours of mild entertainment. This one involves a cabal including Les Dennis, Lesley Joseph, Strictly dancer Brendan Cole and Dana (yes, Dana) hiking across the Alps towards the Vatican. Why? Well, they all have different faiths and beliefs so they’re apparently looking for answers by following this ancient tradition. Dana is Catholic, Joseph is Jewish but non-practicing, Cole is an atheist and Dennis doesn’t know what he believes in. Let theological battle commence. Actually, it’s all rather pleasant and jolly, the very definition of undemanding fare.

LAST WEEK’S TV

CATCHPOINT

Saturday 23^rd, BBC One

Paddy McGuinness: why? This bog-standard quiz show failed to provide a satisfactory answer to that mystifying conundrum. McGuinness oversaw proceedings in typically bland, gormless, unfunny style as contestants answered general knowledge questions while attempting to catch large pink rubber balls. I wouldn’t be surprised if that gimmick was devised solely as an excuse for McGuinness to deliver cheeky pre-watershed double entendres.

TV Review: THE BUTTON + HOME FROM HOME + WANNABE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 21st April 2018.

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

THE BUTTON: Friday, BBC One

HOME FROM HOME: Friday, BBC One

WANNABE: Friday, BBC One

In the competitive realm of TV game shows, the simplest formats reign supreme. The only exception to this rule was the inscrutable 3-2-1, which managed to survive for ten years despite no one ever knowing what the hell was going on.

The canny minds behind cult Dave hit Taskmaster know a good, simple idea when they find one, as they proved yet again with their new BBC bauble THE BUTTON.

A literal manifestation of fun for all the family, it involves five broods from around the UK undertaking various challenges at exactly the same time from the comfort of their own living rooms. The winning family earns a large cash prize, the losers get nothing.

They receive their instructions from a shiny plastic box crowned with a mushroom-shaped button. When the button – or rather, The Button; he’s a character voiced by comedian and series co-creator Alex Horne - turns red they must spring into action. Once they’ve completed the round, they press The Button again. The quickest family to do so wins.

That’s all there is to it, but it makes for cheerful, undemanding viewing.

Challenges in the first episode included building a free-standing tower from cans, books and pillows that was taller than the tallest person in the household (this led to the depressing spectacle of one contestant shrieking, “We don’t have any books!”), bouncing a ping pong ball into a cup, reciting the entire alphabet backwards without saying any of the vowels, and stuffing a mound of huge inflatables into their homes.

This harmless bit of fun benefits from a refreshing lack of cynicism. Horne never mocks the contestants, and even when they get to watch and sometimes laugh at their rivals in action, it’s all done in a spirit of friendly competition.

Pre-watershed game shows are notoriously hard to get right – the grim animatronic spectre of Don’t Scare The Hare still looms large – but the BBC have probably got a hit on their hands here. You can guarantee that children up and down the land will be urging their parents to apply.

It will also lead inevitably to the TV-eating-itself weirdness of the families from Gogglebox watching the families from The Button. We’re through the looking glass, people.

BBC One’s new Friday night schedule continued with a pair of debuting sitcoms. The first, HOME FROM HOME is a class-based comedy set in a Lake District holiday park.

The presence of Johnny Vegas suggests that it might have some bite and bitter pathos. It doesn’t. It’s a gentle gust of nothing in particular. Despite offering Vegas another opportunity to riff on his lovable sad-sack persona, the mild scripts by Coronation Street writers Simon Crowther and Chris Fewtrell are beneath him.

The supporting cast, which includes Emilia Fox as a snooty neighbour and Susan Calman as a conspiracy theorist, also do what they can, but Home From Home is a featherweight waste of their talents. It’s means no harm, but it doesn’t raise so much as a titter or indulgent smile. Still, lovely scenery.

It’s slightly better than WANNABE, however, which follows a selfish, deluded and bitter ex-member of a forgotten girl band who decides to make an unbidden comeback.

Although competently performed by Nicholas ‘Nathan Barley’ Burns and co-writer Lily Brazier, this mean-spirited confection leans far too heavily on Gervais-esque tics and his worn-out themes. It’s the pointless David Brent film starring a middle-class mum. No one needs this.