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.

TV Review: THE CITY & THE CITY + KISS ME FIRST

This article was originally published in The Courier on 7th April 2018.

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

THE CITY & THE CITY: Friday, BBC Two

KISS ME FIRST: Monday, Channel 4

If you’ve ever wondered what a cross between Blade Runner and DCI Banks might look like, then look no further than THE CITY & THE CITY, a four-part adaptation of the weird fiction novel by fantasy author China Mieville.

Reeking of cheap cigars and pound shop leather, a hirsute David Morrissey stars as extreme crime specialist Inspector Borlu from the fictional European city of Beszel. This dystopian police state occupies the same geographical space as the affluent city of Ul Qoma, but they’re divided by a sort of temporal wall which must never be breached. Citizens are trained from birth to automatically ignore – or un-see – everything in their neighbouring city.

Episode one did a halfway decent job of building this imaginative world, but it was so preoccupied with establishing the central concept it forgot to introduce a compelling storyline.

I’m all in favour of television that demands our undivided attention, and The City & The City deserves some credit for refusing to explain itself in instantly digestible terms, but once you’ve got to grips with its overarching thrust, all you’re left with is a semi-parodic police procedural where ideas and surface style take precedence over emotional depth. There’s a gaping hole where its heart should be.

The retro-futurist art direction is undeniably impressive. Beszel, a blatant avatar for East Berlin and Brexit Britain, is steeped in off-kilter Cold War iconography and analogue grime. It’s been brought to life with careful attention to detail. If only they’d spent as much time on everything else, the stuff that really matters.

Bring on your sombre socio-political allegory by all means – when living in an urban climate of fear and paranoia, human beings tend to employ wilful ignorance as a selfish survival mechanism – but don’t forget to say something more substantial than “Hmm, do you see?!”

Judging The City & The City on the basis of one episode is difficult, and perhaps that’s testament to its lack of compromise. It’s an ambitious piece of sci-fi, a bluntly allegorical statement about the far-reaching perils of ignoring the societal injustice that exists all around us, but so far I’m finding it difficult to care about the characters and their plight.

I haven’t read the novel, it possibly has more depth. This adaptation may well reveal those depths as it unfolds, but first impressions count. I don’t think I can summon the willpower to withstand three more hours of a standard-issue troubled cop with a standard-issue dead (or possibly missing) love interest moping his way through an uninviting conspiracy thriller.

Another adaptation of a science-fiction novel, KISS ME FIRST is more arresting than The City & The City. The latter is waterlogged with arch, self-conscious loftiness, whereas the former – so far at least – explores its theme of post-adolescent alienation with a relatively subtler touch.

Judiciously scheduled to coincide with the release of Spielberg’s nominally similar Ready Player One, it focuses on Leila, a shy, sheltered, lonely young woman who only feels alive when she’s immersed in a virtual reality video game.

One day she unwittingly gains access to a secret off-map section of this world, where she meets a mysterious gang of similarly dysfunctional (if unrealistically good-looking) outcasts who’ve been monitoring her from afar. Gradually, their fantasy selves intersect with real life to intriguing and sinister effect.

Unlike episode one of The City & The City, this intriguing drama appears to have some soul. The photo-realistic computer-generated scenes are more than mere exercises in gimmicky style, they’re seamlessly blended and integral to the plot.   

This is, potentially, a thoughtful and timely series about the quadruple-edged benefits of building an online community of remote access friends; loneliness, 21^st century style.

It’s been adapted by Bryan Elsley, co-creator of risible youth drama Skins, so I’ve lowered my expectations accordingly. Everyone deserves a second chance, however. I hope it lives up to its promise.

TV Review: COME HOME + INDIAN SUMMER SCHOOL

This article was originally published in The Courier on 31st March 2018.

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

COME HOME: Tuesday, BBC One

INDIAN SUMMER SCHOOL: Thursday, Channel 4

Society, with its infinite capacity for fairness and equality, has always decreed that a woman who leaves her family is guilty of a worse crime than a man who does the same.

Regardless of her personal circumstances, a mother is expected to feather the nest at all costs. Life, as all non-idiots know, is more complicated than that. The quietly devastating drama COME HOME confronts this stigma, this uncomfortably emotive issue, with commendable nuance and compassion.

Christopher Eccleston and Paula Malcomson star as Greg and Marie, a working-class couple with three children. One day, Marie walks out on them. They’re stunned and heartbroken. Why did she leave? Marie can only tell Greg that she felt suffocated, which only adds to his forlorn confusion. She didn’t leave him for someone else, she now lives alone in a house nearby.

Greg is still in love with her. As far as he’s concerned, her actions are a mystifying betrayal. She’s abandoned him and his beloved children. It’s not as black and white as that, of course. We’ll find out more about Marie’s motives as the series unfolds.

Episode one was told from Greg’s perspective, as he struggled to rebuild his life eleven months after Marie’s departure. A burgeoning romance with a work acquaintance spiralled out of control when her abusive ex-partner bulldozered into their lives. Behind her vivacious exterior, Greg’s new girlfriend is an emotionally scarred soul who fails to bond with his understandably sceptical children. She’s a vulnerable, tragic figure.

Eccleston, mercifully back in his serious drama comfort zone after an embarrassing “funny granddad” detour in The A Word, delivers a painfully raw performance as a man drowning in heartbreak and loneliness. His Belfast accent (Come Home was made with support from BBC Northern Ireland) is utterly convincing, it never distracts.

James Nesbitt must be spitting feathers, Eccleston has effortlessly stolen his troubled Irish everyman shoes.

The desperately sad, discomfiting scene in which Greg begged Marie to come home was beautifully played by Eccleston and Malcomson. We didn’t see much of her last week, but in later episodes Malcomson handles her difficult and complex role faultlessly. She’s superb.

Writer Danny Brocklehurst is a protégé of Jimmy McGovern, and it shows. Like McGovern, he spins engrossing gut-punching yarns populated by flawed characters unravelling in a jagged moral maze.

This is a drama we can all relate to in one way or another. We’ve all struggled to come to terms with the end of a relationship. We’ve all suffered from loss and regret. We’ve all, like Greg, listened to Lou Reed’s aching Pale Blue Eyes, or something similar, in the empty dead of night.

As hifalutin as this sounds, Come Home is a wise and moving meditation on the fragile mess of the human condition. It’s produced by RED, the company behind the similarly outstanding Happy Valley. If they keep this up, they’ll have to build a fortified annex for their BAFTA storage.

In the new documentary series INDIAN SUMMER SCHOOL, five underperforming British schoolboys volunteer to take their failed GCSE exams again in India’s Doon School, one of the world’s most prestigious seats of learning.

It’s a sympathetic culture clash experiment, refreshingly free of editorial judgement, about undisciplined yet decent kids dealing with a strange new world of rigid conformity. These boys genuinely want to improve their prospects, even if at the moment they’re emotionally unqualified to do so. I hope the experience pays off for them.

TV Review: THE SECRET HELPERS + THE FUNERAL MURDERS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 24th March 2018.

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

THE SECRET HELPERS: Wednesday, BBC Two

THE FUNERAL MURDERS: Monday, BBC Two

When gazing in despair upon this hate-strewn boulder of ours, it’s easy to forget that good people still exist. THE SECRET HELPERS is a charitable reminder. Maybe humanity will prevail after all.

The premise behind this quietly heartening new series couldn’t be simpler. Brits dealing with difficult circumstances receive friendly advice from pragmatic strangers around the world. While monitoring them via camera, these earthbound guardian angels beam trouble-shooting words of wisdom into the brains of our protagonists through hidden earpieces.

Their loved ones are obviously aware that a documentary is being filmed, but they have no idea about the secret helpers. That adds an element of mild peril to an otherwise upbeat project; will they get found out while chatting, seemingly to no one, during an advice session?

They’re essentially being asked to live a lie for a week, albeit for benign reasons.

First up was Dan, who’d suffered a massive double stroke. Despite having recovered for the most part, he now experiences anxiety and chronic tiredness. He was on the verge of getting married, and worried that his symptoms would make mincemeat of his duties at the wedding.

Fortunately, his secret helpers got him through it. They included twinkly Sister Una from Ireland, a traditional South African healer, two retired New York cops and a health and lifestyle guru (and former Playboy model) from Norway.

Their simple yet non-patronising advice helped Dan with his speech, stress levels and diet. Watching him overcome his fears via the kindness of strangers was surprisingly touching. Sure, they're presumably getting paid for taking part, but only a dead-inside cynic would doubt their sincerity.

The helpers getting dressed up to watch Dan’s wedding from their corners the world was rather charming. For a few days this disparate group became emotionally invested in the lives of people they’ll probably never meet. That connection extends to the audience too. We’re all entwined by the same fears and empathetic impulses.

Our second Brit-in-need Brett was assisted by Dan's team plus a pair of female Italian chefs. He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to cope with premature new-born twins and a wife recovering from major surgery. Sister Una, a former nurse and midwife, was of particular help. The South African sage taught him a lullaby to send the twins to sleep. It was awfully sweet.

If mishandled, this show could easily come across as cloying and twee, but it’s put together with such a winning lack of cynicism it works a charm.

Let’s not get carried away, though. Human beings are also capable of heinous acts of violence and prejudice. In THE FUNERAL MURDERS, the estimable documentary film-maker Vanessa Engle presented a sobering account of the lethal attacks that took place during two Irish Republican funerals in March 1988.

By speaking to representatives from all sides – IRA, RUC etc. - Engle highlighted the immovable stalemate and conflicting narratives that characterised The Troubles. Republicans and Loyalists are so diametrically opposed, it’s simply staggering in hindsight that the ongoing peace process ever got off the ground at all.

Supported by harrowing archive footage of the attacks, Engle met people whose pain and attitudes haven’t softened in the intervening years. The only difference is that now they don’t live in a divided nation scorched with almost daily acts of political violence. While that progress should never be taken for granted, those deep divisions still prevail.

“Who will be believed?” mused one commentator, when asked about historical legacy. “Whoever shouts the loudest.”

With typical sensitivity and probing open-mindedness, Engle cut to the human heart of this complex, inflammatory issue. It was a sad, blunt, riveting film, steeped in lingering shock and senseless loss.

TV Review: HITCHCOCK'S SHOWER SCENE: 78/52 + SIR BRUCE: A CELEBRATION

This article was originally published in The Courier on 17th March 2018.

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

HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER SCENE: 78/52: Saturday, BBC Two

SIR BRUCE: A CELEBRATION: Sunday, BBC One

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is arguably the first modern horror film. Released in 1960, it marked a paradigm shift from the Gothic monsters of the first golden age of horror to a more brutal and contemporary style informed by real-life serial killers: the Rosetta Stone of slasher movies.

This influential masterpiece is an indelible part of popular culture. There aren’t many films that warrant a feature-length documentary devoted to analysis of one scene, but there aren’t many scenes as memorable and exquisitely crafted as the subject of HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER SCENE: 78/52.

The title of this absorbing critique is derived from the 78 set-ups and 52 cuts that were required to create just over three minutes of screen-time.

This wordless assault of homicidal violence was directed by Hitchcock over the course of seven days. He knew that a scene such as this needed extra attention. It’s tempting to speculate that he knew he was creating cinema history.

Devoid of narration and fittingly photographed in vivid monochrome, this authoritative essay boasted contributions from an impressive roster of talking heads including Bret Easton Ellis, Peter Bogdanovich (yes, he did his trusty Hitch impression), Guillermo del Toro and Janet Leigh’s daughter Jamie Lee Curtis.

It also featured wonderful insight from former Playboy cover star and Leigh’s body double Marli Renfro, who revealed that she wasn’t completely nude during the shoot but that she did have to strip down to her underwear for Hitchcock and Leigh during her audition.

The experts did a thorough job of placing Psycho in historical and socio-political context, while examining its reflection of various recurring Hitchcock themes.

The film as a whole was subject to almost scene-by-scene analysis, with the lion’s share naturally being dominated by a forensic study of the shower scene itself. A masterclass in directing, editing and scoring – Bernard Hermann’s metallic string attack is familiar to people who haven’t even seen Psycho – it’s fully deserving of its legendary status.

Hitchcock, who appeared throughout via archive interview footage, always maintained that Psycho was intended as a dark, twisted comedy, and it does indeed work on that level if you have a similarly mordant sense of humour. But it also succeeds as a subversive and provocative work of art.

This superb documentary will, I suspect, become a key text in its legacy.

An all-singing, all tap-dancing tribute to a showbiz legend, SIR BRUCE: A CELEBRATION was a variety extravaganza that the great man would’ve approved of.

Hosted by Tess Daly from the London Palladium, it showered praise upon an all-round entertainer who made a difficult job look easy.

It reinforced just how loved he was by the public and his peers. The likes of Russ Abbot, Michael Grade, Declan Donnelley, Anton du Beke and former BBC Head of Light Entertainment Jim Moir choked back their emotions as they eulogised a genuinely nice man.

Highlights included Shirley Bassey, her lung power undimmed, singing one of his favourite songs, Almost Like Being in Love, a delighted Paul Merton recounting Brucie’s unforgettable stewardship of Have I Got News For You, and Ant/Dec paying tribute to his peerless camera technique – that sly/baffled sideways glance was one of the greatest weapons in his armoury – and winning way with the general public.

He carried it all off with such warmth and intimacy. The sheer skill with which he wrangled fast-moving blasts of light entertainment was unique. Platitudes be damned, we will never see his likes again.

SEVEN YEAR SWITCH + ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE

A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 10th March 2018.

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

SEVEN YEAR SWITCH: Tuesday, Channel 4

ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE: Wednesday, Channel 4

People are strange. Whenever they feel scared or desperate, their decision-making patterns can become erratic and bizarre. That’s an absolute Godsend for television producers, as it allows programmes such as SEVEN YEAR SWITCH to exist.

I suspect that for most couples on the verge of divorce, appearing in a modified version of Wife Swap would be pretty far down their list of priorities. For the couples participating in this new partner-switching series, it obviously felt like the best course of action.

On the one hand, Seven Year Switch feels symptomatic of the rampant narcissism that’s infected first world society since the advent of reality television and social media.

On the other hand, these genuinely troubled couples felt compelled to do whatever it takes to save their marriages. It’s just that, apparently, “whatever it takes” sometimes means having your private woes beamed into millions of homes throughout the country.

So how does it work? Over the course of the series, four couples for whom the dream has gone sour take part in our old friend the TV social experiment to find out once and for all if their marriages are worth fighting for.

The idea is that by living as husband and wife for a fortnight with someone they’ve only just met, they’ll either re-evaluate their marriage or conclude that it really is all over.

The production team have a budget that has to be pointlessly spent, so the participants are flown out to a luxurious Thai island. Overseeing the whole ordeal is a relationship therapist who decides who should be switched – not swapped, it’s a very important distinction – with whom.

The twist is that there are no rules about what kind of relationship they choose to have. When you think about it, that could mean anything. What’s more, the stunned guinea pigs aren’t even told they’ll be sharing a bed until they arrive at their villas. This doesn’t go down well with most of them.

As is reality television’s wont, it’s all very contrived and manipulative.

Episode one devoted itself to introducing the couples, outlining their various problems and seeing what happened when the switched pairings met for the first time.

The shared bed bombshell triggered a gust of polite awkwardness. Watching the couples deal with this issue was admittedly rather interesting. Despite my general misgivings about the project, by the end I actually found myself wanting to see how it all pans out. It would be dishonest to claim that essentially well-made programmes such as this don’t pander to our voyeuristic impulses.

Despite the presence of an old-fashioned chauvinist, there are no outright villains in Seven Year Switch. There will doubtless be some conflict in future episodes, but it’s not designed to be explosive in the Wife Swap vein.

Whether these couples actually gain anything from the experience, or live to regret it, remains to be seen.

Will you care either way? Of course not. It’s all pointless. We’ll be dead soon, it’s just a swollen heartbeat away. Gawping passively into the soiled litter tray of other people’s heartbreak is one way of getting through it all.

Still, life goes on. One of Channel 4’s cast-iron warhorses, observational documentary ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE returned for another series of touching antenatal drama.

In a Birmingham maternity ward, we met more nurses and couples on the cusp of bringing life into this dreadful world of knockabout pain.

The straightforward human interest formula never fails to gently lift the spirits, as we eavesdrop on nice ordinary people going through a life-changing experience while personable professionals ensure a smooth transition under often trying circumstances.

They’ll probably all end up on Seven Year Switch one day.

TV Review: THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY + CIVILISATIONS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 3rd March 2018.

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

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY: Wednesday, BBC Two

CIVILISATIONS: Thursday, BBC Two

We’re all aware that fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered on his doorstep. These things tend to lodge in your mind. I daresay, however, that most of us know nothing about Versace’s murder beyond that one brutal fact.

That’s chiefly why THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY is so effective: this addictive nine-part drama is utterly unpredictable and jaw-dropping.

The first season of American Crime Story was based on the O.J. Simpson trial, the details of which are, broadly speaking, well known. That’s presumably why it was presented as an absurd tragicomedy, rather than a revelatory factual drama.

Season two opts for a more sombre tone and a greater sense of depth. It veers off in various directions while still keeping hold of the main narrative. It’s a far more impressive, nuanced piece of work.

Based on the book Vulgar Favours: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History by Maureen Orth, it begins with Versace’s 1997 murder before flashing back to various points during the preceding seven years. This allows the writers to flesh out the characters while teasing and building the central mystery: who was Andrew Cunanan and why did he kill Versace?

It turns out that Cunanan was a young man who once had a brief affair with Versace. He was also a pathological fantasist, an entitled nuisance and a serial killer. Glee star Darren Criss delivers a mesmerising performance as Cunanan; his volatile presence is truly unnerving.

Despite having a gay homicidal maniac at its centre, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace doesn’t feel exploitative or dubious. It sensitively explores the scourge of homophobia in America’s recent past, and every gay character apart from Cunanan is portrayed in a sympathetic light. Cunanan’s sexuality and psychopathy are never depicted as two sides of the same coin; a self-perceived failure, he was driven by intense jealousy of rich, talented artists.

It’s a stellar example of the way episodic television can explore a complex story in novelistic detail and from several angles. This bizarre saga, with all its shocking twists and grisly turns, unfolds like a violent fever dream. Yet it actually happened. 

The Versace family disagree, they’ve dismissed it as a work of fiction, but I suspect that’s because they resent the very existence of an unauthorised forage behind their fiercely protected brand image.

However, I do sympathise with their opposition to an extent. While the series depicts the Versaces (Donatella is winningly portrayed by the great Penelope Cruz) and his lover (a sensitive turn from pop star Ricky Martin) sympathetically, how must they feel being confronted with graphic images of their beloved Gianni (lookalike Edgar Ramirez) with gaping bullet wounds through his cheeks? Was it really necessary to linger on that?

I also feel for all the families of Cunanan’s victims, who’d be advised to stay away. 

Nevertheless, a few lapses in taste aside, this is a thoughtful and intelligent dramatisation of a thoroughly fascinating case.

Commissioned at the behest of the BBC’s Director General Tony Hall, CIVILISATIONS is a belated sequel to Kenneth Clark’s landmark 1969 series Civilisation.

A nine-part essay on the history of African, Asian, American and European art, it’s clearly an attempt to grandly reaffirm the BBC’s core Reithian values: to inform, educate and entertain.

Thankfully, this beautifully directed, globe-trotting piece succeeds without coming across as self-important. Hosted in shifts by Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Simon Schama, it began with the sage yet cuddly Schama exploring the origins of human creativity. Despite its sweeping ambitions, Schama’s essay was typically focused and accessible. It was also rather moving.

The human impulse to create works of art stretches back through the millennia. That’s a humbling and comforting thought.

As Schama said in his impassioned introduction after showing horrific footage of ISIS destroying ancient works of art: “We can spend a lot of time debating what civilisation is or isn’t, but when its opposite shows up in all its brutality and cruelty and intolerance and lust for destruction, we know what civilisation is.”