This article was originally published in The Courier on 19th October 2019.
NEXT
WEEK’S TV
THE
ACCIDENT
Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm
Sarah Lancashire stars in this disquieting new
drama about a small Welsh community struggling in the wake of a local tragedy.
Scenes of a traumatic nature ensue when a group of teenagers break into a
construction site for some recreational drug and spray paint fun. The Accident feels at first like an
elaborate ‘80s Public Information Film, but it gradually reveals its wider
meaning when writer Jack Thorne (This Is
England; National Treasure)
starts asking provocative questions about guilt, revenge and corporate
accountability. Clearly influenced in part by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, it’s
a timely piece. Lancashire, who excels as usual, is ably supported by a cast
including Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It)
and Sidse Babbett Knudsen (Borgen).
THE
BRITISH TRIBE NEXT DOOR
Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm
This presumably well-intentioned series could
easily come across as massively offensive. Preview copies weren’t available, so
I can only hope against hope that Scarlett Moffatt and her Gogglebox family living in a replica of their terraced home in the
middle of a Namibian tribal village – yes, really - turns out to be a sensitive
study of vast cultural differences. Moffatt is an exceedingly likeable person,
she’s smart, funny and nobody’s fool. That means, in theory at least, that the
results of this gimmicky social experiment will be quite interesting. I’m
nothing if not a cockeyed optimist. In episode one she’s forced to confront her
body-image insecurities when asked to wear the traditional Himba dress.
Meanwhile, dad introduces the locals to metal detecting. Hmm.
BILL
TURNBULL: STAYING ALIVE
Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm
In November 2017, former BBC Breakfast presenter Bill Turnbull was diagnosed with advanced
prostate cancer. It’s an incurable illness, he’s been told he has no more than
ten years left to live, but he wants to know if it really has to be a death
sentence. So, in this emotional documentary, he explores various potential
methods of prolonging his life. Interviewees include a teenage cancer patient
who is certain that cannabis oil, which is illegal in the UK, has kept him
alive, and an altruistic man who provides free medicinal cannabis to seriously
ill people. Turnbull tries some and gets the uncontrollable giggles, which
isn’t something I ever thought I’d witness. He also examines the benefits of a
meat-free diet.
K-POP
IDOLS: INSIDE THE HIT FACTORY
Friday, BBC Four, 9:30pm
The biggest boyband in the world today aren’t,
as history has taught us to expect, from Britain or the USA. They’re called BTS
and they hail from South Korea. BTS are merely the tip of a slick,
machine-tooled phenomenon known as K-Pop, which in recent years has managed the
unthinkable and punctured the West’s long-standing dominance of the music
industry. To find out how this happened, music journalist James Ballardie
travels to South Korea to meet some of K-Pop’s top movers and shakers. Chief
among them is Soo-man Lee, a Midas-like mogul who basically invented the genre.
Over the last 30 years he’s produced a never-ending line of
strictly-controlled, wholesome pop acts.
LAST
WEEK’S TV
THE WALL
Saturday 12th October, BBC One
Hang on, what’s this? A Saturday night game show
hosted by Danny Dyer? What a time to be alive. It’s a perfectly adequate crumb
of nothingy filler dominated by a large pachinko-like pegboard and Dyer’s
carefully honed, one-note personality. Contestants answer non-taxing general
knowledge questions asked, for no reason I can fathom, by the disembodied voice
of Angela Rippon. Balls drop down the board. Cash prizes are won. Dyer runs
through his hammed-up glossary of cockney colloquialisms. There is nothing more
to it than that, but it serves its modest and instantly forgettable purpose.
HIDDEN
LIVES
Thursday 17th October, BBC One
This excellent new series, in which various writers
explore overlooked aspects of contemporary Scottish society, began with a
lyrical film from the estimable journalist Peter Ross. He visited the small coastal
town of Burghead to celebrate an ancient fire festival known as The Clavie.
This lively annual event, which involves hardy souls carrying a flaming barrel
of tar on their backs, is a potent symbol of proud community heritage. As Ross
observed, the tradition isn’t maintained for tourism or the local economy, it’s
maintained “because it’s always been done and it must, and shall, always be
done.” A delightful piece of television.
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