THE STATUE WARS: ONE SUMMER IN BRISTOL + INSIDE NO. 9 + INTELLIGENCE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 5th June 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

The Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

Last summer, a statue of the 18^th century slave trader Edward Colston was torn down in Bristol and tossed into the harbour. That Black Lives Matter protest was a powerful symbolic gesture, but all some people could talk about was criminal damage and erasing history. Which is missing the point entirely; a myopic simplification. 

This nuanced documentary follows Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees during the immediate aftermath. The first directly-elected black mayor of a European city, Rees had to delicately negotiate his way through a tense period when Bristol represented a microcosm of our harshly divided society. He received death threats. 

The programme dissects a complex issue encompassing racism, social inequality, poor housing and education. It addresses the bigger picture. 

Inside No. 9 – Monday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

The penultimate episode of series six finds Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith at their most Tales of the Unexpected-esque. 

It’s an absorbing chiller, largely swathed in witching hour gloom, starring Derek Jacobi as a formidable old barrister with a reputation for never losing a case. But his glory days are far behind him. He’s on his death bed, wheezing and railing against the dying of the light.

Shearsmith plays his sensitive, kindly nurse: a probable nod to the relationship between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jason Robards in Magnolia. 

Set over a single night – naturally, Jacobi’s luxury apartment is situated on the ninth floor – it has gleefully twisty fun with those age-old themes of guilt and forgiveness.

Hospital – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

As this exceptional series continues, the staff at University Hospital, Coventry are trying to get back to some form of normality. But as one senior doctor says, the aftershock of the pandemic will be felt for years. 

University Hospital is famous for being the first hospital in the world to administer the Covid vaccine following its clinical approval. Now – the series was filmed during the spring of this year – it’s dealing with a whole range of non-Covid-related emergencies. 

The staff are even busier than they were during lockdown, but the amount of available beds is smaller than it was before Covid. The episode also highlights the importance of treating patients with mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

999: What’s Your Emergency? – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm

One of Channel 4’s hardy perennials, this documentary series about Britain’s emergency services is generally quite sensitive, but occasionally its attempts to balance light and shade trigger some bizarre tonal shifts and errors of judgement. 

For instance, this week’s episode contains a sequence in which a woman comes home to find her husband in bed with two sex workers. Set against an incongruously cheerful soundtrack, the whole thing is played for knockabout laughs, when in reality it’s incredibly bleak. 

A very strange production choice, as this episode is, at heart, a serious report about a growing lack of faith in the criminal justice system and how people can be driven to violent forms of revenge caused by emotional distress.

Intelligence – Tuesday, Sky One, 10pm

A sitcom inspired by the espionage-fuelled likes of 24, Intelligence stars David Schwimmer as one Jerry Bernstein, a self-centred and buffoonish American National Security agent working in the UK’s distinctly unglamorous Government Communications Headquarters. His de facto sidekick is played by series creator Nick Mohammed. 

As series two begins, terrorists have hijacked a cyber-weapon with the intention of blowing up a nuclear power station. Bernstein worked on the device back in 2016, but he can’t remember the override password. 

Intelligence is pitched as an escalating farce, but it’s only mildly amusing at best. Still, Mohammed is a likeable presence and Schwimmer is a great comic actor, so it’s worth watching if only to witness him in action.

In the Footsteps of Killers – Wednesday, Channel 4, 10pm

On Boxing Day 1996, Patrick Warren and David Spencer, two young boys from Birmingham, disappeared without trace. This cold case documentary, which is hosted by Silent Witness actor Emilia Fox and criminologist David Wilson, tries to find out what happened to them. 

Patrick and David were the first missing children to be pictured on milk cartons in the UK. And yet despite that effort, Wilson argues that, due to their working class background, Patrick and David were dismissed as unimportant in the eyes of the police. They didn’t fit a neat media-friendly profile. It’s deeply angering. 

Although the programme suffers from some of the usual contrived and borderline dubious trappings of this genre, it strikes me as fundamentally well-intentioned.

Billion Pound Bond Street – Thursday, STV, 9pm

Bond Street is London’s most exclusive shopping thoroughfare. According to this one-off documentary, it hawks more luxury brands than any other half-mile on Earth. 

We’re gravely informed that the bespoke businesses on Bond Street have struggled due to the pandemic, but they all seem to be doing just fine. As long as there are people who can afford to hoover up their wares, then it will continue to thrive. 

This is a blithe celebration of filthy riches and shallow flash. At one point, without a trace of irony, a Dior employee describes Bond Street as “one long Instagram location.” With so many people struggling at the moment, programmes such as this come across as utterly tone deaf.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Brian Cox’s Adventures in Space and Time – Sunday 30th May, BBC Two

During the last year of lockdown, we’ve become used to emergency programmes in which popular presenters such as Louis Theroux and Michael Palin look back upon their work: cheaply-produced clip shows garnished with fresh perspective. Now it’s Cox’s turn to “revisit some fundamental questions again.” 

First up: how far can we go in our exploration of the cosmos? Cox started hosting his own shows in 2010, so he’s not short of things to discuss with regards to the ever-evolving landscape of scientific discovery. 

This series is a reminder of why he’s been so successful. A popular science expert who makes his subject accessible while never patronising the viewer, Cox is, quite simply, very good at his job.

24 Hours in A&E – Monday 31st May, Channel 4

The latest series of this compassionate stalwart began by focussing on urgent respiratory cases. 

The first patient to be treated was a man who’d collapsed on a tennis court. The doctors saved his life by administering a shock to his heart; a dangerous procedure, but apparently the best way of ‘resetting’ someone in that condition. Thankfully he survived. 

The centrepiece of the episode was an Afghan refugee who collapsed at home due to shortness of breath. This man had survived the Russian invasion and Taliban rule. He’d built a new life for his family in Britain. Sadly, he was eventually diagnosed with motor neuron disease. 

As always, this was a touching study of how fragile and precious life is.

 

 

 

BLACK POWER: A BRITISH STORY OF RESISTANCE + FOOTBALL'S DARKEST SECRET

This article was originally published in The Courier on 20th March 2021. 

NEXT WEEK'S TV

Black Power: A British Story of Resistance – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

This stirring 90-minute documentary traces the dramatic rise and fall of the British Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Inspired by the civil rights struggle in America, and in particular the uncompromising rhetoric of Malcolm X and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael, these young black and Asian radicals fought back against the brutal institutional racism they endured on a daily basis. 

The film features compelling testaments from some of the still-defiant members of this hugely important yet often overlooked movement. 

A vital piece of social history, it also reaches out to the Black Lives Matter movement and considers the lessons that can be learned from their pioneering forebears in the self-empowering revolt against racial discrimination.

Football’s Darkest Secret – Monday to Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm

This landmark series examines the shockingly vast amount of cases of historic child abuse which took place in British youth football from the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s. In doing so, it exposes the culture of silence that surrounded these heinous crimes. 

Preview copies weren’t available at the time of writing, but this is quite clearly an essential report.

For decades, coaches and scouts connected to top football clubs abused their positions of power to prey on vulnerable young boys. Many of the victims were shamed into silence until, in 2016, former player Andy Woodward chose to speak out publicly. This encouraged more than 800 other victims to follow suit. 300 suspects have since been identified.

24 Hours in Police Custody: Bedfordshire’s Most Wanted – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm

The umpteenth series of this bleakly compelling observational crime-doc begins with 23-year-old Barry, who is being held on suspicion of multiple burglaries and numerous driving offences. Barry reckons he’s been in custody more than a thousand times. Due to a lack of fresh evidence against him, the police have no choice but to release this smirking recidivist. He clearly thinks he’s untouchable. 

But within a few weeks, the police receive calls from two terrified teenage girls who accuse Barry of sexual assault. And then the tense, queasy interviews, for which this series is renowned, begin. Barry, his bravado visibly disintegrating, insists the sex was consensual. Barry is a liar. It’s a timely episode, for obvious reasons.

The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Filmed over two years, this disturbing five-part series follows Greater Manchester Police officers as they struggle to cope with the ever-growing problem of organised crime groups.

 “It’s the biggest threat to the UK in terms of security,” says one of the detectives tasked with infiltrating this violent criminal underworld. Drug-trafficking, people-trafficking, extortion, fraud, kidnap and murder, these groups will do anything to make enormous sums of money and consolidate their power. Despite the detectives’ best efforts, the entire situation feels hopeless. 

Warning: like 24 Hours in Police Custody, this is strong stuff. It’s not gratuitous, but we do encounter a victim with severe injuries, and the descriptions of violent acts may prove upsetting for some viewers.

Strangers Making Babies – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm

Co-parenting is the term used to describe people who decide to have children outside of a conventional romantic relationship. In this sensitive new series, we meet single people who, for various reasons, feel that time is running out. So now they’re ready to enter into mutually beneficial platonic arrangements. 

As cold as that may sound, Strangers Making Babies is a touching dating show. It’s overseen by trustworthy experts; I have no reason to doubt their extensive vetting and matching process. There is nothing in this show to suggest that anyone is being exploited or coerced. 

Emotional complications inevitably ensue, but not to a traumatic extent. The overall tone is encouraging and sympathetic. Good luck to ‘em all.

This Is MY House – Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm

A sort of reverse polarity version of Through the Keyhole, this daft new series asks celebrities to correctly identify a luxury house-owner from a group of suspects. Three of them are actors, and the only one who knows the truth is the owner themselves. 

The fundamental flaw in this format – which was co-devised by media powerhouse Richard Bacon – is that the actors are visibly acting throughout. You can instantly tell who the ordinary member of the public is, but the celebs have to pretend to ignore that for the sake of the game. 

Okay, I’m willing to be proved wrong, as my preview copy cut off before their identity was revealed - presumably to prevent this nail-biting spoiler from leaking into the public domain prior to transmission - but I suspect I’ve got it bang to rights.

First Dates Hotel – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

Time now to return to that glamorous five-star hotel in sun-kissed rural Italy, where Fred and co play host to another nervous gaggle of amour-chasers. 

First up is Thalia, a young woman whose confidence has been shattered by her ex. Thalia’s date is Jack, a cancer survivor. We also meet Tony, a dapper septuagenarian widower from Essex. Tony has, shall we say, robust political opinions. His date, Lesley, does not. So you can imagine how that goes. 

As always, it’s all rather lovely. The First Dates franchise is basically a benign endeavour, it doesn’t mock or judge its participants. We’re nosy by nature, but I do believe we want the best for people. Naïve of me, perhaps.

LAST WEEK'S TV

Billie: In Search of Billie Holiday – Saturday 13th March, BBC Two

In the early 1970s, American journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of the late jazz great Billie Holliday. Her stated aim: “to go beyond the romantic myth of tortured artist and hopeless junkie.” 

Her research involved numerous lengthy interviews with Holiday’s friends, lovers and colleagues. But the book was never completed, as Kuehl died in 1978 at the age of 38. The police deemed it suicide, but her family believe she may have been murdered. 

This documentary, while undeniably interesting when it focused on Kuehl’s interviews with Holiday’s confidantes, failed in its attempts to tie the lives of these women together. What was the director trying to say exactly? A confused endeavour.

Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency – Tuesday 16th March, BBC One

Last year, Roman Kemp’s best friend, Joe Lyons, took his own life. Kemp had no idea that Lyons was struggling with mental health issues. There were no signs as far as he could see. 

In this commendably honest, delicate and responsible programme, the TV presenter and radio DJ went in search of answers: why do so many young men feel unable to talk about their problems? 

Teenage suicide rates in Britain are on the rise. The pandemic has exacerbated feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety. People feel hopeless. But Kemp’s message was clear: it is so important to open up about your feelings. Talking provides a cathartic release. You will not be judged, you are loved. Help is out there.