GET ON UP: THE TRIUMPH OF BLACK AMERICA | SUCCESSION | CELEBRITY HUNTED

This article was originally published in The Courier on 25th March 2023.  

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Get On Up: The Triumph of Black America – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

The British actor David Harewood has lived and worked in America for just over a decade. He’s witnessed first-hand the vast influence of African American culture on popular culture all around the world. 

In this insightful and uplifting two-part series, he pays tribute to several game-changing African American artists. 

It begins in the 1960s, the decade of his birth, when Sidney Poitier and Motown crossed over into the mainstream. Pioneers, they challenged racist stereotypes with their talent, dignity, elegance and tacitly political defiance. They made a difference. 

Harewood also delves into the uncompromising artistry of 1970s Blaxploitation cinema and speaks to actor Jon Amos, who played the adult Kunta Kinte in that landmark TV miniseries Roots.

Succession – Monday, Sky Atlantic, 9pm

So here it is, the fourth and final series of Succession. This scabrous saga is almost over. We’ll miss these compellingly awful people when they’re gone. 

I don’t have access to preview copies, as they are at present buried in a secret lead-lined desert vault owned by Logan Roy, so all I can tell you is this: media conglomerate Waystar Royco is still on the verge of being bought up by a rival tech billionaire. Naturally, this triggers all-out war among the grasping ranks of the Roy dynasty. 

Succession is a bleakly amusing and all too convincing study of the filthy rich villains who corrode our planet. It is, like all great satire, fuelled by anger and despair.  

Bear Grylls Meets President Zelenskyy – Tuesday, Channel 4, 8pm

Grylls may seem like an odd choice of host for a documentary about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but he was actually invited to participate by the Ukrainian President himself. And he does a pretty good job. 

Mercifully, he doesn’t treat his three tense days in Ukraine like one of his usual action man survival missions. This is a sombre and respectful journey into the heart of a country living under the constant threat of missile attacks. 

Prior to his thoughtful encounter with the commander in chief, Grylls talks to several ordinary Ukrainian citizens who explain what life is like for them on a daily basis. Despite the enormous hardships they’ve been forced to endure, they – and their elected leader – remain defiant.

This World: Murder in Mayfair – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In 2008, Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen was murdered at her home near Mayfair in central London. The prime suspect is the son of one of Yemen’s richest men. He fled the UK before the police had a chance to question him. 

In this sensitive documentary, Yemeni-British BBC journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi tracks him down. Their telephone conversations are grim. What happened that night? And why hasn’t he made any attempt to contact the police? 

During the course of her investigation, Al-Maghafi also meets with Martine’s father, who has spent the last fourteen years campaigning for justice for his daughter. The BBC has, quite rightly, fallen under fire of late, but this is an exceptional piece of journalism.

Celebrity Hunted – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm

If you’ve seen Hunted before, then you know the frantic drill. But just in case: ten ersatz prison escapees – celebs in this iteration, as it’s all in aid of Stand Up to Cancer – go on the run while being tracked by an expert squad reading from a terribly laboured ‘quip-filled’ script. The fun side of state surveillance. 

Our fugitives have no money, phones or access to the internet. The ersatz authorities have just fourteen days to catch them. 

It’s a mildly entertaining exercise in which the comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble effortlessly steal the show. They won’t split your sides, I’m sure, but you may find yourselves amused by their refusal to take the whole thing seriously. 

The Dog Academy – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm

Fact: every television programme ever made would be instantly improved with dogs as its primary focus: I, Dog; Doctor Dog; Tales of the Unexpected Dog; Only Dogs and Dogs; Dog. I really could go on. 

So no wonder The Dog Academy is such a pleasing distraction. Various canine behavioural experts get to grips with their four-legged patient’s ailments while chatting to their vaguely troubled bipedal housemates. 

It’s basically a gentle session of relationship counselling, in which the ups and downs of human cohabitation are shown to have a direct impact on the animals we live with. Now, we already know that, but there’s no harm in providing a reminder. 

A good-natured show. And the pooches are delightful, obviously.

Taskmaster – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

The fifteenth series of this enjoyable breeze of concentrated silliness plays host to comedians Frankie Boyle, Jenny Éclair, Ivo Graham, Mae Martin and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. 

In episode one, they have to choreograph a silent disco wedding dance with chief Taskmaster Greg Davies’ co-conspirator Alex Horne. Will you be able to guess what songs they’re listening to on headphones? Well no, of course you won’t, but that’s all part of the fruitless fun. 

They’re also tasked with unwinding a ball of string against the clock, hooking as many rubber rings as possible while haphazardly steering a barge along a narrow canal and, in the final round, throwing bricks, balls and other alliterative items into large clay pots.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Challenge Anneka – Saturday 18th March, Channel 5 

A Saturday night staple in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Challenge Anneka lifted the nation’s spirits with its charitable against-the-clock endeavours. 

And now it’s back, with not one iota of the original format altered. Rice is even reunited with trusty Dave the cameraman. If it ain’t broke etc. 

In episode one, Rice was tasked with refurbishing a canine rescue farm. Reader, she succeeded. 

Rice is a natural broadcaster, an engaging pro, and if you can ignore the fact that television personalities shouldn’t have to support ailing charities and small businesses, then this revival will work its entirely well-meaning magic.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer – Sunday 19th March, Channel 4

Channel 4’s annual Stand Up to Cancer campaign continued with this spin-off from one of its most popular ‘brands’. 

Round one involved Matt Lucas welcoming various celebs to the tent. Chief among them, of course, being David Schwimmer. Fellow contestant Jesy Nelson was under no illusions: “I know I won’t win it, I’m just here to see Ross from Friends!” 

I’ll never truly understand the appeal of this abundantly harmless series. It is, like Thursdays, New Order and the actor Martin Jarvis, something that’s objectively tolerable and inoffensive. Something that’s just there. But I’m not the target audience, it’s not for me. 

Now, The Great British Crisp Off, that’s a show I could get behind.

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.