EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPES WITH SANDI TOKSVIG | SIGNIFICANT OTHER | DAVINA McCALL'S PILL REVOLUTION

This article was originally published in The Courier on 3rd June 2023.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

The latest series of Toksvig’s staycation travelogue, in which she enjoys tranquil rural breaks with various comedy chums, kicks off (gently) with the brilliant Suzy Eddie Izzard. 

Their getaway destination is the Republic of Ireland - Counties Clare, Kerry and Cork to be exact. 

Toksvig tries to encourage Izzard, a famously driven person, to relax via apple crumbles, fried eggs, healing herbs, a treehouse and fly fishing. 

Izzard talks movingly about losing her mother at an early age, as well as her recent decision to come out as trans. “I don’t mind [being called] Eddie Izzard, I don’t mind he, him, she, her. I’m keeping it very loose, baby, so that the entire world can just have a warm bath.”

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

In episode three of this exceptional five-part oral history of The Troubles, we enter the horrifyingly bleak era of dirty protests and fatal hunger strikes. 

A key contributor is the wife of a former IRA member, a man you’ll be familiar with from the first two episodes. 

She talks openly about how difficult it was being married to someone who, despite promising to leave the IRA behind, spent time in prison due to his staunch beliefs. While clearly not used to expressing outward displays of emotion, his regret is palpable. 

We also meet the widow of a rural Northern Ireland policeman. 

I can’t recommend this series enough (hence why I keep recommending it). It’s terribly sad, powerful and revealing.

Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War – Monday, STV, 9pm

97-year-old Ralph McClure, a working-class man from Nottingham, played a significant role on D-Day. In this poignant programme, Ralph and his adoring granddaughter, Vicky McClure, return to the beaches of Normandy. 

Ralph was eighteen when he joined the Royal Navy. His powers of recall are undimmed by age. A delightful man, he provides a fascinating eyewitness account of an absolutely pivotal moment in 20^th century history. 

Celebrity-fronted docs are often rather superficial affairs, but this is nothing of the sort. Ralph and Vicky are united in their mission to pay heartfelt tribute to every brave soul who fought, and who continue to fight, against fascism.

Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners: Dispatches – Wednesday, Channel 4, 10pm

I urge you to watch this devastating documentary about older British people desperately struggling to make ends meet during the current cost of living crisis. As the old saying goes, if you’re not angry, then you’re not paying attention. 

They can barely afford to eat. They’re literally sitting in darkness. These pensioners have worked hard all their lives, and for what? This is how the government and energy companies repay them. 13 years of enforced austerity and mounting bills. 

“I’m sad all the time,” says John, who’s completely on his own. “I’m just here, and that’s it. Existing.” 

No one should have to live like this. No one’s mental health should be impaired by the constantly overwhelming pressure to just survive.

Significant Other – Thursday, ITVX

This black comedy-drama stars Katherine Parkinson and Youssef Kerkour as lonely neighbours, Anna and Sam. 

It begins with Anna knocking on Sam’s door after she’s suffered a heart attack. Sam has just attempted to take his own life. When the medics arrive, they’re both rushed to hospital. A bond gradually forms. 

Significant Other doesn’t, of course, make light of loneliness and depression. Any subject, no matter how dark, can be mined for humour, just as long as it’s coming from a good, honest, intelligent place. 

If episode one is anything to go by, that’s what’s happening here. It appears to be a humane and oddly life-affirming exploration of terrain that so many of us struggle to traverse.

Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm

Another week, another ho-hum culinary competition. Your all-powerful overlord on this occasion is five-star hotel chef Michel Roux Jr. 

“There is so much on the line here for me, my reputation as a chef,” he declares. Mate, unless this show is somehow hijacked by actual ghosts and aliens, no one will ever remember it. Your career will continue to thrive. 

Anyway. The series follows 13 budding chefs as they compete for a potentially life-changing grand prize – running the Palm Court restaurant in London’s exclusive Langham hotel. 

As you would expect, the contestants are faced with a series of challenges to prove they have what it takes to succeed in this high-pressure world.

Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Now here’s a genuinely responsible and informative piece of public service broadcasting. 

A recent Channel 4 survey asked over 4,000 women and people assigned female at birth about their experiences with contraception. 77 % of them experienced debilitating side effects. 33 % stopped using contraception because of those side effects. 

Following on from her excellent documentary about the menopause, Davina McCall challenges some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding contraception. 

She’s shocked to discover that so many women just aren’t being made aware of the range of contraception treatments available to them. 

This programme, which covers a myriad of solutions for anyone who’s struggling, will hopefully make a difference. Television really can be a force for good sometimes.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Close to Vermeer – Tuesday 30th May, BBC Four

Johannes Vermeer is one of art’s great enigmas. His small body of work includes classic paintings such as The Milkmaid and The Girl with the Pearl Earring. They’re familiar to millions, but little is known about the man himself. 

In this elegant documentary/mystery yarn, renowned art expert Gregor J.M. Weber followed his dream of curating the largest Vermeer exhibition the world has ever seen. 

While on the verge of retirement, Weber – a quietly engaging guide – was determined to refute controversial claims that one of Vermeer’s masterworks, Girl with a Flute, wasn’t actually painted by him at all. 

I won’t spoil the ending in case you haven’t seen it, but no wonder Weber was moved to tears.

Who Do You Think You Are? – Thursday 1st June, BBC One

Series nineteen of this unstoppable genealogical warhorse began with Andrew Lloyd Webber discovering that his four times great uncle Peregrine fought at the battle of Waterloo, and that a sixteenth century ancestor, Katherine Duchess of Suffolk, married a 49-year-old man when she was only 14. 

Never has the euphemistic phrase “different times” been more shockingly apt, so much so that the programme swiftly glossed over this uncomfortable finding. 

Lloyd Webber’s ancestors weren’t all frightfully posh. His paternal great, great grandfather was a compassionate working-class missionary. And he did, of course, discover that musicianship runs in the family. 

I’m no fan of Lloyd Webber’s work or politics, but he came across throughout as a genial old satchel.

 

BEING MUM WITH MND + THE TERROR + THE OTHER ONE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 30th April 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Being Mum with MND – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm

Lucy Lintott was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) at the age of 19. Doctors told her she would never be able to conceive. Lucy and her fiancé, Tommy, are now the proud parents of two young children. 

She is believed to be one of the few people with MND to have given birth twice. It’s also highly likely that she might be the youngest person in Scotland to have been diagnosed with MND. 

This touching documentary allows Lucy and her family to reflect upon their situation. She talks candidly about living with a degenerative condition, but she’s almost always upbeat. That’s her inherent nature. It’s also a beautiful love story. Lucy and Tommy are good, kind, inspiring people.

DI Ray – Monday to Thursday, STV, 9pm

This is not your standard ITV cop drama in the sense that it has an interesting, socially conscious point of view. It hits all the necessary beats of a thriller while exploring an important issue: the systemic racism, whether casual or overt, that exists within society.

DI Ray is a highly capable Asian-British police officer who is dismayed to learn that her recent promotion to the homicide department was based on her supposed suitability for “Culturally Specific Homicides”. It’s a racially insensitive box-ticking exercise. 

While investigating two Asian brothers accused of murder, she’s forced to confront the stark realities of working inside an institution that’s prone to making harmful assumptions based on ill-informed cultural stereotypes.

Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

During the production of this documentary, Channel 4 carried out a survey of premenopausal and menopausal women. Their findings were shocking. Natural symptoms such as vague memory loss are being used against women in the workplace. People have lost their jobs as a result of losing their hormones. 

Davina McCall wants to find out if anything can be done to challenge this injustice. She also investigates some of the latest advances in hormone therapy, while meeting with experts who have studied the complex neurological effects of the menopause. 

I haven’t seen this programme, dear reader, it wasn’t available for preview; I’m basing my recommendation on McCall’s previous and entirely responsible documentaries about the memopause.

Married to a Psychopath – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

Malcolm Webster is one of the most notorious psychopaths of recent times. He murdered his first wife, Claire, in 1994. He attempted to murder his second wife, Felicity, in 1997. He also had a series of bigamous relationships with women who he psychologically abused for his own financial ends. 

Webster, who was finally imprisoned in 2011, is a hideously dangerous man. This two-part documentary is primarily told from the perspective of one Charles Henry, a rural Scottish detective with time on his hands who proved instrumental in the case against Webster. Henry’s efforts were tireless. Admirable. 

I recommend watching this in conjunction with The Widower, an above-par 2014 TV drama starring Reece Shearsmith as Webster. 

The Terror – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

You may recall that the first series of producer Ridley Scott’s supernatural anthology revolved around the real-life mystery of a lost Arctic expedition in the mid-19^th century: historical fact combined with speculative fiction. Series two follows suit. 

It’s set in California during World War Two, when thousands of Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in concentration camps. They were law-abiding citizens who posed no threat to anyone. Their internment was a heinous human rights violation entirely borne of racial prejudice. 

The cast includes George Takei, who resided in one of those camps when he was a child. He also serves as a series consultant to ensure accuracy. Episode one is intriguing, eerie and, needless to say, sensitively handled.

The Other One – Friday, BBC One, 9:30pm

Series two of Holly Walsh’s sitcom continues the eventful story of two adult sisters, Cathy and Cat, who only found out about each other’s existence following the death of their father. 

They’ve become quite close. They’ve also just discovered that they might have a half-brother. Cathy snogged him a few hours before anyone concerned was aware of their kinship. Hardly ideal. 

We also catch up on the developing relationship between their mismatched mothers. This is a sharp, dry-witted yet ultimately rather warm farce populated by likeable, well-drawn characters. It revels in silliness and nice little details. A great cast too: it’s a proven fact that you can’t go wrong with Siobhan Finneran and Rebecca Front.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Peacock – Monday 23rd April, BBC Three

I was quite impressed by episode one of this new sitcom. Allan ‘Seapa’ Mustafa, the co-creator of People Just Do Nothing, stars as a personal fitness trainer in his mid-thirties. 

Peacock is stuck in a rut. Single, lonely and riddled with anxieties, he’s fallen for a ridiculous notion of What It Means To Be a Man; but he’s clearly far too sensitive to embody that futile Alpha Male fantasy. 

The writers have a solid handle on their hapless protagonist. He’s an innocent, unworldly fool who means no harm, but his posturing need to be seen as something he’s not gets him into trouble. And from thence the humour and pathos arises. There’s a lot of promise here.

Searching for Michael Jackson’s Zoo with Ross Kemp – Wednesday 25th April, STV

Yep, I know. That title sounds like one of Alan Partridge’s ridiculous programme pitches. But Kemp’s documentary actually exposed some appalling animal cruelty. 

Michael Jackson’s Neverland zoo was always controversial. Even during his lifetime, investigations revealed that his ‘pets’ were treated unethically. Kemp’s M.O: whatever happened to the animals who survived? A dispiriting search ensued. 

Kemp is an inherently silly yet well-meaning man, but even in its clumsy tabloid TV way, the programme did tacitly confront the (pun half-intended) elephant in the room: Jackson’s love of animals was part and parcel of a calculatedly innocent Peter Pan image. You can join the dots from there.