This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 8 April 2017.
ROOF RACKS AND
HATCHBACKS: THE FAMILY CAR: Monday, BBC Four
SECOND CHANCE SUMMER: Wednesday, BBC Two
ALONE WITH THE IN-LAWS: Thursday, BBC Two
I’d
normally rather hurl myself bodily off Beachy Head than watch a programme about
automobiles, but ROOF RACKS AND
HATCHBACKS: THE FAMILY CAR managed to transform that dreariest of subjects
into a charming piece of social history.
Part
of the reliable Timeshift strand, it
was a typically droll, affectionate, well-researched documentary steeped in
evocative archive footage.
Most
of us have fond childhood memories of time spent in the family car, especially
during those long journeys en route to unimaginably exciting British holiday
destinations (or even – gasp! – abroad, if your parents could afford such
unseemly displays of wealth).
This
nostalgic essay traced the post-war evolution of these four-wheeled tools of
liberation. I was particularly taken with the chapter on the Ford Cortina, that
must-have ‘70s car of choice craftily named after an Italian ski resort to
maximise its exotic appeal. ‘Cortina’ actually means ‘curtain’ in Italian, but
at least it sounded glamorous. I pray there was once a failed Mediterranean
equivalent called the Fiat Sideboard.
Like
almost every aspect of British history, this saga boiled down to class and
status. Short of paving your children in gold, how better to lord it over the
neighbours than with a shiny Austin Allegro in your driveway?
Speaking
of class, SECOND CHANCE SUMMER is a
reality show for BBC viewers who wouldn’t be caught dead watching Big Brother and its brethren: I’m a Sunday Times Subscriber, Get Me Out of
Here.
Produced
by the brains behind The Real Marigold
Hotel, it’s a similarly aspirational fantasy in which ten strangers – real
people this time, the likes of Biggins aren’t welcome – attempt to build new
lives at an idyllic Tuscan farmhouse.
The
winners, i.e. anyone who can still stand the sight of each other by the end,
will get the opportunity to buy the entire complex.
For
various reasons, the participants are all struggling with middle-aged malaise. It
should, in theory, be a thoughtful study of human nature, but the results are
painfully boring.
I’m
not saying that I necessarily want to
watch a programme in which a bunch of dreary middle-class grey-hairs descend
into a horrifying spiral of Lord of the
Flies insanity, but after a tastefully scenic hour of mild
passive-aggression I was longing for someone to drink the wine cellar dry and charge
into a canyon on the back of a wild boar.
Oh
well, there’s always episode two.
Everyone
has a story to tell. But that doesn’t mean every story must be televised. Like Second Chance Summer, ALONE WITH THE IN-LAWS squandered a
potentially interesting premise on dull people.
A
young couple on the verge of marriage spent four days apart with their
respective in-laws, the idea being that they’d gain a deeper understanding of
each other by exploring where they came from.
He
was a creature of habit with happily married parents. The child of divorcees,
she was more spontaneous. Despite these seemingly insurmountable differences, they
loved each other by the end just as much as they did at the start. Great. Good
for them.
This
barely watchable experiment was produced by the makers of Wife Swap, and signalled a return to that show’s roots as a more or
less serious – albeit voyeuristic – unpicking of the ties that bind. But Wife Swap was never this beige.
There’s
a kernel of a good idea here, but the subjects need to be more forthcoming.
Otherwise it’s like scrolling blankly through the FaceBook feed of complete
strangers.
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