A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 30th May 2020.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
COMEDIANS: HOME ALONE
Monday,
BBC Two, 10pm
I
wouldn’t blame you for being utterly sick of the sight of well-meaning
celebrities broadcasting from their homes during lockdown, but this new series
of fifteen-minute programmes is a cheerful distraction. A compendium of
self-isolated sketches from various comedians, episode one features Kerry Godliman
(who deserves a ticker tape parade for managing to escape from Ricky Gervais’ dire
Derek and After Life with her dignity intact) playing a bored mum who’s
getting through this by drinking white wine to excess, and Bob Mortimer as
‘Train Guy’, a beautifully observed parody of an obnoxious businessman
conducting Facetime conversations with his colleagues: “We need a Zoom womb to
incubate initiatives with potential going-forwardness.” Bob also provides some daft
names for cats. Nice.
CARDINAL
Wednesday,
BBC Two, 9pm
Series
four of this frostbitten Canadian crime drama begins with detectives John
Cardinal (not, alas, played by a man called John Actor) and Lise Delorme
investigating the sudden disappearance of a local politician’s husband. I don’t
have much time for sombre police procedurals; it’s a genre sculpted almost
entirely from clichés. Cardinal is
typical in that it’s well-shot and atmospheric - a show so thickly mired in
snow, it makes Fargo look like the Club Tropicana video – and benefits from
nicely understated central performances, but we’ve seen it all before. The
sonorous score, the sad detectives with boringly complicated private
lives, the never-ending trudge from plot point A to plot point Z. You know the
snore.
THE OTHER ONE
Friday,
BBC One, 9pm
The
great Rebecca Front stars in this promising new sitcom about a middle-class
widow who gains a bitter lease of life when she discovers that her late husband
was a philanderer with a secret working-class family. Co-written by Holly Walsh
(check out Dead Boss, an unjustly
forgotten sitcom she wrote with Sharon Horgan), The Other One is populated by mildly dysfunctional characters who
are gently ribbed but never sneered at. It’s warm, benign, well-observed and
contains actual proper jokes. Walsh stirs echoes of Victoria Wood with lines
such as this one from Front’s character: “Can you ask Marcus to Sky + Masterchef: The Professionals for me,
please?” The banal specificity of that really tickled me. It’s very good,
folks. You should watch it.
LAST WEEK’S TV
CITIZENS OF BOOMTOWN: THE
STORY OF THE BOOMTOWN RATS
Saturday
23rd May, BBC Two
A
mediocre bunch of absolute chancers fronted by an insufferable shabby narcissist,
The Boomtown Rats were unique in that they somehow managed to convince The
Youth that naff sub-Springsteen pomp had anything whatsoever to do with punk
and new wave. This laughably self-regarding documentary was founded on the
false premise of Geldof and co being somehow important; a hollow piece of brand
management packed with enabling buffoons such as Bono and Sting making absurdly
extravagant claims on the band’s behalf. It was undeniably interesting, but
only because all pop stories are interesting. Geldof, contrary to his posturing
self-image, came across as a charmless opportunist who conveniently organised
Live Aid when his moment in the sun was beginning to fade. Still, the piano
arrangement on I Don’t Like Mondays is
nice, isn’t it? Geldof didn’t write that.
BAKE OFF: THE
PROFESSIONALS
Tuesday
26th May, Channel 4
The
latest series of this pointless spin-off may as well have launched with a
repeat. No one would’ve noticed. The mildly amusing contributions from camp
co-host Tom Allen fail to rescue a format which fundamentally misunderstands
the Bake Off mothership’s appeal:
viewers enjoy watching ordinary people messing about with pastry and cream,
it’s no fun at all when everyone involved is tediously skilled.
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