IT'S A SIN + JOANNA LUMLEY'S HOME SWEET HOME: TRAVELS IN MY OWN LAND

This article was originally published in The Courier on 30th January 2021.

NEXT WEEK'S TV

It’s a Sin – Friday, Channel 4, 9pm

We’ve known from the start that at least one of the characters in Russell T. Davies’ outstanding drama would eventually die from AIDS. But no matter how much you may have steeled yourself for that tragic development, this episode is utterly devastating. 

Davies doesn’t flinch, as that would fatally undermine his modus operandi. He wants us to confront the terrifying cruelty of this disease and the appalling stigma that surrounded it in the 1980s. He’s made us care about these characters, we’re fully invested in them. Now it’s time to cry and get angry. 

And yet, as always, Davies balances the horror with humour. He’s a remarkable writer: this profoundly compassionate political statement could be the best thing he’s ever done.

Craftivism: Making a Difference – Monday, BBC Four, 10pm

Comedian Jenny Éclair has been on her fair share of protest marches over the years. In this revealing programme, she examines the direct crossover between grass-roots activism and creativity, specifically with regards to knitting, cross-stitching, banners and Fuzzy Felt graffiti. 

That may sound rather twee and whimsical, but Éclair makes a strong case for the effectiveness of craftivism. It grabs people’s attention, it makes them stop and think: humour, art and politics combined. It can also be a source of mental wellbeing. 

Éclair meets various nimble-figured campaigners, all of them devoted to raising awareness of various important causes via non-aggressive means. They’re doing what they can in a benign yet sometimes provocative way.

Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr – Tuesday, BBC Two, 8pm

Deep in the bowels of Broadcasting House, there stands a large semi-sentient computer tasked with churning out formulaic competitive lifestyle formats. Its latest computation is this, a slickly upholstered vehicle featuring ten creative contestants hoping to break into the professional world of interior design. The grand prize is a contract with a luxury hotel in The Lake District. 

Each week they’re instructed to transform a bland commercial space using the spellbinding power of their imaginations. Host Alan Carr does what’s required of him (very little), while design guru Michelle Ogundehin scrutinises their efforts. 

It is staggeringly dull, the very definition of barely moving wallpaper. No drama, no tension, no fun. We don’t need this right now. Or ever.

Joanna Lumley’s Home Sweet Home: Travels in My Own Land – Tuesday, STV, 8pm

La Lumley rises above that unwieldy title to present this undemanding series in which she travels around Britain. You know the drill: nice scenery and a smattering of history, all wrapped up in Lumley’s soothing caramel tones. There’s no theme, no focus, just a random patchwork of vignettes. 

On the banks of Lake Windermere she visits the picturesque home of Beatrix Potter. In Whitby, the coastal town that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, she hangs out with some goths. Meanwhile, in Manchester, she visits Coronation Street HQ to wax nostalgically with William Roache (she once played Ken Barlow’s girlfriend for four weeks in 1973). 

Lumley is undeniably good at this sort of thing, she’s naturally charming, friendly and inquisitive.

Your Garden Made Perfect – Thursday, BBC Two, 8pm

Here we go again, yet another ‘aspirational’ series designed to make us feel like failures. You don’t have a massive garden and a mound of disposable income? Well that’s your fault. 

In episode one we meet two couples with a combined budget of £40,000. They want to transform their back gardens into magical wonderlands, so they enlist a team of design experts. Detailed computer-generated simulations afford them the luxury of choosing the results. This conceit is presented as a mind-blowing hook. 

The only affluent lifestyle show I can stomach is Grand Designs, because that tacitly mocks the participants. Pure schadenfreude. This is a smug celebration of oblivious middle-class orthodoxy. I’m a million laughs in real life, honestly.

The Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles – Thursday, STV, 9pm

In the final episode of this knowledge-hungry travelogue, Anne, Mark and Shaun from TV’s The Chase arrive in Japan, which has one of the highest robot to human ratios in the world. 

Their journey into the world of Artificial Intelligence is ostensibly light-hearted, but the programme carries a sinister undertow. Advanced facial recognition technology could pose a serious threat to our civil liberties, and do we really want to live in a world populated by realistic androids? We’ve all seen Humans and The Terminator. 

Shaun is particularly worried about this dystopian sci-fi nightmare, whereas pragmatic Anne believes that the human brainbox will always be the dominant force on Earth. Bradley Walsh was unavailable for comment.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Incredible Journeys with Simon Reeve –  24th January, BBC Two

Last year, seasoned BBC travellers Michael Palin and Louis Theroux hosted emergency lockdown compilations of highlights from their previous adventures. Now it’s Simon Reeve’s turn. 

An affable explorer with a dedicated social conscience, Reeve is a people person. He’s not one to merely bask in the foreign climes he encounters, he’s more interested in making a meaningful street-level connection with different cultures. 

This wasn’t the best way to appreciate his work: Best Of’s never are. But it was a touching reminder of how, in his unassuming way, he exposes injustice. War, poverty, inequality, prejudice, these are the abiding themes of his programmes. His anger bubbles just below the surface. His compassion is palpable. A decent human being.

Hip Hop: Songs That Shook America – 29th January, BBC Four

Each episode in this new series focuses on a game-changing hip hop track. It began with Kanye West’s Jesus Walks from 2004. A powerful redemption song, this innovative fusion of social commentary, self-aggrandisement and gospel put Kanye on the map. 

Which is all well and good, but the story behind the making of Jesus Walks isn’t particularly interesting. Yes, the programme placed the song in its socio-political context while tracing the evolution of Kanye’s life and career up until that point, but it all felt rather perfunctory. 

To make up for Kanye’s absence, series producers Questlove and Black Thought from The Roots spoke to some of his collaborators. The rest of the series will hopefully be more substantial.

 

KATIE PRICE: HARVEY & ME + IT'S A SIN + FINDING ALICE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 23rd January 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Katie Price: Harvey and Me – Monday, BBC One, 8:30pm

Harvey Price was born with a rare genetic disorder. He is also autistic and has been diagnosed with several other behavioural and medical conditions. Last year, he turned 18. 

This intimate documentary follows Harvey and his mother, Katie, as they attempt to deal with a milestone in their lives. Katie has many important decisions to make with regards to Harvey’s future. Like all parents of children with disabilities, she wants him to achieve as much independence as possible. We accompany her during visits to various colleges, as she ascertains whether they can cater to his extensive needs. 

A poignant programme about a loving mother and child relationship, it also raises awareness of the (sometimes expensive) opportunities available to young disabled adults and their families.

Lightning – Monday to Friday, BBC Two, 6:30pm

Here’s fun. A new early evening quiz show in which members of the public compete for a £3,000 jackpot. The set design and format are blatantly indebted to The Weakest Link, but it’s faster, friendlier. Host Zoe Lyons is an unobtrusive presence who keeps it all ticking along nicely. 

Six contestants wearing conspicuously massive nametags answer general knowledge questions in a bid to stay in the game. It couldn’t be more straightforward. Yes, there’s a curious interlude involving a hand-eye coordination game, but that’s a minor diversion. 

Like all the best quizzes, Lightning encourages us to shout answers back at the screen. It’s something to enjoy while having your tea or staving off an endlessly nocturnal existential crisis.

Devon and Cornwall – Monday, Channel 4, 8pm

Time once again to bask in the Sunday-roasted narration of John Nettles, who stands astride this picturesque series like old King Neptune swigging ostentatiously from a flagon of Bishop’s Peculiar. Ah, Britain. 

It’s impossible to take Devon and Cornwall seriously. What should be a fairly inoffensive little programme about people living and working in a particularly beautiful corner of this country we call home is rendered utterly ridiculous by Nettles. Even Matt Berry would ask him to tone it down a notch. 

This week we meet a nice man devoted to cleaning up the shores from plastic pollution and, well, I must admit that Bergerac’s bombast made me laugh too much to focus on the rest. Comedy gold.

Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema – Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

In the final episode of his current series, Kermode runs pell-mell into his wheelhouse: cult films. A broad church, admittedly, and it does feel like he’s mopping up films he hasn’t had a chance to talk about yet; but to his credit he weaves them into a persuasive critical narrative. 

“Films don’t become cult movies on purpose,” he says, “and filmmakers don’t decide which films fall into that category. We do.” 

This is a forum where the works of Kurosawa and Ed Wood are equally deserving of discussion. His fine series also proves that viewers are perfectly capable of enjoying no-frills televised lectures. Plus he celebrates one of my favourites, the surrealist 1960s Czechoslovak satire, Daises. Good man.

Back – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

As the second series of this very funny sitcom continues, Stephen (David Mitchell) encounters someone else who may well be his genetic father. He’s known as Charismatic Mike (Anthony Head), a self-styled free spirit who dresses like David Essex in roguish canal-dwelling mode. 

The pub locals love him, of course, much to the chagrin of gas-lighting Andrew (Robert Webb), whose carefully stage-managed status as empathetic village cool guy is immediately threatened. Stephen laments that if Mike isn’t his dad, “It could be a bloke called Cheeky Pete who stabbed livestock.” 

This episode was written by Will Smith (not that one), who, like series creator Simon Blackwell, cut his situation comedy teeth on The Thick of It.

It’s a Sin – Friday, Channel 4, 9pm

It’s 1984, and distant rumours of the AIDS crisis are encroaching upon our character’s lives. Ritchie (a charismatic turn from Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander) still refuses to believe it. After all, media reports at the time were aggressively ill-informed and hysterical. How can gay people trust a society that despises them? But Jill (the delightful Lydia West) discovers the truth first-hand when she cares for a terrified friend with HIV. 

The second episode of Russell T. Davies’ striking drama reminds us of the fear, prejudice and paranoia which coursed through that not-so-long-ago age. His palpable anger strolls deftly hand in hand with characteristic wit and compassion. A gut-punching piece of work.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Celebrity Catchpoint – Saturday 16th January, BBC One

The latest series of this perfunctory gameshow is once again hosted by Paddy McGuinness. I’m no fan of this hack comedy chancer, this blandly avuncular serving droid, but I must admit that within the context of a show such as this, he’s a safe pair of hands. He’ll never be forgiven for Max & Paddy, Take Me Out or his appalling attempts at stand-up, but here he’s just an inoffensive man doing a thing. 

The latest batch of celebrities competing for charity were Dr Ranj Singh, Olympian Greg Rutherford and two faceless Radio 1 DJ’s. They answered general knowledge questions while catching large inflatable balls. Even McGuinness has grown tired of making nudge-nudge jokes about the latter.

Finding Alice – Sunday 17th January, STV

This black comedy-drama stars Keeley Hawes as a vaguely sympathetic version of Kirsty Allsopp. If you can imagine such a thing. It began with her moving into a dream home, ludicrously grand designed by her Kevin McCloud-esque husband: who then fell down his blatantly unsafe staircase and died. Did she push him? 

Writer Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) turned this into a running gag. A conventional thriller would revolve around that mystery, but Finding Alice is more concerned with poking fun at upper middle-class pretentions and greed. Or it seems to be, at least so far. I found episode one quite amusing in its total lack of sentiment. Everything was played for mordant laughs. Let’s see how it goes.

IT'S A SIN + SILENCED: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF DISABLED BRITAIN + BACK

A version of this article was first published in The Courier on 16th January 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

It’s a Sin – Friday, Channel 4, 9pm

The great Russell T. Davies returns with this '80s-set drama about a group of friends dealing with the AIDS epidemic. It begins optimistically, with four young gay men and one straight woman embracing their newfound lives. Freedom at last. But we know what’s just around the corner. 

In typical Davies style, It's a Sin explodes with energy, wit and a sharp eye for detail. His dialogue sings, his characters are textured. No ciphers here. He handles human tragedy with compassion, but never sinks into cheap sentiment. And he absolutely does not judge with the benefit of hindsight. It’s frank, stark: it pulls no punches. It’s also funny. He can’t help being funny. 

Ever since Queer as Folk over 20 years ago, he’s been telling vital stories about the LGBT community. This is an essential addition to his life’s work.

Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema – Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout pop movies! Well, Kermode is anyway, as his enlightening series of essays continues. This genre combines his twin passions, so no wonder it’s one of his favourites. 

He begins with Bessie Smith in 1929 and ends with Beyoncé in 2020, taking in along the way various notable biopics, pop star vehicles, jukebox musicals and rockumentaries. 

Kermode fans won’t be surprised by some of his choices – famously, he once described the surprisingly gritty Slade in Flame as “the Citizen Kane of British pop movies” – but that doesn’t matter. It’s a pleasure listening to him wax lyrical about cult classics such as Jimmy Cliff’s trailblazing reggae drama, The Harder They Come, and The Monkees’ psychedelic masterpiece, Head.

Long Lost Family – Monday, STV, 9pm

If you’ve seen this show before, you’ll know how sensitive it is. The latest series begins with an Irish couple desperate to find out what happened to their first-born child. Phyllis and Kevin fell in love as teenagers. 

When she became pregnant, they knew it would cause a scandal within their strict Catholic community. They tried to run away, but were eventually forced to give their baby up for adoption. Ever since they’ve wanted him to know that he was loved.

Meanwhile, we meet a Scottish man who was, for complicated reasons, given away by his mother at an early age. He was taken in informally by a family, leaving no paper trail. Prepare to shed a tear or two.

Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In 2009, CBeebies presenter Cerrie Bernell attracted criticism from ‘concerned’ parents who claimed that her right arm, which ends just below the elbow, was frightening their children. 

Most people were appalled by such a blatant display of prejudice in our supposedly enlightened age, but as Bernell illustrates in this thoughtful documentary, these attitudes have been ingrained within society for an aeon and beyond. 

Her history lesson exposes a litany of blinkered assumptions, many of them made by well-meaning progressives who intensified the notion that people with disabilities can’t function within able-bodied society. They must be pitied, othered. For their own good. 

An often shocking saga, but Bernell provides some hope. We can challenge fear and bigotry by talking, listening and learning.

First Dates – Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

Lovers of the world unite, French Fred is back. I was suspicious of this amorous warhorse when it first appeared in 2013. A contrived, voyeuristic blind dating show? That’s bound to be quite nasty and embarrassing. But it’s not. 

Granted, the first episode of this latest series features a pair of young Tories who are objectively awful, but for the most part it’s a generous show that doesn’t beg us to sneer at people (sneering at Tories doesn’t count, they deserve it; fight the power, First Dates). 

Bittersweet service resumes with a charismatic former roadie, a charming Lithuanian woman and two men who have already slept with each other. Not all at the same time, of course! Sigh. Anyway, enjoy.

Back – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

Series one of this Mitchell and Webb sitcom was broadcast way back in the halcyon Before Times of 2017. Like their previous sitcom, the (journalese warning) cult smash Peep Show, it was enjoyed by the relatively small number of dedicated viewers who bothered to tune in. I was a member of that happy band, so I welcome its belated return. 

A farcical black comedy, it stars Mitchell as Stephen, a – what else? – stuffy neurotic whose life in rural Gloucestershire is sent into freefall when Andrew (Webb), a suspiciously benign stranger, turns up claiming to be his long-lost foster brother. The family welcome Andrew with open arms, but Stephen regards him as a scheming sociopath intent on stealing his soul. 

Created by Simon Blackwell (Peep Show; The Thick of It), it's notable for containing lots of actual jokes. Glory be.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Paul Sinha’s TV Showdown – Saturday 9th January, STV

This new TV quiz is quite good fun. The questions are incredibly easy, but it’s an amiable Saturday night time-passer. 

Dry-witted Chaser Paul Sinha is an obsessive pop culture trivia hound, a man after my own heart, so he’s the perfect choice of host. Team captains Rob Beckett (a professional comedian) and Faye Ripley (a Cold Feet actor) are merely there to make up the numbers.

Episode one’s undoubted highlight was Sinha deliberately mispronouncing John Fashanu’s surname a la Chris Morris in The Day Today, a niche comedy reference that pleased me to bits. The show inevitably leans towards TV that happened five minutes ago – no one was asked to identify Talfryn Thomas – but Sinha just about makes it work.

Happy Birthday Mr Bean – Sunday 10th January, STV

On New Year’s Day 1990, Rowan Atkinson unleashed his latest comic persona: the semi-silent Mr Bean, a selfish, spiteful yet weirdly endearing agent of chaos. Bean went on to become a global phenomenon, delighting millions with the universal language of slapstick. 

This was a cut above most comedy retrospectives in that it focused on the people who were actually responsible for creating the work in question. There were no celebrity talking heads gushing pointlessly over their favourite scenes. Instead, writers Richard Curtis, Robin Driscoll and the rubber-faced funnyman ™ himself delivered some insight into their creative process. 

Atkinson is renowned for his perfectionism, but wishes he wasn’t. “It’s more of a disease,” he lamented. “It’s very draining.”

 

TRACES + WINTER WALKS + THE STORY OF SM:TV LIVE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 2nd January 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Winter Walks – Monday to Friday, BBC Four, 7pm

This is quite a nice way of easing yourself into whatever 2021 will be: five 30-minute episodes in the company of various well-known folk, as they traipse around the rural hills and dales of Britain. It’s comfortingly sedate and almost quite poetic. There is no music, no crew as such, just solo celebs armed with a 360-degree camera. Stunning sunrise scenery merges with the sound of rivers, birdsong, sheep and trudging feet. Occasionally, the presenters bump into locals. They have a little chat, then move on. It’s lovely. Your unobtrusive wintry guides are Richard Coles, Selina Scott, Lemn Sissay, Sayeeda Warsi and Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. It should make you feel a bit better about the world. 

Bradley and Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad – Monday, STV, 8pm

The affable father/son duo return for more globe-spanning adventures. This time they’re travelling across Europe (the series was filmed pre-COVID, obviously). Their latest journey begins in The Netherlands, where they try a bit of canal jumping, visit a velodrome and attempt to scale the world’s tallest freestanding wall. Preview copies weren’t available, but I think I can state with some confidence that the latest series will be exactly the same as every previous series. Which isn’t a complaint, it’s a satisfyingly formulaic show. The tightknit relationship between Walsh and his son can be quite touching at times. They’re nice people doing fun things. No one gets hurt. What’s not to like?

Traces – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

Finally, a thriller set in Dundee! Albeit mostly filmed in Manchester. Traces isn’t new, it debuted on UKTV in 2019, but a bigger audience is guaranteed on BBC One. Based on an idea by top crime author Val McDermid (who has a fleeting cameo in episode one), it’s an enjoyable potboiler steeped in queasy intrigue. Molly Windsor plays a forensic science student who is convinced that a supposedly fictional case study is based on the murder of her mother. Every bit as grim and grisly as you’d expect from a McDermid-inspired drama, it pivots around solid performances from Windsor, Laura Fraser and Martin Compston. And remember: “There are only so many places you can bury a body in Dundee.”

Staged – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9:45pm

It’s back, that slight, harmless comedy in which Michael Sheen and David Tennant play versions of themselves in lockdown. Their Skype conversations are spiked with childish passive-aggression; the petty vanity of actors. They also appear to be going slightly mad, Sheen in particular. I haven’t seen this second series, it wasn’t available at the time of writing, but series one was a mildly amusing diversion; two fine actors just mucking about in their enforced spare time. But it pales in comparison to Coogan and Brydon (or should that be Brydon and Coogan?) in The Trip, to which it owes an obvious debt. Still, each episode is only 15 minutes long, so it’s not as if they outstay their welcome.

The Man Who Fell from the Sky – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

In 2015, a stowaway fell to his death from the wheel well of a British Airways Boeing 747. He and a friend, both from Mozambique, were attempting to smuggle themselves into the UK. Documentary filmmaker Rich Bentley has spent the last five years trying to locate the man who survived that terrifying journey. His research unearthed a disturbing yet little-reported fact: asylum seekers dying in that particular way isn’t uncommon. This is a sensitive programme about immigration; a meditation on the human beings behind the dry statistics and racist rhetoric stirred up by the right. Bentley reveals their names, he speaks to their families. He doesn’t provide any neat answers, as that would be offensive. It’s a complex tragedy.

Cheetah Family & Me – Tuesday and Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Whispering Gordon Buchanan always turns up at this time of year to share his love of nature. The affable Scot’s latest adventure involves two Cheetah families struggling to survive in the wilds of South Africa. We follow him on horseback and on foot, a camera rostrum over his shoulder, as he attempts to find out what life is really like for these beautiful, endangered creatures. The little cheetah cubs are beyond adorable, but a mild word of caution for younger viewers in your household: nature can be cruel. When Attenborough eventually retires from the planet, I think Buchanan would be a suitable replacement. A compassionate man who cares about the world around us, his exemplary documentaries are intimate and immersive.

Lucy Worsley’s Royal Palace Secrets – Wednesday, BBC Four, 9pm

The doyen of BBC Four, historian Lucy Worsley churns these programmes out at a remarkable rate. She appears to spend half her life dressed as Catherine of Aragon while delivering pieces to camera. This one was filmed a few months ago, but as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces she wasn’t going to let the pandemic get in the way of her exclusive right to snoop around Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and The Tower of London. Worsley is an engaging guide, I like her; but while she’s always flirted with twee self-parody, she’s more ‘Lucy Worsley’ here than ever before. She might want to dial down the whimsy in future. It can be suffocating. Some unbidden constructive criticism there.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Story of SM:TV Live – Boxing Day, STV

Scheduled, rather sweetly, in its old Saturday morning slot, this tribute to the Ant, Dec and Cat kid’s show was surprisingly touching. I was 23 when it started in 1998, so I never paid much attention. But it looks like I missed out on a commendably subversive and sometimes very funny show that understood the cardinal rule of children’s television: don’t talk down to them; they’re smart, they get it. Broadcast live, SM:TV was benign anarchy, a fizzy rollerball of pop and sketches helmed by three bright young things with chemistry to burn. Watching Ant, Dec and Cat, all now middle-aged, reflecting on the best time of their lives made me feel nostalgic for something I never experienced.

Stephen Fry’s 21^st Century Firsts – Wednesday 30th December, STV

Hey! Who remembers Myspace?! In this utterly pointless list show, the cosy centrist tech-lover looked back upon various things that have occurred in the last 20 years. The legalisation of same-sex marriage and the Black Lives Matter movement jostled for airtime amidst the invention of YouTube, social media, reality television, iPhones and selfies. The Coronavirus pandemic made a brief cameo towards the end. Fry admitted that it was a whistle-stop tour, but that was no excuse for a programme in which Harry Potter trampled all over the election of Barack Obama and the vital voice of Greta Thunberg. All of this stuff, this broiling cultural stew, deserves hours of analysis. Fry was just picking up some sweet festive dollar.