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.
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