This article was originally published in The Courier on 20th February 2021.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley – Tuesday, BBC One, 8:30pm
Between 7th September 1940 and 11th May 1941, Hitler’s Luftwaffe carried out a relentless bombing campaign on British cities. You are aware of this, I know. What came to be known as ‘Blitz Spirit’ has been cited ever since, particularly by mendacious politicians and media outlets, as a benchmark of British resilience in the face of a national crisis: keep calm and carry on.
In this commendable 90-minute documentary, historian Lucy Worsley separates grisly truth from romantic myth. “This chapter of our history has never been more worthy of a closer look,” she says. Through the experiences of six real people, she shows what life was actually like during that horrific onslaught, and by extension what ‘Blitz Spirit’ really means. Let it never be misappropriated again. A - dare I say it - important essay.
Jamie: Keep Cooking Family Favourites – Monday, Channel 4, 8:30pm
Lockdown has encouraged Jamie Oliver to reflect upon “the ingredients we buy week in, week out.” So here he is, in his massive kitchen, cooking some supposedly affordable meals. It’s something we can all relate to: a millionaire making do. The episode ends with his family enjoying a succulent roast dinner in their sunlit garden. Over a million people in Britain are reliant on food banks.
May I draw your attention instead to Can’t Get You Out of My Head, the latest mesmerising collage from the incomparable socio-political documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis. A typically expansive work of art, it dissects decades of corrupt power structures and ever-repeating patterns of parochialism, prejudice and paranoia. All six episodes are available now on BBC iPlayer. Enjoy.
DIY SOS: The Big Build – Monday, BBC One, 9pm
Mandy from Bangor has a rare genetic condition, the effects of which leave her bedbound for over 80% of the time. Her two children have inherited the same condition, which causes them to struggle with their own mobility issues. Dad, Davey, basically has to care for them all.
It’s a sad situation; they’re missing out on the joys of family life. “I just want to be a mum and a wife again,” says Mandy.
To bring them closer together, their house requires a major renovation. Enter big-hearted, hard-hatted Nick Knowles and his DIY SOS team, who together with a local designer and hundreds of volunteers, set about transforming the lives of this family in just nine days. Emotional scenes ensue.
Unforgotten – Monday, STV, 9pm
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of dour ITV police procedurals (that honour goes to an ex-pat called Terry from Rio de Janeiro), but Unforgotten is a reliable cut above your standard cop show fare.
Generally speaking, the dialogue, plotting and characterisation don’t rely on the usual genre clichés. It’s compassionate and intelligent, its analogous stories devoted to finding justice for people who have fallen through the cracks in society. It also benefits from the natural chemistry between Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as a pair of refreshingly ordinary, relatable sleuths.
Their latest case begins with the discovery of a dismembered corpse in a scrapyard (I’m aware of how gruesome that sounds, but my point still stands). As always, we’re then introduced to characters who were connected to the deceased in some way.
Million Pound Pawn –
Tuesday, STV, 8pm
During the current pandemic-induced economic crisis, Britain’s high-end pawnbrokers have continued to make a tidy living from cash-poor customers. The makers of this almost hilariously insensitive series don’t appear to have a problem with that: the money-guzzling pawnbrokers we meet are depicted as canny capitalists doing an honest day’s work.
I urge you to watch it, if only to marvel at the utter wrong-headedness of blasting something like this into our faces in 2021.
I’ll admit to feeling a vague pang of sympathy during the scene in which Dene from ‘80s pop has-beens Black Lace struggles to get a good evaluation on his Rolex, but that doesn’t excuse how misjudged the rest of it is.
Stand Up & Deliver – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm
The art of stand-up isn’t something you can easily learn in a matter of weeks, but that hasn’t stopped Channel 4 and Stand Up to Cancer from hosting this show in which five professional comedians train five novice celebrities. At a climactic charity concert, the celebs must perform a five-minute act they’ve created themselves.
The mirth-making mentors are David Baddiel, Nick Helm, Judi Love, Zoe Lyons and Jason Manford. Their quivering guinea pigs are Shaun Ryder, Reverend Richard Coles, Corrie actor Katie McGlynn, dancer Curtis Pritchard and Baroness Warsi.
Helm can barely disguise his contempt for everything Warsi stands for, but his coaching methods are worryingly effective. The whole thing is excruciating, that’s the point. That and the good cause, obviously.
LAST WEEK’S TV
Trump Takes on the World – Wednesday 17th February, BBC Two
I know, I know, we’re all utterly sick of this pathetic mewling husk of a man, but we’ll just have to accept that the horror of his quasi-fascist presidency will haunt us forever. And who better to make some sense of it than the exceptional documentarian Norma Percy?
Over the years, with award-winning documentaries such as The Death of Yugoslavia, she’s displayed a remarkable knack for procuring candid contributions from heavyweight political insiders. This bleakly compelling series is no different.
In episode two, she exposed the ego-driven chaos of Trump’s Middle Eastern foreign policy. He’s a terrible businessman, a tactless diplomat, a pig-headed narcissist who refuses to listen to experts. A despicable human being. And he’ll never be held to account.
Raiders of the Lost Past
with Janina Ramirez – Friday 19th February, BBC Two
In this new series, the intrepid art and cultural historian follows in the footsteps of three controversial men who traversed the globe in search of lost treasure.
She began her journey in Crete, on the ancient site of the so-called Minotaur’s Palace. It was here, in 1900, that the hugely affluent English architect Arthur Evans authored, in Ramirez’s words, “one of the most contentious discovery stories of all time.”
Evans, like so many classically-educated products of his time, believed that Britain was the natural successor to Ancient Greece. A fascinating man, but a textbook colonialist and blinkered self-publicist.
Ramirez is an engaging teacher. Like any historian worth their salt, she exposes uncomfortable truths with scalpel-tooled precision.
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