VIEWPOINT + SAVED BY A STRANGER + BABY SURGEONS: DELIVERING MIRACLES

This article was originally published in The Courier on 24th April 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Viewpoint – Monday to Friday, STV, 9pm

Another one of those stripped-throughout-the-week dramas designed to cause maximum social media impact, Viewpoint is deeply indebted to Hitchcock’s Rear Window and the paranoid claustrophobia of 1970s New Hollywood classics such as Coppola’s The Conversation. 

Noel Clarke stars as a CID surveillance detective tasked with solving the disappearance of a primary school teacher. While covertly stationed in a neighbour’s flat across the road, his professional distance becomes compromised by a growing sense of panicked moral responsibility. Viewpoint falls back on some standard cop thriller tropes, but it’s quite compelling and intense. 

Clarke and co-star Alexandra Roach hold it all together, though; their performances are nicely understated. You can believe in them if nothing else.

How to Save a Grand in 24 Hours – Monday, Channel 4, 8pm

Anna Richardson and a cavalcade of cost-cutting gurus get to work in this new series, during which they show families how easy it can be to slash bills, credit card spends and monthly subscriptions. 

The core message is this: do you really need most of the stuff you own and pay for? Speaking as someone who would probably be quite happy living inside a heated Perspex cube on an uninhabited Scottish island, it’s a philosophy I can get behind. 

The subjects this week are the Kofi family, who receive some advice on how run their household on a reduced budget. This isn’t must-see TV by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s perfectly benign and potentially useful.

Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

Please take heed: this intimate series is, while sensitively handled, heart-wrenching. Filmed in one of the UK’s leading foetal medicine units, it follows heavily pregnant mothers whose unborn children are in urgent need of care and attention. 

Becky’s baby has a lung tumour which requires prenatal laser surgery. Anne-Marie was pregnant with triplets, but one of them died after nine weeks in the womb. Randika, who has dwarfism, has suffered three miscarriages. Their surgeon is Professor Basky Thilaganathan, whose delicate bedside manner is frequently called into play while he explains the educated risks he must take to save the lives of his patients. 

There is, I assure you, some tearful joy to be had amidst the tragedy.

Our Yorkshire Farm – Tuesday, Channel 5, 7pm

The Owen family – mum, dad and their nine children – live on one of the most remote farms in Britain. This delightful series chronicles their daily lives. It’s The Brady Bunch in mud-caked wellies; Whistle Down the Wind without an escaped convict in the barn. 

A programme about nice people enjoying their idyllic life may sound rather bland, but I find Our Yorkshire Farm very comforting. It provides some generous respite from the horrors of the world. It also captures the innocence of childhood. 

This week, the kids go back to school after their time spent in lockdown; it’s five-year-old Clemmie’s first day in the halls of academe, and she enjoys every minute of it.

Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

The final episode of this propulsive series about police corruption in the 1970s revolves around that shady euphemism, “taking a drink”. Corrupt police officers and violent criminals made a tidy living from their mutually beneficial arrangements. And for the most part, those uniformed villains got away with their crimes. 

As the episode reveals, the real-life AC-12 – which had to be set up to cope with the problem - were ill-equipped to deal with such an overwhelming torrent of allegations. We also meet honest ex-coppers talking about the anguish of being trapped within a toxic institution. They felt helpless. 

And once again, that evocative archive footage positively reeks of stale cigarette smoke and urinal cakes.

Saved By a Stranger – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

Hosted by Anita Rani, this new series focuses on ordinary people who became caught up in some of the darkest events in living memory. It tries to reunite them with the strangers who came to their aid during times of dire need. 

Karl is looking for the woman who held his hand when they were trapped underground during the 7/7 attacks. In his panic to escape from the tunnels, he pushed in front of her and has struggled with the guilt ever since. Emina and her family fled from war-torn Sarajevo thanks to the efforts of a paediatrician. They want to thank her for saving their lives. 

It’s a humbling celebration of selfless humanity.

Intergalactic – Friday, Sky One, 9pm

This new British sci-fi drama is an unabashed blast of camp, clichéd hokum. And that’s why I’m recommending it. 

Set in 2143, it follows a young space cop with an unimpeachable record who is convicted of – you guessed it – a crime she didn’t commit. Sent into exile on a brutal prison planet, she has to prove her innocence while struggling to survive in an environment that doesn’t take kindly to law enforcers. It’s basically the first episode of Blake’s 7 on a big Sky budget and taken at a frantic pace. 

Highlights include Dot from Line of Duty as a sinister government official and metaphor-spouting beekeeper. If that hasn’t sold you on it, then nothing will.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Call the Midwife – Sunday 18th April, BBC One

I was amused by the all-conquering chutzpah of last Sunday’s evening schedule on BBC One. Call the Midwife followed by Line of Duty? Beat that, ITV (other channels may have been available). 

The tenth series began with a typically affecting episode; Call the Midwife is reassuringly old-fashioned in the way it weaves at least four storylines into a neat thematic whole. This one encompassed a crisis of faith, a family tragically affected by radiation poisoning, a young black couple struggling to build a new life for themselves, and a compassionate case in favour of the NHS vs exclusive private health care. 

Even after nine years and 80 episodes, this restorative formula hasn’t run dry.

Line of Duty – Sunday 18th April, BBC One

As expected, the latest episode of this uneven series revealed that Jo Davidson is the daughter of deceased OCG boss Tommy Hunter. That was such a foregone conclusion, writer Jed Mercurio tossed it out of the way before moving swiftly on. 

But it did contain at least one decent surprise – the introduction of James Nesbitt as a senior police officer embroiled in the overarching conspiracy plot. Line of Duty is an enjoyable puzzle powered by admirably righteous anger (the Stephen Lawrence case was woven in last week), but it feels like Mercurio is now hastily ticking off everything he’s ever wanted to say at the expense of narrative cohesion. 

I’m still watching, obviously. He’s some kind of dastardly hypnotist.

 

 

LUCY, THE HUMAN CHIMP + GRETA THUNBERG: A YEAR TO CHANGE THE WORLD + MAKEUP: A GLAMOROUS HISTORY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 17th April 2021. 

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Lucy, the Human Chimp – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

In 1966, two psychology professors from the University of Oklahoma embarked upon a radical nature vs nurture experiment. They decided to raise Lucy, a female chimpanzee, as if she were human. 

But by the time she was 11, Lucy had grown too large and unpredictable to continue living with her surrogate parents. So they were forced to make a difficult decision: ostensibly for her own good, Lucy was shipped off to an African nature reserve in the company of a young student called Janis Carter. This touching documentary recounts their extraordinary story. 

Via archive material, dramatic reconstructions and a revealing interview with Carter herself, the film makes a resonant statement about the complex relationship between humans and animals.

Ackley Bridge – Monday to Friday, Channel 4, 6pm

Basically Grange Hill aimed at a slightly older audience - or Hollyoaks and Skins with a soul – Ackley Bridge returns in a new early evening slot stripped throughout the week. 

The newest protagonists are two Asian pupils and a member of the travelling community. Connor McIntyre, who played Coronation Street’s greatest ever villain, Pat Phelan, also turns up in a recurring role. Ackley Bridge handles Big Issues and the everlasting teenage themes as a matter of course, but never in an earnest way. 

It’s sharp, sensitive and self-aware. Peppered with characters delivering snappy Russell T. Davies-inspired monologues to camera, I find the whole thing quite sweet and fairly amusing. It’s worth delving into.

Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World – Monday, BBC One, 9pm

During the second leg of her global fact-finding mission, the inspiring climate activist conducts a brief yet moving interview with David Attenborough. “People are listening,” he says. “Self-interest is for the past, common interest is for the future.”

When he compliments her campaign, she has to hold back tears. But the centrepiece of this episode is her appearance at the 50^th World Economic Forum in Davos, where she tried to persuade world leaders to abandon fossil fuels. Thunberg is dismayed by the press coverage, which ignored her message in favour of a pantomime narrative pitting the Swedish teenager against Donald Trump. 

Meanwhile, various leading scientists and experts provide a battery of facts. There are solutions. There is hope.

Makeup: A Glamorous History – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

“Makeup can be seen as a frivolous subject,” says professional makeup artist Lisa Eldridge, “but I think it’s hugely important… a window on the world we’re living in.” She proves her point in this new series, which functions as a novel piece of social history shot through the prism of lipstick, powder and paint. 

Her essay begins with the high society Georgians, whose shameless ostentation and towering ice cream wigs were viewed as a symbol of wealth and status. Eldridge, who has been collecting vintage makeup products for over 30 years, applies her research to a model using authentic period techniques. She’s an engaging expert; her enthusiasm for the non-frivolous subject at hand is palpable.

Scotland’s Home of the Year – Wednesday, BBC Scotland, 8pm

In the latest episode of this rather calming series, we nose around some stunning homes in rural Aberdeenshire, the actual Aberdeen and St Andrews. 

As always, your expert judges are interior designer Anna Campbell-Jones, blogger Kate Spiers and architect/lecturer Michael Angus, who, with his large yet softly-spoken Man in Black image, wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Deadwood (he’d be a goodie, obviously). 

It’s all presented in such a friendly way, it never invites viewers to feel envious of these dream homes. 

Another point in the programme’s favour is Anne Lundon’s gentle Hebridean narration, which makes a pleasant change from that incessantly wry lifestyle television tone I’m sure you’re also thoroughly sick of. 

Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In the early 1970s, Soho was a sordid hotbed of vice ruled by enterprising porn barons and an underground network of corrupt police officers. That murky world of fake raids and suspicious brown envelopes is the setting for episode two of this series, which once again wallows in amazing archive footage steeped in grime and sleaze. 

It also features contemporary contributions from investigative journalists and former cops. Narrated by – who else? – Philip Glenister, it’s a solidly-researched history lesson. My only criticism of this series is the way it suggests that police corruption and harassment are a dark and dusty relic of the Sweeney-fingered past. If only. We’ve all seen the news and that hit documentary Line of Duty.

Second Hand for 50 Grand – Wednesday, Channel 4, 10pm

According to this glitzy celebration of rampant consumerism, so-called second-hand chic is the latest must-have. In recent years, an entire industry has grown around the acquisition of luxury vintage goods and “modern-day bling”. 

The programme follows the staff at Xupes, a Millennial-run business that hopes to corner the market. Their clients include a young millionaire with a walk-in wardrobe full of absurdly expensive handbags, a retired insurance broker who collects watches, sunglasses and old toys, and an elderly man who wants to buy a Cartier watch for his window cleaner son, as a thank you for looking after him. 

Believe it or not, at least two of these stories contain a bit of depth.

LAST WEEK’S TV

I Can See Your Voice – Saturday 10th April, BBC One

Well this is certainly something. It’s a Saturday night singing talent show in which a panel of celebrity judges and Some Contestants have to guess who might be a gifted vocalist either by merely looking at them or assessing their miming skills. 

The joke, such as it is, involves laughing at bad singers while assuaging your conscience with the knowledge that these pitch-starved funsters are in on it. When a singer is revealed to be quite good, that’s supposed to be a jaw-dropping moment – oh wow, that mousy little bespectacled fella can hold a tune! – but this thin format is stretched out over an endless hour. And “let’s hear your voice!” will never gain traction as a popular catchphrase.

GRETA THUNBERG: A YEAR TO CHANGE THE WORLD + TOO CLOSE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 10th April 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World – Monday, BBC One, 9pm

The world-renowned environmental activist has galvanised millions in the fight against climate change. Towards the end of 2019, she took a year off school to examine the effects of global warming first-hand. A co-production between the BBC and PBS, this vital series follows Thunberg as she travels around the world – by boat – to meet leading climate experts. 

In Canada, she encounters melting glaciers and evidence of our biodiversity crisis. She also witnesses the devastating after-effects of California’s worst ever wildfire. 

Meanwhile, Thunberg and her supportive father discuss the pressures they’re under, although she’d clearly rather not talk about herself at all: “I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the science.”

Too Close – Monday to Wednesday, STV, 9pm

Emily Watson stars in this morbid psychological thriller as Emma, a forensic psychiatrist tasked with assessing a woman branded in the tabloid press as a ‘yummy mummy monster’. Connie (played with considerable intensity by Denise Gough) tried to kill herself, her daughter and a neighbour’s child by driving into a river. She claims to have no memory of the incident.

Connie is arrogant, angry, cynical and manipulative. The scenes between her and Emma inhabit familiar territory: the intelligent patient/prisoner turning the tables on their interrogator. 

I only had access to episode one, but Too Close is quite intriguing and almost admirably bleak. I’m always suspicious of dramas about mental illness, they’re often quite tawdry and insensitive, but we’ll see.

All That Glitters: Britain’s Next Jewellery Star – Tuesday, BBC Two, 8pm

Comedian Katherine Ryan hosts this new “TV competition slash talent search format.” How deliciously ironic. I actually prefer it when derivative TV shows just plough ahead with the job at hand, instead of drawing attention to themselves with a knowing wink. It’s a cheap get-out clause. 

Anyway. This one finds a bunch of up-and-coming jewellers working on bespoke pieces that could last for centuries. You know the drill: they’re set a series of challenges while being judged by soundbite-spouting experts. 

Even if you have no interest whatsoever in jewellery, this is a fairly pleasant way to while away an hour of your life. But it is, like most programmes of its ilk, clearly better suited to a daytime slot.

Stacey Dooley: Back on the Psych Ward – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Last year, Dooley made a programme about life on an NHS mental health ward. This is her follow-up report. 

With characteristic sensitivity, she spends time with staff and patients to find out how they’ve been coping during the pandemic. Since COVID, the demand for beds has shot up. For so many people with pre-existing mental health issues, the isolation has been impossible to deal with. Young people have been affected more than any other age group. 

I don’t want to go into the specific details of what the various patients that Dooley meets are struggling with, as those details may prove triggering to some readers, but suffice to say it’s a programme made with the utmost care and integrity.

Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs – Wednesday, STV, 8pm

During this week’s visit to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, O’Grady meets some pooches in desperate need of TLC. Staffie-cross Roxi has far too much nervous energy to burn, so the staff try to calm her down with a gentle regime of stroking and exercise. 

The other star of the show is Dottie, a bulldog with the saddest face. Dottie has been overbred by her former owners; she’s exhausted and scared of pretty much everything. But then she’s paired with another lonely dog in need. 

I tend to get moist-eyed at the most ridiculous things, but For the Love of Dogs really is such a lovely, uplifting show. It makes the world feel like a slightly kinder place.

The Great British Sewing Bee – Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm

It’s back! From their new home on the banks of the Thames underneath London’s last surviving lighthouse, Esme Young from Central Saint Martin’s School of Fashion, Savile Row tailor Patrick Grant and cuddly host Joe Lycett welcome twelve new sewers competing for this year’s prize. 

A likeable bunch, they include a Bowie fan and former dinner lady, and a Frenchman who plays lead trumpet for London’s Gay Symphony Orchestra. 

It’s jolly old business as usual, during which they must design a loose-fitting buffet dress, a collarless 1960s-style blouse and transform a standard t-shirt into an imaginative item of clothing for any age or gender – one of the bold designs sends Grant into a giggling fit.

Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

With trust in the Metropolitan Police currently at an all-time low, this timely documentary travels back to an era when the public regarded the fuzz as an unassailable paragon of virtue. But as we now know, bent coppers exploited that myth for their own benefit. 

In early 1970s London, a secret network of corrupt CID detectives inhabited a murky world of extortion, fit-ups and racist violence. They preyed on defenceless working-class people and ethnic minorities, as well as tofu-munching political activists such as Caroline Coon. 

Propelled by a funky cop soundtrack and evocative archive footage, the episode also features covert recordings of bent coppers colluding with criminals: “We’ve got more villains in our game than you’ve got in yours.”

LAST WEEK’S TV

Freddie Mercury: A Life in Ten Pictures – Saturday 3rd April, BBC Two

This touching account of Sir Fred’s life featured contributions from some of the non-famous people who knew and loved him. They pored over private and professional photographs of Mercury as a way of providing insight into what he was really like. 

It began with the earliest known image of him, as an infant in Zanzibar, and ended with a photograph taken just a few months before he died. 

Although the story of Mercury’s life is familiar, the programme managed to untangle the private man from the self-made myth. A sensitive soul, he was an introverted extrovert who craved companionship. He was also a gay immigrant who overcame the odds stacked against him. Intimate and honest, the programme did him justice.

Line of Duty – Sunday 4th April, BBC One

Now we’re sucking diesel. This series began with an uninspiring, poorly-paced episode, but it has ramped up considerably since. 

Episode three contained one of those great LoD set-pieces: corrupt copper Ryan, who we first encountered as a terrifying child in series one, attempted to bump off Terry, the framed young suspect with learning difficulties, by staging a car crash in a reservoir. Terry survived, but Ryan drowned the other officer who was in the car. Brutal. 

LoD is essentially a daft yet compelling melodrama made up on the hoof, but I do admire the way it confronts contentious real-life issues such as the murder of Jill Dando and Jimmy Savile’s connections within the highest echelons of power. Why, it’s almost subversive.

 

AGATHA & POIROT: PARTNERS IN CRIME + LOUIS THEROUX: SHOOTING JOE EXOTIC

This article was originally published in The Courier on 3rd April 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Agatha & Poirot: Partners in Crime – Monday, STV, 9pm

Hosted by Richard E. Grant and his ostentatious Paisley scarf, this tribute to Agatha Christie and her most enduring creation is an agreeable time-passer. 

A galloping galaxy of famous fans including Stephen Fry, Caroline Quentin and Zoe Wannamaker pitch up to explain what Christie’s work means to them, while Grant recounts the main beats of her life as well as her decades-long relationship with the fastidious Belgian sleuth. 

It unfolds in a strangely comforting world of genteel Torquay tea rooms, opulent steam trains and gallons of deadly poison. It easy to take Christie for granted, but she was obviously a genius. David Suchet is conspicuous by his absence, presumably because he’s said everything he has to say about Poirot.

Canal Boat Diaries – Monday to Thursday, BBC Four, 7pm

A mild-mannered man pootling around on a narrowboat - what’s not to like? In series two of this comforting diversion, Robbie Cummings – who looks like a happily retired member of Basement Jaxx - continues his existential escape from society via the heart of Britain’s canal network. 

Here we find him during lockdown, tending to the needs of his vessel while enjoying the serene vistas of this murky green and pleasant land. This is slow television in the most acceptable sense: a solitary traveller navigating waterways while providing little nuggets of history. 

I envy Robbie’s life. If I wasn’t tragically lumbered with a timid housecat and a total lack of practical ability, I’d be out there in a heartbeat.

Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Ten years ago, while making a documentary called America’s Most Dangerous Pets, Theroux spent time with the controversial zoo owner Joe Exotic. 

At that time, Exotic was just one of the many strange and dubious characters Theroux has encountered over the years. But in 2020 he attained global infamy as the, shall we say, eccentric star of the Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. He’s currently serving a 22-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot and 17 charges of animal cruelty. 

In this programme, which wasn’t available for preview, Theroux meets with a team campaigning for Exotic’s release. He also interviews friends and family-members who haven’t spoken on camera before.

Snackmasters – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:20pm

TV’s resident maitre d’ Fred Sirieix is only too happy to be a living parody of himself – the first words out of his mouth as this series returns are “Ooh la la!” That’s not a ‘diss’, good luck to the man. He’s making hey while ze sun shines. 

In Snackmasters, he presides over professional chefs as they attempt to unlock the secret recipes of cheap popular snack foods. The duellists on this occasion are a Prince Harry lookalike and “a no-nonsense Yorkshireman”. Their mission: to successfully recreate a KFC meal. 

If you can ignore the finger-licking product placement and the innately condescending concept of Michelin-starred artisans lowering themselves into the deep fat fryer of high street gruel, then it’s quite good fun.

Food Unwrapped – Friday, Channel 4, 8pm

This light-hearted factual series is basically an extended version of those little educational films they used to show on Play School. It trots around the globe with a view to exposing the (usually benign) truth about what we’re eating. 

This week, Helen Lawal visits a futuristic Nescafe factory and solves the mystery of how those crazy caffeinated cats put the froth in instant coffee. Their exact methods are a closely guarded secret, but it involves nitrogen gas. 

Meanwhile, Matt Tebbutt dons a Man from Del Monte fedora and travels to Mount Vesuvius to find out why so many of our tinned tomatoes are Italian, and Kate Quilton visits Genoa to explain how panettone has such a long shelf life.

Rosie’s Trip Hazard: My Great British Adventure – Friday, Channel 4, 8:30pm

Comedian Rosie Jones hosts this scenic round-Britain travelogue in which she tips a knowing wink to the clichéd conventions of the genre (narrator Olivia Colman almost overdoses on irony). 

The series begins in the Lake District, where Jones and her celebrity guest Scarlett Moffatt visit the home of William Wordsworth, ride a traction engine and take part in a Viking battle re-enactment. 

Jones, who is gay and has cerebral palsy, opens with a good gag. Her world-weary agent (played by an actor) says, “In a way, you tick a lot of boxes. Woman, disabled, gay, northern…” Her reply: “I don’t identify as northern.” It’s a slight vehicle, but Jones is funny. Her best work is presumably ahead of her.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Reel Stories: Dave Grohl – Saturday 27th March

This occasional series revolves around a simple yet sometimes quite effective format. The affably bland Dermot O’Leary interviews musicians while showing them choice highlights from their own career as well as clips of some of the artists who have inspired them. It’s designed to jog their memories, and it worked well here with the Foo Fighters frontman, former Nirvana drummer and Nicest Man in Rock ™. 

His default setting is hirsute bonhomie, but he became introspective while discussing the tragic loss of his friend and former bandmate Kurt Cobain. His thoughts on dealing with grief were movingly and eloquently expressed. As usual, he came across as humble, good-natured and self-aware. Grohl doesn’t take any of this for granted.