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.
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