ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND + INSIDE NO. 9 + BEAR & NICOLA ADAMS' WILD ADVENTURE

A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 29th May 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band – Friday, BBC Four, 9pm

Note that subtitle: this documentary tells the often fraught story of The Band through Robertson’s elder statesman, rose-tinted gaze. The only other surviving Band-member, Garth Hudson, oddly doesn’t appear at all. 

Nevertheless, it’s still an engaging, well-made film (Martin Scorsese serves as an executive producer) in which the prodigiously talented Robertson – who comes across as a nice guy – waxes effusively about the funky magic he created alongside his comrades, Bob Dylan prominent among them. 

Packed with colourful detail and warm contributions from famous fans such as Bruce Springsteen, it may not be the definitive account of the four-fifths Canadian Gods of Americana, but it’s still a worthy addition to the canon of Scorsese-affiliated music docs.

Between the Covers – Monday, BBC Two, 7:30pm

The latest – tired pun alert – chapter of this comfy little book club throws the floor open to Hugh Dennis, Giovanna Fletcher, Zoe Lyons and the great Don Warrington. Host Sara Cox canvases their opinions on the late John le Carre’s final novel, The Agent Running in the Field, as well as Another Life, the debut novel from Jodie Chapman. 

We discover that Warrington likes “very heavy books”, Lyons is a fan of dystopian fiction, Dennis just likes being transported beyond the parameters of his life, and the ever-smiling Fletcher abhors violent and disturbing fiction, preferring instead to lose herself in stories about relationships. 

Warrington’s polite refusal to say positive things about every book placed before him is delightful.

Inside No. 9 – Monday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

Pemberton and Shearsmith’s latest confection is set in a static caravan which is being used as an on-location green room for a true-crime TV drama written by the actual Jeff Pope.

Shearsmith plays an earnest bit-part actor who spends a disturbing afternoon with the strange family who live in the caravan. The parents are played by Pemberton and Pauline McLynn. Their sheltered daughter is played by Donna Preston, while Adrian Dunbar occasionally pops in as an amusingly passive-aggressive version of himself.

This isn’t one of the strongest episodes; in fact it’s really quite uncomfortable. Granted, I like the way it attempts to address the issue of our unquenchable thirst for dramas based on real-life horror. The fact that Shearsmith once starred in one, written by Pope no less, adds a layer of self-awareness. 

However, its problematic and borderline offensive handling of mental illness undermines whatever point the creators were trying to make. They’re intelligent men, they should know better.

Bake-Off: The Professionals – Tuesday, Channel 4, 8pm

As this crust-crimping saga continues, the remaining five teams consolidate their quest to be crowned Britain’s best pastry chefs. 

The first challenge this week is the making of a miniature cube-shaped dessert, which must be perfectly sculpted in every way. They’re also tasked with creating a glistening array of mushroom-shaped desserts (but without any actual mushrooms in them, obviously). 

The dramatic climax revolves around the painstaking creation of an imaginative heroes and villains-themed macaroon showpiece. It’s a broad conceptual remit: one of the teams opts for Mother Nature vs pollution, while another goes for James Bond vs a generic arch-villain. 

It is, as always, an extravagant smorgasbord of camp, frothy fun.

The Anti-Vax Conspiracy – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm

Preview copies of this documentary weren’t available at the time of writing, but it sounds interesting. And thoroughly depressing. 

The global anti-vax movement insists that Covid is a myth conjured up by governments to inject us with dangerous vaccines. The programme aims to expose who’s behind this crazy conspiracy theory, and what their agenda is. 

It inveigles its way into the paranoid mind-set of anti-vaxxers such as Piers Corbyn, who believes the vaccine rollout is equivalent to experiments carried out in Nazi concentration camps. 

At its centre, however, lurks disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose bogus theories linking vaccines and autism sparked the entire movement. He has since gained fame and fortune in America. What a world.

Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm 

On a stretch of the Somerset coast, a controversial project is unfolding: the construction of the UK’s first nuclear power station in three decades. Hinkley Point C, which is the size of a small town, is expected to cost more than £22 billion. 

Filmed over two years, this stats-heavy series is like one of those documentaries about the day-to-day running of luxury hotels, only with two of the world’s most powerful nuclear reactors in the basement. 

We follow ordinary people as they facilitate a potentially devastating source of energy, which makes for uncomfortable viewing. Yet it’s also grimly amusing at times: episode one begins with the site chaplain saying a prayer while the staff stand around awkwardly.

Bear and Nicola Adams’ Wild Adventure – Friday, STV, 9:30pm

The latest celebrity special from adventurer Bear Grylls - an inherently silly yet harmless man – has a bit more depth than his usual folderol. 

While yomping across the windy wilds of Dartmoor with Olympic boxing gold medalist Nicola Adams, he occasionally stops to interview her. We gain some actual insight into her life and motivations. A truly lovely and inspiring person, she talks movingly about her traumatic childhood and the pressures of coming out as gay. 

Meanwhile, however, it’s gung-ho business as usual. They abseil down steep cliffs, crawl along a taut rope angled at 45 degrees, and boil an egg using hand sanitiser. 

Grylls’ overenthusiastic and weirdly emphasised “smashed it!” presentation style never fails to amuse.

LAST WEEK’S TV

What Are We Feeding Our Kids? – Thursday 27th May, BBC One

In the UK today, 21% of children are living with obesi\ty by the time they leave primary school. That’s the highest rate it’s ever been. But it’s a major global problem, as Dr Chris van Tulleken discovered in this probing documentary. 

The root cause is the prevalence of cheap and convenient ultra-processed food. His visit to the Amazon Basin revealed that a floating supermarket delivering unhealthy pre-packaged food recently caused a shocking spike in child obesity. Our supermarkets are full of this stuff too. 

Is it addictive? And if so, why? To find out, van Tulleken embarked upon a draining Morgan Spurlock-esque self-experiment in which he stuffed himself with ‘hyper-palatable’ fatty foods. A valuable expose.

21 Day Body Turnaround with Michael Mosley – Thursday 27th May, Channel 4

For many of us, staying fit and healthy during the pandemic hasn’t been easy. In this instructive and occasionally quite alarming new series, former doctor Michael Mosley examines the lifestyles, diets and exercise levels of five volunteers. 

His aim, as the programme’s title suggests, is to improve their health in just 21 days. Because at this rate, he warns, they’re taking years off their life expectancy. 

Mosley has earned a reputation as TV’s friendly face of matters medicinal, but he’s in slightly sterner mode here. And with good reason – although we’re living longer, a large percentage of us will struggle with health problems in the last two decades of our lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

LONG LOST FAMILY: BORN WITHOUT TRACE + INSIDE NO. 9 + WE ARE LADY PARTS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 22nd May 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace - Monday to Wednesday, STV, 9pm

This touching series, in which people abandoned as babies finally discover more about where they came from, is a reliably, and quietly, stellar piece of work. 

Programmes of this nature are often quite manipulative and questionable, but Long Lost Family comports itself with commendable sensitivity. It’s a force for good. 

Over the course of these three new episodes, we’re introduced to more people in search of answers. Closure, if you will. As always, the programme doesn’t judge their parents harshly; there are always difficult, mitigating circumstances. 

Time and time again, Long Lost Family unearths stories of young people in dire straits, people who for various reasons just didn’t know how to cope. Everyone involved is treated with compassion.

Cook Clever, Waste Less with Prue and Rupy – Monday, Channel 4, 8:30pm

According to this benign new lifestyle show, we apparently throw 14 billion (fiscal) pounds worth of food away every year. A dismal statistic. So thank heavens above for ‘leftover queen’ Prue Leith and food expert Dr Rupy Aujla, who are on a mission to help families save time and money while reducing food waste. 

This week, they meet two young boys with gluten and dairy allergies. Their parents try to provide them with a balanced diet, but that results in needless overspend and waste. 

So, Prue and Rupy devise a healthy, minimalist weekly meal plan; if you buy relatively cheap yet nutritious ingredients, they can be reused to create a variety of dishes. It really is that simple. 

The Year Britain Stopped – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

Prior to the vaccine rollout, Britain had one of the worst Covid death rates in the world. This simmering documentary highlights the hypocrisy and incompetency of Boris Johnson’s government while speaking to NHS doctors and nurses, as well as some of the people who lost loved ones during the pandemic. 

We hear from one of the nurses who treated Johnson while he was hospitalised with Coronavirus. She’s very diplomatic and professional – Johnson was a patient who required treatment – but her sadness and disgust when he tried to co-opt her into his thumbs-up publicity campaign is palpable. 

It was just too upsetting, the very thought of clapping alongside him for the cameras when she’d witnessed so many deaths. 

Inside No. 9 – Monday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

The best episode of this series so far is set in a threadbare hotel room; a crucible of loneliness bathed in sickly green. Steve Pemberton plays a heartbroken little man who suspects that his wife is having an affair. So he hires a professional lip-reader (Sian Clifford) to spy on her movements in an adjacent building. 

Reece Shearsmith occasionally butts in as a stiff, uptight German hotel manager with a sinister pencil moustache. He’s permanently suspicious and interfering. It’s like a weirdly claustrophobic episode of Fawlty Towers. Pemberton and Shearsmith are, of course, aware of this; listen out for a fleetingly specific allusion to Basil’s attitude towards his guests. 

A satisfyingly bleak and cruel instalment of an endlessly surprising anthology. 

The Black American Fight for Freedom – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Last year, as you know, the brutal murder of George Floyd ignited the Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns not only for an end to police brutality but also for something that was promised 48 years ago by the Civil Rights Act: racial equality. 

This despairing documentary looks back at those moments during the last six decades of American history when opportunities for positive social change were cruelly snatched away. The programme explains why these brief glimmers of hope have been repeatedly vanquished. 

In America today, you are five times more likely to serve time in prison than if you’re white. The average black family is eight times poorer than the average white family. For all our supposed enlightenment, systemic injustice still prevails.

Before We Die – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

Lesley Sharp stars in this beat-for-beat British adaptation of a resolutely solemn Swedish crime drama, which you may have seen via Channel 4’s Walter Presents strand. 

She plays a police detective whose partner, a fellow officer, is abducted during a stakeout. To make matters worse, she discovers that her troubled stepson – with whom she has a strained relationship – has been assisting his dad in an undercover investigation into organised crime. So now they’re all involved. 

It’s a decent enough premise, but Before We Die is fatally undermined by sloppy pacing and wooden dialogue. Even an actor of Sharp’s calibre can’t rise above those fundamental flaws. All she can do is her professional best.

Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years and a Lovely Bit of Squirrel – Friday, Channel 4, 9pm

This tenth anniversary celebration of Robert Popper’s semi-autobiographical sitcom farce about a suburban Jewish family also serves as a bittersweet tribute to the great Paul Ritter, who passed away recently. 

Ritter was seriously ill when the programme was made, but he was determined to pay tribute to a series he was understandably proud of. This marks his final onscreen appearance. Ritter’s performance as the endearingly eccentric Martin was an absolute delight. He will be missed.

The programme also features interviews with Popper and the cast, as well as celebrity fans – and long-time Popper pals – David Baddiel and Peter Serafinowicz. It provides some insight into the writing and filming process, and there are a smattering of outtakes to enjoy. Shalom.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes – Sunday 16th May, BBC Four

20 years ago, some tapes were found in a Northampton attic. They were the lost works of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who had recently passed away. Musician/performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti sampled them to create the soundtrack for this immersive and suitably idiosyncratic docudrama from British actor and filmmaker Caroline Catz. 

Derbyshire, a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is best known for her extraordinary arrangement of the Doctor Who theme; but that was just one of her many creative achievements. She was a beguiling nonconformist immersed in musique concrete and the infinite subtleties of sound. 

Catz played Derbyshire in tasteful dramatic reconstructions, while friends and collaborators waxed lyrical about this remarkable artist. Audio interviews with Derbyshire were laced throughout. A haunting film.

We Are Lady Parts – Thursday 20th May, Channel 4

An obvious cult hit in the making, this hugely likeable sitcom follows a Muslim female punk band – the titular Lady Parts – as they attempt to spread their uncompromising feminist message. 

The protagonist is a bright, conservative, geeky young Muslim woman whose ultimate priority is finding a husband. A big fan of earnest 1970s folkies such as Don McLean and Janis Ian, she provides acoustic guitar lessons for underprivileged children, and only accepts the gig as Lady Parts’ lead guitarist so she can meet the drummer’s handsome brother. Unfortunately, she suffers from vomit-inducing stage fright. 

Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, We Are Lady Parts is charming and subversive. It’s a sly, good-natured labour of love.

 

INSIDE NO. 9 + THE PACT + THE PURSUIT OF LOVE + GODS OF SNOOKER

A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 15th May 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Inside No. 9 – Monday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

And they’re back. I didn’t enjoy last week’s tiresomely meta series opener at all, but this episode is very good indeed. 

Steve Pemberton stars as the multi-award-winning creator of a Game of Thrones-esque fantasy series. Reece Shearsmith plays an obsessed fan who blackmails his hero into rewriting the show’s unpopular finale. Loosely inspired by Stephen King’s Misery, it’s a witty, deftly-plotted comment on the way a certain type of entitled fan feels they have the right to dictate how their favourite shows should be written. 

Pemberton and Shearsmith couldn’t have known this at the time, but it ties in neatly with the recent – and entirely warranted - disappointment surrounding the Line of Duty finale.

The Pact – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

Laura Fraser and Julie Hesmondhalgh star in this fairly enjoyable twist-strewn thriller about a close-knit group of Welsh brewery workers whose lives go horribly wrong during a drunken work’s night out. 

They decide to exact some playful revenge on an obnoxious colleague. In the panicked aftermath of this prank, a desperate pact of silence is formed. 

To say any more would spoil the fun, but writer Pete McTighe – whose credits include Doctor Who and the Prisoner Cell Block H reboot Wentworth - does a pretty good job of exploiting the fraught ramifications of his premise. The solid cast also includes Eddie Marsan and Adrian Edmondson.

Innocent – Monday to Thursday, STV, 9pm

Stripped throughout the week, Innocent is an utterly generic ITV crime drama elevated somewhat by sensitive performances from Katherine Kelly and Shaun Dooley. 

Kelly stars as a schoolteacher accused of murdering one of her pupils. After serving five years in prison, she wins an appeal and returns home to a less than welcoming reception. Determined to prove her innocence, she offers her assistance to a police officer (Dooley) who is heading up a re-investigation. Innocent wants to make a serious point about how people deserve the right to a second chance in life, but it gets bogged down in all the usual tired tropes. 

The dialogue is laughable. Sample: “I want my job back, or I’m going to get seriously legal on your arse!” I mean, really.

Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer – Tuesday, BBC Four, 10:05pm

In this timely new series, historian David Olusoga and popular science author Steven Johnson celebrate the unsung heroes of global healthcare while asking what we can learn from previous global pandemics. 

They begin with the fascinating history of vaccinations, which naturally feeds directly into our current situation. It’s an episode populated by various pioneering medical scientists, whose bold experiments resulted in the eradication of formerly fatal diseases and an increase in life expectancy around the world. 

Olusoga and Johnson are clear-eyed guides, they knit the whole saga together with quiet authority. Their interviewees include Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci never expected to become famous, that's not why he took the gig, but 2020 changed everything.

Escape to the Farm with Kate Humble – Thursday, Channel 5, 8pm

The latest episode of this green and pleasant series gets up at the crack of dawn to bask in birdsong. Humble teams up with an ornithologist neighbour to explain what those delightful chirrups and tweets actually mean: in short, sex and violence. No joke. 

She also visits one of her most cherished hidden spots on the farm, a wild garlic patch, looks on proudly as her favourite pig gives birth for the first time, and, as usual, gets busy in her farmhouse kitchen. This week, our genial host rustles up a lamb broth and “a proper British pesto.” 

Humble comes across as such a nice person, it’s impossible to resent this cosy celebration of her seemingly perfect life.

Subnormal: A British Scandal – Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

This damning documentary exposes a shameful chapter in British history.  

In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of black Caribbean children were officially categorised as ‘educationally subnormal’ and sent to schools for pupils deemed to have low intelligence. A blatant case of institutional racism, it was a concerted effort to remove black children from the mainstream education system. 

The programme features devastating contributions from some of the people who were cruelly mis-labelled. They talk about how the whole experience instilled within them deep-seated feelings of shame and a terrible lack of self-esteem. They have struggled with that pain for decades. 

And this scandalous practice isn’t a relic from the past, it’s still happening now. Prepare to be appalled.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Pursuit of Love – Sunday 9th May, BBC One

Based on the novel by Nancy Mitford, this self-consciously hip and stylised period drama is supposedly a wry satire on the sheer weirdness of insular upper-class English families. But writer/director Emily Mortimer also expects us to care about these people, who are just too exhausting to engage with. 

You don’t necessarily have to like characters in a drama, but you do have to find them interesting on some level. This lot are ghastly bores. 

It focuses on the intense relationship between teenage cousins Linda and Fanny as they fantasise about love and escaping from the patriarchy. Dominic West has a ball as the appallingly bigoted king of the castle, but his scenery-chewing performance fails to rescue a fundamentally alienating and aggravating production.

Gods of Snooker – Sunday 9th May, BBC Two

Now this is television. Executive-produced by Louis Theroux, it’s a hugely entertaining and lovingly-curated tribute to the dickie-bowed heroes who transformed snooker into a national obsession in the 1980s. Snooker loopy nuts were we (we were snooker loopy).

Naturally it began with Alex Higgins, the rebellious working-class hero and people’s champion who was pretty much solely responsible for killing off snooker’s hitherto staid and gentlemanly image (the octogenarian Ray Reardon couldn't hide his understandable bitterness during his interview). Higgins was a wayward genius; the footage of him in mind-bogglingly audacious action was hilarious. 

But the programme didn’t romanticise him unduly – he was, after all, a troubled and difficult character. 

Suffused with wit and warmth, Gods of Snooker perfectly encapsulates the cultural impact of that most beautiful of games. Highly recommended.

 

THREE FAMILIES + INSIDE NO. 9 + LINE OF DUTY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 8th May 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Three Families – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

The Abortion Act 1967 made abortion legal in the UK, but that legislation didn’t extend to Northern Ireland. This vital drama is based upon the true stories of some of the people involved in a campaign to reverse injustice and change society.

It begins in 2013. Theresa (Sinead Keenan) believes that abortion is a mortal sin, but then her teenage daughter becomes pregnant. She makes a decision, borne of a mother’s love, that could see her facing a prison sentence for breaking an archaic law. Meanwhile, a young couple are told that their baby is expected to be stillborn. They’re given no other option.

Sensitive and angering, Three Families is wreathed in authenticity. It hits hard. It lingers.

Unbeatable – Monday to Friday, BBC One, 2:15pm

This generic daytime quiz show is almost fascinatingly undercooked and lacking in atmosphere. Your host is Jason Manford, who goes through the motions with the genial confidence of a man who knows he’s landed a sweet and easy gig.

The rules don’t matter, it’s just a procession of general knowledge questions. The weird production details are of far more interest. Unbeatable is haunted by listless canned applause that sounds like it’s been beamed in from a crypt full of Ray Harryhausen skeletons.

I’m all for social distancing, but Manford is so far away from the contestants they may as well have stuffed him in a capsule orbiting the moon. But, you know, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Between the Covers – Monday, BBC Two, 7:30pm

A cosy little show, Between the Covers is a televised book club in which Sara Cox and some celebs review the latest big releases while talking about their own personal favourites. The guests this week are Mel Giedroyc, Griff Rhys Jones, TV presenter Rick Edwards and Oti Mabuse from Strictly Come Dancing.

The tomes under review are The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard. Meanwhile, Giedroyc heartily recommends all 900 pages of Les Miserables.

This is nothing more than an unpretentious piece of schedule filler, but sometimes that’s all you need. Also, it reminds me that Cox is an excellent broadcaster. She’s charming, funny and natural, a likeable presence.

Inside No. 9 – Monday, BBC Two, 9:30pm

I’m a big fan of Inside No. 9, but the latest series begins with an absolute misfire.

A parody of overly-stylised British heist thrillers combined with commedia dell’arte, it’s meta-textual to a fault. The fourth wall is constantly broken. “It’s series six,” smirks our nominal narrator, “you’ve got to allow for a certain artistic exhaustion.” Which would be funny if the episode as a whole wasn’t so terribly laboured and pleased with itself.

It exists purely to comment upon the expectations that Pemberton and Shearsmith have built up over the years. I get what they’re trying to do – it’s wilfully aggravating, which is an attitude I can get behind in theory – but as a post-modern experiment it goes too far in the wrong direction.

Oh well. Better luck next time, lads!

Hospital – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

The latest series of this superior medical report was filmed in the Coventry hospital that delivered the world’s first Covid vaccine outside of a trial.

Nearly five million people in England are waiting to start treatment, forcing doctors into the difficult position of having to decide who should be treated first. It’s not a decision they take lightly. Patients who can’t afford to go private are stuck on a vast waiting list. NHS staff can only apologise – there’s nothing they can do.

This typically humane episode captures the intense frustrations of an NHS coping with the huge challenge of recovering itself one year into the pandemic. “It doesn’t feel like we’re anywhere near back to normal,” sighs one consultant.

Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and the Menopause – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

In this commendable programme, McCall highlights the failings of menopause care and finds out what can be done to improve the lives of menopausal women.

The main problem is a lack of proper information and a continuing distrust of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a stigma largely based on a misleading yet widely publicised report from 20 years ago. McCall meets experts who want to put those fears to rest. They also stress that anti-depressants are no substitute for the benefits of HRT. The key message is this: we must continue to talk, listen and learn.

“You don’t have to be menopausal,” says McCall. “You don’t have to be a woman. This is something everybody needs to know.”

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

As this compassionate series continues, we meet two more ordinary people who survived traumatic events thanks to the life-changing help of others. 

David, a veteran of the Falklands conflict, was aboard the SS Atlantic Conveyer when it was set ablaze and sunk by an Exocet missile attack. Twelve men lost their lives. David now wants to reunite with some his fellow crewmembers as a way of stressing how important it is to talk when you struggle with PTSD. 

We also meet Darryl, who was four when his family fled Kenya for a new life in Britain. They discovered a country mired in vicious racism, but Darryl’s primary school teachers gave him the confidence to succeed in a hostile society.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Line of Duty – Sunday 2nd May, BBC One

So that’s that then. The revelation that “bumbling fool” Buckells was The Fourth Man should’ve worked as an angry comment on how corrupt chancers always rise to the top, but the whole thing was executed in such a flat and clunky way. A bore.

I’ve always enjoyed LoD for what it is – superior hokum with something to say about systemic corruption – but series six, despite occasional highlights, was hard work. Jed Mercurio’s laborious efforts to tie every last detail together sucked all the fun out of it.

I admire his wayward ambition and subversive intent: draw viewers into a populist show then hit them with a pessimistic political message. I just wish he’d managed to do that in a dramatically satisfying way.

Ian Wright: Home Truths – Thursday 6th May, BBC One

Ian Wright’s step-dad was a psychologically and physically abusive man. The family lived in constant fear of him. He’s never fully dealt with what he went through as a child, hence this frank and tender programme in which he examined the long-term effects of domestic abuse.

In the last year, 1.6 million women in the UK experienced domestic abuse. In 90% of such cases, a child is always present. Wright confronted some upsetting memories while talking to a psychiatrist and other people from similar backgrounds. He also met school pastoral carers and social workers who have been trained to spot signs that a child is struggling.

Hats off to Wright for making such an important piece of television.

 

KILLING ESCOBAR + LINE OF DUTY + THIS TIME WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE

A version of this article was first published in The Courier on 1st May 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Killing Escobar – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm

In 1989, Glasgow-born mercenary Peter McAleese was hired to assassinate all-powerful drugs kingpin Pablo Escobar. His mission didn’t go according to plan. This 90-minute documentary explains what happened while fleshing out the details of McAleese’s often troubled life. 

A grizzled raconteur, he understands why many may regard him, a hired killer, as morally reprehensible. But, he argues, “This is the profession I chose.” Killing Escobar makes for uncomfortable viewing. On the one hand it’s a gung-ho celebration of repulsive machismo, but on the other it’s a fairly nuanced study of a philosophical and rather lonely man whose early years were steeped in anger and violence. 

The film ultimately invites viewers to make their own judgement. It’s like an unusually wistful episode of The Professionals.

The Violence Paradox – Tuesday, BBC Four, 9pm 

“Has violence really declined?” asks esteemed psychologist Steven Pinker, who hosts this far-reaching study of the worst of human nature. 

That does, of course, sound like the sort of deliberately glib and unanswerable question Chris Morris would pose at the start of Brass Eye every week, but Pinker is serious: he really does think that we could be living in the most peaceful time in history. And he’s got a vast dossier of facts and research to support his controversial hypothesis. 

Whether he’s right or not – and the programme allows room for dissenting voices – it’s an engaging essay. Hey, maybe we’re not doomed after all. The vaguely hippie-ish Pinker, with his lovely fluffy hair and relaxation tape mien, is someone you want to believe in.

The Money Maker – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm

The star of this new series is big-hearted venture capitalist Eric Collins, who each week throws a lifeline to ailing British businesses. Collins, a suave American gentleman, exudes a sort of benign intensity; Zen and the art of trouble-shooting. 

His first port of call is a building repair and restoration company in Manchester. I zone out whenever business types start talking about equity stakes etc. – my brain isn’t wired to compute such information – but The Money Maker is more acceptable than the relentlessly sneering Dragons’ Den. At least Collins tempers his essentially self-serving impulses with a certain degree of empathy. 

But this is such a standard-issue TV format. We’ve seen it all before.

Johnny Vegas: Carry On Glamping – Wednesday, Channel 4, 10pm

In this amiable new series, the comedian and camper van enthusiast follows his dream of setting up a bespoke glamping site full of renovated buses from the 1950s and 1960s. 

Among his friends and family, Vegas is affectionately known as someone who is always coming up with big ideas before getting bored and abandoning them. But he’s keen to stress how serious he is about this project. It’s not just a lark. 

Accompanied by his best pal and personal assistant Bev, Vegas searches for a site and travels to Malta to examine their first bus (he bought it online at 2am without checking the location). He also visits his mum, who’s glad he’s doing this instead of “filthy stand-up”.

Bloods – Wednesday, Sky One, 10pm

This new sitcom about paramedics, while fairly amusing, veers uneasily between likeable workplace shenanigans and self-conscious gallows humour – patients in episode one include a crack addict and some people involved in a car crash. 

Our odd couple protagonists are Maleek (Samson Kayo) and his new partner Wendy (Jane Horrocks). Maleek is a short-tempered fool with a high opinion of himself. Wendy is a kindly chatterbox who isn’t quite as naïve as she seems. Meanwhile, back at hospital HQ, the always watchable Julian Barratt plays a lonely widower who doesn’t seem to be aware that his boss is in love with him. 

Bloods isn’t bad by any means. It’s fine. But I will never watch it again unless someone I trust tells me that it significantly improves. And no one will ever tell me that.

The Dog House – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm

As the latest series of this wet-nosed comforter concludes, we meet Stanley the Staffie, Ellie the Chihuahua and Zoe the effervescent Beagle. As usual, the staff at Wood Green Animal Shelters must manage that careful negotiation between matching these abandoned dogs with the right humans. 

The main storyline this week involves Dexter from Malaysia, who was shunned by his mother when he came out as gay. He’s now happily married to Aaron. If Ellie accepts him too, their lives could be complete. 

We all know that these programmes tend to favour neatly satisfying narratives - ah, if only life were really so straightforward – but The Dog Pound is a quietly profound little show. It has a good heart.

Britain’s Favourite ‘80s Songs: 1989 – Friday, Channel 5, 10pm

And so, this cheap and cheerfully pointless list show comes to an end. As we knew it always must. 

I suppose Channel 5 should be applauded for doggedly carrying on with the nostalgic pop culture rundown format, which even Channel 4 abandoned about ten years ago after trampling it into the ground. 

You don’t need to have seen previous episodes in this series to know what it involves: 1980s pop videos interspersed with talking heads trotting out all the usual clichés. That’s talking heads as in whoever they could round up at the time; David Byrne and Tina Weymouth don’t barge in to declare their love for Jive Bunny. 

A perfectly adequate way to while away your Friday evening. 

LAST WEEK’S TV

Line of Duty – Sunday 25th April, BBC One

For all its blatant flaws, Line of Duty is hard to resist. Those blatant flaws are part of its maddening appeal. 

To take it seriously is to miss the point; it’s entirely composed of red herrings, cliff-hangers, exposition and convoluted call-backs, but it’s all put together with a certain amount of flair. Case in point: introducing James Nesbitt as a surprise guest-star in episode five, then killing him off in episode six. He hadn’t even uttered a line of dialogue. That whole bait and switch routine was amusing. 

Nevertheless, it’s definitely time to end it now. It’s been a fun ride, but this series has shown clear signs of fatigue and Greatest Hits repetition. There’s nowhere left to go.

This Time with Alan Partridge – Friday 30th April, BBC One

Since 2010, Steve Coogan and co-writers Neil and Rob Gibbons have produced some of the very best Alan Partridge material. Mid Morning Matters, those two outstanding audiobooks and last year’s podcast From the Oasthouse were all premium Partridge. This Time is broader and doesn’t quite scale those heights, but it’s still a very funny show. 

Coogan as Partridge – one of the greatest comedy creations of all time - is an absolute joy to behold; an impeccable comic actor inhabiting a three-dimensional character he knows inside out. 

Last week’s obvious set-piece highlight was his time spent in a monastery, but I laughed more at the subtle cracking of his knees during a ludicrous display of ‘entering a conference room’ etiquette. I do love Alan so.