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.