This article was originally published in The Courier on 3rd July 2021.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
Kathy Burke: Money Talks – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm
Like all good people, Kathy Burke is concerned about economic inequality in Britain. In this ruminative and insightful two-part series, the preternaturally likeable actor – who grew up poor - examines one of the most pressing issues of our time.
She meets people with money, and those without. Episode one focuses on the rich. Her interviewees include a self-aware aristocrat, a National Lottery winner, a self-made millionaire and a gang of TikTok influencers who live in communal luxury (they’re not as objectionable as I thought they’d be).
Burke is wise, frank and non-judgemental; her sole note of scorn is reserved for our incumbent government, who have no idea what it’s like to be poor.
Gold Rush: Our Race to Olympic Glory – Monday, BBC One, 9pm
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games in London are officially The Best Thing That Ever Happened in Britain. Even a curmudgeon such as myself became swept up in the triumph of it all. However, as this drama-packed series reminds us, there was once a time, not so long ago, when the British Olympic team were regarded as perennial disappointments.
It tells the story of how they gradually evolved from “full-time amateurs” into world-class competitors. In 1996, to avoid further embarrassment, PM John Major decided to support promising young athletes with National Lottery funding. His successor, Tony Blair, continued that initiative.
Episode one features talking head contributions from Blair, Major, Linford Christie, Chris Hoy and Kelly Holmes.
High: Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule – Monday and Thursday, BBC One, 10:35pm
At the age of 20, Michaella McCollum from Northern Ireland was arrested at an airport in Peru when her luggage was found to contain 11kg of smuggled cocaine. She received a six-year prison sentence.
In this kinetic series, McCollum tells her side of the story. Buzzing with dramatic reconstructions, it’s a cautionary tale that doesn’t wag its finger too sternly in McCollum’s direction. She comes across as naïve and foolish, an easily manipulated person whose non-stop Ibiza party lifestyle made her lose touch with reality. “Nothing at that time was serious at all,” she says.
If we are to take her at face value, then McCollum’s ordeal illustrates that one should – shall we say – always err on the side of caution when fraternising with drug dealers.
Storyville: Raising a School Shooter – Wednesday, BBC Four, 10pm
A stark opening caption lays out the facts: “As of 1970, there have been 1,677 reported shootings in schools across the U.S… these have resulted in 598 deaths and 1,626 injuries.”
This meditative and commendably sensitive documentary focuses on the parents of school shooters. Chief among them is Sue Klebold, whose late son committed the Columbine High School massacre alongside a fellow pupil. Eloquent and open-hearted, Klebold is still coming to terms with what her son did. His crime made her question everything about herself as a parent.
Without a shred of self-pity – Klebold’s sympathy for the victims and their families is paramount – she talks movingly about her guilt, grief, and the gradual process of piecing her life back together.
The Great Food Guys – Thursday, BBC Scotland, 8:30pm
From their countryside kitchen in Aberdeenshire, Nick Nairn and Dougie Vipond return for another series of culinary tips.
This week, our be-aproned hosts welcome special guest Rory Bremner, while supping responsibly from bottles of stout and cooking up an Asian daube of beef. For the sake of vegans and vegetarians, they issue a gentle warning at the start of the episode: a voracious meat feast is about to commence.
Meanwhile, they chat to Bremner about his life and career. Impressions abound, of course. His tour around various Scottish dialects includes cameos from Billy Connolly, Neil Oliver and Malcolm Rifkind. “It’s the musicality,” he explains. “Every voice has got a song. It’s just kind of having the ear for that.”
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm
Preview copies of this new series weren’t available, but I’m recommending it because Ramsay is a weirdly fascinating TV presence. Despite his many years of experience in front of the camera, he still comes across as perpetually nervous, frantic and uncomfortable.
Ramsay presents television with the panicked demeanour of a man trying to blow out a match in a cave full of dynamite. A most unusual fellow.
This time, according to the press blurb, he’s travelling to some of the world’s most remote locations in search of culinary inspiration. His quest begins in Peru, where he straddles a motorbike en route to the Sacred Valley of the Incas. High-altitude cooking ensues.
One worries for the man’s blood pressure.
Wonderful Wales with Michael Ball – Friday, Channel 5, 8pm
This cosy travelogue is all about Ball rediscovering his Welsh heritage. Yes, folks, he’s on a literal and spiritual journey.
In episode one he has afternoon tea with his dear old auntie, celebrates the once thriving Welsh coalmining industry, and goes digging for cockles. It’s all very light-hearted and corny – that’s the Ball way; his narration is entirely composed of clichés – hence why I braced myself during the sudden swerve into a segment covering the Aberfan tragedy.
I’m relieved to report that it’s handled sensitively. Ball, who is
showbiz through and through, is clearly ill-equipped to hold forth on such a
serious subject, so thankfully he gently recedes into the background during his
interview with a survivor.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero – Sunday 27th June, BBC Four
Since the mid-1980s, Joe Rush and the Mutoid Waste Company have been building sculptures out of scrap metal and junk. A politicised collective of underground artists, they live life on their own terms. This inspiring documentary paid tribute to their free punk-infused spirit.
The MWC have always filmed themselves, so director Letmiya Sztalyrd was able to tell their story in vivid detail.
In Thatcher’s Britain they were regarded as pariahs, as evinced by some disturbing footage of them being brutally harassed by the police. In 2012 they were invited to take part in the Paralympics closing ceremony. Which isn’t to suggest that modern Britain is a pristine oasis of tolerance, but we have at least moved on. A bit.
Extraordinary Twins – Wednesday 30th June and Thursday 1st July, STV
I only had preview access to the first episode of this tender two-part documentary about conjoined twins from all around the world, but what I saw was fascinating.
Candid and compassionate, it gave voice to various twins alongside parents fearful for the future of their children. They were all faced with a terrible dilemma epitomised by the recurring thread of an operation on seventeen-month-old craniopagus twins; separating them could result in brain damage or death.
Episode one followed specialist surgeons from Great Ormond
Street Hospital as they undertook that risky and complex procedure. A moving
yet unsentimental programme, Extraordinary
Twins didn’t treat disabled people as ‘others’. There was no condescension,
just some honest reporting.
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