A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 2nd October 2021.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
This fascinating series traces the epochal rise and fall of New Labour, a nominally successful project in which the Labour Party made itself electable by abandoning its socialist principles.
The timing isn’t accidental: Labour, post-Corbyn, are currently struggling to repeat that trick. The key difference between then and now, as the programme makes clear, is that Tony Blair once presented himself as a plausible and vaguely charismatic leader.
Episode one illustrates how Labour managed to overhaul its image. Blair comes across as an ambitious, ingratiating salesman. Brown, a serious political thinker, emerges as the better man.
They both provide telling contributions, as do Mandelson and Campbell. Once Johnson’s reign is over, I hope the team behind this project – who tackled Thatcher’s legacy a few years ago – are able to make a similar series about him.
Scotland’s Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 8pm
Ben Fogle, with his face like a bemused Easter Island statue, is an affable and mostly harmless buffoon. He presumably means well, as you’ll see in this slightly peculiar Hebridean travelogue/spiritual quest.
His journey begins in the Inner Hebrides, where he explores its enduring connection with the peaceful tenets of Christianity. These islands have, for aeons, been a magnet for pilgrims, hippies, artists, musicians and poets: people who just want to get away from the noise of life on the mainland.
One of our host’s interviewees is a transgender woman who hasn’t faced any prejudice at all within her remote island community. If Fogle’s goal was to present the Hebrides as some sort of utopia, then he’s succeeded.
Dementia & Us – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
The symptoms of dementia cannot be strictly diagnosed. It affects people in a complex variety of ways. Filmed over two years, this revealing two-part series follows four people with dementia as they and their loved ones adjust to life with this cruel, debilitating disease.
The tone at first is somewhat optimistic: people always find a way to thrive with love and laughter. How else are we supposed to get through this unjust ordeal? If you’re diagnosed with dementia, that doesn’t mean your life is over. Far from it. But there is no happy ending.
Dementia & Us is an honest, sensitive, sad, unflinching and important piece of television. It strikes a nerve. It matters.
Murder Island – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:30pm
Crime writer Ian Rankin is the brains behind this new genre-bending reality series, in which eight members of the public investigate a specially-written murder mystery. Preview copies weren’t available at the time of writing, but the premise is intriguing.
Our amateur sleuths pitch up on a craggy island in the hope of solving that week’s case and winning a £50,000 reward. They’ll receive expert guidance from (presumably fictional) police officers while encountering various suspects – all of whom appear to be harbouring dark secrets. Episode one apparently involves a fatal land dispute.
It sounds, in essence, like a more extravagant version of that old Cluedo TV adaptation from the 1980s, so it could be lots of fun.
Our Lives: Boots & Beards – Wednesday, BBC One, 7:30pm
A Scots-Asian hillwalking group, Boots & Beards is a healthy, heartening community endeavour. This delightful documentary meets its Glasgow-based founders, cousins Naveed and Kashif, who devised the concept five years ago as a way of bringing friends and family members together. It blossomed from there.
We follow the group – which includes men, women and children - as they return to Scotland’s great outdoors after a year in lockdown. They’re also preparing for their one hundredth walk.
As with all Our
Lives documentaries, this is a sweet celebration of good, inspiring,
‘ordinary’ people. Treat yourselves to a pick-me-up marathon on iPlayer. When
viewed from a certain angle, the world’s not so bad after all.
Iceland with Alexander Armstrong – Wednesday, Channel 5, 9pm
According to ‘Xander’ himself, the only thing he knew about Iceland before making this series is that it’s where Bjork comes from. Oh, and there are puffins. So you do get the impression that he’s actually learning something about that beautiful, rugged isle.
To his credit, he seems genuinely smitten with the geography, people and culture of Iceland. In episode one he circles an active volcano via helicopter, meets a nice woman who believes in elves, hangs out with Iceland’s ‘scary’ 2019 Eurovision entrants, visits a male genitalia museum and marvels at an actual massive organ (oh, please yourselves etc.).
Iceland comes
across as an impeccably groovy and eccentric place. They’re way ahead
over there.
Savile: Portrait of a Predator – Thursday, STV, 9pm
How did Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, manage to commit his crimes without punishment? This damning report reveals all. Well, sort of.
Savile was a calculating opportunist who inveigled his way into environments – hospitals, nightclubs, television studios – where he could prey upon vulnerable young people.
He formed a shield of protection around himself via supposedly altruistic charity work and friendships with powerful establishment figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles (neither of whom, the lawyered-up programme hastily points out, were aware of his heinous ulterior motives).
Those with suspicions either turned a blind eye or felt powerless to challenge him. A sickening saga, it features testimonies from victims, witnesses and a former Yewtree detective. One hopes that programmes such as this will encourage people to listen to victims of abuse.
LAST WEEK’S TV
Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain – Tuesday 28th September, Channel 4
The final episode of this surprisingly thoughtful and touching series followed the individual Spice Girls in the wake of their split. They weren’t prepared for life in the spotlight on their own; they’d always had each other for protection.
The grubby tabloid media had a field day with them. The sheer amount of sexism and misogyny they were subjected to was appalling. Mel B also experienced blatant racism.
This wasn’t ‘just’ the story of a successful pop group, it was a frank critique of the double standards that women are forced to endure in a male-dominated world. And via testimonies from their fans, it proved that the Spice Girls actually meant something. The power of pop is a beautiful thing.
The Cleaner – Friday 1st October, BBC One
Episode four of this enjoyable farce took place in a stately home, where crime scene cleaner Wicky (writer/star Greg Davies) encountered a rude, patronising aristocrat played by the great Stephanie Cole.
She told the police that a burglar had fallen down the stairs – hence the bloody mess – but it eventually transpired that she’d beaten him to death with a golf club. Her failed attempt to buy Wicky’s silence confirmed that, for all his verbal blundering, he’s a fundamentally decent man who’s good at his job.
This instalment, which hung together neatly, also featured a fantastic cameo from Donald Sumpter – who’s been an old man since birth – as a mad, bellicose bigot. Good, clean, grisly fun.
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