RULES OF THE GAME + THE TOURIST + FOUR LIVES

This article was originally published in The Courier on 8th January 2022. 

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Rules of the Game  – Tuesday and Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm

Maxine Peake stars in this timely new thriller about a workplace environment dominated by awful, sleazy alpha males. 

She plays Sam, the manager of a successful family-run business. Sam initially comes across as cynical and assured, but it gradually transpires that she’s just as vulnerable as every other female employee. 

An intimidating culture of secrecy has formed around this toxic fiefdom, but that begins to unravel when an awkwardly sincere yet highly capable HR director starts asking too many difficult questions. 

Writer Ruth Fowler lasers in on the ways in which powerful men can exploit their position to abuse women, especially when they think they’ll never be held to account. The results are necessarily uncomfortable. 

Art on the BBC – Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

The latest episode of this delve into the BBC archives focuses on the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh. 

The de facto definition of the supremely gifted yet tortured artist, Van Gogh is an enduring source of fascination, hence why he’s inspired numerous BBC documentaries and dramas over the years. Art historian Kate Bryan highlights some of the more notable examples. 

It’s an effective way of separating fact from fiction – has any artist been mythologised and misrepresented more than poor old Vincent? - while also serving as a celebration of British television and the way in which it’s helped to democratise so-called high culture. 

Your archival guides include Sister Wendy Beckett, David Hockney and Simon Schama. 

Couples Therapy – Monday, BBC Two, 10pm

At first glance, this new series from US network Showtime feels like a mockumentary. But no, apparently it’s real. 

It follows clinical psychologist/psychoanalyst Dr Orna Guralnik as she deals with various New York-based couples in need of relationship counselling. 

They’re disconcertingly earnest in that uniquely American way; everyone looks and sounds like an actor. We’ve finally reached a stage in human evolution where some people are so hopelessly attuned to the rhythms and cadences of scripted dialogue, they can no longer communicate in a convincingly spontaneous manner. 

But once you get used to that disconcerting novelty, all you’re left with is a bunch of navel-gazers yammering on about their personal problems. It’s simultaneously boring and bizarre.

Party Island: Summer in Zante – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

There was once a time, not so long ago, when the entire point of shows such as this was to sneer at the booze-addled youth of Britain as they make fools of themselves abroad. 

But this one takes a more sympathetic view; I’d even go so far as saying that it recognises the gnawing pathos of carefree kids labouring under the illusion that they’ll be friends forever. 

Set on the Greek island of Zante, it follows a gang of inoffensively bantering lads and some similarly bantz-tastic influencer girls hawking deluxe burgers on Instagram. 

They’re just a bunch of nice-enough kids having fun before the crushing weight of adulthood destroys their hopes and dreams forever. Good luck to ‘em.

The Adventure Show – Thursday, BBC Scotland, 8pm

This week, intrepid journalist and broadcaster Amy Irons scales a sheer sea cliff on the slippery southern edge of the Orkney mainland. As waves crash dramatically below her, she remains resolute in her daunting endeavour. 

Irons also makes the encouraging point that, even if adrenalized adventuring isn’t for you (or me), there are a multitude of delights to savour in Orkney. It’s a rugged wonderland full of lighthouses, caves, puffins, seals, affordable hostels, picturesque bicycle routes and glorious sunsets. 

We also meet a marine scientist devoted to the welfare of stranded dolphins. Now in its seventeenth series, The Adventure Show is a stalwart source of rural Scottish comfort. Maybe it really is a wonderful world after all. Happy 2022, everyone.

Iain Robertson Rambles – Thursday, BBC Scotland, 8:30pm

In which the affable River City actor continues his epic yomp along the Southern Upland Way.

 A reminder that you’re never more than three feet away from a celebrity filming a scenic walk, this immersive series cleaves to a winningly familiar formula: armed with a 360-degree camera, our tireless rambler provides an informal and ruminative assessment of their surroundings while exploring a little bit of local history. 

Robertson is a natural guide, his passion for the healing powers of rambling is palpable. “Just keep trudging on,” he advises metaphorically, “one foot in front of the other, and the next thing you know that thing that was miles and miles away on the horizon, all of a sudden it’s within your grasp.”

Well, let's hope so. 

Andy Warhol’s America – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

The inherent violence and chaos of American culture explodes to the forefront in chapter two of this vivid essay. 

Warhol presented himself in public as a blank canvas, but it’s clear from his work that he was engaged with the turbulent world around him: proof that irony and compassion aren’t mutually exclusive. 

Nevertheless, he wasn’t exactly a people person. This episode confirms what I’ve always felt: being part of Warhol’s Factory clique must’ve been pretty damn miserable. Living your life behind an affected facade of glib amphetamine cool isn’t healthy. No wonder there were so many casualties. 

Like all Warhol documentaries, this one is populated by silly people saying silly things. We’d feel short-changed if it didn’t.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Tourist – New Year’s Day and Sunday 2nd January, BBC One

Blatantly inspired by Hitchcock, Fargo and Steven Spielberg’s Duel, this entertaining pulp comedy thriller stars Jamie Dornan as an Irish tourist driving solo through the Australian Outback. 

When a menacing tanker truck forces him to crash, he wakes up in hospital with no memory of who he is. All he knows is that someone is trying to kill him. But why? 

Written by the sometimes needlessly prolific Harry and Jack Williams of The Missing and Baptiste renown, The Tourist milks its simple premise with a palpable buzz of enjoyably freewheeling self-indulgence.

Four Lives – Monday 3rd January to Wednesday 5th January, BBC One 

In 2014 and 2015, serial killer Stephen Port murdered four young gay men whom he met via dating and hook-up apps. This respectful and deeply angering dramatisation focused on the victims and their loved ones. 

Written and produced by seasoned true-crime artisans Jeff Pope and Neil McKay, Four Lives was essentially a sensitive study of grief; a theme embodied by the excellent Sheridan Smith as the mother of Anthony Walgate, one of Port’s victims. 

But it was also an absolutely damning indictment of the incompetent police investigation, which was depressingly ill-informed by crass and institutionaly prejudiced attitudes about gay people. This entire endeavour was driven by compassion and despair.

Port was played by Stephen Merchant in his first dramatic role. It was a surprisingly effective performance; an understated and unsettling distillation of the banality of evil.

A truly important piece of television. I urge you to watch it.