BEING MUM WITH MND + THE TERROR + THE OTHER ONE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 30th April 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Being Mum with MND – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm

Lucy Lintott was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) at the age of 19. Doctors told her she would never be able to conceive. Lucy and her fiancé, Tommy, are now the proud parents of two young children. 

She is believed to be one of the few people with MND to have given birth twice. It’s also highly likely that she might be the youngest person in Scotland to have been diagnosed with MND. 

This touching documentary allows Lucy and her family to reflect upon their situation. She talks candidly about living with a degenerative condition, but she’s almost always upbeat. That’s her inherent nature. It’s also a beautiful love story. Lucy and Tommy are good, kind, inspiring people.

DI Ray – Monday to Thursday, STV, 9pm

This is not your standard ITV cop drama in the sense that it has an interesting, socially conscious point of view. It hits all the necessary beats of a thriller while exploring an important issue: the systemic racism, whether casual or overt, that exists within society.

DI Ray is a highly capable Asian-British police officer who is dismayed to learn that her recent promotion to the homicide department was based on her supposed suitability for “Culturally Specific Homicides”. It’s a racially insensitive box-ticking exercise. 

While investigating two Asian brothers accused of murder, she’s forced to confront the stark realities of working inside an institution that’s prone to making harmful assumptions based on ill-informed cultural stereotypes.

Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

During the production of this documentary, Channel 4 carried out a survey of premenopausal and menopausal women. Their findings were shocking. Natural symptoms such as vague memory loss are being used against women in the workplace. People have lost their jobs as a result of losing their hormones. 

Davina McCall wants to find out if anything can be done to challenge this injustice. She also investigates some of the latest advances in hormone therapy, while meeting with experts who have studied the complex neurological effects of the menopause. 

I haven’t seen this programme, dear reader, it wasn’t available for preview; I’m basing my recommendation on McCall’s previous and entirely responsible documentaries about the memopause.

Married to a Psychopath – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

Malcolm Webster is one of the most notorious psychopaths of recent times. He murdered his first wife, Claire, in 1994. He attempted to murder his second wife, Felicity, in 1997. He also had a series of bigamous relationships with women who he psychologically abused for his own financial ends. 

Webster, who was finally imprisoned in 2011, is a hideously dangerous man. This two-part documentary is primarily told from the perspective of one Charles Henry, a rural Scottish detective with time on his hands who proved instrumental in the case against Webster. Henry’s efforts were tireless. Admirable. 

I recommend watching this in conjunction with The Widower, an above-par 2014 TV drama starring Reece Shearsmith as Webster. 

The Terror – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

You may recall that the first series of producer Ridley Scott’s supernatural anthology revolved around the real-life mystery of a lost Arctic expedition in the mid-19^th century: historical fact combined with speculative fiction. Series two follows suit. 

It’s set in California during World War Two, when thousands of Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in concentration camps. They were law-abiding citizens who posed no threat to anyone. Their internment was a heinous human rights violation entirely borne of racial prejudice. 

The cast includes George Takei, who resided in one of those camps when he was a child. He also serves as a series consultant to ensure accuracy. Episode one is intriguing, eerie and, needless to say, sensitively handled.

The Other One – Friday, BBC One, 9:30pm

Series two of Holly Walsh’s sitcom continues the eventful story of two adult sisters, Cathy and Cat, who only found out about each other’s existence following the death of their father. 

They’ve become quite close. They’ve also just discovered that they might have a half-brother. Cathy snogged him a few hours before anyone concerned was aware of their kinship. Hardly ideal. 

We also catch up on the developing relationship between their mismatched mothers. This is a sharp, dry-witted yet ultimately rather warm farce populated by likeable, well-drawn characters. It revels in silliness and nice little details. A great cast too: it’s a proven fact that you can’t go wrong with Siobhan Finneran and Rebecca Front.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Peacock – Monday 23rd April, BBC Three

I was quite impressed by episode one of this new sitcom. Allan ‘Seapa’ Mustafa, the co-creator of People Just Do Nothing, stars as a personal fitness trainer in his mid-thirties. 

Peacock is stuck in a rut. Single, lonely and riddled with anxieties, he’s fallen for a ridiculous notion of What It Means To Be a Man; but he’s clearly far too sensitive to embody that futile Alpha Male fantasy. 

The writers have a solid handle on their hapless protagonist. He’s an innocent, unworldly fool who means no harm, but his posturing need to be seen as something he’s not gets him into trouble. And from thence the humour and pathos arises. There’s a lot of promise here.

Searching for Michael Jackson’s Zoo with Ross Kemp – Wednesday 25th April, STV

Yep, I know. That title sounds like one of Alan Partridge’s ridiculous programme pitches. But Kemp’s documentary actually exposed some appalling animal cruelty. 

Michael Jackson’s Neverland zoo was always controversial. Even during his lifetime, investigations revealed that his ‘pets’ were treated unethically. Kemp’s M.O: whatever happened to the animals who survived? A dispiriting search ensued. 

Kemp is an inherently silly yet well-meaning man, but even in its clumsy tabloid TV way, the programme did tacitly confront the (pun half-intended) elephant in the room: Jackson’s love of animals was part and parcel of a calculatedly innocent Peter Pan image. You can join the dots from there.