A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 23rd April 2022.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
Imagine… Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs – Monday, BBC One, 11:40pm
The latest episode of this long-running arts strand focuses on an eccentric National Treasure ™. In the tolerable company of Alan Yentob, Miriam Margolyes reflects upon her fascinating life and career.
The opening scene is quite telling. Margolyes has an effusive review framed in her hallway. She rolls her eyes and shrugs while pointing out that it’s from the Daily Mail. The irony isn’t lost on her. She’s gay, left-wing and progressive. Which makes it all the more remarkable that she’s so warmly embraced by just about everybody. Such is the force of her charmingly smutty, witty personality.
Eloquent and self-deprecating, Margolyes is a good egg. The programme also reminds us of her impressive acting range.
Long Lost Family Special: Shipped to Australia – Monday, STV, 9pm
This is terribly sad and angering. After World War Two and right up until the early 1970s, thousands of British children were shipped off to Australia with the promise of a better life. Many of them ended up in horrific institutions mired in physical and sexual abuse. Long Lost Family mainstays Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall highlight a scandal that should be common knowledge.
The episode revolves around a lovely man who lost all contact with his brothers when he was sent to Tasmania. For decades his British relatives assumed that he was living the dream. He’d forgotten all about them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When he finally reunites with his family in England, well, you can imagine.
Inside No. 9 – Wednesday, BBC Two, 10pm
Our latest setting is a Welsh village primary school. A newly hired teacher (Reece Shearsmith) has big shoes to fill, as the pupils and staff (Steve Pemberton plays the headmaster) are still in thrall to his much-loved predecessor. But he tries his best to inspire the kids with his heartfelt lessons about environmental issues.
This being Inside No. 9, things take a cruel and unusual turn. Inappropriate comments and vegetable-based misunderstandings ensue (trust me, that makes sense in context).
It isn’t one of the strongest episodes, but the denouement, while not entirely surprising, is quite good fun. And I will never tire of Pemberton and Shearsmith’s unabashed fondness for Carry On style humour. They have no shame.
Luxury Food for Less – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
Plump up a cushion and get out your notebooks as lifestyle experts – nice work if you can get it – Michelle Ackerley and Sophie Morgan explain to we mere mortals how it’s apparently quite possible to stock your larder with great food while on a budget. Yep, it’s one of those programmes.
They meet with various supermarket insiders and the culinary boffins responsible for some of Britain’s most popular healthy ready meals.
I haven’t seen the show, but it sounds well-meaning. I’m recommending it only because I can practically guarantee that it will contain at least one or two nuggets of useful information. Which, if you’re anything like me, you’ll immediately forget while devouring a packet of crisps.
Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me – Thursday, STV, 9pm
The popular television personality Julia Bradbury was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. During this candid, tender and sensitive programme, she talks us through her arduous emotional and physical ordeal. We also spend time with her sister and their octogenarian mother.
Bradbury doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her. She’s fully aware that her story is of no more importance than anyone else’s. She’s also aware that her celebrity status can be exploited as a force for good: one hopes that other breast cancer patients will gain some succour from her honest and open account.
There is anguish. There is hope. Hats off to all concerned for this valuable and admirably unsentimental essay.
Unreported World – Friday, Channel 4, 7:30pm
Channel 4’s stalwart investigative journalism series visits St Louis this week. It’s a city in the harrowing grip of a drug addiction crisis. Fentanyl is a powerful opioid that, according to research, has claimed more African American lives in recent years than Covid.
When Krishnan Guru-Murthy meets with local residents, he discovers that many of those addicted to Fentanyl exist, barely, within the ignored margins of society. Some of them are homeless. Some of them are sex workers. He also interviews a local pastor who explains how drug use has become a source of self-medication for these tragically neglected people.
Same as it ever was, but it’s a vitally important point that’s always worth repeating.
Here We Go – Friday, BBC One, 8:30pm
Here’s a new pre-watershed family sitcom for which I can only provide some faint yet vaguely hopeful praise. It’s amusing, likeable, and I can’t fault its cast of excellent comic actors.
Jim Howick (Horrible Histories; Ghosts) plays the unemployed patriarch of an extended middle-class family. He’s a textbook harmless ‘dad joke’ buffoon. His wife is played by Katherine Parkinson. Alison Steadman and Tom Basden (who also wrote the series) crop up as his in-laws.
The whole thing is filmed from the perspective of the teenage son, who’s working on a documentary for his Media Studies course.
Your obvious reference points are Peep Show and Outnumbered. I’ll reserve judgement on this one, but it does show some promise.
LAST WEEK’S TV
Doctor Who – Sunday 17th April, BBC One
Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate adventure - the 13th Doctor will regenerate in one final special later this year – reintroduced the Sea Devils, a classic series foe who last appeared on screen in 1984. They barely made an impression.
Set in early 19th century China, this slapdash yarn also involved a real-life historical figure, the pirate Madame Ching.
A potentially great Doctor Who supporting character, but inevitably that potential was squandered by the entirely incompetent outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall in an episode flooded with all the frustrating hallmarks of his era: perfunctory plotting, characterisation and dialogue. Does he ever bother with a second draft?
Despite the shoddy writing and direction, it did at least boast some arresting visuals; the TARDIS resting on the seabed provided a rare moment of magic in an era conspicuously bereft of the stuff. Mild credit where it’s due.
As always, Whittaker transcended Chibnall’s shortcomings with her natural charm and energy. But she deserved so much better. Such a waste.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe – Sunday 17th April to Wednesday 20th April, STV
Twenty years ago, John Darwin from Hartlepool faked his own death in order to claim his life insurance. He then proceeded to live next door to his wife, Anne, while keeping a supposedly low profile. In 2007, the Darwins were exposed, charged and imprisoned.
We’re all familiar with the surface details of this bizarre saga, but writer Chris Lang’s engrossing dramatization dug into the complex emotional core.
Darwin came across as an irresponsible narcissist, a truly awful, selfish bully who gaslit Anne (the story was primarily told from her guilt-ridden, sympathetic perspective) while sparing no thought for the feelings of his children: they genuinely thought their dad was dead. A harrowing ordeal for Anne and those boys. They were John Darwin’s victims.
Lang and his cast – outstandingly led by Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan – got the nuanced tragicomic tone just right.
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