INSIDE MAN | MAKE ME PRIME MINISTER | TASKMASTER

This article was originally published in The Courier on 24th September 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Inside Man – Monday, BBC One, 9pm and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

Written by Steven Moffat of Doctor Who renown, this arresting new thriller is typically dark and audacious. Your charismatic co-stars are Stanley Tucci and David Tennant.

Tucci plays an erudite American death row inmate whose criminology background is frequently called upon by guilty establishment figures and curious journalists. Imagine Hannibal Lecter without the cannibalism. 

Meanwhile, way over yonder in a picture postcard English village, Tennant turns on the charm as an apparently groovy vicar. 

Moffat – an often dazzlingly bright and witty writer who revels in constructing puzzles – has a whole lot of fun subverting tropes he and we are fully aware of. 

The set-up is irresistible, it’s queasy, odd and unpredictable. Hopefully it all pays off.

Bad Chefs – Monday, ITV2, 9pm

Preview copies weren’t available for this new series, but it sounds like a passable way to while away some time. Apologies in advance if that’s not the case. 

It’s a reality show in which – so it says here – some ‘takeaway addicts’ are forced to ditch their apps and do some cooking from scratch. 

Now, I know what you’re (probably) thinking. That sounds potentially patronising. This is an ITV2 show after all. But let’s give it the benefit of the doubt. 

Maybe it will somehow turn out to be an uplifting show in which people, during this horrific cost of living crisis, discover how to cook decent, healthy meals on a reduced budget. Onwards and upwards, eh?

 Celebrity I Literally Just Told You – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

A throwaway nugget of mildly diverting escapism, this Jimmy Carr-fronted gameshow revolves around a simple yet effective premise: the answers to every question are seeded by Carr’s links and whatever occurs during the various rounds (an industrious panel of backroom researchers type up questions as the show unfolds). 

Which means, in that time-honoured TV quiz tradition, you can play along at home. Just pay close attention to everything that’s said. 

The latest series kicks off with a charity fundraising sport-themed episode starring footballers John Barnes and Sue Smith, broadcaster and gymnast Gabby Logan, and football manager Harry Redknapp. 

Carr is in his element here, it’s the slick, vaguely Monkhouse-esque vehicle he’s always coveted.

Make Me Prime Minister – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm

Good grief. This Apprentice-style reality series is so woefully misjudged, it may trigger an actual revolution. 

The premise: twelve contestants, under the watchful gaze of celebrity politicos Alastair Campbell and Sayeeda Warsi, attempt to prove how much better they’d be than the Prime Ministers we’ve endured during the last 40–odd years. 

Two of those PMs – Blair and Cameron – occasionally crop up to issue advice. 

Now, I concede that perhaps I’m a laughably old-fashioned bore with deeply held moral convictions, but politics isn’t supposed to be entertaining. It’s not a game, the decisions these people make have a devastating impact on millions of lives. 

I urge you to watch it, though. You’ll be astonished and angered. It’s jaw-dropping.

Taskmaster – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Glory be! Greg Davies and Alex Lowe have returned for another series of this absolutely charming load of old nonsense. 

You presumably know the score by now: a bunch of comedians have to complete a series of maddening, pointless tasks, most of which require a bit of ingenuity, cheating and chutzpah. 

Our contestants this time around are Dara Ó Briain, Fern Brady, John Kearns, Munya Chawawa and Sarah Millican. The opening round involves a fiendish display of hip-touching, hand-finding and milk-lifting. 

Taskmaster works for one fundamental reason: it seeks only to entertain. It has no truck with cruelty or cynicism. Davies is an ostensibly acerbic MC, but his insults are always delivered with a twinkle.