THE WINDERMERE CHILDREN + FARAGE: THE MAN WHO MADE BREXIT

This article was originally published in The Courier on 25th January 2020.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

THE WINDERMERE CHILDREN

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

A series of programmes commemorating 75 years since the end of the Holocaust begins with this haunting factual drama. When peace was declared in 1945, the British government agreed to give refuge to 1000 child survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. 300 of them were brought to a wartime housing estate near Lake Windermere. Utterly traumatised, they struggled to acclimatise to the very ideas of liberty and kindness. The counsellors responsible for rehabilitating them soon became aware of how incredibly difficult that task would be. You can never fully recover from such a harrowing ordeal, but hopefully you can live again. A powerful piece, The Windermere Children features a cast of fine young actors plus seasoned pros such as Romola Garai and Iain Glen.

BELSEN: OUR STORY

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

British citizens who survived Belsen return to the site in this starkly descriptive documentary. Although Belsen wasn’t equipped with gas chambers, it was Hell on Earth. Inmates fending for their lives were surrounded by rotting corpses. The stench of sickness and death was everywhere. It’s also a horrifying symbol of how The Final Solution unravelled towards the end of the war. A landmark report by journalist Richard Dimbleby, who was there when the British army liberated Belsen, informed the world at large about the full extent of Nazi atrocities. The army were so horrified by what they found, they burned the camp to the ground. Documents such as this ensure that it will always exist. It will never – must never – be forgotten.

AUSCHWITZ UNTOLD: IN COLOUR

Wednesday, Channel 4, 10:30pm

Against a backdrop of subtly colourised archive footage, this immersive film focuses on some of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors. The colourisation aspect isn’t a cheap gimmick. It is, like Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, a sensitive and effective way of bringing ghosts back to life. The survivors provide devastating accounts of life in the Nazi’s most notorious extermination camp; It was a nightmare reality, a perpetual onslaught of fear and degradation. One woman sums up the appalling uncertainty they endured when she recalls being led to their weekly shower: they never knew if cold water or gas was going to emerge from the showerheads. If it was water, they knew they’d live for at least another week.

FARAGE: THE MAN WHO MADE BREXIT

Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

When Nigel Farage agreed to let documentary filmmaker Christian Trumble follow him throughout last year’s disastrous Brexit Party campaign, he presumably considered it a canny PR move. Instead he comes across as a sad, thin-skinned, petulant, gravy-stained opportunist. It’s hilarious, a staggering own goal. Trumble confirms that this amphibious bigot is a career politician who claims he’s anything but; a self-proclaimed man of the people who has repeatedly failed to be elected by them; a privileged member of the elite who presents himself as anti-establishment (the film’s central theme is his desperate need to be accepted by Johnson’s government). Farage has served his ruinous purpose, now he’s surplus to requirements. America, you can have him.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 19th January, BBC One

This episode was always going to be an improvement on the howling debacle that preceded it. It couldn’t possibly be any worse. Even so, the Doctor’s encounter with pioneering yet somewhat unsung electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla was a solid episode in its own right. A pleasingly straightforward pseudo historical, it was informative, educational and entertaining. Yes, even that raddled old fascist Lord Reith would’ve grudgingly approved.

TRAVELS IN EUROLAND WITH ED BALLS

Thursday 23rd January, BBC Two

How did this happen? Ed Balls, a risible politician who no one liked, is now an affable media personality. The Portillo Effect. These careerists never truly fail or disappear, they just adapt and reinvent themselves. This series does at least attempt to address the scarifying rise of populist far-right parties in Europe, but it’s really just a jolly travelogue with ideas above its station.

TV Review: LINE OF DUTY + BRITAIN'S NUCLEAR BOMB: THE INSIDE STORY

This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 6 May 2017.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/

LINE OF DUTY: Sunday, BBC One

BRITAIN’S NUCLEAR BOMB: THE INSIDE STORY: Wednesday, BBC Four

Jed Mercurio is a crafty swine. I swear he must write LINE OF DUTY while cackling up his sleeve, like a cruel child who can’t resist incinerating ants with an elaborate rig of magnifying glasses.

The latest series of his incomparably entertaining cop drama climaxed with the blatant suggestion that gruffly lovable police chief Ted Hastings might somehow be involved with the overarching thread of deeply sordid establishment corruption.

Mercurio timed this twist to perfection, as Hastings – played by the excellent Irish actor Adrian Dunbar – has gradually secured his place in the pantheon of much-loved fictional TV sleuths.

A no-nonsense copper in the old-school mould, his paternal decency and dogged determination has transformed him into a kind of wish-fulfilment folk hero. It’s comforting to believe that reliable policemen such as Hastings still exist – if, indeed, they ever did – to protect us from the evil deeds of all-powerful elites.

Hastings curtly undermining a smug suspect by calling them “fella” or gently referring to a young female murder victim as “that wee girl” - he's no more sexist than your affable, well-meaning dad - has become a source of national pride, as well as a fun-for-all-the-family drinking game. What’s not to love about the man?  

Well, this blanket adoration has clearly become too cosy as far as Mercurio is concerned. He’s occasionally dropped hints that Hastings might not be as trustworthy as he seems, but that’s always felt like the kind of red herring misdirection he’s so fond of.

When the dodgy senior police officer – played with a dodgy English accent by Scottish actor Paul Higgins - attempted to frame Hastings in the penultimate episode, we didn’t believe it for a second. He was obviously trying to divert attention from himself. Turns out there may be some truth to his accusation after all.

Despite knowing that two more series have been commissioned, I actually wouldn’t mind if Mercurio left us with the tantalising fear that Hastings was behind everything from the start. That might seem like a cheap trick – it probably is – but it would still work as a sly summation of the show’s cynical, paranoid message. No one can be trusted.

As for the rest of this year’s storyline, it unfolded – somewhat disappointingly – more or less as expected. Roz murdered Tim, but not as part of any grand involvement with Balaclava Man/Men.

The main buzz from Roz’s weary confession came from imagining that her oily lawyer, played by Patrick Baladi, was Neil from The Office failing hilariously after training as a lawyer post-sacking from Wernham-Hogg.

I hope, when they make the final series, the ultimate twist is that Hastings is one of the few trusted ‘70s/’80s establishment figures who wasn’t a wrong ‘un. Now that would be subversive, fella.

Space precludes me from rewarding BRITAIN’S NUCLEAR BOMB: THE INSIDE STORY with the detailed praise it deserves, so I urge you to watch this fascinating documentary on iPlayer.

As the world teeters on the brink once again, it whisked us back to a simpler, gentler time when nuclear Armageddon first became a harrowing reality. Our first atomic bomb was invented, tried and tested by men – now dapper, aged and charming – who still lived in fear of post-war German retaliation.

If they could've foreseen Brexit, we'd all be dead by now.

Despite the literally devastating subject matter, the programme managed to scrape some dark, dry humour from our typically parochial flirtation with the apocalypse. They almost destroyed Dorking during test runs. 

Almost restores your faith in hapless British ingenuity, doesn’t it?