What to Watch in 2023: NOLLY | SUCCESSION | DOCTOR WHO and more...

This article was originally published in The Courier on 7th January 2023. 

Nolly – ITVX, February

Written by the redoubtable Russell T. Davies, this factual drama covers a particularly tumultuous period in the life of soap doyen Noele Gordon (Helena Bonham Carter). 

Nolly, as she was affectionately known to her friends, became a TV superstar thanks to her show-stealing turn as Meg Richardson in Crossroads. In 1981, while still riding high after 17 years at the top, Gordon was unceremoniously sacked without any warning or explanation. She was utterly devastated. 

Gordon was a fabulous showbiz trouper of the old school, they really don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Her story encapsulates the fickle, cutthroat vagaries of fame. 

The cast also includes Mark Gatiss as Gordon’s dear showbiz chum, Larry Grayson. What’s not to love?

Without Sin – ITVX, available now

ITV’s rebranded streaming service, ITVX, hasn’t scrimped on Major New Drama output since it launched last month. 

The obvious highlights so far are David Tennant in Litvinenko, plus Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce in A Spy Among Friends, both of which can be watched for free in their entirety. The same goes for Without Sin, which ‘dropped’ just after Christmas. 

A stark psychological thriller, it stars Vicky McClure as the grieving mother of a murdered teenager. In an attempt to rebuild her shattered life, she decides to visit her daughter’s killer in prison. 

The killer is played by Johnny Harris, an actor with whom McClure shared several harrowing scenes in the TV spin-off from This Is England.

Welcome to Chippendales – Disney+, January

A canny entrepreneur, Somen "Steve" Banerjee dreamed up that male striptease phenomenon the Chippendales in 1979. He was later found guilty of being an accessory to murder. 

This drama, which received mostly positive reviews when it premiered in America recently, delves into his murky saga. If you’re not familiar with the details, then I suggest you go in blind. Do not Google Banerjee, as Welcome to Chippendales thrives upon its multitudinous truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twists. 

I can’t vouch for the whole series as I’ve only seen two episodes, but if you’re anything like me – a sucker for weird stories about extreme showbiz hubris, crime and corruption - then I daresay you’ll be intrigued from the get-go. 

Masters of the Air – Apple TV+, early 2023

The final part of a trilogy that began with Band of Brothers followed by The Pacific, this Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries focuses on the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army during World War II. 

The hallmarks of its esteemed predecessors were historical accuracy, sympathetic portrayals of the key characters, and an unflinching approach to the horrors of war. There’s no reason to suspect that Masters of the Air won’t continue in that tradition. 

As always, it boasts a large ensemble cast. Watch out for Austin Butler, who recently shone with his performance as Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s magisterial biopic, and our next TARDIS coordinator, Ncuti Gatwa (more of whom below).

The Idol – Sky Atlantic, early 2023

A drama devised by the musician and actor Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, this sounds – in theory at least – like a frank deconstruction of the modern pop biz. 

Lily-Rose Depp stars as an aspiring pop idol. The sudden pressures placed upon her trigger a nervous breakdown. Enter a self-help guru/cult leader played by Tesfaye, who promises to put her career back on track. What could possibly go wrong? 

That synopsis suggests a scathing showbiz satire on the way vulnerable young people are exploited by opportunistic charlatans, so let’s hope it makes its point with acute anger and sensitivity. 

The Idol, sadly, marks the final screen appearance of Anne Heche, who left us long before her time was due.

Succession – Sky Atlantic, Spring

Glory be, it’s back. One of the most outstanding TV dramas of recent years, HBO’s Succession joins the likes of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Mad Men in that rarefied category of ‘American Dramas That Really Are As Good As Everyone Says They Are’. 

If you haven’t seen this scabrous show before, the basic gist is this: Brian Cox plays the monstrous multimillionaire patriarch of a deeply dysfunctional family. They’re all awful yet utterly compelling and pathetically comical. 

Created by Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show and The Thick of It renown, it’s an aghast meditation on the terrifyingly all-powerful likes of Murdoch, Trump and Musk. 

Newcomers are advised to gorge on every episode before season four begins.

Doctor Who – BBC One, Autumn

We’ll have to wait a while until we get to see new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in action, but the anticipation is palpable. 

The next series heralds the return of writer/producer Russell T. Davies – that man again - who revived Doctor Who so successfully back in 2005. 

It’s been a lean few years for the show, its popularity declined under the hapless stewardship of previous head writer Chris Chibnall, but if anyone can reverse this beleaguered institution’s fortunes, it’s RTD. 

The comeback kicks off with three specials starring the beloved pairing of former Doctor David Tennant and his companion Catherine Tate. 

Gatwa – a striking actor who oozes charisma – will take over at Christmas, although a recent teaser trailer suggests we’ll see him before then. Optimism reigns supreme.

SHERWOOD + THE REAL DERRY: JAMIE-LEE O'DONNELL + THE OUTLAWS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 11th June 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Sherwood – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

This compelling six-part drama is a work of fiction inspired by two murders which took place in the Nottinghamshire mining village where its author, James Graham, grew up. 

It’s an intelligent, thoughtful piece, a carefully constructed whodunit fuelled by the long-lasting effects of Thatcherism and the miner’s strike on working-class communities. 

The outstanding cast includes David Morrissey as a senior police officer who is determined to win back the public’s trust, Alun Armstrong and Lesley Manville as happily married, doting grandparents, and Joanne Froggatt as a local Tory councillor who isn’t exactly in tune with the political outlook of her constituents. The series begins on her wedding day. 

You may find yourselves hooked from the get-go.

Tiny Lives – Monday, BBC One, 8:30pm

A tender document ensconced within the University Hospital Wishaw’s neonatal unit, Tiny Lives returns for more affecting stories about prematurely born babies. 

Alfie is just six hours old. His mum had an emergency caesarean after Alfie showed signs of distress in the womb. He’s in critical condition, a ventilator is keeping him alive. The hospital’s dedicated team are on constant standby, he’s in good hands. 

Alfie was born at the height of the pandemic, when the NHS were stretched to their absolute limits. The series pays tribute to their tireless efforts; decent people doing everything in their power to save lives on a daily basis. One particular nurse devotes her entire 12-hour shift to an infant placed in isolation.

The Savoy – Wednesday, STV, 9pm

The latest series of this observational hoopla reconvenes with London’s luxurious Savoy Hotel as it opens its doors post-pandemic. 

The owners are in dire straits, they have to recoup millions of pounds of lost revenue. So thank God for Gordon Ramsay, who barges in with ambitious plans for his very first seafood restaurant. 

Say what you like about Ramsay by all means, but that will at least create new job opportunities for some deserving chefs. Meanwhile, we’re treated to some heavy-hitter celebrity dining cameos from Christopher Biggins and Shirley Ballas. 

The whole thing is an unquestioning celebration of wealth. This preview was typed through gritted teeth, which is quite a physical feat if nothing else.

The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O’Donnell – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

Timed to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, this documentary follows the Derry Girls actor as she reflects upon life growing up during the last few years of The Troubles. 

O'Donnell is a devoted Derry girl who wants to find out more about the complex history of her community. 

I haven’t seen this programme, preview copies weren’t available, but I reckon I can probably vouch for it in good faith. O’Donnell speaks to young people growing up in Derry today, kids who by and large have no truck with sectarian prejudices. 

According to the press blurb, it will provide viewers with some hope for the future of Northern Ireland.  O’Donnell is a smart person, she’ll do this justice.

Devon and Cornwall – Friday, Channel 4, 8pm

John Nettles’ bombastic narration during this otherwise genteel series is one of the funniest things on television. It’s a delicious chunk of pure uncut ham. Wonderful. This week, Nettles wraps his rich rococo tones around another set of everyday Devon and Cornwall stories. 

We meet woodsman John and his daughter Betsy as they attempt to revive and maintain a lost tradition – sculpting stave baskets from ash. Meanwhile, two friends put their fairly ancient powerboat through its paces ahead of a big race, and a hotelier/fisherman sets out to sea to haul in his lobster pots. 

Devon and Cornwall is a perfectly pleasant programme, and I’m sorry if I’ve ruined it by drawing attention to Nettles’ Matt Berry-esque theatrics.

Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

Is there life on Mars? I’m inherently suspicious of questions that even David Bowie couldn’t answer, but you can’t deny the basic pleasure of watching Professor Brian Cox (sort of) fulfilling a childhood dream during this programme. 

He spends an access-all-areas week in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as it continues its exploration of the surface of Mars. 

42 years ago, young master Cox wrote a letter to the JPL asking about their pioneering deep space missions. The reply he received set him on the path to becoming a physicist. 

Cox follows the JPL during one of their most ambitious projects to date: navigating Martian terrain via the first powered aircraft we have ever sent to another planet.

Avoidance – Friday, BBC One, 9:30pm

Romesh Ranganathan co-writes and stars in this likeable comedy drama about Jonathan, a newly separated man struggling to come to terms with his situation. He can’t accept it, hence that title. 

Jonathan is a nice guy, but his glib passivity is exasperating. No wonder his partner finally gave up on him. He’s never depicted as some sort of hapless victim, a romanticised sad-sack hero. This isn’t a simplistic vanity project a la Ricky Gervais’ After Life. It’s drily amusing and warm-hearted. The underlying pathos is kept in check, it never descends into sickly sentimentality. 

Also, Ranganathan, a stand-up by trade, is an entirely natural actor. Avoidance began last week; catch up with episode one on iPlayer.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Outlaws – Sunday 5th June, BBC One

Series one of Stephen Merchant’s appealing comedy drama about a mismatched gang serving community service in Bristol was a deserved hit. And now it’s back. Episode one wasted no time at all, it jogged our memories and got on with the story. 

Merchant is a talented screenwriter with an obvious love of classic romantic comedies and thrillers. The Outlaws is basically a Scorsese film shot through the prism of Ealing Studios. The characters are sympathetic and rounded, they’re recognisable ‘types’ with flesh on their bones. 

It succeeds on its own sweet terms: a heartfelt character piece disguised as a crime drama. Merchant ensures that we care about the plight of these fictional constructs. It's a fine-tooled piece of entertainment.

Everything I Know About Love – Tuesday 7th June, BBC One

This isn’t a complaint, just an observation: in the last few years, TV execs have commissioned a notable surge of semiautobiographical coming-of-age dramas set in the fairly recent past. The ‘90s up until the early ‘10s to be exact. 

That's an inevitable development. The commissioners, many of them in their late thirties/forties, are drawn to stories which reflect their own formative experiences. So here’s the latest one, set way back in 2012. 

It follows a group of mid-twenties female friends who’ve just moved to hipster Camden. Don’t let that premise put you off, it’s not smug or annoying at all. It’s a sharp, funny, charming and self-aware meditation on youthful friendships and infatuations.

INSIDE NO. 9 + HOUSE OF MAXWELL + CHIVALRY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 16th April 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Inside No. 9 – Wednesday, BBC Two, 10pm

The latest series of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s exceptional anthology begins with something fans have long been waiting for: a reunion with their erstwhile League of Gentlemen cohort Mark Gatiss. 

They play old university friends meeting up for the first time in years. Lawrence (Shearsmith) has arranged an off-season (and highly symbolic) pedalo ride on a remote lake. Much to Lawrence’s chagrin, Darren (Pemberton) has brought his new girlfriend (Diane Morgan) along. She thinks they’re heading for a fun boat party. In fact, they’re going nowhere. You can never go back. Sometimes people just drift apart. 

A compact study of loss and nostalgia, but with jokes, the episode confounds expectations in typical Inside No. 9 style.

Yorkshire Midwives on Call – Monday and Tuesday, BBC Two, 8pm

This gently uplifting factual series follows a team of homebirth midwives based in Bradford. On average they look after 160 women each year. Thoroughly nice people, these midwives are also great at what they do. 

The series grants insight into the practical details of their workaday labours, while examining the bittersweet emotional aspects. Naturally, they always form an attachment with their patients. But once a midwife’s work is done, she has to move on to another family. 

The series also spends time with some of the pregnant mothers who have decided to give birth at home. They all have their reasons. After watching this, some younger viewers may feel inspired to add midwifery to their list of potential job options.

House of Maxwell – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

If their accounts are to be believed, some of Ghislaine Maxwell’s closest friends were shocked by the revelation that she’d trafficked underage girls for the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy friends. The final episode of this grimly compelling series attempts to explain how Maxwell and Epstein got away with their crimes for so long. 

It features heartrending interviews with two of their many victims, both of whom describe the horrific ordeals they went through. We also hear from some of the lawyers who acted on behalf of the victims. Their anger is palpable: the system, the establishment, betrayed those vulnerable young women. 

Prince Andrew makes his presence felt in the final 20 minutes. He isn’t spared.

Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof – Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

Wim Hof, aka The Iceman, is a Dutch motivational guru renowned for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures. It’s a skill he attributes to a unique combination of breathing exercises, yoga and meditation. 

Hof is the benignly eccentric star of this otherwise drab and dubious reality series in which eight celebs face a series of extreme sub-zero challenges in the mountains of northern Italy. It’s basically I’m a Celebrity with a spiritual self-help angle, or The Apprentice hijacked by a hippie Alan Sugar. Which sounds amazing, I know. It’s not amazing. It’s a tiresomely formulaic piece of television. 

A snow-capped turkey, it has to be seen at least once. Just so you can prove that it really happened.

Life After Life – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Kate Atkinson, this is not your standard period drama. Structurally ambitious if nothing else, it explores various alternative possible lives for its protagonist. 

Ursula is born in 1910 to an upper middle-class English family. That’s the only fixed point in time. The splintered story then unfolds as a series of vignettes in which Ursula’s lives are beset by tragedy. 

I appreciate the stark philosophical ‘What if?’ message - life in all its permutations is cruel and unpredictable – but the overall effect is rather cold, calculated and alienating. It falls short of its profound ambitions. 

I haven’t read the book, but I gather it explores this premise in a far more affecting way.

Chivalry – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani write and star in this new comedy-drama inspired by the #MeToo movement. Highly sensitive territory, but it’s clear from recent interviews that Coogan and Solemani have thought deeply about how to handle this subject within a semi-comedic context. Whether they succeed remains to be seen. 

Set inside the A-List Hollywood film industry, it examines the tense professional relationship between a serious feminist auteur and a bigshot film producer with a reputation for dating much younger woman; an awkward dinosaur trying to navigate his way through a modern world he doesn’t quite understand. 

Episode one shows only vague promise, but I’m inclined to trust these writers. They obviously have something to say.

The Rising – Friday, Sky Showcase, 9pm

A young woman, Neve, has been murdered and dumped in a lake. The next day, she returns as an invisible, inaudible ghost. Neve can’t remember what happened, but she’s determined to track down her killer. And from thence does this new supernatural drama from Sky unfold. 

Episode one is quite arresting. It establishes the central mystery without any undue fuss: a no-filler thriller with hints of emotional depth. The ghostly premise and rural, gloomy lakeside community setting stir memories of the excellent French drama Les Revenants. While it may not live up to that comparison, it strikes me as something that could be worth sticking with. 

Unless you have an aversion to ghost stories, I daresay you’ll be intrigued.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Rock Family Trees: The Birth of Cool Britannia – Saturday April 9, BBC Two

In the early 1970s, music journalist Pete Frame begat his treasurable Rock Family Trees: hand-drawn artworks tracing the complex roots of famous bands and musical movements. 

Frame’s work formed the basis of a fondly-remembered late 1990s TV series. Last Saturday it returned for an enjoyable one-off special exploring the origins of Britpop. 

This was the story of three closely intertwined bands: Suede, Elastica and Blur. It served as a reminder that early Britpop had nothing to do with the jingoistic laddism of Oasis. It was sexy, arch and arty. 

Brett from Suede and Justine from Elastica (who were once romantically involved) reminisced with warm, self-deprecating and occasionally regretful candour. Blur, strangely, were unavailable for comment.

The Brian Cox Interview – Tuesday April 12, BBC Scotland

The title says it all. Dundee’s very own Brian Cox sat down for a half-hour chat with BBC Scotland’s Amy Irons. 

Actors can often be hard work – humourless, pretentious and full of hifalutin self-regard – but Cox came across as a genuinely nice man. He’s been a very successful and esteemed thespian for over 40 years, but his leading role as Logan Roy in Succession has turned him into a kind of cult global treasure. 

He’s understandably delighted by this late career development. He’s also a pragmatic jobbing actor who understands that talent operates in tandem with random acts of good fortune. 

Hats off to Irons, too. A very good interviewer. Her questions were considered and concise.