CAROLINE FLACK: HER LIFE AND DEATH + CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MacGOWAN

This article was originally published in The Courier on 13th March 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

In December 2019, TV presenter Caroline Flack was arrested for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend. Two months later she took her own life. In this touching documentary, Flack’s tragic story is told by those who knew her best. 

Her family reveal that even as a child she was prone to mood swings. She found heartbreak impossible to deal with. She suffered breakdowns and self-harmed. Like so many people do, she hid her depression. This is all discussed in a gentle, loving way. 

It’s a sensitive eulogy to an emotionally fragile person and a damning indictment of our callous modern age. Flack was hounded by the press and abused on social media. I hope those ghouls are utterly ashamed of themselves.

DNA Family Secrets – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

The final episode of this poignant genealogy series follows host Stacey Dooley as she assists more folk in search of ancestry answers. Mixed-race brothers Peter and David, who were adopted, want to find out more about their biological father. They have no idea where he was from or what ethnicity he was. 

Meanwhile, Manuela is desperate to know if her sight-impaired son carries a gene that causes blindness, and Tink hopes to find out whether she has sperm donor siblings. 

Dooley is a good choice of host, she’s likeable and empathetic, but the unassuming star of the show is Professor Turi King, who explains the science and gently guides the contributors through the entire process. She radiates kindness.

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan – Tuesday, BBC Four, 10pm

This messy documentary is a thoroughly depressing portrait of a chronic alcoholic who was once a great talent. 

Director Julien Temple tries to inject his usual punk-mythological energy into proceedings, but at one point he presumably realised that there’s nothing funny or romantic about this saga: a recurring shot of a cadaverous MacGowan today, barely capable of lifting a glass of wine to his lips, punctuates the narrative. 

The man himself is essentially the narrator, his drowsy, booze-pickled slur and rattlesnake cackle a recurring motif. He struggles to articulate his thoughts on politics and religion with Gerry Adams. There are pointless cameos from those utter buffoons Johnny Depp and Bobby Gillespie. You’ll probably feel sad, awkward and exhausted by the end.

Taskmaster – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

The latest series of this genial comedy gameshow kicks off with a typically silly question: What’s the most impressive thing you can do under a table with one hand while staring and waving at the camera? 

You know the drill by now. Host Greg Davies – a naturally funny man – asks celebrities to conquer some mildly physical tasks. This week’s contestants are Lee Mack, Jamali Madix, Sarah Kendall, Charlotte Ritchie and Mike Wozniak. 

Note to the producers: we know there’s no studio audience, you don’t have to dub on ghostly smatterings of laughter and applause every few minutes. It’s distracting and impossible to ignore once noticed. And yes, I would like you, dear reader, to notice it too, just so I don’t feel alone.

Rob Brydon’s Now That’s What I Call Comic Relief – Thursday, BBC Four, 10pm

It’s been a criminally long time since we’ve seen libidinous soul man Theophilus P. Wildebeest on our screens, so thank God almighty for this cheery clip show in which Lenny Henry’s skin-tight alter-ego is just one of the many musical highlights. 

Rob Brydon, no stranger to a charitable singsong himself, guides us through memorable Comic Relief performances from the likes of Elton John, George Michael, Tom Jones and Paul McCartney. We’re also reminded of the time when Portuguese crooner Tony Ferrino (Steve Coogan) performed a romantic duet with Bjork (Bjork). 

And you will, of course, be treated to those incessant karaoke contributions from Peter Kay and his buoyant army of ‘80s light entertainment survivors.

Comic Relief 2021 – Friday, BBC One and BBC Two, 7pm

And here’s the really big shoe (copyright Ed Sullivan; there’s a reference for the swinging UK teenagers) itself. The Comic Relief telethon isn’t what it was in its late 1980s/early 1990s heyday, that exciting comedians-taking-over-the-airwaves anarchy is long gone. For nearly 30 years it’s been indistinguishable from cosy old Children in Need. 

Sir Lenworth is the last remaining link to that original epoch, and here he’s joined by guest hosts Alesha Dixon (a safe pair of hands who isn’t a comedian), Davina McCall (a vaguely tolerable presence who isn’t a comedian), David Tennant (a fine actor who isn’t a comedian) and Paddy McGuinness (a stagnant puddle of bin juice who has ‘comedian’ listed on his CV).

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Wall – Saturday 6th March, BBC One

Like all good people of taste and discernment, I’m obsessed with The Wall. The bizarre novelty of barely interested uber-geezer Danny Dyer hosting a gameshow is still funny. 

Last week he welcomed Jack and Thomas, a bright pair of twins who are The Wall’s youngest contestants thus far. Dyer, to his credit, didn’t patronise Jack, a wheelchair-user, nor did he milk the fact that he and Thomas were there to win money for their dear old mum. That’s not the Dyer way. No frills. Let’s bank some readies. 

I’m also fascinated by his love/hate relationship with the Wall itself. He definitely prostrates himself before it in the empty dead of night, stark naked and daubed in woad.

RODNEY P'S JAZZ FUNK + ONCE UPON A TIME IN IRAQ

This article was originally published in the Courier on 18th July 2020.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

RODNEY P’S JAZZ FUNK

Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

This lovingly-curated documentary captures the energy and excitement of Britain’s first home-grown black music culture. Hip hop legend Rodney P reveals how jazz funk began as a thriving underground club scene, before going on to shape the sound of early ‘80s British pop. It was created by the first generation of suburban and inner city black kids born in Britain, and although it was influenced by the heavy fusion innovations of American musicians such as Herbie Hancock, it allowed them to create their own distinct identity. That pioneering scene was also an early example of multiculturalism and gender equality, during an era when overt racism, sexism and homophobia were rife. A valuable, funky social document.

THE REAL EASTENDERS

Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

The Isle of Dogs was once the healthy heartland of London’s docklands community. A place where you’d find ‘proper’ working-class cockneys. Today it stands in the oppressive glistening shadow of Canary Wharf. The only boats you’ll find nearby are on the other, more affluent side of the river. Hak Baker, a local resident and musician, presents this insightful, tender ode to his neighbours. It’s not a sentimentalised account, razor-edged shards of sadness often poke through, but it never wrings its hands in a patronising way. The stars of the show are the kids Baker meets. They’re funny, smart, innocent, brilliant. Boris Johnson will never watch or understand this beautiful programme.

EASTENDERS: SECRETS FROM THE SQUARE

Available now on BBC iPlayer

While EastEnders prepares to resume production, super-fan Stacey Dooley visits the set to meet some of Albert Square’s more notable residents. The banter flows thick and fast when she sits down for a socially distanced chinwag with Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright, who play Mick and Linda Carter. Dyer and Bright come across well, they have natural chemistry. Dyer claims that he occasionally adds authentic cockney slang to his dialogue, while admitting that his career was in the doldrums when he got the part. Carter first appeared on the show in 1986, as an extra at Michelle and Lofty’s wedding, and reveals that she channels elements of Carmella Soprano into her performance. A harmless piece of cheap emergency filler.

MIRIAM MARGOLYES: ALMOST AUSTRALIAN

Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

Six years ago, Miriam Margolyes became an Australian citizen. “It was a day of supreme happiness,” she beams at the start of this typically honest and thoughtful travelogue. The self-described “78-year-old Jewish lesbian”, whose partner is Australian, embarks upon a 10 thousand kilometre voyage to find out whether the so-called Australian Dream still exists in 2020. Did it ever exist? Margolyes' findings are pretty bleak. She meets the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Victorian parliament, which only happened in 2017, and is shocked to discover that women over 55 now make up the fastest growing homeless population in Australia. She also uncovers the devastating effects of drought on farming communities, and encounters a young Afghan man who has been denied permanent residency.

LAST WEEK’S TV

IMAGINE… THIS HOUSE IS FULL OF MUSIC

Sunday 12th July, BBC One

Filmed during lockdown, this documentary visited the Kanneh-Mason family from Nottingham. Mum and dad looked on proudly as their seven children, all of them virtuoso classical musicians, performed various pieces. It existed for pure pleasure alone, a calming symphony of respite.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN IRAQ

Monday 13th July, BBC One

This riveting series is essayed through the eyes of the civilians, journalists and soldiers who lived through the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the years of chaos which followed. It’s an expertly woven, detailed patchwork of brutally frank talking head interviews; an essential document, scathing and humane. Notwithstanding the extravagantly whiskered Iraqi man who still regards Saddam as a martyr, the most troubling figure in episode one was a tequila-swigging American marine who was trained to view his mission as a glorified Rambo adventure. He looked broken, haunted. Meanwhile, a sharp-witted young man, who initially viewed the invading forces as emissaries of freedom, vividly encapsulated the utter insanity of the situation. When Saddam’s statue was toppled, he, like so many Iraqis, assumed the nightmare was finally over. As one war correspondent put it, with a rueful gallows smile, “What we didn’t realise was that the invasion wasn’t the war. The war was to come.”

TV Column: THE ACCIDENT + THE WALL

This article was originally published in The Courier on 19th October 2019.

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

NEXT WEEK’S TV

THE ACCIDENT

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Sarah Lancashire stars in this disquieting new drama about a small Welsh community struggling in the wake of a local tragedy. Scenes of a traumatic nature ensue when a group of teenagers break into a construction site for some recreational drug and spray paint fun. The Accident feels at first like an elaborate ‘80s Public Information Film, but it gradually reveals its wider meaning when writer Jack Thorne (This Is England; National Treasure) starts asking provocative questions about guilt, revenge and corporate accountability. Clearly influenced in part by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, it’s a timely piece. Lancashire, who excels as usual, is ably supported by a cast including Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It) and Sidse Babbett Knudsen (Borgen).

THE BRITISH TRIBE NEXT DOOR

Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm

This presumably well-intentioned series could easily come across as massively offensive. Preview copies weren’t available, so I can only hope against hope that Scarlett Moffatt and her Gogglebox family living in a replica of their terraced home in the middle of a Namibian tribal village – yes, really - turns out to be a sensitive study of vast cultural differences. Moffatt is an exceedingly likeable person, she’s smart, funny and nobody’s fool. That means, in theory at least, that the results of this gimmicky social experiment will be quite interesting. I’m nothing if not a cockeyed optimist. In episode one she’s forced to confront her body-image insecurities when asked to wear the traditional Himba dress. Meanwhile, dad introduces the locals to metal detecting. Hmm.

BILL TURNBULL: STAYING ALIVE

Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

In November 2017, former BBC Breakfast presenter Bill Turnbull was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. It’s an incurable illness, he’s been told he has no more than ten years left to live, but he wants to know if it really has to be a death sentence. So, in this emotional documentary, he explores various potential methods of prolonging his life. Interviewees include a teenage cancer patient who is certain that cannabis oil, which is illegal in the UK, has kept him alive, and an altruistic man who provides free medicinal cannabis to seriously ill people. Turnbull tries some and gets the uncontrollable giggles, which isn’t something I ever thought I’d witness. He also examines the benefits of a meat-free diet.

K-POP IDOLS: INSIDE THE HIT FACTORY

Friday, BBC Four, 9:30pm

The biggest boyband in the world today aren’t, as history has taught us to expect, from Britain or the USA. They’re called BTS and they hail from South Korea. BTS are merely the tip of a slick, machine-tooled phenomenon known as K-Pop, which in recent years has managed the unthinkable and punctured the West’s long-standing dominance of the music industry. To find out how this happened, music journalist James Ballardie travels to South Korea to meet some of K-Pop’s top movers and shakers. Chief among them is Soo-man Lee, a Midas-like mogul who basically invented the genre. Over the last 30 years he’s produced a never-ending line of strictly-controlled, wholesome pop acts.

LAST WEEK’S TV

THE WALL

Saturday 12th October, BBC One

Hang on, what’s this? A Saturday night game show hosted by Danny Dyer? What a time to be alive. It’s a perfectly adequate crumb of nothingy filler dominated by a large pachinko-like pegboard and Dyer’s carefully honed, one-note personality. Contestants answer non-taxing general knowledge questions asked, for no reason I can fathom, by the disembodied voice of Angela Rippon. Balls drop down the board. Cash prizes are won. Dyer runs through his hammed-up glossary of cockney colloquialisms. There is nothing more to it than that, but it serves its modest and instantly forgettable purpose.

HIDDEN LIVES

Thursday 17th October, BBC One

This excellent new series, in which various writers explore overlooked aspects of contemporary Scottish society, began with a lyrical film from the estimable journalist Peter Ross. He visited the small coastal town of Burghead to celebrate an ancient fire festival known as The Clavie. This lively annual event, which involves hardy souls carrying a flaming barrel of tar on their backs, is a potent symbol of proud community heritage. As Ross observed, the tradition isn’t maintained for tourism or the local economy, it’s maintained “because it’s always been done and it must, and shall, always be done.” A delightful piece of television.