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.”
