IMAGINE... MIRIAM MARGOLYES: UP FOR GRABS + INSIDE NO. 9 + DOCTOR WHO

A version of this article was originally published in The Courier on 23rd April 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Imagine… Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs – Monday, BBC One, 11:40pm

The latest episode of this long-running arts strand focuses on an eccentric National Treasure ™. In the tolerable company of Alan Yentob, Miriam Margolyes reflects upon her fascinating life and career. 

The opening scene is quite telling. Margolyes has an effusive review framed in her hallway. She rolls her eyes and shrugs while pointing out that it’s from the Daily Mail. The irony isn’t lost on her. She’s gay, left-wing and progressive. Which makes it all the more remarkable that she’s so warmly embraced by just about everybody. Such is the force of her charmingly smutty, witty personality. 

Eloquent and self-deprecating, Margolyes is a good egg. The programme also reminds us of her impressive acting range.

Long Lost Family Special: Shipped to Australia – Monday, STV, 9pm

This is terribly sad and angering. After World War Two and right up until the early 1970s, thousands of British children were shipped off to Australia with the promise of a better life. Many of them ended up in horrific institutions mired in physical and sexual abuse. Long Lost Family mainstays Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall highlight a scandal that should be common knowledge. 

The episode revolves around a lovely man who lost all contact with his brothers when he was sent to Tasmania. For decades his British relatives assumed that he was living the dream. He’d forgotten all about them. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

When he finally reunites with his family in England, well, you can imagine.

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

Our latest setting is a Welsh village primary school. A newly hired teacher (Reece Shearsmith) has big shoes to fill, as the pupils and staff (Steve Pemberton plays the headmaster) are still in thrall to his much-loved predecessor. But he tries his best to inspire the kids with his heartfelt lessons about environmental issues. 

This being Inside No. 9, things take a cruel and unusual turn. Inappropriate comments and vegetable-based misunderstandings ensue (trust me, that makes sense in context). 

It isn’t one of the strongest episodes, but the denouement, while not entirely surprising, is quite good fun. And I will never tire of Pemberton and Shearsmith’s unabashed fondness for Carry On style humour. They have no shame.

Luxury Food for Less – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm

Plump up a cushion and get out your notebooks as lifestyle experts – nice work if you can get it – Michelle Ackerley and Sophie Morgan explain to we mere mortals how it’s apparently quite possible to stock your larder with great food while on a budget. Yep, it’s one of those programmes. 

They meet with various supermarket insiders and the culinary boffins responsible for some of Britain’s most popular healthy ready meals. 

I haven’t seen the show, but it sounds well-meaning. I’m recommending it only because I can practically guarantee that it will contain at least one or two nuggets of useful information. Which, if you’re anything like me, you’ll immediately forget while devouring a packet of crisps.

Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me – Thursday, STV, 9pm

The popular television personality Julia Bradbury was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. During this candid, tender and sensitive programme, she talks us through her arduous emotional and physical ordeal. We also spend time with her sister and their octogenarian mother. 

Bradbury doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her. She’s fully aware that her story is of no more importance than anyone else’s. She’s also aware that her celebrity status can be exploited as a force for good: one hopes that other breast cancer patients will gain some succour from her honest and open account. 

There is anguish. There is hope. Hats off to all concerned for this valuable and admirably unsentimental essay.

Unreported World – Friday, Channel 4, 7:30pm

Channel 4’s stalwart investigative journalism series visits St Louis this week. It’s a city in the harrowing grip of a drug addiction crisis. Fentanyl is a powerful opioid that, according to research, has claimed more African American lives in recent years than Covid. 

When Krishnan Guru-Murthy meets with local residents, he discovers that many of those addicted to Fentanyl exist, barely, within the ignored margins of society. Some of them are homeless. Some of them are sex workers. He also interviews a local pastor who explains how drug use has become a source of self-medication for these tragically neglected people. 

Same as it ever was, but it’s a vitally important point that’s always worth repeating.

Here We Go – Friday, BBC One, 8:30pm

Here’s a new pre-watershed family sitcom for which I can only provide some faint yet vaguely hopeful praise. It’s amusing, likeable, and I can’t fault its cast of excellent comic actors. 

Jim Howick (Horrible Histories; Ghosts) plays the unemployed patriarch of an extended middle-class family. He’s a textbook harmless ‘dad joke’ buffoon. His wife is played by Katherine Parkinson. Alison Steadman and Tom Basden (who also wrote the series) crop up as his in-laws. 

The whole thing is filmed from the perspective of the teenage son, who’s working on a documentary for his Media Studies course. 

Your obvious reference points are Peep Show and Outnumbered. I’ll reserve judgement on this one, but it does show some promise.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Doctor Who – Sunday 17th April, BBC One

Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate adventure - the 13^th Doctor will regenerate in one final special later this year – reintroduced the Sea Devils, a classic series foe who last appeared on screen in 1984. They barely made an impression.

Set in early 19^th century China, this slapdash yarn also involved a real-life historical figure, the pirate Madame Ching.

A potentially great Doctor Who supporting character, but inevitably that potential was squandered by the entirely incompetent outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall in an episode flooded with all the frustrating hallmarks of his era: perfunctory plotting, characterisation and dialogue. Does he ever bother with a second draft? 

Despite the shoddy writing and direction, it did at least boast some arresting visuals; the TARDIS resting on the seabed provided a rare moment of magic in an era conspicuously bereft of the stuff. Mild credit where it’s due.

As always, Whittaker transcended Chibnall’s shortcomings with her natural charm and energy. But she deserved so much better. Such a waste.

The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe – Sunday 17th April to Wednesday 20th April, STV

Twenty years ago, John Darwin from Hartlepool faked his own death in order to claim his life insurance. He then proceeded to live next door to his wife, Anne, while keeping a supposedly low profile. In 2007, the Darwins were exposed, charged and imprisoned. 

We’re all familiar with the surface details of this bizarre saga, but writer Chris Lang’s engrossing dramatization dug into the complex emotional core. 

Darwin came across as an irresponsible narcissist, a truly awful, selfish bully who gaslit Anne (the story was primarily told from her guilt-ridden, sympathetic perspective) while sparing no thought for the feelings of his children: they genuinely thought their dad was dead. A harrowing ordeal for Anne and those boys. They were John Darwin’s victims. 

Lang and his cast – outstandingly led by Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan – got the nuanced tragicomic tone just right.

TV Review: RIVER and THE RETURNED

This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 17 October 2015.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/lifestyle

River: Tuesday, BBC One

The Returned: Friday, More4

Paul Whitelaw

Just when you thought the hoary old cliché of the troubled detective with an extensive vinyl collection had been pummelled beyond repair, along comes River to show that there's life in the old dog yet.

The effectiveness of this new cop drama from Abi Morgan (The Hour) is enormously surprising, as from the moment I first heard about it I assumed the worst. After all, the very concept of a maverick cop named John River sounds ridiculous. 

It reminded me instinctively of Simon Day as John Actor in The Fast Show's Monkfish sketches (“John Actor is a tough, uncompromising inspector/doctor/vet...”).

However, putting aside the vast unlikelihood of the great Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard playing a character named John River, this is undoubtedly the most confident attempt yet at transplanting the existential angst of Nordic noir to British climes. Face facts, From Darkness.

The opening ten minutes alone offered some of the most arresting drama I've seen on TV all year. Scored to Tina Charles' disco classic I Love To Love, the sequence immediately established a warm, understated chemistry between the endearingly discomfited River and his more exuberant partner DS Stevenson (the always believable Nicola Walker, who also shines at the moment in ITV's above-par crime drama Unforgotten).

Their affectionate banter was punctured suddenly when River spotted a petty drug dealer. Chasing him on foot, our wheezy, ageing hero unwittingly drove the suspect to his death. The scene that followed seemed standard at first: River's weary chief (the wonderful Lesley Manville of Mike Leigh renown) arrived to chastise him for causing the young man's demise.

As Stevenson offered him support, the camera span around slowly to reveal a gaping wound on the back of her head. She'd been killed in action, and now exists only in grieving River's mind. It's a measure of how well this twist was handled that its invocation of another great comedy sketch – Chuffy, the imaginary sidekick from Armstrong & Miller – didn't make me laugh. It was so unforeseen, I admired its audacity.

It transpired that River is haunted by other ghosts, namely a murdered teenage girl whom he'd failed to rescue, and – there's no way of describing this without it sounding ridiculous – a 19^th century serial killer (Eddie Marsan, another gifted Leigh veteran). They're voices in his head, a manifestation of his troubled psyche. Ghosts who assist him in solving problems. 

If his noggin wasn't already crowded enough, the episode ended with a bedtime visit from the innocent man he "murdered" at the top of the episode. It's quite a party in there.

Judged incorrectly, this swirling cavalcade of psychological eccentricity could easily descend into farce. But so far at least, River gets the tone just right. It's rather subversive and unusual in an intelligent, dry-witted way. Skarsgard inhabits the role of River with sad-eyed charm and intensity. For once, the old cop-with-a-difference cliché seems justified.

Bathed in shades of medicinal green and nocturnal red, it's also directed with a sharp eye for striking composition. Delightfully, this highly promising show confounded all my expectations.

One of my favourite dramas of recent years, The Returned made good on its title last week for a second series of French supernatural mystery. Despite its ambiguous finale, I actually felt quite satisfied with series one as a self-contained piece. Is another series necessary?

Steeped in glacial intrigue, the opening episode suggested that there's more to be gleaned from this everyday saga of a remote French town populated by photogenic zombies.

Granted, thanks to a two year transmission gap between series, it took me about half an hour to fully remember who the hell everyone was. But once the fog had cleared, I was cautiously hooked all over again.

God only knows if it'll ever make complete sense, but that's not really the point. It's a disquietingly atmospheric mood piece, an exercise in odd, beautiful Twin Peaks-esque style. I'm glad it's back, to linger in the memory like one of River's manifests.  

TV Review: JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL and 1864

This article was originally published in The Courier on 23rd May 2015.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/lifestyle

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Sunday, BBC One

1864: Saturday, BBC Four

Paul Whitelaw

Based on the acclaimed fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is an intriguing curio. With its generous budget, redoubtable cast of character actors and pseudo-Grimm production design, it's like a trad BBC period drama hijacked by the wild imaginings of Terry Gilliam.

I applaud its ambition. But does it work? I'm not entirely convinced, at least not yet.

I haven't read the book, as I have an incurable blind-spot when it comes to printed fiction, but I'm aware that it's a dense, digressive tome crammed with footnotes. So I don't envy Doctor Who writer Peter Harness in adapting such an unwieldy work for the screen.

He's been tasked with condensing masses of material into accessible 60 minute chunks, hence why episode one felt oddly disjointed. Like a muddled conjuring trick, the focus shifted constantly. A character who drove the plot in act one later disappeared. Hapless co-protagonist Jonathan Strange wasn't introduced until halfway through, and appeared only fitfully after that. The sudden, and rather silly, arrival of Marc Warren as a demonic Billy Idol with the voice of John Hurt felt like one jolt of whimsy too many.

It's frustrating, as the premise and world are arresting: set in 19^th century England during the Industrial Revolution and Napoleonic wars, it posits an alternative history where magic actually existed. No one had practised the craft for 300 years, until serious-minded artisan Mr Norrell – a wonderfully discomfited performance from Eddie Marsan – revealed his God-like skills to an impotent guild of “theoretical magicians”.

An instant sensation, he was whisked from Yorkshire to London, where, much to his chagrin, he was regarded, not as a rarefied craftsman, but as an amusing novelty. That is, until he offered to revive the dead wife of a prominent politician...

Meanwhile, a straggle-haired street magician (Paul “Dennis Pennis” Kaye on OTT form) mumbled ominous prophecies about the emergence of two magicians, one of whom will use his powers for good, the other for evil. A breathless set-up, but it got there in the end.

Harness worked hard to slot these pieces into place, and eventually the themes of snobbery, hypocrisy, morality, greed and art vs commerce had more or less coalesced.

Despite my reservations, there's a lot here to admire. The cast, including the ever-reliable Vincent Franklin as a camp, solicitous Norrell groupie, are superb, Harness' dialogue is droll, and Norrell's occasional displays of magic – e.g. the striking scene in which he brought York Minster's statues to life – are achieved using an eerily effective combination of CG and stop-motion animation.

So far it casts an uneven spell, but the potential is there.

Meanwhile, over in 19^th century Denmark, magic is thin on the ground in 1864.

A self-consciously epic saga about the Danish/Prussian war, it's well-acted, beautifully shot, and full of noble intentions. But the central storyline involving two war-bound brothers in love with the same woman is familiar to the point of self-parody, and the device of using scenes set in the present day – in which a troubled teenage girl learns about the war from an elderly, faded aristocrat – is clumsy and patronising.

And how's this for a piece of awkward, laughable exposition?

MAN #1: “I forget your name, remind me.”

MAN #2: “Bismarck. Otto von Bismarck.”

Ouch. I swear I'm still deaf from my internal Q.I. buzzer.