TV Review: TABOO + LET IT SHINE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 14 January 2017.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/entertainment/tv-film/paul-whitelaw-reviews/344742/tv-reviews-taboo-delirious-voodoo-melodrama/

TABOO: Saturday, BBC One

LET IT SHINE: Saturday, BBC Two

Even if TABOO involved heavyweight method growler Tom Hardy playing the word-based guessing game while smashed to the gills on ghastly fruit liqueur, it still wouldn’t be as bonkers as the actual show itself.

Not that I’m complaining. This delirious Gothic melodrama is a hoot.

Set in 1814, it follows rogue ex-soldier turned pirate James Delaney (Hardy) as, far from dead as presumed, he returns from Africa to London for his father’s funeral.

He inherits a disputed piece of land in America, with whom Britain is at war, much to the chagrin of the powerful East India Company, led by Jonathan Pryce swearing like a trouper (His language isn’t anachronistic – according to estimable Horrible Histories expert Greg Jenner, expletives were all the rage in Regency England).   

Revenge is afoot when Delaney discovers that pater was murdered, which exacerbates the typhoon of demonic voodoo voices in his head.

Delaney is a perfect fit for Hardy, which is hardly surprising as he co-created Taboo with his father, the winningly named Chips Hardy, and writer Steven Knight, who devised the similarly violent and stylised Peaky Blinders.

A magnetic actor, Hardy’s natural eccentricity imbues every role he plays. Striding through the filth, macho coat-a-flapping, he revels in Knight’s knowingly ripe, lurid dialogue. Hardy doesn’t chew the scenery in Taboo, he gargles and caresses it.

Sample threat: “You send me twelve men, I will return you twelve sets of testicles in a bag.” I’d quote the rest of that line, but this is a family newspaper.

Imagine an adventure yarn written by a laudanum-addled Robert Louis Stevenson tearing through the Viz Profanisaurus, and you’ve almost imagined Taboo.

It’s stirring stuff, strikingly drawn in visceral charcoals and populated by scarred, craggy faces including such reliable stalwarts as Christopher Fairbank (Moxey from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) and Scots walnut David Hayman.

Propelled by Hardy’s imposing performance, it moves with the sleekness of a contemporary thriller while exploiting the potential of its wretchedly fascinating period setting.

If it delivers on its promise, then Taboo could rule Saturday nights for the next eight wintry weeks.

In reality, of course, LET IT SHINE will triumph. Mediocrity always does.

Gary Barlow desperately needs to find five young lads for his new Take That-based musical, so thank God the BBC has stepped in to help him via this formulaic talent show.

If I was feeling similarly charitable, I’d dismiss it as a harmless yawn of bland razzle dazzle. But I can’t ignore its role in the inexplicable campaign to promote toadying lickspittle Barlow as an undeserved national treasure.

This is a man so desperate for a knighthood he’d muck out the corgi kennels with his bare hands if that’s what it took. He makes fellow Windsor’s pet Gareth Malone look like Oliver Cromwell.

The programme itself is benign enough – even the ‘losers’ are treated gently – but Saturday night talent shows are in dire need of a rest. Strictly can stay, as it’s always been more of an old-fashioned light entertainment extravaganza, but the rest are more tired than a Barlow solo album.

In an ideal world, this knackered genre would receive a shot in the arm from the likes of ‘Atmosphere!’ in which New Order search for the star of a new Ian Curtis musical, or ‘Bootsy Camp’ starring legendary bass genius Bootsy Collins as he attempts to revive Funkadelic with fresh-faced Italia Conti graduates.

News just in: we don’t live in an ideal world.

TV Review: IN THE FLESH and WHEN CORDEN MET BARLOW

This article was originally published in The Courier on 10th May 2014.

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

In The Flesh: Sunday, BBC Three

When Corden Met Barlow: Monday, BBC One

Paul Whitelaw

When In the Flesh first appeared last year, it initially looked like just another rotting passenger on the never-ending zombie bandwagon. For those of us suffering from undead fatigue, it didn't look promising. But a few minutes spent in its company revealed that, far from being a standard zombie horror show, it was in fact a surprisingly intelligent, bleak and sensitive drama about prejudice and adolescent alienation.

The premise is simple but effective: in the aftermath of a zombie uprising, the undead have been cured of their ailment and reintegrated into society. Unfortunately, trying to start a new life in a world you've only recently terrorised and chewed upon is fraught with difficulties.

First of all, you have to come to terms with the fact that you're basically a sentient cadaver. Secondly, your sincere pleas for forgiveness aren't readily accepted by those who regard you as an unholy menace. It wasn't particularly subtle, but the irony of humans being as rabid in their bigotry as zombies are in their quest for flesh was effectively delivered.

Indeed, the first series, which ran for just three episodes, seemed to explore its premise fully. Framed through the milky eyes of Kieren, a rehabilitated young zombie in a downtrodden northern village, it was a compact piece that could've easily stood alone. So is a second series really necessary?

The only dangling thread from last year was the background presence of the Undead Liberation Army, an extremist group of cured zombies who want to militantly reclaim their rotting souls. Sure enough, they lunged to the fore as the saga resumed.

The overall tone was as before: unlike most zombie dramas, In the Flesh depicts a world of kitchen sink apocalypse – 28 Days Later via Coronation Street. But it introduced a few new wrinkles in the form of a careerist politician who arrived in Roarton – all fictional northern villages should have faintly terrifying names – to further her vendetta against sufferers of “Partially Deceased Syndrome”, and a charismatic disciple of the so-called Undead Prophet who failed to attract Kieren to the cause. Meanwhile, Kenneth Cranham's bible-thumping, zombie-hating preacher gets madder – and closer to cardiac arrest – by the second.

At this stage it's too early to judge whether In the Flesh has anything to add to its established themes. The first episode was mildly intriguing, but it did feel at times like an aimless, uncertain sequel.

Similarly, what was the point of When Corden Met Barlow? An extended puff piece in thrall to tax-avoiding millionaire Gary Barlow, it was the uncritical story of a great survivor, the comeback kid. The narrative arc was that, having once been considered something of a joke, the former Take That dynamo is now a beloved national treasure. It was proof that if you repeat a falsehood often enough, it eventually becomes true.

To be fair, this contrived road trip, in which avowed fan James Corden took Barlow on a cheery road trip down memory lane, was affable enough in its entirely undemanding way. Corden has calmed down a lot since his initial burst of post-fame arrogance and ubiquity, and I can't deny that Barlow seems like a nice guy. Of course, being a nice guy is an integral part of the Gary Barlow package, but I doubt anyone could fake that level of amiability over such a sustained period of time. It would be exhausting.