DARREN McGARVEY'S ADDICTIONS + FERGAL KEANE: LIVING WITH PTSD + INSIDE NO. 9

This article was originally published in The Courier on 7th May 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Darren McGarvey’s Addictions – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm

Scotland has the highest drug fatality rate in Europe and the highest alcohol-related death rate in the UK. We’re Britain’s gambling capital and we have a serious obesity problem. Why are so many Scottish people struggling desperately with addiction? 

In this sensitive new series, author, journalist and musician Darren McGarvey examines the issue while investigating measures that could and should be in place to help addicts. 

McGarvey is a recovering alcoholic. Like all intelligent, empathetic people, he recognises that alcoholism is a complicated illness. In episode one he meets with medical experts and other recovering addicts. 

The programme approaches alcohol misuse from various considered angles. There are, of course, no straightforward answers, but this is a valuable report.

Britain’s Top Takeaways – Monday to Thursday, BBC Two, 8pm

Warning: don’t watch this series while feeling peckish, as you may end up blowing a fortune on takeaways. It’s a harmlessly formulaic contest in which top takeaway outlets from around the country go head to head in a pop-up HQ. 

The judges aren’t celebs for once. They’re ‘ordinary’ British couples and families tasked with sampling the wares of our contestants. It’s MasterChef meets Gogglebox, basically. An inevitable union we’ve all been waiting for. 

It begins with a battle betwixt five popular chippies, one of which is based in Coatbridge. They each add their own magic ingredients to the classic fish supper, a cornerstone of the great British diet. Your affable hosts are Sara Cox and comedian Darren Harriott.

Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

The esteemed BBC News foreign correspondent Fergal Keane has reported on brutal conflicts for over 30 years. He’s witnessed so many harrowing atrocities, the absolute worst of humanity. Fourteen years ago he was diagnosed with PTSD. 

Recently, while filming in Kyiv on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he made a decision: it was time to go home and put war reports behind him. 

In this ruminative essay, Keane digs deep into his psyche while examining the effects of this debilitating condition. He’s very honest and self-aware. He states that his career was largely driven by idealism, but also by an addiction to the adrenaline of war reportage. It made him feel worthwhile. It also consumed him with survivor’s guilt.

Between the Covers – Wednesday, BBC Two, 7:30pm

A busy week for Sara Cox continues with the return of her engaging little book club. It’s impossible to dislike Cox, that’s just a fact, so this brief burst of ubiquity is entirely acceptable. 

Her guests this week are radio presenter Vick Hope, actor David Morrissey, television man Richard Osman and comedian/podcaster Deborah Frances White. 

This latest series is brought to you in conjunction with the BBC’s Big Jubilee Read, which celebrates the work of writers from across the Commonwealth. One of the novels under review in episode one is the Booker Prize-winning The English Patient by Sri Lankan author Michael Ondaatje. 

As always, the panel also wax lyrical about some of their favourite tomes.

DNA Family Secrets – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Stacey Dooley returns for another series of carefully handled and potentially life-changing DNA investigations. Three people take a test this week. 

Richard has always wanted to know the identity of his father; he never received a satisfactory answer from his mother, who passed away quite recently. Glen, who is mixed race, also doesn’t know who his father was. He’s always wondered about his exact ethnic heritage. Finding out will hopefully complete his sense of self. Meanwhile, Janet has reason to believe that she has a secret half-sister in Austria. 

Dooley’s expert team of geneticists, genealogists and doctors have to start from scratch in all three cases, but they get results. Uplifting revelations ensue.

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

It recently occurred to me that Inside No. 9 is a bona fide modern classic. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have, across seven series and over 40 episodes, maintained a remarkably high quality threshold. 

This anthology is an ingenious endeavour made with evident love and care, one which rewards the viewer on an almost entirely consistent basis. Exemplary television. 

The latest episode is a meta-textual critique of generic crime fiction tropes. Sophie Okonedo, brilliant as always, stars as a dysfunctional cop who’s been suspended from duty. But she’s still obsessed with solving the case of a missing child. The story unfolds in a discombobulating yet ultimately satisfying manner. 

Obviously I can’t say any more than that, but it’s a good ‘un.

Growing Up Scottish – Thursday, BBC Scotland, 10pm

This bittersweet nostalgia-fest about coming of age in Scotland during the last three decades of the 20^th Century also doubles up as a talking head showcase for emerging comedians such as Rachel Jackson, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd and TJ Singh. 

Series two commences with an episode based around the intertwined themes of friendship and home. The comics ruminate on some of the pastimes we’d invent to amuse ourselves as children in those pre-internet days. Anything would do just as long as it staved off the ultimate malaise: boredom. 

They also discuss the complex rules of sleepovers, while reflecting upon the vicissitudes of living in tenement flats, semi-detached houses, rented accommodation and even but ‘n’ bens. An amusing diversion.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The 1% Club – Saturday 30th April, STV

A big Saturday night quiz show hosted by Lee Mack? That sounds like fun. It’s not fun, it’s merely serviceable. 

The problem is self-evident: Mack, whose stock in trade is quick-fire improvised banter, is constrained by the format of a show in which 100 studio contestants are tasked with answering questions based on “logic and common sense”. His irreverent comic persona is entirely at odds with that premise. 

I’m not suggesting that Mack is some sort of maverick comedy genius, but he’s a naturally funny man who should be hosting a quiz in which he’s given carte blanche to mock proceedings a la Les Dawson on Blankety Blank. He’s not suited to a conventional show like this.

Love Life – Friday 6th May, BBC One

Season two of HBO’s romantic comedy anthology revolves around a new set of thirtysomething characters. 

Marcus and Mia are African Americans, which allows the writers to explore complex themes surrounding racial identity and cultural expectations. Marcus has never been in a long-term relationship with a black woman. His wife is white. But when he falls for Mia, who’s also in a relationship, he’s forced to confront an issue he’s always tiptoed around. 

That Love Life manages to navigate this territory in a witty, intelligent, nuanced way is a credit to the writers and cast. William Jackson Harper and Jessica Williams are charming and believable in their respective leading roles. This love story could be worth investing in.

EVERYTHING: THE REAL THING STORY + A SUITABLE BOY

This article was originally published in The Courier on 1st August 2020.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

EVERYTHING: THE REAL THING STORY

Friday, BBC Four, 9pm

In 1976, the Real Thing became the first all-black British band to top the charts. You to Me Are Everything, a shimmering bauble of Philly soul perfection, came straight outta Liverpool. They were authentic, handsome, effortless; that charmingly cocky moniker fit them like a pair of snug satin strides. Other hits followed, but the Real Thing, a talented vocal group who also wrote their own socially conscious songs, struggled to escape from their teeny-bop image. This excellent feature-length documentary gives them their due. The group’s problems were compounded by falsetto pin-up Ray Stone’s mental health and drug issues. His bandmates pay tribute to that troubled soul man with palpable warmth, candour and sadness. It’s a deserved, if overdue, profile of a pioneering outfit.

CUBA: CASTRO VS. THE WORLD

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

This absorbing two-part series attempts to explain how, during the Cold War, the tiny island of Cuba successfully challenged sabre-rattling superpowers. Fidel Castro’s relationship with the Soviet Union was at the heart of his mission to spread Marxist revolution across the continents, but the alliance was often strained to breaking point. While the surface narrative in episode one is familiar – the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion followed by the world-threatening Cuban missile crisis – it’s fleshed out by insightful contributions from an array of elderly men who were directly involved in the struggle. A clear-eyed and authoritative essay, it’s yet another feather in the cap for acclaimed documentarian Norma Percy (The Death of Yugoslavia).

SEMI-DETACHED

Thursday, BBC Two, 10:05pm

I’m all for tragicomedy when done well, but this sour new sitcom is utterly depressing. Lee Mack plays against type as a needy, desperate middle-aged man struggling to adjust to fatherhood with a partner twenty years his junior. It plays out in real time, presumably in an attempt to ramp up comic tension. Instead, it merely cultivates an air of queasy housebound claustrophobia which is inimical to farce. Small-scale, real-time domestic sitcoms such as Friday Night Dinner and The Royle Family succeeded because the characters are all essentially likeable. Comedy characters don’t have to be Good People, of course, but this pathetic shower are exhausting. It’s frenetically charmless and squanders the talents of a fine supporting cast.

SQUEAMISH ABOUT…

Thursday, BBC Two, 10:30pm

In this hastily cobbled together new series of comedy shorts, Matt Berry narrates incongruous nonsense over obscure archive footage. He does so in the guise of social historian Michael Squeamish, i.e. the same character Berry always plays. I’m usually quite partial to his absurdly-enunciated whimsy, but this is weak sauce. It’s not enough to just place clips out of context, you have to write some good gags too. Series creator Arthur Mathews (aka the Father Ted co-creator who isn’t a raging transphobe) should know better. Toast of London, the sitcom he co-wrote with Berry, was often very funny, but they’re on autopilot here. Comedians such as Peter Serafinowicz and Rhys Thomas have mined similar territory with far superior results.

LAST WEEK’S TV

A SUITABLE BOY

Sunday 26th July, BBC One

Set in a newly post-independence, post-partition India, this ambitious BBC drama is the first to feature an all-Asian cast. In that sense it's a welcome landmark. It follows a young woman faced with an impending arranged marriage to one of three ‘suitable boys’. A promising premise, but episode one was painfully slow. Adapted by That Man Again Andrew Davies from Vikram Seth’s epic novel, it failed to properly establish an extensive array of characters who were presumably more sharply-defined on the page. A frustrating state of affairs, as a major BBC production examining this tumultuous period in history has potential. Seth has said that he wouldn’t have allowed it to go ahead without Davies at the helm. Fair enough. Davies, however, has somehow managed the impossible: an inert drama rife with activity. Wild idea, I know, but maybe an Asian writer would’ve handled it better?

THE CONFESSIONS OF THOMAS QUICK

Monday 27th July, Channel 4

Sture Bergwall – aka Thomas Quick – was once regarded as the Swedish Hannibal Lecter. After confessing to 39 horrific murders, he was incarcerated for life. Years later, Bergwall was released. His confessions were fabricated. This extraordinary docudrama recounted the tragic, complicated saga of a mentally ill man and some highly dubious psychologists.