JOANNA LUMLEY'S GREAT CITIES OF THE WORLD + HOLDING + THE IPCRESS FILE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 12th March 2022. 

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Joanna Lumley’s Great Cities of the World – Thursday, STV, 9pm

Lumley’s latest travelogue stops off at three of the world’s most dazzling capitals: Paris, Rome and Berlin. 

A fluent Francophile, Lumley makes a strong case for Paris being the global epicentre of romance, elegance, intellectual discourse and artistic freedom of expression. That sounds like a terribly clichéd overview, I know. Paris isn’t some sort of faultless utopia. But Lumley’s essay is persuasive. 

While spending time with various dancers, bohemians, fashionistas, migrants, booksellers and feminist activists ‐ plus a woman who appears to be comfortable in her polygamous relationship ‐ she solidifies her deserved reputation as one of our best celebrity tour guides. Charming, funny and engaged, she’s entirely at home with whoever she meets.   

Holding – Monday, STV, 9pm

An adaptation of Graham Norton’s debut novel, Holding is a comedy drama set in a somnambulant West Cork village. 

The protagonist is an ageing police sergeant and thoroughly nice man (Conleth Hill from Game of Thrones on charmingly low‐key form) tasked with protecting a community where nothing ever happens. And then some human remains are found in someone’s back garden. He’s almost quite delighted by this development, as it allows him to do some proper police work at last. 

The humour in Holding ‐ which is directed by the great Kathy Burke ‐ is subtle and dry; a gentle comedy with a bleak undercurrent. Most of the characters are essentially lost and unhappy. It’s definitely not your standard ITV fare.

Fame in the Family – Monday to Friday, Channel 4, 5:30pm

Here’s fun. Well, possibly ‐ preview copies weren’t available. Quite an intriguing premise, though, hence why I’m cautiously bringing it to your attention. 

It’s a new series in which celebrities play a DNA guessing game with members of the public they’ve never met before. One of the guests ‐ the whole thing is set up as a chatty dinner party ‐ is related to the famous host, but none of the participants know that for sure until various clues are tied together. 

The producers have presumably done their homework, so there’s no need to steel yourself for awkward moments. This week’s celebs include Craig Revel Horwood, Shaun Ryder and Rustie Lee. Yep, I’ll be watching too.

Lightning – Monday to Thursday, BBC Two, 6:30pm

This no‐frills teatime quiz show is an undemanding time‐passer; something to watch with your spaghetti hoops while shouting out the answers. It fulfils its simple brief with aplomb. 

Your genial host is comedian Zoe Lyons, who keeps things moving like all the best quizmasters. The general knowledge questions flow thick and fast. Banter is kept to a bare minimum. The producers of Lightning know that we’ve tuned in for the quiz, we don’t need to hear about the life and unamusing times of Brian from Didsbury. 

It’s catnip for trivia fans and grammar hounds (the quick‐fire spelling round is borderline stressful), a harmlessly addictive treat. William G. Stewart, where e’er he may be, would doubtless approve.

Canal Boat Diaries – Monday, BBC Four, 7:30pm

The very definition of comfort viewing, this series follows softly‐spoken wanderer Robbie Cumming as he putters around on his faithful yet fallible old narrowboat. This time he’s navigating his way through the north of England during a heatwave. 

As always, various minor problems arise along the way, but for the most part it’s a serene cruise flanked by beautiful vistas. Canal Boat Diaries is an intimate endeavour in which Cumming is pretty much the only person who appears on screen. He’s pleasant company; a humble free spirit living some sort of dream. 

If, for obvious reasons, you’re feeling quite anxious at the moment, then this will hopefully provide a brief window of respite. A valuable public service.

Kate & Koji – Wednesday, STV, 9pm

I enjoyed series one of this traditional studio‐based sitcom about the friendship between a seafront café owner (Brenda Blethyn) and an African asylum seeker, so I was looking forward to its return. Unfortunately, it appears to have run its course. 

I didn’t laugh once during the first episode; it feels considerably more strained and workmanlike than before. Jimmy Akingbola, who originally played Koji, has been replaced by Okorie Chukwu. While fine, Chukwu lacks his predecessor’s deadpan comic timing. Perhaps he’ll settle into the role, but the main problem is the script by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, a usually reliable duo who have settled into autopilot here. 

A shame, as we need more good, trad sitcoms on TV.

Comic Relief 2022 – Friday, BBC One, 7pm

Sir Lenworth of Henworth hosts this year’s charity telethon, a role he’s essayed ever since those glorious late ‘80s broadcasts when the whole shebang felt like an actual event: an anarchic and often ramshackle party in which relatively young comedians hijacked stuffy old BBC One to raise (loadsa) money for worthy causes. 

But for the last 30 years it’s been indistinguishable from Children in Need, a slick and entirely well‐intentioned extravaganza that just turns up then disappears. Still, at least it continues to raise money. That, after all, is the most important thing. I just wish they’d put more effort in when it comes to the actual comedy side of things. 

Some people are never happy, are they?

LAST WEEK’S TV

Killing Eve – Saturday 5th March, BBC One

Yes, it’s still going. Series one of this campy pulp thriller was great, but it’s been pointlessly treading water ever since. The saga didn’t need to continue beyond that original run. Here’s the final lap, if anyone still cares. 

As always, episode one moved at a clip. Some of the set‐pieces were amusing in a superficial way. Killing Eve was superficial from the start, and there’s nothing wrong with that when the story and characters are engaging. But what’s the point of a serial that just drags on an on, long after it's served its purpose? 

Still, Jodie Comer’s performance as Villanelle is one for the ages, what a fine actor she is. I’m glad she’s moving on.

The Ipcress File – Sunday 6th March, STV

When writer John Hodge (Shallow Grave; Trainspotting) decided to pitch a new adaptation of Len Deighton’s classic Cold War thriller, he obviously had no idea that it would resonate with our current global situation. 

A TV show preoccupied with the imminent threat of nuclear war isn’t exactly what we need right now, but I can’t deny the effectiveness of The Ipcress File as a piece of entertainment. 

Directed at numerous canted angles by James Watkins, it’s rather witty, zippy and stylish. Michael Caine will always be the definitive Harry Palmer, but baby‐faced Joe Cole acquits himself admirably as the dry‐witted, working‐class spy. Give me roguish Palmer over suave imperialist Bond any day.

TV Review: SS-GB + INSIDE NO. 9

A version of this article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 25 February 2017.

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

SS-GB: Sunday, BBC One

INSIDE NO. 9: Tuesday, BBC Two

In the twisted annals of alternative history, one theoretical question dominates: what if the Nazis had won World War II?

This nightmare scenario has inspired such notable works of counterfactual fiction as Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, Kevin Brownlow’s It Happened Here and that episode of Star Trek with Joan Collins.

It also forms the basis of SS-GB, a 1978 novel by Len Deighton. Set in a parallel 1941, after Germany won the Battle of Britain, it depicts occupied London as a forbidding maze of summary executions and a growing Resistance movement. Scotland Yard still exists, albeit as an adjunct to the SS.

So far, so intriguing. Unfortunately, SS-GB squanders the potential of its ‘what-if?’ scenario by focusing on a conventional murder mystery. Alternative history thrives on plausibly imaginative details, but aside from the impressive spectacle of a bomb-torn Buckingham Palace, episode one didn’t depict this world in a particularly rich or compelling way.

While strong on smoky atmosphere, the narrative burned far too slowly.

Deighton’s novel has been dragged to the screen by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the writers behind every Bond film starring Daniel Craig. If, like me, you regard those films as moderately entertaining at best, then your expectations for SS-GB will have been lowered accordingly. Even so, I expected more.

The only truly interesting facet so far is our intriguingly compromised hero, DS Douglas Archer (Sam Riley), a lawman who’s earned the trust of his Nazi overlords while secretly praying for their eventual destruction.

Despite Riley’s youthful appearance, he seems older than his years, thanks largely to his raspy channelling of the late John Hurt (possibly as a nod to Hurt’s performance in 1984). 

Affecting the distinctive brogue of another actor could’ve backfired embarrassingly, but Riley’s charismatic, committed performance transcends mere plagiarism. He makes the most of his ambiguous role.

Authors have always returned to the concept of an Axis victory because it could so easily have happened. It’s a frighteningly plausible piece of skewed reality. Fascism remains a threat to this day – just look at the White House. By rights, SS-GB should tap into those fears in a powerful, queasy way.

Instead, it merely dresses them up in lugubriously stylised noir-ish threads: Peaky Blinders meets ‘Allo ‘Allo with a riding crop up its rectum.

It didn’t stir into action until the third-act arrival of a clichéd yet arrestingly unpleasant SS officer with whom Archer must form an uneasy alliance. But even the threat of a bomb at Archer’s son’s school couldn’t quicken the pulse of this thin, murky, wasted opportunity. 

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith packed more tension into 30 minutes of INSIDE NO. 9 than SS-GB managed in an hour.

When four men arguing over a restaurant bill feels more high-stakes than a Nazi occupation of Britain, you know you’re in the presence of ingenious writers.

Every episode of their justly celebrated anthology series is different, but the latest was typical in the way it continually subverted expectations, even when you thought the final twist had already been revealed.

However, on this occasion I wish they actually had settled on the cunning revelation that the whole argument was an elaborate scam at the expense of wealthy businessman Philip Glenister. The final twist – having rumbled their plot, Glenister becomes their accomplice – was too sudden and felt unnecessary.  

Still, this otherwise entertaining episode proved once again that Pemberton and Shearsmith operate within the highest echelons of television writing. 

No one else manages to combine character-driven black comedy and tightly-woven drama with as much finesse; I hope they’re given carte blanche to create this magnificent series for as long as their fiendish brains will allow.