SHERWOOD + THE REAL DERRY: JAMIE-LEE O'DONNELL + THE OUTLAWS

This article was originally published in The Courier on 11th June 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Sherwood – Monday and Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm

This compelling six-part drama is a work of fiction inspired by two murders which took place in the Nottinghamshire mining village where its author, James Graham, grew up. 

It’s an intelligent, thoughtful piece, a carefully constructed whodunit fuelled by the long-lasting effects of Thatcherism and the miner’s strike on working-class communities. 

The outstanding cast includes David Morrissey as a senior police officer who is determined to win back the public’s trust, Alun Armstrong and Lesley Manville as happily married, doting grandparents, and Joanne Froggatt as a local Tory councillor who isn’t exactly in tune with the political outlook of her constituents. The series begins on her wedding day. 

You may find yourselves hooked from the get-go.

Tiny Lives – Monday, BBC One, 8:30pm

A tender document ensconced within the University Hospital Wishaw’s neonatal unit, Tiny Lives returns for more affecting stories about prematurely born babies. 

Alfie is just six hours old. His mum had an emergency caesarean after Alfie showed signs of distress in the womb. He’s in critical condition, a ventilator is keeping him alive. The hospital’s dedicated team are on constant standby, he’s in good hands. 

Alfie was born at the height of the pandemic, when the NHS were stretched to their absolute limits. The series pays tribute to their tireless efforts; decent people doing everything in their power to save lives on a daily basis. One particular nurse devotes her entire 12-hour shift to an infant placed in isolation.

The Savoy – Wednesday, STV, 9pm

The latest series of this observational hoopla reconvenes with London’s luxurious Savoy Hotel as it opens its doors post-pandemic. 

The owners are in dire straits, they have to recoup millions of pounds of lost revenue. So thank God for Gordon Ramsay, who barges in with ambitious plans for his very first seafood restaurant. 

Say what you like about Ramsay by all means, but that will at least create new job opportunities for some deserving chefs. Meanwhile, we’re treated to some heavy-hitter celebrity dining cameos from Christopher Biggins and Shirley Ballas. 

The whole thing is an unquestioning celebration of wealth. This preview was typed through gritted teeth, which is quite a physical feat if nothing else.

The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O’Donnell – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

Timed to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, this documentary follows the Derry Girls actor as she reflects upon life growing up during the last few years of The Troubles. 

O'Donnell is a devoted Derry girl who wants to find out more about the complex history of her community. 

I haven’t seen this programme, preview copies weren’t available, but I reckon I can probably vouch for it in good faith. O’Donnell speaks to young people growing up in Derry today, kids who by and large have no truck with sectarian prejudices. 

According to the press blurb, it will provide viewers with some hope for the future of Northern Ireland.  O’Donnell is a smart person, she’ll do this justice.

Devon and Cornwall – Friday, Channel 4, 8pm

John Nettles’ bombastic narration during this otherwise genteel series is one of the funniest things on television. It’s a delicious chunk of pure uncut ham. Wonderful. This week, Nettles wraps his rich rococo tones around another set of everyday Devon and Cornwall stories. 

We meet woodsman John and his daughter Betsy as they attempt to revive and maintain a lost tradition – sculpting stave baskets from ash. Meanwhile, two friends put their fairly ancient powerboat through its paces ahead of a big race, and a hotelier/fisherman sets out to sea to haul in his lobster pots. 

Devon and Cornwall is a perfectly pleasant programme, and I’m sorry if I’ve ruined it by drawing attention to Nettles’ Matt Berry-esque theatrics.

Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm

Is there life on Mars? I’m inherently suspicious of questions that even David Bowie couldn’t answer, but you can’t deny the basic pleasure of watching Professor Brian Cox (sort of) fulfilling a childhood dream during this programme. 

He spends an access-all-areas week in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as it continues its exploration of the surface of Mars. 

42 years ago, young master Cox wrote a letter to the JPL asking about their pioneering deep space missions. The reply he received set him on the path to becoming a physicist. 

Cox follows the JPL during one of their most ambitious projects to date: navigating Martian terrain via the first powered aircraft we have ever sent to another planet.

Avoidance – Friday, BBC One, 9:30pm

Romesh Ranganathan co-writes and stars in this likeable comedy drama about Jonathan, a newly separated man struggling to come to terms with his situation. He can’t accept it, hence that title. 

Jonathan is a nice guy, but his glib passivity is exasperating. No wonder his partner finally gave up on him. He’s never depicted as some sort of hapless victim, a romanticised sad-sack hero. This isn’t a simplistic vanity project a la Ricky Gervais’ After Life. It’s drily amusing and warm-hearted. The underlying pathos is kept in check, it never descends into sickly sentimentality. 

Also, Ranganathan, a stand-up by trade, is an entirely natural actor. Avoidance began last week; catch up with episode one on iPlayer.

LAST WEEK’S TV

The Outlaws – Sunday 5th June, BBC One

Series one of Stephen Merchant’s appealing comedy drama about a mismatched gang serving community service in Bristol was a deserved hit. And now it’s back. Episode one wasted no time at all, it jogged our memories and got on with the story. 

Merchant is a talented screenwriter with an obvious love of classic romantic comedies and thrillers. The Outlaws is basically a Scorsese film shot through the prism of Ealing Studios. The characters are sympathetic and rounded, they’re recognisable ‘types’ with flesh on their bones. 

It succeeds on its own sweet terms: a heartfelt character piece disguised as a crime drama. Merchant ensures that we care about the plight of these fictional constructs. It's a fine-tooled piece of entertainment.

Everything I Know About Love – Tuesday 7th June, BBC One

This isn’t a complaint, just an observation: in the last few years, TV execs have commissioned a notable surge of semiautobiographical coming-of-age dramas set in the fairly recent past. The ‘90s up until the early ‘10s to be exact. 

That's an inevitable development. The commissioners, many of them in their late thirties/forties, are drawn to stories which reflect their own formative experiences. So here’s the latest one, set way back in 2012. 

It follows a group of mid-twenties female friends who’ve just moved to hipster Camden. Don’t let that premise put you off, it’s not smug or annoying at all. It’s a sharp, funny, charming and self-aware meditation on youthful friendships and infatuations.

TV Review: GOING FORWARD + MUM

This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 21st May 2016.

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

Going Forward: Thursday, BBC Four

Mum: Friday, BBC Two

It’s arguably the fault of Carla Lane and her endless glut of joke-shy sitcoms about unhappy middle-class women that the term “gentle comedy” was, for many years, derided as a euphemism for “not funny”. The truth of the matter is that, at its best, understated, low-key comedy – a more helpful description, I think – is often sharper, funnier and more penetrating than broader examples of the form.

A notable case in point was the BAFTA-winning sitcom Getting On, written by and starring Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine. Based in an NHS geriatric ward, it said more about the struggles and faults of that beleaguered institution, and the nuanced flaws of the human condition, than any number of dramas on the same subject. Plus it was funny, piercingly so.

Now Brand is back with a sequel, Going Forward, which follows droll, kindly Kim Wilde in her new job as a community healthcare worker. Although Scanlan and Pepperdine no longer share co-writing duties, it’s just as witty and humane as Getting On. Like that show, it takes a potentially depressing premise – in this case, a middle-aged married couple with mounting financial woes – and finds something curiously life-affirming at its core.

A large part of its charm is the natural chemistry between Brand and Omid Djalili as her struggling chauffeur husband, Dave. They really do feel like a beleaguered yet happy couple who’ve shared a couch for years. Generously, Brand gave Djalili the funniest scenes in episode one, via his exasperated, almost Pete and Dud-esque conversation with a colleague who insisted that chauffeuring in Iraq is where the jackpot lies. 

Despite its warmth, there’s an underlying edge of desperation to Going Forward. Kim and Dave are barely surviving. Kim’s sister is a neurotic mess. Kim’s clients are, of course, lonely, housebound elderly people who rely on her for company. But like all the best comedies of its careworn kind, it finds humour in sadness and vice versa. Without blowing its own trumpet, it’s a sly, compassionate comment on the reality of life for millions of Britons today. There’s nothing gentle about that.

Cut from a similar cloth, Mum is a well-observed new sitcom starring the brilliant Lesley Manville as Cathy, a recently bereaved widow struggling to put her life back together. Once again, it spins a rich seam of comedy from a wholly downbeat premise.

Each episode is set over a few hours inside Cathy’s suburban home, hence why it reminds me of Simon Amstell’s underrated Grandma’s House. Tender and sharp, humane but never sentimental, it revolves around that distinctly British conceit of maintaining politeness in the face of social awkwardness. 

It’s full of small talk, inadvertent insensitivity, condescending pettiness and pained smiles (Manville is so good at smiling through anguish). But like Going Forward, it doesn’t look down on its characters. Even Cathy’s horrifically snobbish sister-in-law is tinged with pathos.

Peter Mullan – an actor often typecast as hard-nuts – is a heart-tugging bundle of unrequited love as an old friend of Cathy’s, while newcomer Lisa McGrillis shines with an endearingly tactless performance as the well-meaning girlfriend of Cathy’s son. She’s that rarity, a “stupid” sitcom character written and performed with warmth. That’s Mum all over, really. It’s a gem.