HOUSE OF MAXWELL + NIKKI GRAHAME: WHO IS SHE? + LONG LIVE MY HAPPY HEAD

This article was originally published in The Courier on 2nd April 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

House of Maxwell – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

The media tycoon Maxwell dynasty has always been mired in scandal and corruption. It finally collapsed for good last year when Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of grooming and trafficking underage girls. 

This riveting three-part series, which plays out like an epically horrific thriller, examines the relationship between Robert Maxwell and his daughter: two utterly disgraced people who exemplify the toxic brutality of extreme wealth and power. Those white collar criminals felt they were entirely above the law. 

Episode one focuses on Maxwell Senior, a megalomaniacal gangster who ‘mysteriously’ fell off his luxury yacht and drowned in 1991. The programme boasts access to secret recordings – paranoid Maxwell bugged his own phones – and a revealing wealth of hitherto unaired footage.

Cadbury Exposed: Dispatches – Monday, Channel 4, 8pm

Cadbury: a much-loved confectioner you can trust. Or so you and I thought until Dispatches came along with this undercover report. 

Legal disclaimer: for tedious technical reasons I haven’t seen the programme, so please, Cadbury, don’t sue me or DC Thomson for what I’m about to write based on the official Channel 4 press release. Thanks. 

Filmed in Ghana, the report exposes child labour in Cadbury’s supply chain. We hear from exhausted farmers who earn less than £2 a day, and children who have been injured while working long hours in searing heat conditions. Cadbury pride themselves on being an ethical company. 

This sounds like an important piece of journalism, hence why I’m bringing it to your attention.

Travel Man – Monday, Channel 4, 8:30pm

For obvious reasons, Travel Man took an enforced sabbatical in 2019. Now it’s back. Original host Richard Ayoade has been replaced by fellow comedian Joe Lycett, but the format remains the same: Lycett spends 48 hours in a foreign city alongside another professional mirth-maker. Shallow fun ensues. 

Lycett is joined this week by James Acaster (check out his Netflix stand-up specials, he’s great). Their destination is the Spanish part of the Basque Country. As always, it’s an affable diversion, but wouldn’t it be nice if Travel Man occasionally deviated from the same old roster of podcast/panel show guests? Imagine 48 Hours in Zagreb with Julian Cope. Or Ruth Madoc. We’d all watch that.

Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In the concluding episode of this excellent series about the censorious busybody, we arrive at Whitehouse’s imperial phase – if only in terms of her prominent public profile. 

It suggests that, while this self-appointed moral guardian was presumably sincere in her clueless crusade against the permissive society, she also really enjoyed being famous. Whitehouse craved power and celebrity, but I daresay the irony of that ambition never occurred to her. This was not someone troubled by nuance of thought. 

The programme does attempt some balance, with more even-handed decency than perhaps she deserves, but the abiding impression is one of a fearful, guilt-ridden person who went to her grave convinced that she was right. And we were all wrong.

A Believer’s Guide to… – Tuesday, BBC One, 10:35pm

Regardless of your faith or lack thereof, this warm-hearted series is a gentle force for good. It follows people from various religious backgrounds as they experience pivotal moments in their lives. 

This week’s stars are Grace and Jess, a young gay Christian couple who are engaged to be married. They’re also about to move into their first home together: a canal boat. Their extended family is fully supportive, but they need to find a similarly inclusive new local church. And that, alas, isn’t straightforward. 

Naturally, they start to question their commitment to Christianity. “I can’t change loving Grace,” says a tearful Jess, “but I can change my faith to suit me, to have a better life, a richer life.”

The Great Home Transformation – Wednesday, Channel 4, 8pm

Imagine the meeting at Channel 4 HQ. They’ve made every home renovation show you could ever possibly conceive of. But they need to make more. They absolutely have to make more. The beast must be fed. But are there any gimmicks left, any extra layers of froth on the formula? 

Agonising minutes of silent brainstorming ensue. And then, at last, the Eureka moment: Hey! Why don’t we hire a massive lorry stocked with emergency furnishings and some specialist heat-mapping technology? Which will, I dunno, somehow help people to declutter their homes while filling several hours of airtime? 

A reigning TV executive smiles quietly and nods. Make it so. Meanwhile, a TV critic files some heavy-handed satire.

Nikki Grahame: Who Is She? – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

I’m recommending this programme with caution. Please bear in mind that previews weren’t available, but one hopes that it will pay sensitive tribute to the Big Brother contestant who died from anorexia nervosa last year. 

Grahame was the ‘breakout’ star of the Big Brother series she appeared in; an endearing, funny person prone to verbose emotional tantrums. Viewers, myself included, really liked her. But it was blatantly obvious that she should never have been selected for Big Brother in the first place. She was far too vulnerable. 

Whether Channel 4 are capable of making a programme that admits to their culpability remains to be seen. All I can say for sure is this: Nikki Grahame’s story is terribly sad.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Chernobyl: The New Evidence – Saturday 26th March, Channel 4

Well this is timely. Chillingly so. And presumably by somewhat pure coincidence. 

A two-part series, it seeks to reveal the KGB cover-ups surrounding a catastrophic disaster. As we all know, in 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine suffered a horrific meltdown. 26 years later, the site is still highly radioactive. 

Episode one unpicked the tangled chain of events which led to that disaster. It also laid bare the ongoing political ramifications of something that could have easily been avoided. And here we are in 2022, frightened and appalled by the news we see around us. 

This is a solid piece of reportage, but allow me to recommend HBO’s 2019 miniseries, Chernobyl, as a vital companion piece.

Long Live My Happy Head – Sunday 27th March, BBC Scotland

Scottish comic book artist Gordon Shaw was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour at the age of 32. Doctors gave him an average life expectancy of two to three years. Gordon, who is now 40, shared his story in this touching and ruminative feature length documentary. 

Gordon calls his tumour Rick, a character who features heavily in his autobiographical work. A lovable, witty, self-deprecating person, Gordon attempted to explain how it feels having the ever-present spectre of death hanging over you. 

He also extolled the therapeutic virtues of writing and drawing. Art can’t cure us, but it can make some sense of what we’re going through. It can help. 

A beautiful film, I thoroughly recommend it.

BANNED! THE MARY WHITEHOUSE STORY + CONCERT FOR UKRAINE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 26th March 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Mary Whitehouse isn’t someone who should be regarded with any affection whatsoever, she was an awful bigot. But her curtain‐twitching reign is a fascinating piece of social history. 

This thoroughly researched series attempts to understand Whitehouse with far more wit, courtesy and depth than she ever demonstrated. It illustrates what happens when a small‐minded yet fairly charismatic and articulate person decides to launch a campaign against a world they can’t comprehend. 

It also confirms that Whitehouse had no concept of nuance or satire. A strange, oblivious, exasperating person. 

But she also had a canny knack for getting her puritanical message across in the very mass media she despised. A pioneering grifter. She’d be all over GB News these days.

Rescue: Extreme Medics – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

This urgent new series follows the fine men and women of the Scottish Trauma Network, an elite team of roving clinicians who serve as an emergency lifeline for the entire country.

Episode one focuses on medical emergencies in some of the most remote parts of Scotland. Patients include a man from Skye who is trapped under an all‐terrain vehicle, a middle‐aged cyclist who has experienced a head‐on collision with a digger in rural Aberdeenshire, and a teenage tree surgeon who has injured himself with a chainsaw. 

We’ve all seen shows like this before, you know what to expect in terms of tone and structure, but that doesn’t detract from the inherent drama and humanity of it all. 

Police Custody USA – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

Fans of 24 Hours in Police Custody are advised to check out this sombre new series, which is basically the same thing but set way over yonder in that there America. 

It begins with the tragic news of a Kansas man being shot dead at point blank range in broad daylight. A veteran pair of homicide detectives are tasked with solving this brutal crime. Interviews with witnesses lead them to believe that members of the victim’s family may be involved. But who was directly responsible? A young AWOL woman becomes the prime suspect, thus instigating a large‐scale hunt. 

If you fancy a binge, the entire series will be available on All 4 straight after this episode airs 

Concert for Ukraine – Tuesday, STV, 8pm

ITV and STV have joined forces with the Disasters Emergency Committee to stage this two‐hour fundraiser for the people of Ukraine. All sponsorship and advertising revenue generated from the broadcast will be donated to the DEC appeal. They expect to raise over £3 million. 

It’s a live event, so I’m afraid I can’t inform you of the line‐up (deadlines being what they are, I’m writing this nine days before the concert takes place), but the organisers have promised some big names from the musical stratosphere. So do keep an eye out for announcements as they unfold. 

And if you would like make a donation to the appeal, details of how to do so will be shared throughout the programme.

Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars – Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

The television career of Gordon Ramsay is one of life’s great mysteries. He’s a talented chef, no doubt about that, but even after all these years he looks utterly ill at ease in front of a camera. The man is not a natural broadcaster. 

And yet here he is with a derivative new series in which he promises to inject some of his own cash into the coffers of various food and drink entrepreneurs; but only if they’re deemed worthy of such a magnanimous gesture. It’s Gordon’s Den. Ramsay’s Apprentice. The format writes itself. 

I’m recommending this only because you might enjoy seeing what happens when desperate TV executives run out of ideas for their golden‐handcuffed Talent. 

Horizon: How to Sleep Well with Michael Mosley – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

Like so many of us, genial medical man Michael Mosley suffers from deeply frustrating sleep problems. As always, however, he’s here to help. 

We’re all aware that a comfortable sleep pattern can improve our physical and mental health, but what’s the key to a good night’s slumber? Mosley, a broadcaster you can trust, meets various experts while trying out bits and pieces of brand new sleep‐orientated technology. His wide‐ranging essay is largely informed by some pioneering Oxford University research. 

As someone who has struggled with insomnia for years, I found the programme quite helpful and informative. I daresay you will too. May the candy‐coloured clown they call the Sandman tiptoe to your room every night. 

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

The great Dame concludes her latest escapade in Berlin. She places this vibrant city in its deeply troubled historical context while showing how it’s moved on and thrived, albeit without ever forgetting the horrors of its past. 

She also rides pillion with a female biker gang, meets a gay and trans model/dance troupe, and sits down with a Holocaust survivor. If that sounds like a jarring shift in tone, please rest assured that Lumley handles it sensitively. 

At the risk of sounding overblown and trite, this series has been a much‐needed balm. It’s just a TV travelogue, I know. Nothing particularly important in the grand scheme of things, but it provided a little bit of hope for humanity. You enjoy your crumbs of comfort wherever you can find them.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Top of the Pops: The Story of 1992 – Saturday 19th March, BBC Two

I was a pop‐crazed youngster in 1992, so no wonder I adored this retrospective. We’ll ne’er be so innocent again.

The nation's favourite pop show was in flux at this stage, it had jettisoned the old guard in favour of presenters who were utterly bland as opposed to pathetically Jurassic. Some of the previous presenters were perfectly pleasant, of course, Janice Long and Kid Jensen chief among them. But in 1992 TOTP tried to keep up with the times, often to hilariously strange effect. Some wonderfully odd and brilliant television ensued. 

These compendiums are vital time capsules; warm‐hearted yet understandably amused essays that revel in the glorious madness of popular culture. Hats off to everyone involved. Get your kicks from it on iPlayer.

Killed By a Rich Kid – Monday 21st March, Channel 4

Three years ago, seventeen‐year‐old Yousef Makki was fatally stabbed on the streets of his affluent Greater Manchester neighbourhood. 

This crassly‐titled yet surprisingly thoughtful documentary paid tribute to Yousef while chronicling the events that led to his eventual tragic fate. It was terribly sad, messy and complicated. 

The programme challenged media‐led preconceptions about knife crime. After all, these young lads weren’t from a disadvantaged area. They had wealth served up on a silver platter, what could possibly lead them to senseless acts of violence? 

Yousef’s story didn’t conform to the usual (simplistic and patronising) narrative. But above all else, this stark document exposed innate failings in the judicial system and societal attitudes in general.