IT'S A SIN + SILENCED: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF DISABLED BRITAIN + BACK

A version of this article was first published in The Courier on 16th January 2021.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

It’s a Sin – Friday, Channel 4, 9pm

The great Russell T. Davies returns with this '80s-set drama about a group of friends dealing with the AIDS epidemic. It begins optimistically, with four young gay men and one straight woman embracing their newfound lives. Freedom at last. But we know what’s just around the corner. 

In typical Davies style, It's a Sin explodes with energy, wit and a sharp eye for detail. His dialogue sings, his characters are textured. No ciphers here. He handles human tragedy with compassion, but never sinks into cheap sentiment. And he absolutely does not judge with the benefit of hindsight. It’s frank, stark: it pulls no punches. It’s also funny. He can’t help being funny. 

Ever since Queer as Folk over 20 years ago, he’s been telling vital stories about the LGBT community. This is an essential addition to his life’s work.

Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema – Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout pop movies! Well, Kermode is anyway, as his enlightening series of essays continues. This genre combines his twin passions, so no wonder it’s one of his favourites. 

He begins with Bessie Smith in 1929 and ends with Beyoncé in 2020, taking in along the way various notable biopics, pop star vehicles, jukebox musicals and rockumentaries. 

Kermode fans won’t be surprised by some of his choices – famously, he once described the surprisingly gritty Slade in Flame as “the Citizen Kane of British pop movies” – but that doesn’t matter. It’s a pleasure listening to him wax lyrical about cult classics such as Jimmy Cliff’s trailblazing reggae drama, The Harder They Come, and The Monkees’ psychedelic masterpiece, Head.

Long Lost Family – Monday, STV, 9pm

If you’ve seen this show before, you’ll know how sensitive it is. The latest series begins with an Irish couple desperate to find out what happened to their first-born child. Phyllis and Kevin fell in love as teenagers. 

When she became pregnant, they knew it would cause a scandal within their strict Catholic community. They tried to run away, but were eventually forced to give their baby up for adoption. Ever since they’ve wanted him to know that he was loved.

Meanwhile, we meet a Scottish man who was, for complicated reasons, given away by his mother at an early age. He was taken in informally by a family, leaving no paper trail. Prepare to shed a tear or two.

Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In 2009, CBeebies presenter Cerrie Bernell attracted criticism from ‘concerned’ parents who claimed that her right arm, which ends just below the elbow, was frightening their children. 

Most people were appalled by such a blatant display of prejudice in our supposedly enlightened age, but as Bernell illustrates in this thoughtful documentary, these attitudes have been ingrained within society for an aeon and beyond. 

Her history lesson exposes a litany of blinkered assumptions, many of them made by well-meaning progressives who intensified the notion that people with disabilities can’t function within able-bodied society. They must be pitied, othered. For their own good. 

An often shocking saga, but Bernell provides some hope. We can challenge fear and bigotry by talking, listening and learning.

First Dates – Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

Lovers of the world unite, French Fred is back. I was suspicious of this amorous warhorse when it first appeared in 2013. A contrived, voyeuristic blind dating show? That’s bound to be quite nasty and embarrassing. But it’s not. 

Granted, the first episode of this latest series features a pair of young Tories who are objectively awful, but for the most part it’s a generous show that doesn’t beg us to sneer at people (sneering at Tories doesn’t count, they deserve it; fight the power, First Dates). 

Bittersweet service resumes with a charismatic former roadie, a charming Lithuanian woman and two men who have already slept with each other. Not all at the same time, of course! Sigh. Anyway, enjoy.

Back – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

Series one of this Mitchell and Webb sitcom was broadcast way back in the halcyon Before Times of 2017. Like their previous sitcom, the (journalese warning) cult smash Peep Show, it was enjoyed by the relatively small number of dedicated viewers who bothered to tune in. I was a member of that happy band, so I welcome its belated return. 

A farcical black comedy, it stars Mitchell as Stephen, a – what else? – stuffy neurotic whose life in rural Gloucestershire is sent into freefall when Andrew (Webb), a suspiciously benign stranger, turns up claiming to be his long-lost foster brother. The family welcome Andrew with open arms, but Stephen regards him as a scheming sociopath intent on stealing his soul. 

Created by Simon Blackwell (Peep Show; The Thick of It), it's notable for containing lots of actual jokes. Glory be.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Paul Sinha’s TV Showdown – Saturday 9th January, STV

This new TV quiz is quite good fun. The questions are incredibly easy, but it’s an amiable Saturday night time-passer. 

Dry-witted Chaser Paul Sinha is an obsessive pop culture trivia hound, a man after my own heart, so he’s the perfect choice of host. Team captains Rob Beckett (a professional comedian) and Faye Ripley (a Cold Feet actor) are merely there to make up the numbers.

Episode one’s undoubted highlight was Sinha deliberately mispronouncing John Fashanu’s surname a la Chris Morris in The Day Today, a niche comedy reference that pleased me to bits. The show inevitably leans towards TV that happened five minutes ago – no one was asked to identify Talfryn Thomas – but Sinha just about makes it work.

Happy Birthday Mr Bean – Sunday 10th January, STV

On New Year’s Day 1990, Rowan Atkinson unleashed his latest comic persona: the semi-silent Mr Bean, a selfish, spiteful yet weirdly endearing agent of chaos. Bean went on to become a global phenomenon, delighting millions with the universal language of slapstick. 

This was a cut above most comedy retrospectives in that it focused on the people who were actually responsible for creating the work in question. There were no celebrity talking heads gushing pointlessly over their favourite scenes. Instead, writers Richard Curtis, Robin Driscoll and the rubber-faced funnyman ™ himself delivered some insight into their creative process. 

Atkinson is renowned for his perfectionism, but wishes he wasn’t. “It’s more of a disease,” he lamented. “It’s very draining.”

 

TV PREVIEW: Peep Show, Storyville: Why Poverty?

This article was originally published in The Scotsman on Saturday 24th November.

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/tv-and-radio

PEEP SHOW

Sunday, Channel 4, 10pm

WHY POVERTY? STORYVILLE: GIVE US THE MONEY

Sunday, BBC4, 9pm

WHY POVERTY? STORYVILLE: STEALING AFRICA

Monday, BBC4, 10pm

WHY POVERTY? STORYVILLE: PARK AVENUE - MONEY, POWER AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Tuesday, BBC4, 10pm

Paul Whitelaw

Unless you're the sort of person who cracks up at the mere sight of Micky Flanagan, the clinically housebound and gypsies, Channel 4, 30 years young this year, is no longer synonymous with comedy of quality and distinction. Indeed, were it not for prolific scriptwriting duo Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, they couldn't honestly boast any good comedy at all.

So it's little wonder that PEEP SHOW, which begins its eighth series this week, is by far the channel's longest running sitcom. While it could never claim to be much of a ratings winner, this black farce about a pair of co-dependent thirty-something losers has attracted a loyal cult and consistent critical acclaim.

Winner of numerous awards, it is, alongside Armstrong and Bain's enjoyable student comedy Fresh Meat, Channel 4's only reliable source of mirth. And while it's to their credit that they've stuck with it for so long, you get the sense of them gratefully clinging on to it for dear life, in the eager hope of deflecting attention from their otherwise moribund cache.

So here it is, back again, in its new Sunday evening, post-Homeland slot, presumably in the further hope of picking up new viewers in need of a laugh after an hour of teeth-clenched suspense. Not that that strategy really worked in the case of recently departed sitcom Friday Night Dinner (it's got Friday in the title, for God's sake, it shouldn't be shown on a Sunday), but I suppose it's worth another punt.

For those of you new to the Peep Show universe, the premise couldn't be simpler. Portrayed respectively by comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Mark and Jeremy are former student chums who, despite having practically nothing in common, have somehow found themselves sharing a flat well into adulthood.

In classic odd couple style, Mark is fastidious, square and neurotic, while Jeremy lives a feckless, irresponsible lifestyle fuelled by soft drugs and the erroneous belief that he will one day be recognised as a talented musician. They don't particularly like each other; indeed, their only fleeting joy in life comes from petty one-upmanship. But, like so many sitcom couplings before them, in a perverse way they need each other. Their strained mutual dependency is probably preferable to the terror of forming a normal relationship in a functioning society that neither feels comfortable in.

Distinctively filmed from each character's subjective point of view, and peppered with inner monologues which often provide the biggest laughs, Peep Show is a comedy of anxiety and discomfort. But unlike most post-The Office shows in that vein, it is at its heart a traditional British sitcom full of sharp, funny dialogue and deft comic performances.

So that's yer Peep Show.

As series eight begins, Mark is finally on the verge of kicking Jeremy out, in the hope of achieving the hitherto unimaginable feat of living conventionally with his girlfriend, Dobby. Typically, however, Jeremy is dragging his heels and Dobby seems more concerned with looking after her sick friend – and one of Mark's many nemeses – Gerrard. In a desperate attempt to oust Jeremy – and partly for his own amusement – Mark pays for him to take a potentially life-healing course of therapy, with inevitably ridiculous and far-reaching results.

As a Peep Show fan, I wouldn't rate this as one of the strongest episodes, but it certainly doesn't signify a drastic drop in quality. Indeed, episode three of this series, in which the team go paint-balling, is up among its best in a while. But its weirdly comforting having these spiteful, awful idiots back in one's life for a while. And if you're new to the show, it may well mark the start of a beautiful relationship.

An earth-quaking shift in tone now as we enter BBC4's new Why Poverty? season, consisting of several Storyville documentaries in which the BBC, together with over 70 broadcasters around the world, probe into the shameful issue of global poverty.

Bono and Bob Geldof, who despite their best efforts have so far failed to make poverty history as promised, are the subject of GIVE US THE MONEY, which examines their epic campaign to bring aid to Africa. Commendably even-handed, it features several dissenting voices who argue that, despite their undoubted sincerity, these messianic musicians have actually achieved more harm than good, although Bono and Bob themselves – both on self-deprecating and, yes, likeable form throughout – unsurprisingly beg to differ. It's a thought-provoking rumination on the moral complexities of charity and the cult of celebrity.

Preview copies of STEALING AFRICA were unavailable at the time of writing, but it promises to uncover the tax avoidance schemes employed by western multinationals operating in poverty-stricken Zambia. It sounds like the kind of thing to make you despair of the human race.

Similar selfishness abounds in PARK AVENUE: MONEY, POWER AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, a despairing film contrasting the game-rigged comfort of New York's wealthiest residents with the hopeless poverty of the South Bronx neighbourhoods which lie just ten minutes away. Capitalism, eh? It's a million laughs.