This article was originally published in The Courier on 9th April 2022.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
Derry Girls – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm
The third and final series of Lisa McGee’s semiautobiographical sitcom begins with the gang nervously awaiting their potentially life-changing GCSE results. Such is their anxiety, they impetuously decide upon an unwise course of action. Inadvertent criminality ensues.
Derry Girls is Channel 4’s most popular comedy since Father Ted, and you can easily see why. It’s warm, funny, charming and truthful, a perfectly cast sitcom set against a tumultuous backdrop which, thanks to McGee’s deft writing, never once strayed into sentimental or earnest territory.
This particular episode returns to the underlying theme of sectarianism, but typically in a way no one could ever find offensive. Well, apart from the 1990s Derry police force perhaps. Also, two words: surprise cameo.
House of Maxwell – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
And the awful plot just thickens. Episode two of this disturbing series begins with the discovery of Robert Maxwell’s drowned body. His distraught daughter Ghislaine, who has hitherto maintained a low public profile, speaks to the world’s assembled press.
Meanwhile, panicked executives within Maxwell’s empire are finally free to investigate suspicious holes in their company finances. An intrepid young journalist is also on the case. Maxwell is eventually exposed as a monstrous fraudster.
The programme also traces Ghislaine Maxwell’s emergence as a schmoozing socialite with friends in high places. One of her new cohorts is the mysterious multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
A miasmic saga populated by truly despicable people, House of Maxwell triggers strong feelings of anger and despair.
Worlds Collide: The Manchester Bombing – Monday and Thursday, STV, 9pm
On 22nd May 2017, a British-born terrorist detonated a suicide bomb at the Manchester Arena. He killed 22 people and injured more than 1,000 others.
This two-part documentary pays moving tribute to the victims and survivors. It’s also a damning critique of Greater Manchester Police, who were allegedly responsible for a chaotic breakdown in communication which impeded the emergency services. More lives could’ve been saved.
These programmes also investigate the background of the bomber, a young man from Manchester, and attempts to explain how he came to be radicalised. MI5 had flagged him up as a potential threat to national security, and yet he somehow went on to commit this atrocity.
The message is clear: it could’ve been prevented.
Hullraisers – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:45pm
Channel 4’s Tuesday night comedy power hour continues after Derry Girls with this new sitcom co-created by Lucy Beaumont (Meet the Richardsons).
Set in her hometown of Hull, it revolves around Toni, a happily married yet frustrated thirtysomething mum who misses the wildness of her untethered youth. Toni’s best friends are a libidinous policewoman and a perfectly contented matriarch.
The opening episode of every sitcom faces a tough climb. Over the space of 30 minutes it has to establish the premise, the characters and the various things that drive them. Hullraisers does a pretty decent job. It’s good-natured and amusing. The characters are sympathetic. A laugh riot? No. But mirthsome skirmishes are hard to come by.
Grand Designs: The Streets – Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm
In this spin-off from Kevin McCloud’s stalwart lifestyle show, he visits an ever-expanding community of self-builders. Seven years ago, an Oxfordshire district council sold ten plots of land to members of the public. An ambitious architectural project ensued.
Episode one focuses on Carlos and Maite. The latter has always wanted to build a grand house inspired by her rural Spanish homeland, but she has no formal design training. Nevertheless, McCloud is impressed by her elegant if somewhat risky vision.
Fans of Grand Designs always look forward to those moments when the host regards his subjects with wry scepticism, bordering on contempt, but Maite is nobody’s fool. McCloud is even moved to describe her as a nonconformist pioneer.
Brickies – Thursday, BBC Three, 9pm
The building site fun continues in this sunny new factual series about a group of young British bricklayers. The main protagonist in episode one is Jeorgia. Laying bricks is in her blood, she learned everything she knows from her successful brickie father.
Jeorgia lives with her boyfriend in a large static caravan situated on her parent’s land. She’s saving up to buy an expensive car. If Brickies teaches us anything, it’s that this is a potentially lucrative business. Just as long as you put the hours in.
Jeorgia and her bantering colleagues are a nice bunch of kids. They all appear to be loving life, and no wonder. Working on the site from morning ‘til night, that’s living alright.
Taskmaster – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm
Series thirteen of this genial harlequinade introduces another group of professional funsters intent on conquering daft tasks set by Greg Davies and his co-host Alex Horne.
Your competitors this time around are Bridget Christie, Sophie Duker, Judi Love, Ardal O’Hanlon and Chris Ramsey. Highlights include their efforts to paint a portrait of Davies using only their lips – some of the finished products are actually quite impressive – and a task in which they get to lay down the ridiculous rules of a duel with Horne.
In spite of its post-watershed
slot, Taskmaster is wholesome fun for
all the family. Channel 4 are aware of this, hence why they bleep out the
swearing. It’s a big hit for good reason.
LAST WEEK’S TV
Thatcher & Reagan: A Very Special Relationship – Sunday 3rd April, BBC Two
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were in power together throughout the 1980s. They were closely aligned in terms of political philosophy. And they apparently liked each other on a personal level. This series examines their union.
It’s presented by Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph and Thatcher’s authorised biographer, so obviously it has a right-wing bias. Moore admires these people. But even a milksop hippie clown such as myself can appreciate the heft of this fascinating saga. It covers a tense and dramatic period in late 20th century history.
Moore’s interviewees include some of Thatcher and Reagan’s closest professional associates. Their candour is quite refreshing. I guess they have nothing to lose at this stage.
Pilgrimage: The Road to the Scottish Isles – Friday 8th April, BBC Two
This series has a straightforward remit: seven celebs with differing religious beliefs embark upon a 15-day hike of spiritual self-discovery. Among the seekers this year are Laurence Lewellyn Bowen (a Pagan), Nick Hewer (an agnostic), Shazia Mirza (a Muslim) and Scarlett Moffatt (a Christian).
They’re following in the sandaled footsteps of St. Columba, an Irish monk revered for his pivotal role in the early development of British Christianity. The journey began in Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Their final destination is St. Columba’s abbey on the Inner Hebridean island of Iona.
It’s an entirely sincere and benign endeavour, a modest celebration of theological diversity. With a slightly One Show-esque celebrity angle, because, y’know, television.
