THE WEDDING | LOUIS THEROUX INTERVIEWS... | SAS ROGUE HEROES

This article was originally published in The Courier on 5th November 2022.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

The Wedding – Monday and Thursday, BBC Scotland, 10:30pm

This is one of the best things I’ve seen on TV of late. Originally released as six short bittersweet monologues on iPlayer, it’s presented this week as a compilation spread over two episodes. 

The drama unfolds at a Black Scottish wedding. The disparate characters include a gay (second) best man who’s had enough of living in the margins, an unhappy teenage girl struggling with the pressures of social media, a gambling addicted uncle at the end of his tether, and a Nigerian bartender who powerfully reflects upon the violent patriarchal society she’s escaped from. 

A collaboration between several acclaimed Black artists, The Wedding is an utterly compelling and beautifully performed piece. It’s intelligent, insightful, nuanced and moving. It lingers.

Trapped, Disabled & Abused: Dispatches – Monday, Channel 4, 8:30pm

Disabled people in the UK today experience far more domestic violence than non-disabled people. In this Dispatches documentary, reporter Sophie Morgan speaks to disabled victims while exposing the shocking lack of support they receive. 

The programme visits Britain’s only refuge run by – and for – survivors of such abuse. Dispatches have also interviewed over 2000 frontline professionals, including healthcare workers and police officers. Their findings reveal that more than half of those professionals wouldn't know which specialist service to refer a disabled person to. 

I honestly believe that the vast majority of human beings are decent and kind, but how are they expected to assist particularly vulnerable people when there’s no organised system of care?

Between the Covers – Tuesday, BBC Two, 7pm

The latest series of Sara Cox’s cosy little book club welcomes actor Amanda Abbington, former marine turned broadcaster JJ Chalmers, TV’s very own Graham Norton, and Alex Jones from The One Show. 

There is much to discuss as always. Among the new recommendations are The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers; actor Phil Davis describes the basic gist of the novel in a pre-filmed insert. 

Meanwhile, Abbington and Cox cheerfully confess to a bizarre trait - they read the last page of a novel before buying it. If that last page sounds intriguing, they’ll make a purchase. Yep, I know. That’s like watching Jaws for the first time on rewind. Oh well, whatever works for you.

Louis Theroux Interviews… – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

This week’s guest is Yungblud, a pop-punk star with an intensely devoted fan-base. 

Yungblud has been commendably open about his mental health issues, and yet he’s been repeatedly forced to answer that age-old credibility question: are you 4 Real? Isn’t he just a careerist stage school kid? 

Louis, of course, has no truck with this crass, binary argument. He’s more interested in exploring the emotional complexities of Yungblud’s position as an inarticulate spokesperson who’s presumably sincere, but who desperately craves love and validation from the people he supposedly speaks for. 

Something occurred to me while watching this: as an interviewer, Louis is up there with the late, great Mavis Nicholson in terms of gently probing acuity and empathy.

Miriam and Alan: Lost in Scotland and Beyond – Tuesday, Channel 4, 9:15pm

Showbiz pals Miram Margolyes and Alan Cumming are back for another merry travelogue. This time they’re accompanied by Alan’s dog, Lala. Every second series needs a twist. 

And there’s more: as the title suggests, they’re not just confining themselves to the multitudinous joys and beauty of Scotland during this trip. Local boy made good Cumming has a home in sunny California ™. Margolyes, an actor who’s enjoyed an absolutely fascinating career, used to live there too. 

But their journey begins in the Cairngorms. Then it’s off to Dundee, where they meet with mutual pal Brian Cox. As an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, Cumming conducts a LGBTQ+ wedding. Margolyes strips off. It really is all happening.

Return to Uist – Wednesday, BBC Scotland, 8:30pm

The stars of this charming new series are Alex, his fiancée Susannah and their son Cedar. They’ve decided to make a life-changing move from inner-city London to the remote Outer Hebrides, where they set about building a house and farmstead. An ambitious plan. 

Susannah, a bohemian artist, was raised in Uist, but left as soon as she could. Upon reflection, however, she thinks it might be the perfect environment for her family. 

Alex is a successful gardener and blogger. He’s also the only Black person on the island, so feels a long way from home. 

Return to Uist proves that, with the right cast of characters, TV’s standard ‘in at the deep end’ format will always reap rewards.

Unreported World – Friday, Channel 4, 7:30pm

This week’s destination is rural Guatemala, where young girls are routinely abused and nothing is ever done to protect them. 

I sometimes hesitate to recommend this outstanding foreign affairs strand, which has been running on Channel 4 for 22 years, but only for this reason and this reason alone: I don’t wish to upset anyone with harrowing details. 

But if, after all this time, you trust me and – far more importantly – the estimable journalists from the Unreported World team, you’ll understand that this is a vitally important institution. There is no graphic imagery, but the stories are heart-breaking. 

It goes out in a pre-watershed slot on Fridays, when we’re presumably all kicking off our shoes and trying to escape. That’s not accidental.

LAST WEEK’S TV

SAS Rogue Heroes – Sunday 30th October, BBC One

The latest series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is loosely based on the formation of the SAS during WWII. 

I say ‘loosely’, as although it’s rooted in actual fact, we’re all aware that Knight is a post-modernist who revels in heightened versions of reality. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you remain true to the historical integrity of your story.

People more learned than I have assured me that he’s more or less fulfilled that brief. 

So what we have here is a fairly entertaining WWII drama shot through the irreverent yet fundamentally sincere prism of someone who grew up watching war films on TV. And you’ve gotta love that AC/DC soundtrack.

Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez – Sunday 30th October, BBC Two

Dr Janina Ramirez is one of TV’s most engaging historians. Her scholarly essays are always worth perusing. 

In this one, Ramirez dug deep into the murky legend of Howard Carter, the British archaeologist and Egyptologist who unearthed Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. 

Carter didn’t achieve that remarkable feat on his own, of course, but he basked in all the glory and printed the myth. The local Valley of the Kings experts? Why, they were mere guides towards his deservedly ordained crown of ultimate trailblazing glory. Right. Whatever you say, Howie. 

Ramirez didn’t come to bury Carter, she gave credit where it was due. He was a privileged western product of his post-Edwardian times, with all that uncomfortably entails.

 

TV Review: TUTANKHAMUN + HIM

This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 22 October 2016.

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

Tutankhamun: Sunday, STV

HIM: Wednesday, STV

Paul Whitelaw

It’s not often you see a blustering character actor sporting both pince-nez and fez these days. That, I believe, is where society has gone wrong. 

So tasselled hats off to Tutankhamun, a four-part epic of the old-school based on the 1922 discovery of the legendary Egyptian tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

As our story began, various brandy-sipping gold-diggers grumbled that Egypt’s Valley of the Kings was all “dug out”. Having been mined for years, it was thought to be a barren wasteland as far as ancient treasures go. 

But Carter - a socially awkward yet fiercely driven maverick with a headstrong moustache - thought otherwise. He just knew there was something else, something incredible, waiting down there.

Carter is mentored by Sam Neill manfully resisting the temptation to ham it up as one-legged Lord Carnarvon, a colonial cove who decided to mount an archaeological expedition to stave off boredom. His friendship with Carter provides something approaching an emotional core.

There’s no suspense whatsoever, of course. We know how this story pans out. That wouldn’t matter if the characters weren’t so papyrus-thin (Carter’s American love interest exists solely to drive the plot by giving him insights into his own feelings).

The dialogue leaves nothing to the imagination, it’s almost entirely expository. You want historical context? Then try this for size: “Some idiot kid just shot the Archduke of Austria and his wife!” Thanks for that.

Normally, writing of this nature would drive me mad, but I’ll let Tutankhamun off as it takes place in a land of hokum, where subtlety has no place. It has no pretensions towards high-minded drama, it’s just a good old-fashioned piece of mindless escapism.

Yes, it could be objectively better – a dash of wit wouldn’t go amiss – but it looks suitably panoramic and at least the pace never drags.

An enjoyable load of old Tut.

By contrast, HIM is a drama that takes itself very seriously indeed, and ends up looking utterly foolish as a result.

It’s a risible supernatural saga about a troubled, angry, sensitive teenager with a nasty case of telekinesis. The son of divorced parents, his powers flare up whenever he’s emotionally upset, which is 90% of the time. It’s Stephen King’s Carrie meets Kevin the Teenager.

His supposedly disturbing displays of mind-magic are inadvertently funny, especially when he almost murdered his antagonistic stepdad with the floating contents of a tool bag. I’ve seen scarier things in Rentaghost (seriously, I have).

He/Him (we never learn his name) also seeks advice from a saintly old white-haired grandma in a care home, who’s the only person who understands him. When she urges him to use his gifts for good, he helpfully changes the TV channel from afar for the old dears in the communal living room. It’s hilarious.

The sight of a pregnant woman being drowned by a burst water tank shouldn’t be funny, but HIM somehow turns even that into a piece of comedy gold.

Whereas the lack of subtlety in silly old Tutankhamun is more or less acceptable, it’s wince-inducing in this supposedly serious drama.

Written by long-serving TV dramatist Paula Milne, whose heavy-handed work I’ve never rated, HIM is clearly intended as a novel way of studying family dysfunction and the traumatic effects of loss and divorce on children.

But all it proves is that Milne doesn’t have much self-awareness, otherwise she’d realise how ridiculous the whole thing is.