THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGIE COLE + JIMMY McGOVERN'S MOVING ON

This article was originally published in The Courier on 29th February 2019.

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THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGIE COLE

Wednesday, STV, 9pm

Dawn French stars in this likeable comedy-drama set, like 98% of all ITV dramas ever, in a picturesque English coastal village. She plays a local historian and cheerful chatterbox who inadvertently harms her close-knit community during a tipsy interview with an unscrupulous regional radio journalist. Maggie isn’t a bad person, but her fondness for gossip proves disastrous. Appearing in bittersweet confections such as this appears to be the fate of every major ‘80s alternative comedian, but there are worse ways to spend the autumn of one’s career. The Trouble with Maggie Cole is a watchable piece of fluff buoyed by an engaging performance from French and a solid supporting cast including Mark Heap, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Vicki Pepperdine.

JIMMY McGOVERN’S MOVING ON

Monday to Friday, BBC One, 2:15pm

A series of standalone dramas curated by one of British television’s greatest dramatists, Moving On adds a sprinkling of grit to the lightweight daytime TV schedules. These disparate plays are united by the theme of characters at a turning point in their lives. This time around we meet a recently released ex-con struggling to adapt to life on the outside, a blind woman about to undergo surgery to restore her sight, a young mother dealing with bereavement, a middle-aged woman being threatened with redundancy, and a retired rugby hero who’s hidden his homosexuality from the public for decades (not all at the same time, of course). A valuable breeding ground for emerging writers, Moving On reflects the compassion and humanity that define their mentor’s work.

AGE OF THE IMAGE

Monday, BBC Four, 9pm

This expansive essay from art historian James Fox begins with the dispiriting spectacle of Louvre visitors taking selfies in front of the Mona Lisa. “Why do we feel compelled to do this?” Fox asks. “The answer, I think, lies in a revolution in visual culture that has turned us into a population of image addicts.” This obsession began over one hundred years ago. Fox, in his slightly sinister yet oddly captivating way, examines the history of visual language throughout the ages. He begins with the early 20th century pioneers who captured and manipulated the space-time continuum. The starry cast includes Edison, Dali and Buster Keaton, but Fox also pays enthusiastic tribute to some unsung geniuses. This is what BBC Four is for.

TIGERS: HUNTING THE TRAFFICKERS

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Tigers are on the verge of extinction. “They’re being hunted because people in China and Vietnam want to consume them,” explains former Royal Marines commando Aldo Kane, who presents this grim frontline/undercover report. Kane trains anti-poaching units in South East Asia, where wine made from tiger bones is a popular libation. It’s a growth industry with dwindling resources, but certain governments, zoos and farms in that part of the world provide support. I’m always wary of righteous westerners barging into foreign cultures and wagging their fingers, but that, thankfully, isn’t what happens here. Kane draws attention to a dedicated South East Asian movement set up in opposition to an appalling animal rights atrocity.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 23rd February, BBC One

This year’s two-part finale got off to a decent, if unevenly paced, start with an apocalyptic Cyberman epic. Chibnall’s clunky ‘say what you see’ dialogue is something we just have to begrudgingly accept, but he does know how to throw a superficially entertaining, action-packed yarn together. There’s an awful lot to wrap up in episode 10, though. If he pulls it off, I’ll be flabbergasted.

FLESH AND BLOOD

Monday 24th February to Thursday 27th, STV

This generically titled drama turned out to be a serviceable potboiler about an extended middle-class family dealing with the standard everyday miasma of secrets, lies and murder. Imelda Staunton and Stephen Rea added more class than it deserved.

THE WINDSORS

Tuesday 25th February, Channel 4

The latest series of this agreeably disrespectful sitcom/soap pastiche about the Royal Family has more to deal with than usual. Harry and Meghan’s abdication is a mere amuse bouche compared to the sordid details of Andrew’s private life. Apart from a brief mention of Epstein – presumably a last-minute addition – episode one side-lined the sweat-challenged monarch. The Windsors always tries to remain topical, and they’ve promised to tackle him in future episodes, but God only knows how they’ll handle it. The severity of that scandal won’t mix comfortably with the cartoony, knockabout tone of the show.

INSIDE NO. 9 + ERIC BURDON: ROCK 'N' ROLL ANIMAL

This article was originally published in The Courier on 22nd February 2019.

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INSIDE NO. 9

Monday, BBC Two, 10pm

Reece Shearsmith indulges his passion for magic in this enjoyable episode about an arrogant and highly secretive illusionist whose murky past comes back to haunt him. Every instalment of Inside No. 9 involves a certain amount of ingenious sleight-of-hand – the episode title is Misdirection - so no wonder this milieu provides them with ample opportunity to wrong-foot the audience. Going into any more detail would, of course, spoil the macabre fun, but Misdirection is Shearsmith and Pemberton (who plays an older magician with a mind-melting trick up his sleeve) at their most Tales of the Unexpected-like. It’s a claustrophobic journey into the Magic Circle of Hell.

BACK IN TIME FOR THE CORNER SHOP

Tuesday, BBC Two, 8pm

A breezy piece of social history wedded to a simple, sure-fire formula, Back In Time… will doubtless still be running long after we’ve all become history ourselves. The latest series tasks a British family with running a traditional corner shop over several replicated decades (mother Jo’s great-grandparents ran one for real). It begins in the Victorian era, when this pillar of the community was born. Sara Cox and social historian Polly Russell guide the family through their never-ending daily chores; life for a Victorian shopkeeper involved churning butter, picking strawberries, slaving in the kitchen, making deliveries via horse and cart, and risking a hernia by carrying enormous bollards of cheese. As always, it’s a likeable, mildly diverting lesson.

HOSPITAL

Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

With the NHS under increasing threat, this candid observational documentary carries a severely urgent weight. It was filmed a few months ago in seven Liverpool hospitals, where staff and patients struggle to cope within an overworked and cash-strapped system. Episode three unfolds in a unit devoted to cardiac disease. The waiting list presents an ethical and logistical nightmare; operations for patients at high risk are being constantly delayed. Everyone has to cope as best they can. There are, thank God, moments of hope amidst the overarching gloom, as we witness dedicated doctors, surgeons and nurses literally saving lives, but it’s hard to banish the dire feeling that Hospital is a document of a vital institution in terminal decline.

ERIC BURDON: ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ANIMAL

Friday, BBC Four, 9:30pm

He was the electrifying, lupine-lunged leader of The Animals, who fought hard and heavy during the British Invasion. He became a leading – if somewhat foolish – light in the flower power movement and scored hits with the multiracial funk band War. And yet Eric Burdon remains somewhat overlooked. This profile gives him his due. An engaging raconteur, Burdon rakes over his eventful life with support from admirers such as Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Sting. It’s the story of how a working-class Newcastle kid with a deep love of black American music made it, just about, in a poisonous industry. Burdon doesn’t hold back on his justifiable bitterness, and his once great voice is shot, but he’s no casualty. He survived.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 16th February, BBC One

This was, by some considerable margin, the best episode of Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who to date (he didn’t write it). A witty and atmospheric Gothic horror yarn in which the Doctor and co visited Mary Shelley on the dark and stormy night of her fateful Frankenstein nightmare, it encompassed an authentically disturbing half-formed Cyberman, plus hints towards whatever Chibnall has in store for the season finale. It was trad, dad, and all the better for it.

CONFRONTING HOLOCAUST DENIAL WITH DAVID BADDIEL + INSIDE NO. 9

This article was originally published in The Courier on 15th February 2020.

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CONFRONTING HOLOCAUST DENIAL WITH DAVID BADDIEL

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Baddiel begins this documentary with a great old joke, a joke that could only offend one despicable subsection of society: Holocaust deniers. The Holocaust is a highly-documented matter of fact, and yet one in six people around the world believe it’s either been exaggerated or didn’t happen at all. These virulent anti-Semites feed off decades of deep-rooted lies. Their hateful voices refuse to be silenced by overwhelming volumes of contrary evidence. Denied of a mainstream platform, they broadcast their bigotry – insidiously and overtly - via social media and underground networks. Baddiel, whose ancestors were among the six million Jews murdered during World War Two, confronts this dense web of false history with acute self-awareness and soul-searching anger.

INSIDE NO. 9

Monday, BBC Two, 10pm

Mike Leigh has always been a major influence on Pemberton and Shearsmith, but never more explicitly than in this quietly devastating episode. It takes its cues, not from the bleakly comic Leigh of Abigail’s Party or Nuts in May, but from the likes of Secrets and Lies; a sad, intimate domestic drama with an aching human heart. The naturalistic performances and social-realist milieu also owe a strong debt to Ken Loach and Shane Meadows. It takes place over the Christmas period in a working-class family kitchen, their story gradually revealed in non-linear form. Don’t expect many laughs; this is the endlessly flexible Inside No. 9 in serious mode, but it never feels like a self-conscious experiment. It’s genuine, compassionate, one of their best.

PRISON

Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

This observational documentary series unfolds in a progressive British prison where over 300 women are incarcerated. It begins with new inmates arriving at the facility, many of them unused to serving time. They’re greeted by old hands offering friendly advice on how to survive a hectic environment. But Porridge it ain’t. We also meet sanguine prison officers who open up about their responsibilities: “You can be everything from an auntie, a social worker, probation worker to an officer in here. Everything at once.” Prison is sad yet sometimes funny, but it doesn’t tut, sneer, simplify or sentimentalise; it seeks to understand what life is actually like for vulnerable people who find themselves in a claustrophobic situation fraught with daily complications.

CILLA: THE LOST TAPES

Wednesday, STV, 9pm

When ‘Our Cilla’ passed away in 2015, Britain mourned the loss of someone who’d been part of our lives for decades. Two years later, her family unearthed a wealth of home movie footage. This programme dusts it down for public consumption in the company of celebrity chums such as Cliff Richard and Paul O’Grady. Assisted by audio recordings of a reflective Cilla in conversation with her ghost writer, narrator Sheridan Smith (star of ITV’s excellent Cilla) respectfully delves into the life and career of a sometimes difficult yet charismatic entertainer. Highlights include Cilla skiing with George Martin, Cilla hanging out with Ringo (who once proposed to her) and Basil Brush (who didn’t), and Cilla giving a Black Power salute (?!).

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 9th February, BBC One

Another well-intentioned message – you don’t have to shoulder your depression, anxiety and grief alone – was undermined by some awkward execution in this frustrating episode. It contained some good ideas and a rare opportunity for Yaz to actually do something, but the constituent parts never quite clicked into a satisfying whole. When we eventually look back upon the Chibnall era, the charitable consensus will be this: an occasionally competent hack who meant well. Truly a golden age.

THE PALE HORSE

Sunday 9th February, BBC One

Agatha Christie’s work will inspire adaptations until humanity gasps its last, but Sarah Phelps deserves special mention as one of the Dame’s finest interpreters. This two-part drama is, according to Phelps, the last time she’ll dip her quill into the canon (at least for a while). The Pale Horse is typical in that it's faithful to the source material while adding notes of perceptive social commentary which never feel out of place. Phelps has always managed to preserve the seediness, queasiness and horror at the heart of Christie's best work; she never once succumbed to drawing room cosiness. Christie would’ve surely approved.

FRANKIE BOYLE’S TOUR OF SCOTLAND

Friday 14th February, BBC Two

Boyle is living proof that artists can evolve and mature without becoming boring. I never had any time for his early incarnation as a smugly sneering shock comic, but the real Boyle – an intelligent, politicised, softly-spoken, funny man – is well-served by TV vehicles such as this, in which he satirises the clichés of comedy travelogues while imbuing them with some class-conscious depth. Last week’s leg examined the profound significance of Scottish comedy, literature and colloquial language.

MARY BEARD'S SHOCK OF THE NUDE + INSIDE NO. 9 + DOCTOR WHO

This article was originally published in The Courier on 1st February 2020.

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MARY BEARD’S SHOCK OF THE NUDE

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

The history of Western art is crammed with naked bodies. Mary Beard casts her shrewd expert eye over this orgiastic obsession in a probing, irreverent and informative two-part series, wherein she grapples with “the problems, the anxieties and the scandals surrounding the image of the naked body ever since the Ancient Greeks.” The art establishment has always tried to defend itself from accusations of objectifying women, but Beard sees right through such mendacity, hypocrisy and gross oversimplification. She analyses problematic expressions of the erotic male gaze – many of them considered masterpieces – and looks at how female artists have responded to this fig-leafed tradition. She also traces the unusual history of idealised naked men in art.

INSIDE NO. 9

Monday, BBC Two, 10pm

All good people agree that Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s darkly comic anthology series is one of the best and most consistently inventive television shows of recent years. Series 5 kicks off in a football referee’s changing room before, during and after a fraught match. David Morrissey plays a consummately professional ref on the verge of retirement, with Pemberton, Shearsmith and Ralf Little as his temperamentally mismatched linesmen. Although it’s not one of the strongest episodes – it feels quite slight by Pemberton and Shearsmith’s usual standards – it still displays their impressive ability to weave comedy, drama and rounded characters into a single 30 minute narrative. They’re masters of the form, Rod Serling by way of Victoria Wood and Alan Bennett.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT: INSIDE THE WELFARE STATE

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Universal Credit is the biggest and most controversial (i.e. catastrophic) overhaul of the welfare state in a generation. The government insists that it was supposed to simplify the benefits system and encourage the unemployed back into work, but instead it has caused chaos and suffering for the millions of people who rely on it to survive. It has driven claimants further into poverty. People are dying as a result. This sobering series gains access to the much-maligned Department of Work and Pensions. We also meet sympathetic jobcentre employees and claimants, including a desperate middle-aged man who’s recently been made homeless, and a single mother of two who struggles with depression and anxiety caused by her dire situation.

BARRYMORE: THE BODY IN THE POOL

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

In March 2001, Stuart Lubbock died at a drug-fuelled party held at Michael Barrymore’s home. To this day the case remains unsolved. This research-heavy, 90-minute documentary attempts to examine the full, murky story. Preview copies weren’t available at the time of writing – possibly for sensitive legal reasons – but it sounds potentially fascinating. The Lubbock case is rife with unanswered questions, as no one has ever spoken openly about what happened that night. We do know that Barrymore denies any involvement and that his once successful career has, for obvious reasons, never recovered. The film features contributions from members of the Lubbock family, as well as eyewitnesses, detectives and forensic pathologists. Barrymore himself appears only in archive footage.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 26th January, BBC One

Fair play to Chris Chibnall, he managed to keep the grin-inducing return of good old Captain Jack (the effervescent John Barrowman, having a ball as usual) under wraps; a welcome rarity in this spoilerific age. Also, in another fine twist, this enjoyably berserk episode introduced the first person of colour (Jo Martin, pictured) to play the Doctor. Or did it? I don’t trust Chibnall to satisfactorily conclude his intriguing story arc, but I’ll gladly eat humble P if I'm wrong.

 

THE WINDERMERE CHILDREN + FARAGE: THE MAN WHO MADE BREXIT

This article was originally published in The Courier on 25th January 2020.

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THE WINDERMERE CHILDREN

Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

A series of programmes commemorating 75 years since the end of the Holocaust begins with this haunting factual drama. When peace was declared in 1945, the British government agreed to give refuge to 1000 child survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. 300 of them were brought to a wartime housing estate near Lake Windermere. Utterly traumatised, they struggled to acclimatise to the very ideas of liberty and kindness. The counsellors responsible for rehabilitating them soon became aware of how incredibly difficult that task would be. You can never fully recover from such a harrowing ordeal, but hopefully you can live again. A powerful piece, The Windermere Children features a cast of fine young actors plus seasoned pros such as Romola Garai and Iain Glen.

BELSEN: OUR STORY

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

British citizens who survived Belsen return to the site in this starkly descriptive documentary. Although Belsen wasn’t equipped with gas chambers, it was Hell on Earth. Inmates fending for their lives were surrounded by rotting corpses. The stench of sickness and death was everywhere. It’s also a horrifying symbol of how The Final Solution unravelled towards the end of the war. A landmark report by journalist Richard Dimbleby, who was there when the British army liberated Belsen, informed the world at large about the full extent of Nazi atrocities. The army were so horrified by what they found, they burned the camp to the ground. Documents such as this ensure that it will always exist. It will never – must never – be forgotten.

AUSCHWITZ UNTOLD: IN COLOUR

Wednesday, Channel 4, 10:30pm

Against a backdrop of subtly colourised archive footage, this immersive film focuses on some of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors. The colourisation aspect isn’t a cheap gimmick. It is, like Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, a sensitive and effective way of bringing ghosts back to life. The survivors provide devastating accounts of life in the Nazi’s most notorious extermination camp; It was a nightmare reality, a perpetual onslaught of fear and degradation. One woman sums up the appalling uncertainty they endured when she recalls being led to their weekly shower: they never knew if cold water or gas was going to emerge from the showerheads. If it was water, they knew they’d live for at least another week.

FARAGE: THE MAN WHO MADE BREXIT

Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm

When Nigel Farage agreed to let documentary filmmaker Christian Trumble follow him throughout last year’s disastrous Brexit Party campaign, he presumably considered it a canny PR move. Instead he comes across as a sad, thin-skinned, petulant, gravy-stained opportunist. It’s hilarious, a staggering own goal. Trumble confirms that this amphibious bigot is a career politician who claims he’s anything but; a self-proclaimed man of the people who has repeatedly failed to be elected by them; a privileged member of the elite who presents himself as anti-establishment (the film’s central theme is his desperate need to be accepted by Johnson’s government). Farage has served his ruinous purpose, now he’s surplus to requirements. America, you can have him.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 19th January, BBC One

This episode was always going to be an improvement on the howling debacle that preceded it. It couldn’t possibly be any worse. Even so, the Doctor’s encounter with pioneering yet somewhat unsung electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla was a solid episode in its own right. A pleasingly straightforward pseudo historical, it was informative, educational and entertaining. Yes, even that raddled old fascist Lord Reith would’ve grudgingly approved.

TRAVELS IN EUROLAND WITH ED BALLS

Thursday 23rd January, BBC Two

How did this happen? Ed Balls, a risible politician who no one liked, is now an affable media personality. The Portillo Effect. These careerists never truly fail or disappear, they just adapt and reinvent themselves. This series does at least attempt to address the scarifying rise of populist far-right parties in Europe, but it’s really just a jolly travelogue with ideas above its station.

TV Column: LOSING IT: OUR MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY + DOCTOR WHO

This article was originally published in The Courier on 18th January 2020.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

DIAMOND DEALERS AND COCKNEY GEEZERS

Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

This knockabout documentary follows three East End likely lads who run an independent jewellers called – I kid you not – Trotters. Judd, Alex and Kallum, who’ve been best friends since school, sell top flight bling to a bustling parade of mostly working-class customers, and can proudly boast of having more Instagram followers than any other UK jeweller. But that’s not enough: they’re off to NYC to procure items that will truly put them on the map. The banterrific lads are quite likeable – yes, even the one who looks like Jim Davidson - and the programme doesn’t peer down its nose at them or their clientele. Nice. Although billed as a one-off, it feels like a pilot for a series.

CRAZY DELICIOUS

Tuesday, Channel 4, 8pm

When is a televised culinary contest not a televised culinary contest? Never, they’re basically all the same. This new one has a bash at being a bit different by basing itself in a studio-based grotto – a whimsical Garden of Eden – packed with foraged food and drink (e.g. a tree that dispenses prosecco). But apart from that, it’s a generic confection in which three skilled amateur cooks must impress an expert panel of ‘Gods’ – Heston Blumenthal among them. This week they’re tasked with creating an inventive strawberry-based dish and a game-changing take on the hot dog. If you enjoy watching people cook, bake, whisk and knead, then this entirely inoffensive show will doubtless provide a modicum of nourishment. 

LOSING IT: OUR MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY

Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

Powerful and timely, this programme visits the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to examine Britain’s growing need to care for people struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety. We meet an eleven-year-old girl with suicidal ideation and a mentally ill woman who recently attempted to kill herself and her family. Meanwhile, exhausted loved ones and concerned staff open up about the complexities of looking after patients who wish to take their own lives. It’s heart-breaking, but it needs to be in order to highlight the absolutely vital importance of knowing that you’re not alone, of knowing that you can talk about your feelings without fear of judgement. Trained professionals are permanently on hand to help.

INSIDE THE CROWN: SECRETS OF THE ROYALS

Thursday, STV, 9pm

Not all their secrets, surely? An expose on that scale would bring the monarchy to its knees. Instead, this new series – which arrives with impeccable timing – assembles a gang of expertly toadying lickspittles to rake over the officially acceptable dramas behind the merry house of Windsor. It begins with a sweeping essay on the history of 20^th century Royals who struggled to balance their sovereign duties with matters of the heart. The familiar sagas of Liz and Phil, and Diana Queen of Hearts, duly ensue. Gossipy Royal history is colourful and interesting, of course it is, but we’ve heard it all before. Future generations will look back upon this epoch and wonder what the hell was wrong with us all.

LAST WEEK’S TV

DOCTOR WHO

Sunday 12th January, BBC One

The terminally bland Chris Chibnall’s second series as showrunner began quite well with his Spyfall romp, but episode three – written by Ed Hime - was an embarrassing mess. It wasted Laura Fraser in a thankless supporting role, the actors playing the elderly couple were appalling (“Mah Benni!” has haunted my brain ever since), the alien wigs and humanoid cat make-up looked weirdly cheap, the direction was substandard, the overstuffed script was incompetent. There was no tension, no momentum, no one or nothing to care about. Stuff happened, then it ended. The clumsily tacked-on environmental message – while entirely sound in and of itself – came across as a laughable attempt to add weight to the preceding 48 minutes of utterly incoherent storytelling. As usual, Jodie Whittaker did her best under the circumstances. I love Doctor Who, we’re joined at the hip, but this was a nadir.

LOUIS THEROUX: SELLING SEX

Sunday 12th January, BBC Two

Theroux’s morally conflicted face went into mild overdrive during this report on British women who legally sell sex for a living. He juggled nuggets of inadvertent self-parody – “With a moment to myself, I reflected on the strangeness of what was taking place” – with his usual eloquent compassion. The admirably candid participants were vulnerable victims of abuse who’d chosen this path for reasons far beyond financial pragmatism. Theroux didn’t judge or crassly psychoanalyse them, that’s not his style. Instead he presented yet another sensitive, stigma-challenging character study.

TV Column: COLD FEET + GOOD OMENS + THE MASKED SINGER

This article was originally published in The Courier on 11th January 2020.

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

NEXT WEEK’S TV

COLD FEET

Monday, STV, 9pm

As the latest series of this likeable comedy-drama begins, Adam, the cheeky chappie’s cheeky chappie, is suspended from work for inappropriate behaviour. He’s utterly baffled until his partner, Karen, wisely points out that offence can be caused even when your jokey intentions were innocent. Context and potential impact are paramount. Series creator Mike Bullen handles the episode’s Me Too theme with typical sensitivity. Meanwhile, Jenny struggles to readjust to life following her cancer treatment. She and husband Pete also have to deal with their difficult teenage daughter, plus the awkward problem of dividing their loyalties between Adam and Kate and Kate’s disgruntled ex, David. “I’m sick of this,” sighs Jenny, “it’s like a messy divorce and we’re the kids.”

CATCHING A KILLER: A DIARY FROM THE GRAVE

Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

Caveat: previews weren’t available at the time of writing, so I haven’t actually seen this true-crime documentary. Please don’t send angry emails to me, The Courier or my cat if it turns out to be awful. It does, however, sound interesting. An elderly man dies at home. Nothing odd about that. But eighteen months later, his neighbour also dies in similar circumstances. That’s when the police start looking into what might be a sinister case. A young would-be vicar knew them both. It sounds like the sort of programme designed to make you sigh in despair before going to bed feeling worse than you did when you woke up. Again, please don’t harass my cat.

GOOD OMENS

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Eight months after debuting on Amazon Prime, this irreverent all-star fantasia – based on a cult novel by Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett - finally lands on terrestrial firma. Perfectly content with their lives on Earth, a demon and an angel (David Tennant and Michael Sheen) form an alliance to stop the coming of the Antichrist and eventual Armageddon. Although it’s well-acted, well-directed and generally quite funny in a sub Python/Douglas Adams way, episode one is slightly too hectic for its own good. It feels like Gaiman couldn’t bear to leave out any detail from his and Pratchett’s novel; the arch narration from Frances McDormand – she plays God – is particularly convoluted. One helluva cast, though.

STEWART COPELAND’S ADVENTURES IN MUSIC

Friday, BBC Four, 9:30pm

Ace drummer Steward Copeland is best known for being a member of The Police, but they’re just one of the 25 bands he’s been in since he first picked up sticks as a teenager. Now aged 67, his life has been utterly devoted to the music of the spheres (and songs written by Sting). In this probing new series - textbook Friday night pop fare on BBC Four, but with an anthropological, neuroscientific twist – the garrulously charismatic tub-thumper embarks upon a noble mission to define why music, that most transcendental of arts, moves, shakes and obsesses us so. It begins with an enjoyable, wide-ranging essay on music’s ability to bring human beings together. I’m with Stew: it’s been fundamental to our evolution as a species.

LAST WEEK’S TV

THE GREATEST DANCER

Saturday 4th January, BBC One

This Cowell-created mash-up of Strictly, X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent serves as a sobering reminder that ol' Mardi Gras head is a yawning multimillionaire who fattens his bank balance by scribbling formulaic formats on the back of Ivy napkins. Why doesn't he retire? He's done enough damage, earned enough money and no one cares anymore.

FIRST & LAST

Saturday 4th January, BBC One

In which Jason Manford - an affable, competent comedian – secured his ideal role: hosting a game show where contestants are rewarded for being neither particularly good nor bad, just somewhere in the middle. Manford makes it just about work by mocking the format and joshing with the contestants a la Generation Game Brucie and Danny Baker’s Pets Win Prizes. It doesn’t approach those heights, of course. It's just a laughing policeman in search of a missing vehicle.  

THE MASKED SINGER

Saturday 4th January, STV

This is more like it. Sort of. Almost. A deliberately absurd music game show devised in South Korea, TMS has spread its costumed wings around the globe. Now it’s our turn to guess who the famous folk are beneath those ostentatious outfits. It’s the right kind of trash, a bonkers parody of the Cowell formula, but it’s stretched out to painfully interest-sapping lengths. With a little bit of finessing, they've got themselves a decent family-friendly show.