Grenfell - in their own words
GRENFELL – THE FIRST 24 HOURS
UTV, TONIGHT, 9PM
AS WE approach next week’s anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, the inquiry remains ongoing. The sight of that building going up like a Roman candle is one which will remain long in the memory.
In a similar way to how our own Stardust tragedy played out, the grief was quickly replaced by anger as survivors and loved ones of those who died tried to get answers.
The official attempts to get answers at that already controversial and widely derided inquiry will presumably drag on as interminably as these things are wont to do.
But tonight sees a documentary that takes the perspective of the only people who really matter – the unfortunates stuck inside the literal towering inferno.
Grenfell – The First 24 Hours (UTV, tonight, 9pm) uses testimony and mobile phone footage from those who were actually inside the conflagration, as well as interviews with rescue crews, emergency workers and residents of adjacent buildings.
The documentary pieces together a timeline from the moment the fire broke out at one in the morning until firefighters finally managed to extinguish the blaze a full 24 hours later.
A total of 71 people died on that infamous summer night, a similar number suffered life-threatening or life changing injuries and while 200 people did manage to escape the flames, it remains one of the worst disasters and scandals in recent memory.
After all, the revelations that corners were cut, cheaper materials were used and there were never adequate provisions in place for the eventuality of such a disaster in the first place, this has become, rightly, a political lightning rod in the UK.
Tonight, however, is a chance to gain a better insight into what that hellscape must have looked like on the night.
Unmissable, but not for the faint-hearted...
While Elmore Leonard’s novel Get Shorty (Sky Atlantic, tonight, 9pm) was as great as you would expect from Elmore Leonard, the movie version starring John Travolta tried that little bit too hard.
Now, in a new TV adaptation which veers away from the specifics of the source material, the fine Chris O’Dowd toplines as Miles Daly, the mob enforcer who wants to move from Nevada and become a big time Hollywood producer.
Ray Romano plays the shady producer Rick Moreweather who shows him the ropes in the tinsel town, and the fact that this highly touted comedydrama has already been picked up for a second season is certainly a good sign...
There’s more to O’Dowd than the loveable goofball and he excels here...