Spectre of terror is back to haunt peace process
Bloodlands BBC1, Sunday
Operation Transformation
RTÉ One, Wednesday
Davy’s Toughest Team
RTÉ One, Monday
Gordon Ramsay’s Bank Vault
BBC1, Wednesday to Friday
In the Nineties, an assassin believed to be a member of the security forces was picking off terrorists on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland. Codenamed Goliath, he never was identified or captured, and even his existence was hushed up at a time of great sensitivity around the peace process. His trademark was leaving a photo of the cranes at the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which are named Samson and Goliath, at the crime scenes, hence the codeword his pursuers gave him. Now, a businessman with former ties to the IRA has gone missing, and when his car is pulled from the sea, there is a photo of the cranes in the door pocket. Is Goliath back – and if so, who else is he likely to target?
That was the intriguing set-up of Bloodlands, the new Sunday night drama on BBC1 written by Chris Brandon and produced by Jed Mercurio, who also gave us Line Of Duty and Bodyguard. So far, it doesn’t quite measure up to the brilliance of those two shows, but it is very watchable nonetheless.
The ever-reliable James Nesbitt brings gravitas to the role of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Brannick, whose own wife was murdered by Goliath because of her ties to the intelligence services. Now, he faces having this new inquiry shut down by his superior (a shifty Lorcan Cranitch who looks like he might have a lot to hide) in order not to resurrect the ghosts of the past and threaten the fragile peace.
There’s good support from Charlene McKenna as Brannick’s sidekick, a sassy young policewoman who won’t let anyone push her around, and much of the fun in the first episode came from spotting actors familiar from other shows – Ian McElhinney and Kathy Kiera Clarke, Grandad Joe and Aunt Sarah in Derry Girls, and Chris Walley, Jock in The Young Offenders, almost unrecognisable with his naturally curly hair.
By the end of the episode, the kidnapped businessman had been found and freed, but a preview of tonight’s show sees Brannick’s only child, his daughter Izzy, being kidnapped too. Why? Well, I look forward to finding out.
It took a while for her to get into
gear, but I was delighted to see that Susuana Komolafe lost five pounds in the final week of Operation Transformation, after a few instances of actually putting on weight throughout the show’s run. She seemed a very reluctant participant as, for a while, did construction worker Paul Devaney, who clashed with dietician Aoife Hearne over the food plan he was given.
It always amuses me when this happens, in much the same way as people argue with Dermot Bannon on Room To Improve? Why bother seeking expert help if you don’t want to accept it – I’m sure there were many others out there who would have loved the Operation Transformation experience and who would have committed to it more wholeheartedly.
Anyway, all came good in the end, though the skinny jeans on a dancing Paul were even more embarrassing than the half-naked weigh-ins. I was delighted for the other team leaders, Andrew, Sharon and Hazel, who achieved great results, and not just in weight loss. Each gained in confidence week by week too, and Andrew took to the running element of his fitness programme with such gusto, he recorded the fastest 5km time in the show’s history. For Hazel, there was the sense that a long road out of grief (she and her husband lost twin girls) finally had reached a junction, and a whole new road had opened up for her. When her parents appeared via Skype and her dad started crying with pride, well, it was Operation Transformation in my house too – I was transformed into a blubbering wreck.
No such issues for the lads in RTÉ1’s Davy’s Toughest Team, who finally got to climb Carrauntoohil in Co. Kerry. It might not have been the Mount Everest base camp they signed up for, but they made great progress anyway, in ways both physical and mental. All seemed more assured and more focused by the end, even poor Mikey Yiannakki, who bravely attempted it with an injured leg but had to give up.
As I said here before, I have reservations about this sort of programming, and I hope the young men get the ongoing supports they need. It was, though, inspirational television and, thanks to this and Ireland’s Fittest Family, Wexford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald is getting perilously close to national treasure status. He definitely is an inspirational man.
Finally, Gordon Ramsay debuted on BBC1 with Bank Vault, a new quiz format that looked a lot like The Million Pound Drop in a different outfit, as competitors had to balance fake ingots on a tilting structure without collapsing it. I lasted about 15 minutes. The first contestants were bickering Tobi and Tosin, and they were so irritating, I just gave up. With a set that looks like a wooden Tardis, and Ramsay so wooden he seemed to have been made with the leftover timber, it certainly was no Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? either.
What it and Family Fortunes, now hosted by Gina D’Acampo, prove is that being a good chef doesn’t make you a good quizmaster, though it takes a degree of skill to make any quiz look worse than The Wall.