Documentaries
It’s hard to believe that Buddy Holly’s career lasted a mere 18 months before his death, at 22, in a plane crash. It will be 60 years in February since Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson, known as the Big Bopper, died and Buddy Holly: Rave On (Prime, Wednesday, 8.30pm) examines a legacy that might surprise Holly himself.
Rock’n’roll as we know it might have gone global with Elvis Presley, but pop music began with Buddy Holly and the Crickets, says this BBC documentary. They were the first recognisable pop group (their name inspired the Beatles) and they introduced new rhythms and unpredictable melodies.
As well as the story of Holly’s start in Lubbock, Texas, the documentary features appearances from luminaries such as Brian May, Paul Anka, Don
Everly and Don McLean, who famously penned the line “the day the music died” about the plane crash.
May still has his copy of US chart-topper That’ll Be the Day, the seventh record he ever bought. Holly was “a genius in his way of cutting through all the frills and all the conventions”, says May. “He perfectly expressed the feelings of a whole generation.”
My Congo (BBC Earth, Sky 074, Saturday, 8.30pm) is not the Congo of horrific war, poverty and humanrights abuses we might think. Instead, Congolese cameraman Vianet Djenguet takes a journey along the mighty Congo River, beginning in Brazzaville.