STORYVILLE: SCANDALOUS! THE TABLOID THAT CHANGED AMERICA

Wednesday, BBC Four, 9pm

US tabloid The National Enquirer is a muck-raking celebrity gossip rag specialising in sensationalised scandals and outright lies: fake news incarnate. This documentary traces its eyepopping history. In its tawdry heyday, it wielded absolute power and ruled by fear. No wonder sleazy snake oil salesman Donald Trump was a fan, he learned from its underhand methods and once brokered a mutually beneficial deal to bolster his celebrity and sell more copies. The Enquirer story shines a harsh light on where we’ve ended up in western society. It’s a kinetic, depressing, slyly orchestrated essay populated by amoral shabby hacks who only ever appear to be, at a push, slightly ashamed of their actions.

MAKE ME FAMOUS

Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

Based on interviews with people who have participated in reality TV shows, this standalone drama is a sympathetic meditation on the hollowness of fame. The writer is BBC Three’s Reggie Yates, who clearly knows this world. It follows handsome, cocky (yet privately insecure) Billy over the space of 18 months, from the moment he auditioned for a hit dating show to an eventual celebrity lifestyle filled with social media sponsorship deals, constant selfies with fans, tabloid intrusion and the nagging fear that his 15 minutes are almost up. Over the years we’ve seen countless versions of this morality tale in which a hungry wannabe makes a Faustian pact with fame, but Yates handles the template with a thoughtful, pointed touch.

THE SCHOOL THAT TRIED TO END RACISM

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Most British people wouldn’t consider themselves to be racist in the slightest. They’d be appalled by the suggestion. But unconscious racial bias courses through society on an insidious daily basis. This telling, timely series focuses on a London secondary where just under half the pupils are black or from an ethnic minority background. The rest are white. As the sensitively controlled trial experiment begins, they believe themselves to be fully integrated. But when racial bias scholars put them through tests, subtle prejudices and insecurities are revealed. The children aren’t judged, they’re educated. If the experiment is successful, it could be built into the curriculum. This is the way forward. This is what we need.

Main image: Imelda Staunton in Alan Bennett’s A Lady of Letters; right: Donald Trump brokered a deal with The National Enquirer; Billy, played by Tom Brittney, in Make Me Famous; and The School That Tried to End Racism.