What to watch
Bring Me Back to Life CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
This Cutting Edge film is a bold experiment that doesn’t quite come off – which isn’t to say it wasn’t worth trying. A combination of medical documentary, video diary and life story, it follows the fate of 22-year-old Taylor Britton, who has sustained a serious neck injury in a car crash that could leave him paralysed for life.
Having been placed in a coma, Britton will remember nothing of his time in Southampton General’s Neuro Intensive Care Unit, so to provide a record of his medical journey cameras record his progress. The film also documents visits from family and friends who talk to camera about his life and what he means to them, in the hope he can watch it himself if and when he recovers.
At its best, it’s harrowing and moving, with moments of real power. The slightly gimmicky narration by an unusually restrained Steven Berkoff, however, is unsettling and the blend of genres isn’t as seamless as it might have been. That said, director Graeme Mcaulay worked as an editor on the BBC’S superb Hospital, and while this lacks the hectic pace, there’s a sensitivity and empathy that rings very familiar, all the way through to the sucker punch at its climax. Gabriel Tate also forging the philosophy that underpinned one of the defining aesthetics of American culture. GT A Year on the Farm MORE4, 9.00PM
Exiled Londoners Polly and Graham have taken on the struggling Welsh farm belonging to Polly’s family. With livestock their focus – there are 80 pigs, 100 cows and 1,000 sheep to look after – trying to survive would represent a tough test even for experienced farmers. How will they and their two young children fare?