What to watch
Carry on Brussels: Inside the EU
CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
This new docu-series aims to be a lighthearted take on the European Parliament in the same vein as shows such as Inside the Tube and Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport. Narrated by a droll Robert Bathurst, this opener follows two chalk-and-cheese MEPS, Ukip’s Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten and fervent Labour remainer Seb Dance, through a working week in the halls of European power. It is probably unintentional, but a better advert for leaving the EU could not be offered up.
Batten, with seemingly little to do, spends his time setting out Union Jack flags on UK MEPS’ desks and trying to raise press interest in his Brexit strategy document that even Ukip’s PR man thinks will be a dud. Dance – when he’s not weeping over Brexit – mounts a campaign to become a parliamentary player by writing a strategy document on sustainability (possibly: the show is short on detail) that goes through a tortuously dull voting procedure, before, it appears, ending up on the EU’S big pile of reports. Instead of providing light entertainment or serious insight into the EU’S inner workings, the film is about as engaging as Dance and Batten’s inconsequential reports.