The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Alison Rowat’s TV review
NEVER underestimate the pleasure to be had from watching fabulously wealthy folk be made thoroughly miserable.
The Undoing (Sky Atlantic, Monday) was such a Bonfire of the Vanities tale. At its heart was a golden couple, Jonathan and Grace (Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman). He was an oncologist, she was a psychologist and they lived high in the Manhattan skies with their tousled-haired, golden boy son.
How much of a class act was Grace? Donald Sutherland played her dad, that’s how much.
But scratch below the surface and all was not as it seemed. Hurrah! Jolly English gent Jonathan (if one accent was good enough for Sir
Sean ...) was having an affair with a woman who lived downtown (the horror). Grace, meanwhile, suffered from an unidentified sadness which led her to stride the New York streets at night wearing a succession of fabulous coats and scarves.
Into their carefully controlled world came murder most foul. Someone had dunnit, but who? David E Kelley (Big Little Lies,
Ally McBeal, LA Law) kept the red herrings coming for five episodes before all was revealed this week. I won’t blab in case you are saving the series for later (via this year’s must have Christmas present, a gift card for a streaming service), but it was satisfying stuff. Cheesy, sure, with many a would-that-reallyhappen moment (take a child to a gory murder trial?), but viewers were swept along in fine, film noir style.
The Undoing’s theme tune was Kidman singing Dream a Little Dream of Me (told you, class). It did not feature in The Sound of TV with
Neil Brand (BBC4, Friday) because it was not the type of tune to which he was paying homage. Brand’s brief covered classic, “I’ll name that tune in one” intros from Coronation Street and Dixon of Dock Green to The Simpsons and Game of Thrones.
Brand, no mean composer and musician himself, was a delightful guide to all things theme tune. Whether speaking to a fellow craftsman or breaking a piece down into its parts, as with The Simpsons, he wore his learning lightly and his heart for television on his sleeve. We did not need a neuroscientist to tell us that theme tunes transport us back to time and place as surely as any double nougat (the Scots equivalent of Proust’s madeleine), but the producers had lined one up.
Brand had good stories besides, from how much Eric Spear earned for the Corrie theme tune – the grand sum of £6 – to how the doof-doofs of EastEnders came about. At the end of the first of three films the notion was raised that theme tunes were on the way out, with today’s multichannel, box set-guzzling viewers skipping intros to cut straight to the action. Brand kept the faith though, insisting that theme tunes would always be “powerful and personal in ways no other music can be.” I hope he is right, I fear he is not.
I did think at first that the standalone documentary The World’s Biggest Murder Trial: Nuremberg (Channel 5, Tuesday) would not be enough to convey the enormity of the subject. Using original footage, audio recordings and first hand testimony, director Jenny Ash took us as near as possible into that courtroom at war’s end to see 21 of the highest ranking Nazis put on trial for crimes against humanity (together with waging an illegal war and genocide, one of the “new” crimes created for the trial).
The most powerful moment came when one witness, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, a survivor of Auschwitz, finished her horrifying testimony. She stood up and walked calmly from the witness box, her eyes seeking out Goring to stare straight at him. He a coward to the end; her a heroine for the ages.
There were plenty of contemporary talking heads, from historians to lawyers, to explain the significance of proceedings then and now, but they were heard rather than seen. For the most part the film stayed focussed on the vast courtroom. As a technique it concentrated the mind to such an extent that 90 minutes turned out to be enough. At some points, such was the evidence, a moment more would have been unbearable.
Coronation Street (STV, Monday to Friday) continued its stately if painful progress towards its 60th birthday on December 9.
The Street has made for harrowing viewing of late. How distressing? It has come to something when you look to an attempted murder trial for light relief, as happened this week with the start (finally!) of Yasmeen’s hearing. That was another jolly storyline, husband makes wife’s life a misery through coercive control, but Geoff (Ian Bartholomew), the swine in question, has become a classic Street wrong un, part psycho, part panto villain.
As has scummy property developer Ray Crosby, who wants to bulldoze the street’s terraced houses and build swanky flats. This week the sleazy Manc opened the door in his dressing gown to young Faye. It was a funny place to have a door, as yon Mr Murray would say.
Dawn French in The Vicar Of Dibley In Lockdown
What’s the story?
The Vicar Of Dibley.
Tell me more.
Dawn French is reprising her role as the Reverend Geraldine Granger for three festive, lockdown-inspired episodes. The 10-minute specials will show Geraldine delivering monthly sermons via Zoom, sharing sage advice and her musings on life in same vein as the classic sitcom.
What do these pearls of wisdom entail?
Well, among the “important” topics will be warnings about the perils of dabbling in homemade wine and why it isn’t a good idea to get a DIY haircut when the scissors are held by someone more used to working with animals.
Anything else?
Geraldine will attempt to explain the crucial difference between metres and miles when it comes to social distancing (after she discovers that some interpretations may have distinctly illegal connotations).
Not to forget the need for patience and tolerance when hearing the same anecdotes over and over again while locked down with our nearest and dearest.
Does this mean there’s a new series in the works?
Not as far as we know. The last full series finished in 2007.
When can I watch?
The Vicar Of Dibley In Lockdown begins on BBC One, Monday, 8.50pm. The three short episodes will air weekly, with a 30-minute compilation episode being shown around Christmas.
SUSAN SWARBRICK
ALISON ROWAT
IT has been tough going on the high street for some time now, but last week was particularly brutal. First the once mighty Debenhams announced it was shutting up shop, then Arcadia went into administration followed by Bonmarche. Where, and with which store, will it end?
TV has grown used to monitoring the health of the high street, and its demise has long been predicted in factual series and in news bulletins to the point where it seems inevitable. Inside Poundland: Secrets from the Shop Floor (Channel 4, Monday, 9pm) begs to differ.
Far from retrenching, the shop known for its cheap and cheerful wares is opening new stores to add to the 800-plus it already has, and it is investing £25 million in what it calls “Project Diamond”.
No, Poundland is not going into the engagement ring market, well, not yet anyway. It is trying to go upmarket and bring in the middle classes. If Lidl and Aldi can do it, why not plucky little Poundland is the thinking.
This new two part series follows the management team and staff as they try to make the retail magic happen.
In the Walsall store, managing director Barry Williams has arrived to give the team a hand to stock the freezer cabinets with the kind of grub meant to be catnip to the middle classes. Chargrilled vegetable and pesto pizza followed by maple and walnut ice cream for dessert anyone?
Williams, who started off as a stockroom assistant at Kwik Save 30 years ago, can spot a profit margin a mile off and is big into positivity. As is his deputy, Austin, who is leading a team to Scotland. You may want to sprint for the kettle when the lads try out their Scottish accents for size. They definitely bought those at a discount retailers.
On arriving at the Glenrothes store, all is not well. The place is dusty, the shelves are badly stacked and the stockroom