The calm Carrie in ‘Homeland’ will soon be pulling hair again
For a woman with such well documented mental health problems, Carrie Mathison does well to get out of bed in a morning – never mind take on the world’s hardest bad guys. Yet take them on she always has – and if the opening episode of Homeland season five was anything to go by, then take them on she always will.
Set two years on from the previous season, bipolar intelligence whizz Carrie (Claire Danes) could be found living in Berlin having left the CIA. Now working as head of security for the philanthropic Düring Foundation, she gave the impression of having left her old hand-wringing life behind. It’s like she told former colleague Allison Carr (Miranda Otto): “When I left the agency I thought it was best to make a clean break, not be one of those people who doesn’t understand that when you’re out, you’re out.”
The look on Allison’s face said it all. She wasn’t buying it and neither were we – by the time the hour was out, Carrie had been ordered to Lebanon, successfully passed a message to the chief of militant group Hezbollah and been bound, kidnapped and threatened for her trouble. How easily one can be sucked back into a world of hackers, extremists, surveillance and subterfuge.
This was Homeland back at its absolute best. Peppered with topical references – including Isis and Edward Snowden – and boasting, as always, a string of excellent actors (Mandy Patinkin and Rupert Friend among them). The groundwork was being laid for a series of plots that will, no doubt, spectacularly collide. From a security breach that could reveal a secret surveillance deal between the Germany and the US, to deadly off-the-record CIA operations and an angry encounter between Carrie and an extremist (“You killed my son in Beirut”), the stage was being set for an explosive season finale – and one that will no doubt have Carrie back to her old hair-pulling ways in no time.
Less explosive, however, was the BBC’s attempt to “uncover the secrets” behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s success. Presented by Nick Robinson, Sir Alex Ferguson: Secrets of Success was an odd sort of living tribute to the former Manchester United manager.
Cutting between footage of a lecture at the London Business School, talking heads (including Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and, somewhat bizarrely, Tony Blair) and a oneon-one interview with Robinson, it served as a sort of This Is Your Life montage.
There’s no denying that Sir Alex was an incredibly successful manager and a shrewd businessman. But as far as secrets go, it was
Carrie is now living in Berlin, working as head of security for a philanthropic foundation
pretty scant. Everyone at the club loved him (“He understood it’s just as much about the ladies doing the laundry and making sure they are happy, as it is about making sure Cristiano Ronaldo has a great day”). But then those who didn’t, were simply not asked.
His feud with Roy Keane was mentioned – but not by Sir Alex. Instead it was left to Rio to surmise why he sacked the captain (“A message for the next generation – don’t ever think you’re bigger than the team”).
Robinson, who wiped the fawning grin off his face only long enough to open his mouth, failed to challenge Sir Alex on the controversial issues – such as Eric Cantona kicking a spectator in the face.
Sir Alex was having a great time. He too grinned throughout, happily recalling how he knew the name of everyone at Manchester United from the tea lady up and how he inspired players with a copy of the famous Rockefeller Centre picture “Lunch atop a skyscraper”.