BEST OF THE REST
STABBED: BRITAIN’S KNIFE CRIME CRISIS BBC1, 9pm
IN this powerful and emotional film, the man who witnessed his friend Stephen Lawrence being stabbed to death by a racist gang in 1993 comes forward to investigate the terrifying rise of knife crime.
“Stephen’s brutal murder traumatised us all,” says Duwayne Brooks, who had been waiting at a bus stop in Eltham with Stephen when they were attacked.
Duwayne says: “Now when I see these headlines it brings back the pain and emotion of what happened.”
Still deeply affected, he wants to find out what’s going on on Britain’s streets, looking at the impact of knife crime.
He meets the families and friends of victims as they struggle to cope, he engages with the perpetrators, attempting to understand why people turn to knives, and explores what is being done to stop the violence.
Duwayne says: “It grieves me that people are still suffering from such senseless, violent crime and untreated trauma as we did in the aftermath of Stephen’s death.”
FLACK W, 10pm
JUST when you think a series couldn’t get any better, or that you’ve got the measure of it – this one pulls something new out of the bag.
Set entirely on an aeroplane, this episode sees Robyn (Anna Paquin) accompanying obnoxious film star Calvin Cooper, played brilliantly by Bradley Whitford, to pick up a humanitarian award in New York.
And it’s not just that he’s not a nice person, he’s a disgrace to all human kind.
Colleague Eve (Lydia Wilson) commiserates Robyn for having to pull the “suicide shift”.
Of course there’s a PR crisis – Calvin gets a voicemail from the police just before take off. He’s terrified that they’ve found incriminating images on his laptop.
Robyn has just a few hours before landing to work out a plan. But there are distractions in the form of an old high school pal on board and a jobsworth flight attendant.
Funny, shocking and dramatic, it’s a wonderful hour of telly.