The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
POWERFUL VIEWING
TV PREVIEWS
AIDS: The Unheard Tapes – Monday, BBC Two, 9.30pm
This new three-part series revolves around audio interviews with young gay men recorded throughout the 1980s and 1990s, archived at the British Library and never broadcast before. Their voices are lip-synched by actors. The filmmakers took quite a risk here; with a little less care and attention that could’ve easily undermined their sincere intentions, but it works. I daresay you’ll find yourselves immersed in these candid, moving stories. It all takes place against a bleak bigoted backdrop of virulent homophobia and scaremongering, which eerily foreshadows the horrific transphobia we’re currently witnessing in this supposedly enlightened day and age. AIDS: The Unheard Tapes is powerful television.
Murder in the Alps – Monday and Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm
Gruesome catnip for true crime addicts, this series (which starts on Channel 4 on
Sunday at 9pm) investigates the unsolved case of a British family murdered in an idyllic French beauty spot almost
10 years ago. The brother of one of the victims was once a
prime suspect, but he’s since been exonerated. His story is told in tandem with that of the various investigators. It’s an incredibly complicated, twist-strewn saga. In Monday’s episode, journalists dig into the victim’s connections with the Iraqi regime. Meanwhile, the police stumble across a Swiss bank account containing almost a million euros, and the FBI help to uncover
details of a secret marriage. A truth/stranger than fiction
scenario.
Dispatches Ukraine: Life Under Attack – Monday, C4, 10pm
Narrated by Cate Blanchett, this starkly intimate documentary tells the story of the battle for Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. For 10 weeks, the film crew were trapped alongside the civilians and frontline workers who bore the brunt of Russia’s initial onslaught. We follow fireman Roman and his team as they attempt to combat a relentless blitz. Paramedics Tatjana and Irina are tasked with rescuing civilian casualties. And the people of Kharkiv, all of whom are innocent victims of a heinous invasion, talk
candidly about what they’re going through. Channel 4’s Dispatches, which began way back in 1987, is a venerable example of British television journalism at its most vital. We cannot afford to lose it.
Storyville: Citizen Ashe – Tuesday, BBC Four, 10pm
The legendary sportsman and social activist Arthur Ashe was the first black tennis player to be selected for the US Davis Cup team. This 90-minute documentary gives him his thoroughly deserved due. Ashe’s sociopolitical activism was inspired by the Civil Rights movement, but as time rolled on he expanded his horizons to encompass oppressed people from all around the world. Ashe died of Aidsrelated complications in the early 1990s. In the last few years of his life, he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A truly remarkable man who achieved so much.