The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
A bio, a game show and a beloved comedy duo
WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME? Saturday, BBC Two RICHARD OSMAN’S HOUS OF GAMES Monday to Friday, BBC Two BACK Wednesday, Channel 4
Whitney Houston died in 2012. She was only 48. The news of her death, while terribly sad, didn’t come as a shock. Her drug addiction was a matter of public record. She seemed destined to die at a tragically young age.
But why? In Whitney: Can I Be Me? acclaimed documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield made a convincingly damning case for Houston being a victim of those who controlled her life from an early age.
Could she ever be herself? Groomed for stardom by her mother, a great singer in her own right, Houston fell under the auspices of Arista Records’ all-powerful Clive Davis.
Crossing over in the 1980s, when major labels still had black music departments, was a rarity. So Davis carefully marketed her as an innocent pop princess aimed at a white mainstream audience. Her tough New Jersey upbringing – she and her brothers began using drugs during childhood – was struck from her biography.
Houston’s extraordinary voice wasn’t always best-served by her committeecurated material. She was branded a sell-out within the black music community, and being booed at the Soul Train awards in 1989 was a devastating blow to her confidence. That was also the night she met Bobby Brown.
He’s always been accused of sending Houston off the rails, but they were apparently very happy together. Previously unseen documentary footage depicts a charming, fun-loving couple.
However, Brown’s huge ego couldn’t handle her greater fame. He pecked away at her fragile self-esteem and their thirst for drink and drugs didn’t help.
Broomfield’s film, which contains frank interviews with those who knew and loved her, argues that the “mouldable” Houston could never live up to an image bestowed upon her by commercially-driven parties and a leering media. The pressure was overwhelming. She just wanted to be normal.
This sobering, compassionate profile manages to grant her some understanding and dignity, at last.
Richard Osman is the unassuming king of smart, genial teatime viewing. His latest quiz, Richard Osman’s House of Games, is another play-along-athome winner.
It nudges four celebrity contestants into a relaxed compendium of triviabased quizzes. A rhyming round matches the likes of Bob Marley with Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali.
It also asks contestants to find the link between Michael Fish and a character from Moby Dick. You won’t find that – or anything at all – on Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme.
David Mitchell and Robert Webb know that it’s virtually impossible for viewers to see them as anyone other than Mark and Jez from Peep Show. Hence why their promising new sitcom, Back, finds them playing slight variations on their most beloved characters.
And that’s absolutely fine. Written by former Peep Show scribe Simon Blackwell, this agreeable farce plays wisely to their strengths.
Mitchell plays a put-upon neurotic dealing with the sudden arrival of a slick, over-confident character (Webb, obviously) who claims to be one of his many childhood foster siblings.
Mitchell is instantly suspicious of this faux-charming stranger he has no recollection of, but his eccentric family welcome this apparent conman with open arms.
It’s a strong, enjoyably executed premise. Mitchell and Webb are always funny as antagonists. Back isn’t Peep Show II – the central mystery sets it apart – but it’s a good example of an established creative team mining their