Last night on television Michael Hogan Ackley Bridge has promise but is yet to make the grade
Culture-clash school drama Ackley Bridge (Channel 4) could hardly have been more timely, as it probed tensions between the white working-class and Muslim communities in contemporary Britain. In fact, one scene – which involved a fake bomb filled with party poppers – had to be edited out from this opening episode following the recent terror attack in Manchester.
Set in a Yorkshire mill town with a divided white and Asian population, the six-part series followed the merging of two segregated schools into a shiny new academy. It’s like a fictional remake of fly-on-the-wall channel stablemate Educating Yorkshire, or a racially charged remix of BBC favourite Waterloo Road, upon which the bell rang two years ago.
On the first day of term at the freshly integrated school, head teacher Mandy Carter (Jo Joyner) had both martial and professional problems with her PE teacher husband Steve Bell (Paul Nicholls). Meanwhile, in the sixth-form common room, next-door neighbours Missy (Poppy Lee Friar) and Nas (Amy-leigh Hickman) found their friendship strained by attending school together for the first time.
This first hour took in topless selfies, Uber taxis, a torn-off hijab and a vicious playground catfight. Straining to be relevant, the script veered into worthy territory at times. Occasionally characters felt like a mouthpiece for the writing, rather than plausible human beings.
One such clunking moment came when delinquent pupil Jordan (Samuel Bottomley) hijacked the school public address system to deliver an implausibly eloquent speech about Broken Britain – rather than just swear and giggle, like a real-life teenager surely would. Elsewhere, English teacher Emma (Liz White) vowed to “bin books by dead white men”.
Channel 4 has rarely put drama in the 8pm slot since Brookside and this was indeed soapy fare. It could be described as Grange Hill with a mobile phone and a northern accent. It was convincingly performed, especially by the female half of the cast. The young supporting ensemble was largely drawn from Halifax, which lent classroom scenes spark and authenticity. Director Penny Woolcock, best known for her work in documentary, captured the chaotic action in fidgety, energetic style.
Ackley Bridge had an intriguing premise, sharp plot lines and showed promise. It just needs to stop trying too hard and concentrate less on “issues”, and more on telling compelling stories.
As Eat Well for Less? (BBC One) returned for a fourth series of food-budgeting, the Riellys from Middlesex were in dire need of dietary help. All four family members had different eating habits, meaning mother Stacy cooked several separate suppers each evening. Father Adam lived on crisps and takeaways. Fussy 12-year-old Izzy survived on tomato soup. Eight-year-old Harry, who had Type 1 diabetes, snacked non-stop on sausages and other meaty treats.
They were squeamish about raw meat, bought ready-baked potatoes out of laziness and pre-grated cheese because “grating it would take hours”. The average UK family spends £81.40 per week on food. The Riellys were splashing out double that, which they could ill-afford.
Enter presenters Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin to poke around their fridge and spy on their supermarket trips – catching the parents munching on “mini toad-in-the-holes” before they’d even reached the checkout. Could they help the Riellys reduce their grocery bill?
Of course they could. This was mission TV, where failure isn’t an option. They found meals the whole family could eat together, cut out snacks and takeaways, and almost halved expenditure in the process.
Young Harry stole the show with his cheeky asides and grub-based glee. However, the format is repetitive and, at an hour, too long. There were only so many times the family could coo at tasty home-cooked food or express surprise at the savings made. The tenuous fact-finding films added little to the overall picture.
Most grating were the geezer-ish presenting duo, who backslapped, guffawed and called each other “mate”. Wallace has a reputation for shouting on Masterchef but his high-volume habit seemed even ruder when he was standing in a stranger’s kitchen, two feet away from them, still yelling.
Eat Well for Less? had plenty to chew on but was distinctly overcooked.
Ackley Bridge ★★★ Eat Well for Less? ★★