The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
ROCKIN’ THE SIXTIES
Rock Till We Drop – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
Former pop star Martin Kemp joins forces with
rapper Lady Leshurr in this rather beguiling search for talented musicians aged 64 and over. They’re aiming to assemble a band capable of
storming a 15-minute slot at the Isle of Wight Festival, but that’s not really the point. It’s
all about giving older people the opportunity to prove something to themselves and others: an autumnal confidence boost. Projects of this nature always run the risk of patronising the participants, but Rock Till We Drop is, thankfully, not that sort of show. No one is mocked or made to look foolish. Kemp and Leshurr discover some genuine talents along the way. These pleasant, interesting people
deserve their spotlight.
Tales from a Kitchen Garden – Monday to Friday, BBC Two, 6.30pm
Here we go again, folks, another aspirational series in which a celebrity starts a new life in the countryside. This one follows the Michelinstarred chef Marcus Wareing as he follows his dream of setting up a smallholding. That inherently amusing word is constantly invoked throughout the series, so much so that it almost starts to resemble a running gag. But at no point does Wareing observe that it sounds like the name of a Carry On character, one presumably played by Charles Hawtrey. Weird. An entirely bland and inoffensive man, Wareing makes Titchmarsh look like Keith Floyd at his most bacchanalian. But he
means no harm in the grand scheme of things. He’s a mere
smallholder.
Rise of the Nazis: Dictators at War – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
The final chapter of this
grimly compelling and authoritative essay begins in
1943 with the German army retreating across the Western Front in the wake of its crushing defeat at Stalingrad. Hitler becomes remote, paranoid and desperate as the German public lose faith in his supposed infallibility.
A prominent dissenter is the extraordinarily brave 21-yearold student Sophie Scholl,
who risks her life by joining an underground movement
exposing Nazi lies about the war effort. The group’s goal is to encourage people to
rise up and overthrow their despotic rulers before it’s too late. Meanwhile, senior German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg hatches a plan to assassinate der
Fuhrer.
Emergency – Monday to Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm
Over four consecutive
nights, this urgent frontline documentary gains access to London’s Major Trauma System, which was set up in the wake of the 2005 terrorist
attacks. An NHS network of hospitals, air ambulances
and paramedics, it is a lifeline for trauma patients.
Yes, we’ve seen programmes like this before, but they provide a valuable public service. It doesn’t matter that Emergency cleaves to all the familiar trappings of this genre (e.g. the bombastic
narrator who sounds like he’s standing, legs apart, on a windswept hospital helipad), because its fundamentally sensitive message rings out
loud and clear. Nothing can undermine the affecting human drama of these
stories. A noble endeavour.
The Mystery of Anthrax Island – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm
Gruinard Island is a tiny uninhabited mass a few miles off the coast of Wester Ross. During the Second World War it was used by British scientists as a testing ground for anthrax. The unfortunate guinea pigs were sheep. It was henceforth classed as a danger zone. However, as this documentary reveals, it became a political cause celebre in the early 1980s when a mysterious group of protesters claimed to have visited the island and unearthed mounds of lethal soil. They deposited this soil outside the secretive MoD base Porton Down and near the Blackpool location of the Conservative Party Conference. Preview copies weren’t available, but this sounds fascinating.
Storyville: Writing with Fire – Wednesday, BBC Four, 10pm
According to India’s caste system, Dalit people are considered to be so impure they don’t even qualify as members of this hierarchy. Dalit women are subjected to horrific acts of violence, while the male-dominated authorities turn a blind eye. This deeply angering yet cautiously hopeful film – nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary –
follows a brave and brilliant group of female Dalit
journalists as they take their pioneering newspaper into
the digital age. Writing with Fire is both an unflinching indictment of human rights violations and an inspiring celebration of our vital universal need for journalistic integrity. It’s an
important piece of work.
Would I Lie to You? – Friday, BBC One,iPlayer
The latest edition of this genial panel show welcomes comedian Jo
Brand, Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas, Olympic goldwinning hockey player and Question of Sport captain Sam Quek, and the
endearingly eccentric maths teacher and broadcaster Bobby Seagull. Things we’re asked to believe this week include: Quek waking up the morning after her Olympic triumph with a cheeseburger down her bra; and team captain Lee Mack looking after a beehive with predictably disastrous
results. Seagull and Thomas are very good at sounding like they might be lying, even if they aren’t. The episode will be available on iPlayer from around 9.30pm on
Friday night.