KATHRYN FLETT’s My TV Week: Manhunt? More like a flat-footed plod-a-thon

THE HUNT ON RAOUL GACHT

ITVX

If you’re easily convinced It’s Grim Up North has all your preconceptions confirmed by ITV’s true-life drama The Hunt For Raoul Moat – and if you’re Up North And Glad Of It, you might wish Sarah Lancashire had been. deployed to make it if not exactly happy, then at least a little more Happy Valley.

It started well, with a blossoming romance between single mother Samantha Stobbart (Sally Messham) and karate instructor Chris Brown (Josef Davies). Their first date, however, was the last time we saw anyone smile during a three-hour retelling of the story that gripped the nation for a week in the summer of 2010.

Most of the action took place in the first half hour, when Moat rather threatened his victims (no spoiler alert required!) by stalking and shooting them, while the last 30 minutes focused on the tense confrontation between Moat and the armed police aftermath) . In between there were two hours of crime-drama clichés.

PC David Rathband (who was blinded by Moat and then tragically killed himself) was particularly short-changed; we met him seconds before Moat shot him; a smarter scenario would have gotten to know us better beforehand.

Since we knew how it ended, the lack of nuance led to a series of missed opportunities. After its promising start as a potentially troublesome drama, the show plodded on largely flat-footed and became just another grueling police procedural.

Instead of injecting some smart, dark Valley-style one-liners to demonstrate their humanity, the cops and journalists were arms crossed, brow furrowed and sincere (even the watching Lee Ingleby as Superintendent Neil Adamson, though I can’t fault the actors , just the script).

Few attempts have been made to flesh out the characters to help us give their fates, and while the manhunt remains Britain’s largest (160 armed officers, snipers, helicopters, dogs, armored vehicles, even an RAF -jet), budget constraints mean we never really got the sense that the Northeast felt totally under siege while Moat was at large.

It was never the banality of Moat’s murderous narcissism that would make an interesting storyline, it was the audience’s reaction. At the time, many people viewed him as a “romantic” hero-cum-victim, setting up Facebook tribute pages for him, but while this case was almost certainly one of the first where social media dictated public engagement, that idea was only hinted at . on rather than developed.

Finally, the one thing everyone knows (that a cocaine-driven Gazza turned up with a fishing rod, beer and a chicken to “help”) was a one-liner, when perhaps the most important fact is that two women are murdered every week by their former or current partner in England and Wales – was sent with a caption at the end. The domestic violence charity Refuge helpline would have been more helpful.

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE THIS LADY

DEBORAH JAMES: BOWELBABE IN HER OWN WORDS

iPLAYER

The late Dame Deborah James – broadcaster, colon cancer awareness campaigner (“I’ve got the glamorous cancer. There’s nothing pink about it, it’s just brown…”), known on social media as @bowelbabe – was, by all accounts, a force of nature . Whatever she had accomplished before age 35—economics degree, teaching career, marriage to banker husband Sebastien, two children—was overshadowed by her accomplishments over the next five years.

After launching her Bowelbabe Fund and raising £1 million on its first day (currently it stands at £11.3 million), she received her femininity from Prince William over a cup of tea in the garden of her childhood home , weeks before she died, at the age of 40. June.

Merging social media footage, voice memos and broadcasts from James, the BBC2 film is beautifully directed by Sara Hardy. From the award-winning You, Me And The Big C podcast (co-hosted with taboo-busting humor and pragmatism with fellow cancer patients Lauren Mahon and the late Rachael Bland), we journey with James through her highs (remission), lows (grueling chemo) and lots of dancing.

When he was eventually transferred to end-of-life care, James commented that “my body just isn’t playing along.” However, she defied the odds to reach her 40th birthday and could rightfully have added “even more.”

James’ journey is a moving and inspiring carpe diem, living up to the no-nonsense title of her 2018 bestseller, F*** You Cancer: How To Face The Big C, Live Your Life And Still Be Yourself. Or, as she noted towards the end of both the film and her life, “You can’t leave things until tomorrow, because there may be no tomorrow.”

If you thought The Traitors was bad, the new game show Scared Of The Dark (All4), hosted by Danny Dyer, is a much nastier piece of work. Celebrities including a Love Islander, a boy bander and a (blind!) comedian spend a week in total darkness and are challenged to scare them for our entertainment.

Former footballer Paul Gascoigne panics and swears a lot, while ex-boxer Chris Eubank doesn’t mind the dark but hates the endless F-bombs – then throws in the towel. “You’ve done crazy things,” Dyer tells Gascoigne. “Is this the craziest?” “Have to,” says Gazza. The jury is probably out…

Someone for Team Gerri?

Still reeling from that brilliant plot development in the final season of Succession (Mondays, Sky Atlantic/Now)? Me, too. Whether you’re #TeamShiv, #TeamRoman or #TeamKendall (are you sure?), it’s clear there’s going to be a lot more entertaining underhandedness as Logan Roy’s kids battle for pole position.

My money is on a member of the extended Roy family to beat all the siblings – or maybe they stem from the wider corporate Waystar Royco ‘family’. #TeamGerri (J Smith-Cameron), anyone?