HIGH EXPECTATIONS
SUNDAYS, BBC1 and iPLAYER
BLUE LIGHTS
MONDAY, BBC1 and iPLAYER
This week, I had anticipated dedicating the majority of this page to the new adaptation of the BBC’s Great Expectations. But after watching it, I decided not to.
This is not to say that it is not spectacular and luxurious; but only because this is Dickens for the TikTok generation, overly stylized and viewed through a series of modern filters that, while no doubt intended to make the characters and story feel more contemporary and relevant, end up narrowing everything down. to a series of clichés
As superficial entertainment it has its merits; for example, Olivia Colman is a wonderfully ditzy Miss Havisham; but she’s too-look-at-me-amn’t-i-the-rebel? (opium, swearing, whipping). It reminded me of that person at a party who always takes things a little too far. Unnecessary, quite irritating, and ultimately quite tedious.
This week British writer Sarah Vine (pictured) takes a look at an adaptation of Great Expectations, on BBC1 and iPlayer.
Far more stimulating, both intellectually and dramatically, was the BBC’s new Northern Ireland crime series, Blue Lights. If you want something shocking, this is a much flashier proposition than seeing a bare-bottomed Mr. Pumblechook getting spanked.
If you miss Happy Valley then Blue Lights is for you
Written by the same duo who garnered critical acclaim for their work dramatizing the Salisbury poisonings, Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, it is an unflinching and sometimes brutal portrayal of life as a member of the Belfast police force. post-troubles, a place where the threat of sectarian violence has morphed into gang warfare. The action follows three rookie cops, each assigned to an older, wiser and more cynical mentor, as they navigate the perils of this complex political and social landscape.
Blue Lights is an unflinching and sometimes brutal portrait of life as a law enforcement officer in post-riot Belfast.
Olivia Colman turns into a wonderfully hammy Miss Havisham, says Sarah, in the new adaptation of the BBC’s Great Expectations.
This is a world without excuses and without much hope, plagued by criminals and thugs, where violence is the first line of action when it comes to resolving any type of dispute, no matter how minor.
Gangs are smart, ruthless, well organized and well-versed in the law, and adept at exploiting loopholes. Those in uniform are alternately demoralized and terrified, paralyzed by bureaucracy and overshadowed by the presence of MI5.
The sense of threat is palpable, as is the way each situation carries the potential for lethal escalation. It’s basically war.
The cast is superb: Siân Brooke as Grace Ellis, a single mother and former social worker in her mid-forties, starting over; Katherine Devlin as Annie, fragile on the outside, tough on the inside; Nathan Braniff as fresh-faced Tommy. Richard Dormer is great as the grizzled but charismatic mentor and Martin McCann plays his more guarded counterpart. John Lynch is stupendously sinister as a gang leader.
Honestly, I found it gripping but also heartbreaking in terms of the larger context of life in Northern Ireland. If you are missing Happy Valley then this is for you.
GRYLLS IS NOT COMPETENT FOR GREAT SURVIVOR FROM UKRAINE
BEAR GRYLLS MEETS WITH PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY
ALL4
Bear Grylls traveled to kyiv to meet arguably the greatest survival expert of our time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The scale of the Russian destruction is truly shocking.
I know I’m probably in a minority of one here, but I find Bear Grylls a bit overbearing, especially now that he’s grown a mustache. But for once, not even his ego could overshadow the situation, as he traveled to kyiv to meet arguably the greatest survival expert of our time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
There was a slight sense of manufactured drama at the start, with tense music and much talk about the difficulties of entering what is, after all, a war zone. But once they crossed the border, the utter devastation spoke for itself.
The scale of the Russian destruction is truly staggering. Entire apartment blocks flattened, tanks burnt out, a country in ruins where almost everyone has lost someone, sometimes everything.
And yet the Ukrainian people continue to fight, both on the front lines and in the heart and at home. Victory here depends not only on the bravery of those in active combat, but also on the courage of ordinary citizens, their determination to carry on with daily life as long as possible, defying the invaders.
Zelenskyy is small and smiling and has a deep voice. It has aged years since the first phone recording of him on the day of the invasion, the cabinet standing defiantly behind him.
Surrounded by soldiers bristling with weapons, he talks about his wife, ‘my best friend’, missing his nine-year-old son and how the war is inevitably affecting his generation. ‘You look at your son’s wet eyes and you see that he is a boy,’ he says, with that simple depth of emotion that seems to come so easily.
Marriage is a dogfight.
The Dog Academy (Thursday, Channel 4) is as much about rehabilitating humans as it is their canine companions. In the picture: Mya the dog in the backyard of the Dog Academy
Ostensibly a show about problem dogs, The Dog Academy (Thursday, Channel 4) is as much about rehabilitating humans as it is their canine companions.
In the case of Bear, for example, a deceptively fluffy tyrant, his owners Paul and Louise needed both a marriage counselor and an animal behaviorist.
Although humans, of course, are much more difficult to train…