Sky Go
Bright Lights
Affecting in its own right, this HBO film looking at the relationship between Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds was lent an almost unbearable poignancy by the pair’s deaths within a day of each other just before Christmas. If that makes Bright Lights seem glum, it really isn’t: for the most part, this documentary acts as a celebration of a delightfully eccentric mother-daughter bond. It’s also at times, extremely funny, with Fisher responsible for some great one-liners: “If you die when you’re fat, are you a fat ghost, or do they go back to a more flattering time?” she asks, mock-guilelessly at one point. Essential viewing.
Available now
BBC3
Annie Mac: Who Killed The Night
The recent reopening of Fabric, while welcome, obscured a troubling truth about the rapid atrophying of nightlife in the UK, with almost half of the country’s clubs having closed over the past decade. In this BBC3 doc, DJ and Radio 1 host Annie Mac looks at the various factors contributing to clubbing’s demise, from property development to punitive policing. Can anything be done to arrest this demise?
Available from Wednesday 18 Jan
Reggie Yates: Hidden Australia
Over the past few years, Yates has morphed from mildly irritating kids’ TV mainstay to worthy social documentarian, unafraid to singe his hands on hot-potato topics such as race, sexuality, drugs and religion. Here, he travels to Australia, seeking to understand the appalling social disparity between white and indigenous communities; the former often guilty of indulging in ingrained institutional racism, the latter suffering inordinate rates of unemployment and addiction. This offers more questions than answers, but is no less worthy for that.
Available from Monday 16 Jan
Netflix
Voltron: Legendary Defender
This animated series, co-produced by DreamWorks, conjures up memories of the golden age of Saturday morning kids’ TV, mainly because it’s a remake of a series from that era – the 1984-85 series of the same name. The gist, for those who weren’t there first time round, is that four military cadets control robot lions that together form a universe-defending mega-bot. Sort of a cross between Transformers and Power Rangers, then. Still, it features enough hints of the original to sate any nostalgia-seekers, and slick enough cartoonery to keep pace with its modern rivals. Season two launches this week.
Available from Friday 20 Jan
Podcast
Pod Save America
One of the best pods of 2016, political chat-fest Keepin’ It 1600 is no more. But that’s only because its hosts – ex-Obama staffers Jon Favreau (not that one), Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer – have upped sticks and created their own politics site, Crooked Media, formed in opposition to the incoming Potus. This flagship podcast takes in largely the same format as 1600, with acerbic takedowns of Trump and the party he belongs to, but there’s more of an activist bent: the opening episode has a discussion with the organisers of the Women’s March on Washington, scheduled for the very day of the Donald’s inauguration.
Available now
