TV: The Rack Pack
The picaresque world of 70s and 80s snooker was so obviously ripe for retrofitted TV drama that the only surprise is that this feature-length tragicomedy is an iPlayer-only affair. Luke Treadaway (pictured, right) and Will Merrick enjoy themselves as broad, even scurrilous, caricatures of Alex Higgins and Steve Davis, respectively. Higgins is cast as snooker’s darkly irresistible demon who self-destructs even as Davis, in cahoots with ruthless promoter Barry Hearn, is taking the game into every living room. This narrative thrust is a slight over-simplification but does make for high drama.
TV: David Bowie And The Story Of Ziggy Stardust
As you’d imagine, the iPlayer is well stocked with Bowie ephemera. This fine film, narrated by Jarvis Cocker, explores the most thrillingly formative phase of his career. How did David Jones become Ziggy Stardust? It’s one of the greatest pop stories ever told.
Video: Wolf Of The West End
Yet another fine doc from Vice, this time profiling posh scam artist “Lord” Edward Davenport. Davenport made his first big splash organising Gatecrasher Balls where, as one guest put it, “people from the same class can get together”. He graduated to morally dubious property deals and, eventually, the outright fraud for which he was imprisoned. Until recently he lived in a West End pile worth £30m with a guy who runs sex parties, a testament to how many more mistakes those born into money can afford to make. Vice gives him enough rope to hang himself.
Audio: The New Yorker Radio Hour
These New Yorker podcasts are every bit as urbane, discursive and intelligent as you’d expect. Helmed by the magazine’s editor David Remnick, they locate an immaculate balance between levity and seriousness, lightness and weight. A recent episode jacks from an enjoyable chat with the likable and perceptive Aziz Ansari into a fascinating interview with Rukmini Callimachi, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times who has spent time exploring the motivations of Islamic State on a courageously face-to-face basis.
TV: Elephant
This Nick Helm short from last year’s Funny Valentines series has been nominated for a Bafta and is well worth a look. The elephant under discussion is the subtext underpinning the relationship of the two friends depicted in the film. They traipse happily around Brighton, doing their best to ignore their obvious chemistry.
