We could do with a bit of magic in England
Well, in a political sense Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is most timely, at this post-election time of national identity crisis (Sunday, BBC1) ... “We wish to know why magic is not done in England.” Yes. Where has all the magic gone? The first 10 minutes of this both confused and terrified me (not having read the book). Who are all these bonkers magicians, and why aren’t they doing any magic? But with the superb Eddie Marsan as Mr Norrell, what can go wrong? Once the statues started talking, it was clear what was going on. Parallel reality, alternate history and so on. Hmm. This sort of business is an acquired taste.
Then along popped the “weak and skittish” Jonathan Strange who seemed a most amiable fellow simply in need of a purpose. “I have tried to buy an ironworks … to establish a fossil business …” Ever thought about magic? Set against the backdrop of war with France, this is an eccentric and, er, magical tale, not always easy to follow but cleverly made and ingeniously played.
We need more political satire on telly (to fight back against social media)
Rory Bremner had a tough job on his hands with his Election Report (Saturday, BBC2). Arguably social media has removed a lot of the sting of traditional political satire. By the time a sketch has been conceived, let alone written and recorded, the same idea will already have been retweeted 858 times by David Schneider.
I loved the section about the number of words in the manifesto about welfare cuts (under 20, I think it was) versus the number of words about the protection of polar bears (a lengthy screed). And Sara Pascoe’s “clueless idiot” voter was excellent. But all in all I wanted more: a longer show with more detail. More frequent outings of this kind of programming would get us more used to political satire: it has a different pace and tone and I think we might have grown out of it a bit. Time to get the habit back.
The spirit of Larry David lives on (or does it?)
Episode two of Grace and Frankie (Friday, Netflix), a new comedy series from the team behind Friends, pitting Jane Fonda (Grace) against Lily Tomlin (Frankie). Their whole lives they’ve hated each other, but maintained civility as the wives of two men who run a law firm together (Sam Waterston as Sol, Frankie’s husband, and Martin Sheen as Robert, Grace’s husband). Now things are about to get messy. Because Sol and Robert have just announced that they’re leaving their wives to be gay together – something they have already been doing secretly for the past 20 years.
There are some great one-liners: “I think everyone is gay.” “That’s the worst iced tea ever. What is in there? Ass?” “Wow, I must have half the beach in my vagina.” But there already seems to be a danger of straying away from the Larry David sweet spot occupied in the first episode and more in the direction of Brothers and Sisters. Still, one to keep an eye on.
Britain is quadruple-jointed but has no talent
On Britain’s Got Talent we had The Jackson Five who were nothing like The Jackson Five (Saturday, ITV), a blind-folded piano prodigy, a quadruple-joined contortionist and a girl singing Over the Rainbow, who had obviously been Italia Conti’d to within an inch of her life. I really need to stop watching this programme as it just makes me physically violent. The artifice! The fakery! The predictability! Is it because they’ve run out of decent acts? Or because Simon Cowell is bored with his own ideas? This whole shebang has gone dead behind the eyes.
The worst thing? When they wheel out the “Have you got another song?” spiel to try and up the “wow” factor. Only for the group (in this case it was Not The Jackson Five) to start singing something even more dirge-like which we were supposed to think was “utterly amazing”. Forget Amanda Holden, not even Meryl Streep could convey the impression that this is working. Reinvent, rebrand or make it stop.
