Do we really want to see any more small-town whodunnits about child killing? Well, maybe just this one…
*The Guilty *(ITV) | ITV Player
*Rebuilding the World Trade Centre *(C4) | 4oD
*The Lost Hero of 9/11 *(C4) | 4oD
*The Story of the Jews *(BBC2) | iPlayer
*Jamie's Money Saving Meals *(C4) | 4oD
*The Guilty* was a guilty pleasure indeed. It has been a splendid summer for drama across all channels, during a season normally draped in the salty and slightly niffy flannel of so-so. There was – forgive me if I've got any wrong – Broadcliffe, Southchurch, Cliffdeath, Deathchurch, Laketop-Church, Deathcliffville, Southkill – and if I ever had to inexplicably leave my post and go to bed, there was always the BBC World Service telling me at 4am in sonorous voices, indefatigably those of Orla Guerin, about the death of a child in some yakhole I can't presently do anything about.
But did we need another murdered-child drama, inducing such anxiety in those possessed of children? Well, yes, on balance, because it threatens to be rather good. It contains Tamsin Greig, for instance, looking as far from her lovely Black Books character, Fran, as possible. Shorn of all but a shiver of makeup, and with cropped salt-and-pepper hair to the fore – Toto, we're not in Ambridge any more – she attained a new steel, and will doubtless have casting directors lining her up for 2014 as the go-to "sexyish detective" in the event they've been turned down by Olivia Colman. Also, the splendid Katherine Kelly, and also Darren Boyd, last seen in a disturbingly mesmerising portrayal of John Cleese. So the cast's a winner: what of the plot?
Apart from the faintly annoying timeshifts, it was also a winner. The infidelities and petty jealousies of the entire town are being slowly brought into tight focus, to the extent that you guiltily don't much care who killed young Callum Reid (if he's actually dead); there's a simple absorption in the dramas being played out. One of several pluses about this programme is that it was both written and produced by women. My second tiny niggle, incidentally, is that the timeshifts were only back to 2008: yet that year appeared to have been filmed in Kodachrome, if not Super 8. Gals, it wasn't that long ago.
There were two documentaries about 9/11, so scheduled to appear around the, um, 12th anniversary. Leaving that "um" aside, they were immensely watchable. Stronger of the two, I have to guiltily admit, was about *Rebuilding the World Trade Centre* – technically, all four or five buildings, I kind of lost count. There has existed a kind of savage pride among the contractors, hauliers, riveters, to simply get this job done, and stick a big four or five fingers up to the forces of intolerance. It was so quietly and beautifully shot, with achingly lovely timelapse photography, and yet the stars were the often staid ironworkers, and particularly their mores: far from hawkish, just grimly determined. Strong, strong men and women.
*The Lost Hero of 9/11* – the story of ex-marine Jason Thomas, who ran miles and dug through 30ft of rubble to save two policemen when all hope had been lost – suffered a little in contrast by being too ramped-up emotionally, with a booming Armageddon of a voiceover. Jason's tale was astonishing enough, and sometimes less is more.
I learnt more about Judaism in a simple hour of Simon Schama's perfect starter to *The Story of the Jews *than I have in all my years on Earth. It's about memory, basically: muddled memory, tribal memory, folk memory. I identified, hugely: all Scots should watch.
*Bad Education*'s season 2 opener was deeply funny, though not for the faint-hearted. *Jamie's Money Saving Meals *was an eye-opener, and genuinely intriguing, though possibly not for those not possessed of a local fishmonger or a life removed to Tuscany. Sort it, Jamie. He probably could. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
*The Guilty *(ITV) | ITV Player
*Rebuilding the World Trade Centre *(C4) | 4oD
*The Lost Hero of 9/11 *(C4) | 4oD
*The Story of the Jews *(BBC2) | iPlayer
*Jamie's Money Saving Meals *(C4) | 4oD
*The Guilty* was a guilty pleasure indeed. It has been a splendid summer for drama across all channels, during a season normally draped in the salty and slightly niffy flannel of so-so. There was – forgive me if I've got any wrong – Broadcliffe, Southchurch, Cliffdeath, Deathchurch, Laketop-Church, Deathcliffville, Southkill – and if I ever had to inexplicably leave my post and go to bed, there was always the BBC World Service telling me at 4am in sonorous voices, indefatigably those of Orla Guerin, about the death of a child in some yakhole I can't presently do anything about.
But did we need another murdered-child drama, inducing such anxiety in those possessed of children? Well, yes, on balance, because it threatens to be rather good. It contains Tamsin Greig, for instance, looking as far from her lovely Black Books character, Fran, as possible. Shorn of all but a shiver of makeup, and with cropped salt-and-pepper hair to the fore – Toto, we're not in Ambridge any more – she attained a new steel, and will doubtless have casting directors lining her up for 2014 as the go-to "sexyish detective" in the event they've been turned down by Olivia Colman. Also, the splendid Katherine Kelly, and also Darren Boyd, last seen in a disturbingly mesmerising portrayal of John Cleese. So the cast's a winner: what of the plot?
Apart from the faintly annoying timeshifts, it was also a winner. The infidelities and petty jealousies of the entire town are being slowly brought into tight focus, to the extent that you guiltily don't much care who killed young Callum Reid (if he's actually dead); there's a simple absorption in the dramas being played out. One of several pluses about this programme is that it was both written and produced by women. My second tiny niggle, incidentally, is that the timeshifts were only back to 2008: yet that year appeared to have been filmed in Kodachrome, if not Super 8. Gals, it wasn't that long ago.
There were two documentaries about 9/11, so scheduled to appear around the, um, 12th anniversary. Leaving that "um" aside, they were immensely watchable. Stronger of the two, I have to guiltily admit, was about *Rebuilding the World Trade Centre* – technically, all four or five buildings, I kind of lost count. There has existed a kind of savage pride among the contractors, hauliers, riveters, to simply get this job done, and stick a big four or five fingers up to the forces of intolerance. It was so quietly and beautifully shot, with achingly lovely timelapse photography, and yet the stars were the often staid ironworkers, and particularly their mores: far from hawkish, just grimly determined. Strong, strong men and women.
*The Lost Hero of 9/11* – the story of ex-marine Jason Thomas, who ran miles and dug through 30ft of rubble to save two policemen when all hope had been lost – suffered a little in contrast by being too ramped-up emotionally, with a booming Armageddon of a voiceover. Jason's tale was astonishing enough, and sometimes less is more.
I learnt more about Judaism in a simple hour of Simon Schama's perfect starter to *The Story of the Jews *than I have in all my years on Earth. It's about memory, basically: muddled memory, tribal memory, folk memory. I identified, hugely: all Scots should watch.
*Bad Education*'s season 2 opener was deeply funny, though not for the faint-hearted. *Jamie's Money Saving Meals *was an eye-opener, and genuinely intriguing, though possibly not for those not possessed of a local fishmonger or a life removed to Tuscany. Sort it, Jamie. He probably could. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.