DRAMA SERIES RESIDENTS
BBC2, Wed 9 May, 9pm OOOO
Neighbours. Everybody needs good ones. And everybody knows that feeling of dread when new members are set to infiltrate your local community. The folks on this particular patch may have complicated lives but they are essentially a contended bunch. From the phone sex worker who can’t keep an eye on her infant daughter to the couple trying desperately and loudly to conceive; to the petty racists and the unemployed stoners, the flirts, the happy gay couple, the lonely dypso housewife and the transsexual trying to come out to his parents. It’s just like any old neighbourhood really. Until, that is, the family from hell barnstorm their lives.
Housed somewhere between Royston Vasey and Albert Square (it has the dreamy dark tone of The League Of Gentlemen and the neo-realist chatter of EastEnders), Residents has a large cast of relative unknowns, and hence none of the baggage of most celebrity-led drama.
Writer Tony Basgallop (who penned the contemporary murder mystery Summer In The Suburbs) describes his motive: ‘I wanted to take all the known soap cliches and crank them up a notch. What I discovered was just how fragile the sense of community actually is; people were never meant to live
this close together.’
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Everybody needs good neighbours
The consequences of the summer heat and individual tensions are a mysterious passing away and murderous vigilantism. But who will buckle first: the close-knit ‘family’ or the hooligan ‘outsiders’? For once, it’ll be fun to watch. (Brian Donaldson)
DOCUMENTARY SERIES BODY STORY 2 Channel 4, Tue 1 May, 8.30pm coco
Combine computer graphics with a convoluted narrative then throw in a worldly- wise voiceover for good measure and what do you get? Surprisingly, in Body Story. the end reSuII is an entertaining and informative insight into the wonderful machine we call the human body.
In episode three. the grisly subject under the microscope is fat. We meet George. a man built for comfort rather than speed. and watch what happens to his body as he decides to ban the pizza and dose up on salad instead. Everyone knows that diets don't work. and here we find out why. Watch in wonder as those little glucose cells get depleted as the body thinks there's a famine going on.
Although the images of the body's workings are computer-generated. it's enough to make you
slightly squeamish realising just how complex our insides are. By the end. you'll vow to start exercising and take care of your body. but take note of the chilling epilogue: ‘fat is only a few mouthfuls away.‘ (Louisa Pearson)
DOCUMENTARY SERIES SECRET RULERS OF THE WORLD Channel 4, Sun 29 Apr, 9pm 0000
Jon Ronson likes hanging out with the kinds of folk you'd cross continents to avoid: a family of pseudo- rednecks. a quasi- redneck talk show host and David Icke. among them. This crew of motleys have one thing in common: they are convinced that the world is being run by a small clique of politicians. media moguls and bankers. The rednecks believe this elite is fronted by World Jewry. Icke reckons that they are six-foot lizards in disguise.
Ronson (in the media and Jewish) just abOut keeps an even keel on proceedings. admitting at one point to being sucked into the paranoid mindgames he is investigating. In the opening programme. he meets the Weaver family, whose vision of New World Order domination, saw them fleeing to the hills. Only for the US government to come after them with military might. leading to bloodbath. recriminations and the side effects of mini- holocausts at Waco and Oklahoma. Powerful. witty and damning stuff. (Brian Donaldson)
SITCOM
THE SAVAGES BBC1, Tue 31 Apr, 9pm 0..
Savages eh? A sitcom where a bunch of folks
in animal skins joke about being attacked by sabre-toothed tigers. club the wife and invent fire. I presume? Well not quite, but that may be something worth mentioning to writer Simon Men Behaving Badly Nye as an idea when this one gets pulled after a series.
Marcus Brigstocke and Victoria Hamilton are the head of a mildly dysfunctional nuclear family who battle marital indifference by embracing rodents. Australians or whatever is in the way that particular episode. The characterisation is extremely hackneyed but the gags are predominately the sarcastic one-liners Nye excelled with in his earlier creations. Only Geoffrey Palmer saves the day as the
granddad. referring to his grandkids as ‘bastards' and generally scowling abOut like he did t‘.'.*ent§. years ago :n Butterflies. But a grumpy grandpa does not a funny family make. Sadly for him. the kids are Just alright. iMark Robertson)
DOCUMENTARY
MR TREBUS’ LIFE OF GRIME BBC1, Wed 2 May, 9.05pm 0
To hoard rubbish and seek permanence in things that are made to be disposed might be Viewed as a statement of resistance to our transient society and wasteful ways. That would go some way to explaining the lifestyle of Edmund Trebus. an elderly Polish war veteran who lives in a 10ft space in his five— bedroom house. Decomposing food. old coke bottles and dead rats fill the rest of the house and garden.
The BBC first showed Trebus' clashes with his local council two years ago. For some reason they have decided to return. Watching a senile. chain-smoking old man cling onto his refuse in the face of builders. bureaucrats and magistrates is not an edifying spectacle. It is difficult not to feel Sympathy for both Trebus and the council workers who are. after all. just doing their job. The real villains of the
Battling indifference any way the Savages can
Tv
piece are the filmmakers. who persist in turning this serdid. pitiful Spectacle into an (“Xiélti'so Ill ‘50) t‘LllISllI.
iJames Smart)
FILM SUPERVIXENS Channel 5, Fri 4 May, 10.50pm O...
Russ Meyer doesn't beat about the bush: he's a confirmed tit man. And Super Vixens; has tits in spades. Voluininous. voluptuous bosoms. Okay. okay. so I'm being deliberater tin-PC. but Meyer genuinely loved big- breasted. preferably young, women.
And while no one's going to argue that he isn’t a inisogynistic old sod. his sex kittens are far from i‘xissive. they're empowered females. Take Supervixens' typical Meyer storyline: a young man, on the run haVing being accused of a crime he didn't commit. comes across a series of sexually predatory women. Beyond the breasts. Meyer's film works like a cartoon: manic. violent. funny, witty even. Surprise yourself.
(Miles Fielder)
ALSO ON Question Of Pop (BBC1, Sat 28 Apr. 6.30pm) Jamie Theakston tests the guests' music knowledge.
Adolf & Eva (Scottish. Sun 29 Apr. 10.45pm) The life and final days of the NaZi couple. Playboy Prince (Channel 5. Tue 1 May. 8m) Will Andrew remain a swinging bachelor to his dying day?
Cutting Edge (Channel 4, Tue 1 May. 9pm) Cracking dOCUmentary series returns With a look at OAPs and their criminal habits.
Arena (BBC1, Sun 6 May. 10.30pm) US crime author and dog- lover James Ellroy gets the treatment.
26 Apr—10 May 2001 me LIST 1 15