Bollocks to Cancer Channel 4, Thu 9 Jun, 9pm The story of teenager Simon Liddell and his fight against cancer will make you both laugh and cry.
What’s the Problem with Anne Robinson? BBC1, Sat 11 Jun, 9.45pm A topical comedy show. Not had one of those for a week. Marcus Brigstocke is here helping out The Weakest Link. Host. Cash Cab Scottish. Mon 13 Jun. 3pm A cabbie asks contestants a bunch of questions and if they don't get enough of them correct they're dropped off at any given spot. Sounds a lot like the real thing. to be honest. mate. The Office: An American Workplace BBC3. Tue 14 Jun, 9.30pm Brent and co (pictured) return but in a distinctly American way. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant will be laughing up their sleeves at the horror of it all.
Mary Seacole: Queen of the Crimea Channel 4, Sat 18 Jun. 7pm Recently voted the Greatest Black Briton ever, the Jamaican- born doctor's story is told here on the telly for the first time. Angela Bruce plays the Victorian hero in the dramatised sequences.
Geldof in Africa BBC1, Mon 20 Jun. 8pm Sir Robert goes back to meet ordinary Africans and tries to see the experience through their own eyes. And then gets really upset about it all. probably.
ReVIews URBAN DRAMA SUGAR RUSH Channel 4, Tue 14 Jun, 10.50pm 00
This adaptation of Julie Burchill's teen novel will no doubt court controversy with conservative-minded numpties, but really it's just a bad piece of drama based around a depressingly formulaic and trashy storyline. Kim is a posh 15-year- old who moves to Brighton only to become infatuated with the coolest. sassiest girl in her class. Sugar. She is confused about her sexuality. and life in general. as many teenage girls no doubt are.
But the combination of the wafer thin plot-by- numbers. some dreadful direction and a whole dollop of cliched characters fails to ignite any interest in proceedings. with the overall feel somewhere between one of those late night Hol/yoaks specials and the terminally vacuous As If. What's more. after setting up the lesbian story in episode one. they then virtually abandon it in the second episode in favour of a dysfunctional family plot which is so full of caricatures as to be utterly laughable. (Doug Johnstone)
CELEBRITY DOCUMENTARY
MARTHA AND ME
BBC2, Mon 13 Jun, 9pm on
Martha Stewart has been America's domestic goddess since the days when our own Nigella's dad's was still morbidly obese. and is worth more than the Queen and Madonna put together. So her sentencing to five months in jail for lying to
l l l
insider trading investigators resulted in a combination of horror and hilarity. In this show, British documentary- maker Jamie Campbell tries to understand what being a Martha fan is all about. buys a trailer on the site overlooking her prison. decorates it in her style and tries to make contact.
While it's quite funny watching the dimwits and stalkers who worship her, it's no great achievement. Plus. for a filmmaker to
put himself at the centre 2
of a doc while pursuing the elusive. he's either got to have the charisma of Louis Theroux or the sinister/deeply intriguing quarry that Nick Broomfield chooses. Campbell has neither. He does. however. kill a chicken for a laugh. (Ashley Davies)
RURAL DOCUMENTARY THE
STRANGEST VILLAGE IN BRITAIN
Channel 4, Thu 16 Jun, 9pm 0000 Botton in North Yorkshire has a population of around 300 people. half of whom have learning difficulties or mental problems. the other half (called co-workers) effectively acting as carers. A social experiment set up 50 years ago as a way of dealing with those with learning difficulties. it is thriving, despite current trends being against such practises. Botton is essentially run as a kind of commune. and while a lot of the footage in this thought- provoking and often touching documentary seems chaotic. things do seem to get done somehow. and many of the villagers apparently revel in the
MEDICAL DRAMA HOUSE Five, Thu 9 Jun, 10pm 0.
Hugh Laurie as a grouchy American medic? Someone somewhere is having a seriously misguided laugh. But no. As a friend reminded me recently, Laurie has already done an American accent on TV before, as one of two bellowing attorneys opposite his pal Stephen Fry. That was funny for a few minutes. This is unintentionally hilarious for a lot longer. US-made House lends heavily from 08! (all that camerawork going deep into a troubled body, this time of a sick patient rather than a bludgeoned, burned or battered dead person) and any work in the history of entertainment which has a mad maverick at its core.
Dr House is so good at his job that he doesn’t even need to be in the same room as the patient: ‘It stops them lying to us. Or us lying to them,’ is his considered opinion. His diagnosis is almost always the exact opposite of standard doctorly procedure but, not surprisingly, is seen to be correct every single time. ‘Aren’t we supposed to be saving people? Isn’t that our job?’ yells a frustrated colleague after another wild course of action has been suggested by House, mere minutes before it proves to be the only feasible solution.
Naturally, the ‘crippled’ doctor (House needs a cane to walk after some mysterious accident) goes on to suggest illegal behaviour as well as the cheeky stuff he pulls to get his patients to face up to their own psychological problems. The Americans may have loved this but we British will see straight through Bertie Wooster. (Brian Donaldson) 5
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environment.
The documentary focuses on a few of these people and their particular stories. portraying them in a way which is neither patronising nor exploitative. And there is a generosity of spirit running throughout Botton (especially but not exclusively from the endlessly patient co- workers) that is truly heart-warming. Moving stuff. (Doug Johnstone)
923 Jun 2005 THE LIST 103