www.|ist.co.uk/tv
DRAMA BURN UP 8801, Wed 23 & Fri 25 Jul, 9pm 0.
Meet Tom McConnell (Rupert Penry-Jones), VP of
the Saudi Desert. These episodes drive him to team up
with Arrow’s head of renewables, Holly Dernay, (Neve
Campbell).
Arrow Oil, the most powerful business in the world. He’s square-jawed, blue-eyed with a cut glass accent and a line in motivational patter to rival stick-thumping Lydia’s ‘You want fame . . . ?’ speech from the opening credits of Kids From Fame. ‘You think gold’s valuable?’ Tom barks at his employees. ‘Gold is for earrings!’ Promoted to the top floor, Tom’s devoted company ways are immediately tested when a climate-change activist, enraged that Arrow’s activities have rendered her Inuit homeland uninhabitable, publicly issues him with a writ. Further denting his loyalties is the burgeoning suspicion that Arrow’s erstwhile CEO (who happens to be Tom’s father-in-law) may have been involved in the mysterious deaths of six oil workers in
This sprawling two-parter, scripted by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty), certainly contains all the ingredients of a challenging topical thriller. Yet, Beaufoy’s attempt to mix drama with current affairs is so ham-fisted it renders the piece unintentionally funny. The talented cast are left to chew over some horribly stilted dialogue (‘lt’s not wind, it’s solar-powered actually.’), while struggling to breathe life into the depthless characterisations. Claire Skinner and Marc Warren struggle bravely in the roles of icy Lady Macbeth-ian wife and effete government fixer respectively, but it’s Bradley Whitford’s crass, psychotic, born-again Christian oil lobbyist who really exemplifies the crude dilemma at the heart of this piece of tosh.
(Allan Radcliffe)
REMOTE CONTROL
Allan Radcliffe frets over the sickly state of terrestrial television
There's very little on telly that o\./erestimates the ii'itelligence of its viewers these days. Getting angry at this state of affairs could well bring on an ulcer, so it's much healthier to sit back and enjoy a good ironic chuckle at the slight return we get for our TV licence shillings and pence. Laughter is the best medicine. after all.
Which is exactly the kind of hoary old cliche you're likely to hear in Dr Alice Roberts: Don’t Die Young (BBC2. Thu (31 Jul. 8.30pm .0 ). Over eight episodes. the iovial Dr Roberts presents; a healthy liVing guide for those who are too embarrassed to take thew ailments to the GP. Having
tracked down some shifty looking volunteers. who admit to haying little more than ‘school level knoxzdedge’ of their anatomies. the good doc proceeds to enhance their awareness
not one iota. (iOlliOllESil'Etillig the body's
workings With the kind of Visual aids
you'd expect to encounter on your first
(lay at kindergarten. As the first episode deals with the male reproductive system, it's only a matter of time before Alice gets the balloons. bicycle pump. bananas and plums out. The most hilarious moment arrives when she uses the medium of bar snacks (peanuts. crisps. pork pies etCi to help a group of blokes guess the size of their prostate.
Medical matters are also to the fore over on the other side. l-laVing scored a modest hit with Moving lr’Val/paper earlier this year. only to take a giant leap backwards With the crappy Rock Riva/s. ITV have plumped for the more familiar doctors and nurses theme in their latest attempt to reclaim the dramatic initiative from the Beeb. Harley Street illVl. Thu 17 Jul 0. l is so keen to capture the /ippy pace and slick production values of its American counterparts that it has even nicked its opening credits from ER This sense of familiarity extends to the array of former soap stars in the
c; st. all of them struggling to disguise their regional accents. Wliii vaiying degrees of success. The one rough diamond to have infiltrated the world of exclusive private medicine is Paul Nichols' Dr Robert fielding. described by one of the other characters as 'a brilliant doctor and a classic legover artist'. You can Just imagine the same pithy report being handed to the poor actor on a postage stamp—si/ed piece of paper marked 'charactei notes'. It also pretty much sums up the narrative arc of episode one. which veers between fren/ied scenes of shagging and blow Jobs and Views of Dr Robert running through hospital corridors shouting things like. 'We need a canular for the chest pain patient in bay three!'
‘Healthy' is not the first word you'd associate with the state of STV's dramatic output in recent times. But High Times (STV. Thu 24 Jul. 10.40pm 000 ) rather bucked the trend. winning a Bafta and becoming the second most popular programme in South America. Cut to series two. and it's busuiess as usual for the residents of the Fairmyle high rises. Recuperating from his near fatal heart attack. Frank attempts to bestow that much coveted orgasm on wife Janet. with a little help from page 47 of The Joy of Sex: downstairs, local stud Tex Customises his shag pad 'Panderosa'. complete with ceiling mirror; meanwhile. the pair of workshy stoners Jake and Rab improvise around their lack of toilet paper with socks and newspaper. As it's quite a scatological programme. it seems appropriate to say that High Times falls between two stools. It's billed as black comedy. and features some admittedly amusing sequences. but lacks the required slickness of execution to be really funny, while as drama it's a bit limp and half-hearted.
House of Saddam (BBC2. Wed 30 Jul, 9pm .0. ) is a fairly healthy prospect. but then it does carry the HBO stamp of assurance. The opening episode traces the Iraqi dictators blood-soaked trajectory from SCI/flng the presidency in 1979 and dispatching all Ba'ath party dissenters by firing squad to sending wave after wave of soldiers into battle against his nemesis Ayatollah Khomenei. The scenario plays Out like a cross between The Sopranos and a Middle Eastern Dynasty. with any dramatic representation of the Godfather of Baghdad unlikely to do any real justice to the horrors he dished out to his own people. Saddam. it could rightfully be said. was one sick mutha.
W (St Jul 2008 THE LIST 85