Some weeks, television provides little more than a distraction. This week offers something better: programmes that revisit injustice, challenge powerful institutions and remind us that drama can sometimes change the way a country thinks.
My first pick is Mums v Big Pharma, on BBC Two on Monday at 9pm. It tells the extraordinary story of Emma Murphy and Janet Williams, two mothers who spent more than a decade fighting for justice over the sodium valproate scandal. Their campaign exposed the devastating consequences of prescribing the epilepsy medication during pregnancy and the failure to adequately warn families of the risks. An estimated 20,000 children in Britain were affected.
What makes their story so compelling is their refusal to be silenced. They encountered obstruction, disbelief and resistance from people and institutions that should have been listening. Yet they continued. There is something profoundly inspiring about ordinary people taking on powerful organisations and refusing to go away.
My second selection takes us back sixty years. Cathy Come Home, directed by Ken Loach and first broadcast in 1966, returns to BBC Four on Wednesday, accompanied by Loach’s own recollections of making it.
The importance of this television drama is difficult to overestimate. It follows an ordinary working-class family slipping into poverty and homelessness, exposing the insecurity that could destroy lives almost overnight. It helped force homelessness onto the national agenda. What is disturbing is how much of it remains relevant. Britain may have changed considerably since 1966, but the housing crisis certainly hasn’t disappeared.
My third pick is MOBO 30: Iconic Moments, on BBC One on Wednesday. The programme celebrates thirty years of the Music of Black Origin Awards and the extraordinary contribution of their founder, Kanya King, who died in June this year.
King’s achievement went far beyond organising an awards ceremony. She created a platform for musical talent that was too often ignored by the established industry. The resulting success helped transform British popular culture and contributed significantly to the growth of an internationally successful creative industry.
There is plenty else worth watching. A terrific collection of films ranges from the British gangster classic Brighton Rock to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, while BBC Four devotes Friday evening to pioneering women in rock music. And for those who enjoy a little political dystopia, we have two very different instalments of The Hunger Games franchise.
Let’s see what’s on.
Saturday 7 November
8pm — Dune (2021), ITV2
Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction novel takes us to Arrakis, a desert planet whose valuable resources are at the centre of a bitter struggle between competing dynasties.
Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, the young aristocrat drawn into a conflict involving imperial power, religious prophecy and colonial exploitation.
The spectacle is impressive, but Herbert’s political ideas are what make Dune particularly interesting. Beneath the spaceships and strange technology lies a story about control of resources, manufactured belief and the danger of charismatic leaders. It is science fiction with something substantial to say.
8.15pm — 40 TV Theme Tunes at the BBC, BBC Two
Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
A nostalgic journey through some of television’s most memorable theme music, featuring composers ranging from Irving Berlin to Ennio Morricone.
There are themes from MASH*, Minder, Brush Strokes, Crocodile Shoes and the delightful The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, alongside music that became almost as famous as the programmes themselves.
Particular pleasures include Julee Cruise singing Falling, the haunting theme associated with Twin Peaks, and Clannad’s beautiful Theme from Harry’s Game.
Will Smith also makes an appearance with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
A good television theme does something remarkable. In a few seconds, it establishes a mood and brings back an entire world of memories. Some are better remembered than the programmes they introduced.
9pm — The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), 5 Action
One of the great underrated American thrillers.
Walter Matthau plays a New York transit official faced with a gang of armed criminals who have hijacked a subway train and are holding its passengers hostage. Robert Shaw is superb as the coldly calculating leader of the gang.
There is very little wasted in this film. The dialogue crackles, the characters are sharply drawn and the tension builds without resorting to the frantic editing that has become commonplace in modern action cinema.
Director Joseph Sargent makes excellent use of New York’s subway system, and David Shire’s brassy, jazz-influenced score is unforgettable.
It developed a cult following and influenced later hostage thrillers. The 2009 remake with Denzel Washington and John Travolta is respectable enough, but the original is much better. A small masterpiece of pacing and ensemble acting.
9.10pm — The Bride Wore Black (1968), BBC Four
François Truffaut’s stylish revenge thriller stars Jeanne Moreau as a woman methodically hunting down the men responsible for a tragedy that shattered her life. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, whom Truffaut greatly admired, the film combines suspense with a distinctly French interest in psychology, obsession and moral ambiguity.
Moreau is superb. Elegant, intelligent and faintly terrifying, she dominates every scene as a woman driven by grief but displaying very little outward emotion. Her calm determination is often more unsettling than anger would be.
Beautifully photographed and carefully constructed, The Bride Wore Black remains one of the most interesting films in Truffaut’s career. It lacks the reputation of Jules et Jim or The 400 Blows, but it deserves to be much better known. An excellent introduction to both Moreau and one of French cinema’s great directors.
10pm — The Grey (2011), ITV4
Liam Neeson stars in this bleak survival thriller about oil workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, leaving them struggling against freezing temperatures and a pack of wolves.
Neeson is especially effective as a man already burdened by despair before disaster strikes.
The film is less interested in conventional heroics than in mortality, fear and humanity’s uncomfortable relationship with nature. Its portrayal of wolf behaviour is dramatic rather than zoologically reliable, but the atmosphere of impending death is powerful.
10.55pm — Scene by Scene: Jeanne Moreau, BBC Four
An excellent companion to The Bride Wore Black.
Moreau was one of the defining faces of French cinema, associated particularly with the New Wave and directors including Louis Malle and François Truffaut.
Her performances combined intelligence, sensuality and independence, frequently challenging conventional representations of women on screen.
An opportunity to hear an important actress reflecting on her work and the development of modern cinema.
11.50pm — The Taste of Things (2023), BBC Two
A beautifully observed French period romance starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel.
Set in nineteenth-century France, it explores the relationship between a celebrated gourmet and the gifted cook with whom he has worked for many years.
Food is central to everything, but the film is about far more than cooking. Love, companionship, ageing and the pleasures of an ordinary shared life are explored with extraordinary tenderness.
The preparation of meals is filmed with such care that cooking becomes almost a form of choreography.
An unusually gentle and intelligent film.
12.05am — Rush (2013), BBC One
Ron Howard’s exciting account of the rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 season.
Chris Hemsworth captures Hunt’s flamboyance, while Daniel Brühl gives an excellent performance as the methodical, fiercely competitive Lauda.
The racing sequences are superb, but the real strength lies in the contrasting personalities of two men driven by the same ambition.
The film also conveys the extraordinary risks drivers accepted during an era when fatal accidents were an ever-present possibility.
Sunday 8 November
1.45pm — War Horse (2011), BBC One
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel follows a horse, Joey, from the English countryside into the horrors of the First World War.
It is occasionally sentimental, but Spielberg knows how to tell a story, and the film contains some remarkable scenes.
What I particularly appreciate is the way it crosses national boundaries. British and German soldiers are shown as human beings caught in a conflict far larger than themselves.
The suffering of the horses is another reminder of the appalling destruction caused by industrial warfare.
4.30pm — A Room with a View (1985), Film4
One of the great successes of British literary cinema.
James Ivory directs this adaptation of E. M. Forster’s novel, with Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman whose experiences in Italy awaken feelings that conflict with the social expectations of Edwardian society.
The supporting cast is extraordinary, including Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis.
It is witty, beautifully photographed and quietly subversive in its treatment of class, convention and sexual repression.
5.30pm — Paths of Glory (1957), Great Action
Stanley Kubrick’s devastating anti-war film stars Kirk Douglas as a French officer defending soldiers selected for punishment after a disastrous military assault during the First World War.
Few films have exposed the cruelty and hypocrisy of military authority so effectively.
The generals responsible for impossible orders are protected by rank and privilege, while ordinary soldiers are expected to pay with their lives.
Kubrick’s direction is disciplined and unsentimental. The courtroom sequences are particularly powerful.
An essential film, and one that has lost none of its relevance.
9pm — Stacey Dooley’s Australia: Off the Beaten Track, Channel 4
Full series available on Channel 4 streaming.
Stacey Dooley travels beyond the familiar tourist images of Australia to explore its people, communities and landscapes.
Her informal interviewing style can be disarming, allowing people to speak about their experiences without the programme becoming overly formal.
An opportunity to see aspects of Australian life that rarely feature in conventional travel programmes.
9.50pm — Layer Cake (2004), Great Action
Daniel Craig plays an unnamed London cocaine dealer attempting to leave the criminal world behind, only to become entangled in an increasingly complicated series of betrayals.
Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut is stylish, clever and very British in its cynicism.
The cast includes Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney and Sienna Miller.
Its depiction of organised crime is less romantic than it initially appears. Everyone is looking for an advantage, and loyalty is usually negotiable.
10.45pm — Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), BBC Two
Gary Oldman plays George Smiley in Tomas Alfredson’s atmospheric adaptation of John le Carré’s espionage novel.
Smiley is called out of retirement to identify a Soviet mole operating at the highest levels of British intelligence.
This is not a spy film built around car chases and explosions. Its world is one of quiet conversations, institutional rivalries, betrayal and exhausted men who have spent their lives deceiving others.
Oldman’s restrained performance is outstanding.
It also captures something important about the decline of British power and the moral ambiguities of the Cold War.
11.30pm — The Kitchen (2023), Channel 4
The Kitchen wears its politics on its sleeve, but that is not a criticism. Set in a near-future London where social housing has been systematically erased and whole communities have been pushed to the margins, the film imagines a Britain in which the gap between those who have and those who have not has become almost impossible to bridge. Co-directed by Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares, it follows Izi, a young man desperate to leave the last remaining housing estate known as the Kitchen behind, only to find his plans complicated by his growing connection to a boy who has even less reason to believe the system will ever work in his favour.
At first glance, the story appears to be a piece of dystopian science fiction, but what gives it its power is the uncomfortable sense that very little of it feels far-fetched. The gleaming towers inhabited by the wealthy, the constant surveillance, the disappearance of affordable housing and the pressure placed on poorer communities to simply move elsewhere are all recognisable extensions of debates already taking place in British cities today. The film does not need flying cars or outlandish technology to make its point. The social realities it builds on are already visible.
The estate itself becomes the film’s most compelling character. Rather than depicting the Kitchen as a place of hopelessness, the directors present it as a community fighting to survive. Despite the poverty, the police attention and the political neglect, residents continue to support one another. The film is less concerned with the physical buildings than with what is lost when communities are broken apart in the name of regeneration and progress.
Visually, the production is striking. The futuristic elements are integrated into an environment that still feels recognisably London, creating a world that seems only a few steps beyond the present rather than existing in some distant fantasy. That realism strengthens the political message. The audience is never allowed the comfort of dismissing what they are seeing as pure fiction.
The Kitchen is ultimately a film about belonging, displacement and the value of community in an increasingly unequal society. Its arguments about gentrification, economic division and state power are direct and unapologetic, but they are grounded in human stories rather than political slogans. What lingers after the credits is not the dystopian setting itself, but the unsettling thought that the future it presents requires very little imagination. In many respects, the foundations are already here.
Cosmo Jarvis gives a remarkable performance as Douglas, a former boxer working as an enforcer for a criminal family in rural Ireland.
His loyalty is tested when he is ordered to commit an act of violence that threatens what remains of his moral independence.
Barry Keoghan is excellent in support.
A brutal, moving film about masculinity, exploitation and the difficulty of escaping a life shaped by violence.
Monday 9 November
4.35pm — Brighton Rock (1947), Talking Pictures TV
One of the most sinister gangster films ever made in Britain.
Adapted from Graham Greene’s novel, with Greene contributing to the screenplay, it follows Pinkie Brown, a vicious young criminal operating among the gangs and protection rackets of pre-war Brighton.
Richard Attenborough is extraordinary as Pinkie. His youthful appearance makes the character’s brutality even more disturbing. There is genuine menace beneath his carefully controlled exterior.
The film combines gangster conventions with Greene’s familiar preoccupations: Catholic guilt, sin, redemption and the possibility of damnation.
The Brighton locations add to its unsettling atmosphere. Behind the seaside amusements lies a world of intimidation, exploitation and murder.
A great British film, and one that deserves a much wider audience.
9pm — Mums v Big Pharma, BBC Two
One of my three picks of the week. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
Emma Murphy and Janet Williams spent years campaigning to expose the devastating consequences of the sodium valproate scandal.
The medication, prescribed to treat epilepsy and certain other conditions, was associated with serious risks to babies exposed during pregnancy. Campaigners argued that families had not been adequately informed of those dangers.
Around 20,000 children in Britain are estimated to have been affected.
What follows is the story of two women who refused to accept official assurances and fought relentlessly for answers.
Their campaign encountered resistance from medical authorities, regulators and institutions that had a responsibility to protect patients.
The larger question is how such failures can continue for years while families struggle to make themselves heard.
This should be uncomfortable viewing for those who believe large institutions can always be trusted to investigate their own mistakes.
11pm — Mud (2012), BBC Two
Matthew McConaughey stars as a mysterious fugitive encountered by two boys on an island in the Mississippi River.
Director Jeff Nichols combines a coming-of-age story with elements of Southern Gothic and a romantic outlaw tale.
McConaughey is excellent, but the two young actors, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, are equally important.
The film is about youthful idealism confronting the complicated and frequently disappointing world of adults.
Warm, atmospheric and beautifully performed.
2.05am — The Future (2011), Film4
Miranda July’s peculiar and rather touching film follows a couple whose decision to adopt an injured cat causes them to reconsider almost every aspect of their lives.
The cat, Paw-Paw, narrates portions of the film, lending the story a strange mixture of innocence, sadness and philosophical reflection.
July is interested in the fear of commitment, the passing of time and the way people can become paralysed by imagined possibilities.
An unusual film that will certainly not appeal to everyone, but its originality is refreshing.
Tuesday 10 November
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Channel and time to be confirmed.
Martin McDonagh’s powerful, darkly comic drama stars Frances McDormand as a mother who rents three roadside billboards to challenge the police over their failure to solve her daughter’s murder.
Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are outstanding in support.
The film refuses easy moral distinctions. Its characters are angry, damaged, sometimes cruel and occasionally capable of unexpected kindness.
McDormand’s performance is magnificent. Her grief has hardened into a furious determination to confront authority.
There are uncomfortable questions here about racism, police misconduct, revenge and whether justice can ever repair the damage caused by violence.
10pm — Storyville: Manhood, BBC Four
Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
At first glance, a documentary about penis enlargement sounds like the sort of thing commissioned for shock value or cheap laughs. Storyville’s Manhood appears to take a more thoughtful route. The film follows Bill Moore, a Texas entrepreneur attempting to make penis enhancement as commonplace as Botox, alongside men willing to spend significant sums of money in pursuit of a larger penis and, they hope, greater confidence.
What emerges is less a story about physical appearance and more an examination of insecurity, self-image and the commercialisation of male anxieties. The men featured are not presented as figures of ridicule. Instead, the documentary explores why so many feel that changing their bodies might solve deeper problems relating to confidence, acceptance and self-worth. Critics have noted that the film treats its subjects with far more empathy than its subject matter might suggest.
The wider questions are difficult to ignore. In an age saturated with social media, influencer culture and endless pressure to optimise every aspect of life, men are increasingly targeted with products and procedures promising transformation. Whether those promises can ever deliver genuine happiness is another matter entirely.
Potentially awkward, occasionally amusing and quite possibly unsettling, this looks like one of those documentaries that starts with an eyebrow-raising premise before revealing something far more revealing about modern society.
Chloé Zhao’s remarkable film stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a woman who begins travelling across the American West in a van after losing her job and home.
Many of the people she encounters are real-life nomads playing versions of themselves.
The film is visually beautiful, but its underlying subject is economic insecurity. Older Americans who have worked all their lives find themselves unable to afford conventional housing or retirement.
There is freedom in Fern’s wandering existence, but there is also loss, loneliness and an economy that has abandoned many of its workers.
A compassionate and quietly political film.
Wednesday 11 November
7.30pm — The Future with Hannah Fry
Channel to be confirmed.
Mathematician Hannah Fry explores the technological and scientific developments likely to shape our lives.
Fry has a gift for making complex subjects understandable without talking down to her audience.
The most valuable programmes about the future are those that ask not simply what technology can accomplish, but who benefits from it and who might be left behind.
9pm — Murder in Belfast: Sisters Seeking Justice, BBC Two
Trial and Tribulation, the concluding episode of the three-part documentary.
The series examines the murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast in 2005 and the extraordinary campaign mounted by his sisters to uncover the truth.
McCartney’s death became politically significant because of allegations concerning republican involvement and attempts to obstruct the investigation.
His sisters refused to be intimidated or silenced.
It is an important story about family loyalty, the pursuit of justice and the difficulties of confronting powerful organisations in communities still affected by the legacy of Northern Ireland’s conflict.
10pm — Ken Loach Remembers: Cathy Come Home, BBC Four
Ken Loach during the ‘The Angel’s Share’ photocall during the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France. 22/05/2012 Picture by: Henry Harris / Featureflash
One of my three picks of the week. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
Ken Loach introduces his groundbreaking 1966 television drama and reflects on the circumstances in which it was made.
Written by Jeremy Sandford and produced by Tony Garnett, Cathy Come Home was one of the most important programmes in the history of British television.
10.15pm — Cathy Come Home (1966), BBC Four
Carol White stars as Cathy, a young woman whose marriage and family life unravel as unemployment, poverty and housing insecurity force them into increasingly desperate circumstances.
Its documentary-like realism made the drama especially shocking to contemporary audiences.
People were confronted with the reality that an ordinary family could lose everything through circumstances largely beyond their control.
The film helped transform public discussion of homelessness and became closely associated with the emergence of housing charities and campaigning organisations.
Sixty years later, it remains painfully relevant.
We still have working families struggling with unaffordable rents, insecure employment and the threat of homelessness.
There is a temptation to regard social dramas of this period as historical documents. Cathy Come Home is much more than that. It remains an indictment of a society that can allow vulnerable families to fall through the cracks.
10.40pm — MOBO 30: Iconic Moments, BBC One
My third pick of the week. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
Thirty years after the first Music of Black Origin Awards in 1996, this programme looks back at some of the defining moments in the organisation’s history.
The death of its founder, Kanya King, in June makes the anniversary particularly poignant.
King created the MOBO Awards at a time when Black British musical achievement was not receiving the recognition it deserved.
But her vision extended beyond a single ceremony. She helped establish an organisation that became integral to the development of Black British popular culture.
The emergence of internationally successful British artists has been both a cultural achievement and an economic success, contributing to one of the country’s most valuable creative industries.
King understood that talent needed opportunity, recognition and institutional support.
An important British success story, and a fitting tribute to a remarkable entrepreneur.
11.35pm — Ken Loach in Conversation with Cillian Murphy, BBC Four
Following Cathy Come Home, Cillian Murphy discusses Loach’s long career exploring class, poverty, politics and social injustice.
Loach has spent decades examining lives that mainstream cinema frequently overlooks.
From Kes and Riff-Raff to I, Daniel Blake and The Old Oak, he has continued to give working-class experiences a central place in British filmmaking.
Whatever one’s politics, his contribution to cinema is immense.
12.40am — Slow West (2015), Film4
Michael Fassbender stars in this unusual Western about a young Scottish aristocrat travelling across the American frontier in search of the woman he loves.
He encounters a mysterious bounty hunter who offers to help him.
Director John Maclean approaches the Western with a mixture of dark humour, melancholy and sudden violence.
The film is visually striking and considerably more thoughtful than its modest running time might suggest.
Thursday 12 November
7.30pm — The Future with Hannah Fry, BBC Two
Full series available on BBC iPlayer.
This edition examines water scarcity, an increasingly serious problem affecting populations across the world.
Water is often taken for granted in countries such as Britain, yet climate change, population growth, pollution and ageing infrastructure are placing enormous pressure on supplies.
Technological solutions are important, but the question of ownership and access is equally significant.
Water is not an optional consumer product. It is essential to life, and its management raises fundamental questions about public responsibility.
8pm — Classic Movies: The Story of The Blue Angel, Sky Arts
A welcome edition of an interesting series examining celebrated films.
The Blue Angel, released in 1930, was directed by Josef von Sternberg and starred Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.
Jannings plays a respectable schoolteacher whose obsession with a cabaret performer, played by Dietrich, destroys his professional standing and eventually his dignity.
The film helped establish Dietrich as an international star.
It also has a fascinating political history. Based on a novel by Heinrich Mann, it portrays authority as vulnerable, hypocritical and ultimately ridiculous.
Copies of the film were withdrawn from circulation in Nazi Germany in 1933. Its association with Mann, an outspoken opponent of Nazism, makes the censorship particularly revealing.
The idea of a schoolteacher being reduced to an object of public ridicule was hardly likely to appeal to an authoritarian movement concerned with obedience and established hierarchy.
A film with a remarkable history and well worth exploring.
9pm — The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
Channel to be confirmed.
Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss Everdeen, now transformed from a reluctant survivor into a symbol of rebellion against the authoritarian Capitol.
What makes The Hunger Games franchise so interesting is its understanding of propaganda.
Katniss becomes a political image, manipulated by the rebellion almost as carefully as she was previously manipulated by the regime.
The film asks uncomfortable questions about revolutionary leadership, media representation and the relationship between individuals and political movements.
It is easy to see why younger audiences responded so strongly to the series, but there is plenty here for older viewers too.
10pm — AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About, Channel 4
Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.
Artificial intelligence is developing at an extraordinary pace, and the public discussion often veers between technological utopianism and apocalyptic predictions.
The more immediate questions concern employment, surveillance, misinformation and the concentration of economic power.
Who owns the systems? Who controls the information? What happens to workers whose jobs are transformed or eliminated?
And who takes responsibility when automated decisions cause real harm?
Those are the questions worth asking, regardless of how reassuring or alarming the technology’s advocates may sound.
11pm — Hell or High Water (2016), BBC Two
Chris Pine and Ben Foster play brothers robbing banks across Texas, pursued by a veteran lawman played wonderfully by Jeff Bridges.
Director David Mackenzie turns what might have been a conventional crime thriller into a thoughtful examination of economic desperation.
The brothers are not simply criminals looking for easy money. Their actions emerge from a landscape of debt, foreclosure and communities left behind by economic change.
The film’s treatment of banks is particularly pointed.
It is intelligent, tense and occasionally very funny, with three excellent central performances.
Friday 13 November
7.30pm — Unreported World: Mexico’s Lost Boys, Channel 4
Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.
Guillermo Galdos reports from Ciudad Juárez, where families are battling to prevent children being drawn into the orbit of Mexico’s drug cartels. The programme examines claims that boys as young as 11 are being recruited by criminal organisations, while desperate parents turn to controversial and largely unregulated rehabilitation clinics in the hope of saving their sons before they become trapped in a cycle of violence and crime.
The story is ultimately about more than organised crime. It raises questions about poverty, family breakdown, state failure and the limited choices available to many young people growing up in communities where criminal groups can offer money, belonging and status that legitimate institutions struggle to provide. As ever with Unreported World, the value lies in hearing directly from those living through these realities rather than discussing them from a distance.
9.30pm — Girls in Bands at the BBC, BBC Four
Catch up via BBC iPlayer.
BBC Four devotes an evening to women who challenged the male dominance of the rock industry.
Archive performances provide an opportunity to celebrate not only famous performers but also musicians whose contribution has been neglected.
For much of rock history, women were expected to be singers or decorative additions to male bands. Women playing guitars, bass and drums in their own groups were often treated as novelties.
That attitude obscured some excellent musicians and important musical innovations.
This promises to be an enjoyable reminder of what those women achieved.
10.30pm — Siouxsie and the Banshees: Rock Goes to College, BBC Four
A performance recorded at Warwick University in 1981.
Siouxsie Sioux was one of the most striking figures to emerge from the British punk movement.
The Banshees moved beyond punk’s initial energy into something darker, more experimental and frequently more musically adventurous.
Their influence on post-punk, alternative rock and gothic music was considerable.
The Rock Goes to College series captured bands performing for relatively intimate audiences, and these recordings often have an immediacy absent from more elaborate concert productions.
11pm — Fanny: The Right to Rock, BBC Four
Rock history is full of stories about “forgotten pioneers”, but in Fanny’s case the description is justified. Formed around sisters June and Jean Millington, the band became the first all-female rock group to release an album on a major label. They wrote their own material, played their own instruments and built a formidable reputation as a live act, yet never achieved the lasting recognition their talent merited.
Part of the problem was timing. Fanny emerged at a moment when women in rock were still frequently treated as novelties rather than serious musicians. Reviews often focused on their appearance or gender rather than their songs. June and Jean Millington also faced the additional challenge of being among the very few Asian-American women visible in mainstream rock.
The quality of the music, however, was impossible to ignore. Fanny enjoyed chart success, toured extensively and earned the admiration of fellow musicians. David Bowie later described them as “one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time”, while lamenting how neglected they had become.
This documentary tells the story of a group that helped open doors for later generations of female musicians but rarely received the credit. If you’ve never heard of Fanny, that’s precisely why this programme matters. Their music deserves to be remembered, and their story deserves to be better known.
Frank Grillo stars in an entertaining science-fiction action thriller about a former soldier trapped in a time loop that repeatedly ends with his violent death.
Mel Gibson and Naomi Watts provide support.
The premise owes something to Groundhog Day, although the mood is considerably more violent.
It is energetic, inventive and frequently amusing, with some enjoyably absurd action sequences.
11.30pm — The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Channel to be confirmed.
This prequel explores the early life of Coriolanus Snow, long before he becomes the ruthless president familiar from the original Hunger Games films.
Tom Blyth plays the young Snow, while Rachel Zegler portrays Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute selected for the tenth Hunger Games.
I have long regarded The Hunger Games as one of the strongest young-adult dystopian franchises.
Its political and social ideas are unusually sophisticated for a series often marketed primarily at teenagers.
The films examine authoritarianism, social inequality, propaganda and the transformation of human suffering into mass entertainment.
Here we see how political ambition, personal insecurity and the desire for control contribute to the formation of a future dictator.
Viewed alongside Thursday’s Mockingjay – Part 1, it provides an interesting contrast between the origins of authoritarian power and the rebellion that eventually challenges it.
12.10am — This Is England (2006), Channel 4
Shane Meadows’ outstanding drama about a lonely young boy who becomes involved with a group of skinheads in 1983.
Thomas Turgoose is remarkable as Shaun, while Stephen Graham delivers a terrifying performance as Combo, a violent racist whose arrival transforms the group’s dynamics.
The film distinguishes between the multiracial roots of skinhead culture and the racist politics that sought to appropriate it.
It is also about unemployment, alienation, masculine insecurity and the social consequences of industrial decline.
Few British films of the past twenty years have captured the atmosphere of working-class England in the 1980s so convincingly.
Streaming Choices
Netflix
The Body — All eight episodes from Wednesday 11 November
A Halloween initiation ceremony involving a group of Catholic schoolgirls on a dance team goes disastrously wrong, unleashing disturbing visions, secrets and mass hysteria.
The premise combines adolescent rivalry, religious guilt and supernatural horror.
There is a long tradition of horror using teenage rituals as a way of exploring conformity, sexuality and the pressure to belong.
This looks like a promising addition to that tradition, particularly for those who enjoy psychologically unsettling drama rather than straightforward monsters and jump scares.
The Empress — Season 3, from Thursday 12 November
The lavish historical drama returns to the troubled marriage of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
Franz returns traumatised by war, while political tensions place further pressure on the imperial marriage.
The appeal of The Empress lies partly in its elaborate costumes and production design, but the more interesting material concerns the restrictions imposed by aristocratic society and the conflict between personal freedom and dynastic duty.
Elisabeth remains a fascinating historical figure precisely because she struggled against the role assigned to her.
Channel 4 Streaming
Myth of the Zodiac Killer — Both episodes from Saturday 7 November
The Zodiac murders remain among America’s most notorious unsolved criminal cases.
This two-part documentary revisits the evidence surrounding the killer who terrorised Northern California in the late 1960s.
The case has generated endless speculation, partly because the murderer communicated with newspapers through letters and cryptic messages.
A worthwhile documentary needs to distinguish established evidence from the mythology built around the crimes.
True crime is most valuable when it examines investigative failures and the experiences of victims rather than turning murderers into celebrities.
ITVX
Scandal — Seasons 1–7 from Sunday 8 November
All seven seasons of Shonda Rhimes’ Washington political thriller become available.
Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope, a formidable political fixer whose clients include some of the most powerful figures in American public life.
The series combines melodrama, political intrigue and a deeply cynical view of the relationship between government, media and personal ambition.
It becomes increasingly extravagant as it progresses, but Washington’s charismatic performance holds the whole enterprise together.
Ideal for viewers looking for a long-running drama full of betrayal, conspiracy and political manipulation.
Disney+
Rivals — Series 2, episodes 7–9 from Wednesday 11 November
The adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel continues its gleeful exploration of ambition, sex, class and rivalry in the world of 1980s commercial television.
The attraction is the combination of outrageous behaviour and sharp observations about wealth, power and social climbing.
Cooper understood that the British class system could be both ridiculous and remarkably durable.
The television adaptation has considerable fun with that contradiction, helped by a cast clearly enjoying themselves.
Prime Video
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — Season 3, episodes 1–4, listed for Wednesday 11 November
Amazon’s ambitious fantasy series returns to the world of Middle-earth, exploring the struggles over power, allegiance and the growing influence of Sauron.
The series has divided admirers of Tolkien, particularly over its departures from the source material and its treatment of established characters.
Nevertheless, the scale of the production is impressive, and Tolkien’s underlying concerns remain powerful: the corrupting influence of power, the temptation of domination and the value of loyalty and sacrifice.
The season and release details require final confirmation before publication.
Tony — Available now
A documentary exploring the early life of Anthony Bourdain, the chef, writer and television personality who transformed food broadcasting.
Bourdain was very different from the conventional celebrity chef. He was outspoken, irreverent and interested in the lives of working people.
His programmes treated food as a route into culture, history and politics.
He was particularly good at allowing ordinary people to explain their own communities without the condescension that sometimes disfigures travel television.
An opportunity to discover more about the experiences that shaped him.
Dexter: Resurrection
Season 2, episode 3 — Listed for Friday 13 November
The darkly comic crime drama continues the story of Dexter Morgan, a serial killer whose relationship with violence and his own moral code has always been central to the franchise.
Michael C. Hall remains the principal attraction, bringing an unsettling mixture of charm, detachment and menace to the character.
The Dexter franchise has always played with the audience’s willingness to sympathise with someone whose actions should make sympathy almost impossible.
The precise season, episode and streaming availability still need checking.
Radio Highlights
Radio offers an unusually interesting collection this week, ranging from political protest and homelessness to Napoleon’s generals and the efforts of scientists to save Britain’s ash trees.
Saturday 7 November
8pm — Archive on 4: Still Reclaiming the Night, Radio 4
In 1977, during the period of fear generated by the Yorkshire Ripper murders, police advice in West Yorkshire effectively encouraged women to avoid going out alone at night.
Women responded with anger.
On 12 November 1977, the first British Reclaim the Night march took place in Leeds, challenging the assumption that women should restrict their movements because of the threat of male violence.
I remember the Reclaim the Night marches, and I always thought they represented a perfectly reasonable response to an unreasonable situation.
Why should women be expected to surrender their freedom of movement? Surely the responsibility of the police was to make the streets safer rather than advise half the population to stay at home.
The marches made that point forcefully.
There was controversy, certainly, but protest is sometimes necessary precisely because established institutions have failed to recognise the absurdity of their position.
An important piece of social history and a reminder that rights are often defended by people prepared to challenge conventional authority.
Sunday 8 November
7.15pm — Making Them Count, Radio 4
A programme exploring the work of London’s Museum of Homelessness.
The museum is an unusual institution because it seeks to preserve the experiences and histories of people who are frequently ignored or treated simply as a social problem.
Homelessness is too often discussed in terms of statistics, budgets and temporary accommodation figures.
Behind those numbers are individual lives, relationships, achievements and losses.
The programme also provides a connection with Wednesday’s screening of Cathy Come Home.
Sixty years after that drama shocked Britain, homelessness remains a major social issue. The museum’s work is therefore not simply historical. It is part of an ongoing argument about who deserves to be remembered and heard.
Monday 9 November
11.45am — Book of the Week: Napoleon and His Marshals, Radio 4
When Napoleon became Emperor of the French in 1804, he created a new military aristocracy by appointing eighteen Marshals of the Empire. Further appointments eventually brought the total to twenty-six.
Many had risen through the ranks during the Revolutionary Wars, their careers made possible by the destruction of the old aristocratic system.
Their stories are fascinating because their loyalties were never quite as straightforward as Napoleon might have wished.
Some became wealthy and powerful. Others remained devoted soldiers. A number grew increasingly disillusioned with the endless campaigns.
By the time of Waterloo, Napoleon’s relationship with many of his former commanders had broken down.
The changing loyalties of men such as Ney, Soult, Marmont and Bernadotte reveal much about ambition, political survival and the limits of personal loyalty.
An absorbing subject for anyone interested in European history.
Monday to Friday, 9.45pm — The Essay, Radio 3
A series of essays concerning the actor Ralph Fiennes and the craft of acting.
Fiennes is one of Britain’s most accomplished performers, equally comfortable in classical theatre and major cinema productions.
His career ranges from Shakespeare to Schindler’s List, The English Patient and the Harry Potter films.
The opportunity to reflect on acting as an art, rather than simply celebrity, is always welcome.
Tuesday 10 November
8.05am, 3.05pm and 11.05pm — People Fixing the World, BBC World Service
This edition looks at the development of new foods and the possibilities offered by scientific innovation.
Feeding a growing global population without exhausting natural resources presents enormous challenges.
New methods of food production may have a part to play, although questions of cost, nutrition, ownership and public acceptance are just as important as scientific feasibility.
The danger is that technological solutions become another means of concentrating control over the food supply in the hands of a few large corporations.
Innovation should benefit producers and consumers, not simply generate another profitable monopoly.
Wednesday 11 November
3.30pm — The Scientists Who Love Ash Trees, Radio 4
Ash trees growing along a dirt road on a sunny spring morning, Poland.
Britain’s ash trees are under threat from ash dieback, a fungal disease that has already caused enormous damage to woodlands and hedgerows.
The ash is deeply woven into British folklore.
Traditionally, it was associated with protection, healing and renewal. There were customs involving the sap of ash trees being given to babies, and sick children being passed through split ash trunks in the belief that the tree could help cure them.
These practices tell us something about the place trees occupied in the imagination of earlier generations, although they should not be confused with scientifically established medicine.
The modern scientific story is fascinating in its own right.
Researchers are studying the genetics of ash trees, looking particularly at those that show tolerance or resistance to ash dieback.
The hope is that understanding these differences will make it possible to protect surviving trees and develop more resilient future generations.
There is something rather moving about the combination of ancient affection for a familiar tree and the application of modern genetic science to help preserve it.
It would also be interesting to discover whether the ash’s reputation in folklore reflects particular properties of its wood, bark or leaves, or whether those traditions arose primarily from its place in everyday rural life.
Either way, saving the ash is a worthwhile endeavour.
Final Thoughts
What strikes me about this week’s choices is how many of them concern ordinary people confronting institutions and circumstances beyond their control.
The mothers fighting for justice in the sodium valproate scandal. The sisters seeking answers about Robert McCartney’s murder. The family in Cathy Come Home struggling against poverty and homelessness. Women marching through Leeds to assert their right to use public streets without fear.
Even the fictional worlds of The Hunger Games, Nomadland and Hell or High Water examine the relationship between power, inequality and personal freedom.
Not everything needs a political message, of course. Sometimes a beautifully made thriller, an entertaining comedy or an evening of good music is quite sufficient.
And there is plenty of that here too.
If I were choosing just three programmes, they would be Mums v Big Pharma, Cathy Come Home and MOBO 30: Iconic Moments.
But don’t overlook Brighton Rock, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three or Friday’s BBC Four celebration of women in rock. All deserve attention.
Enjoy your viewing and listening.
Patrick Harrington
