It remains one of the most heartbreaking tragedies in modern British history. The children had barely begun their final day of school before the half-term holiday. Many never came home.
Yet what makes Aberfan particularly disturbing is that this was not simply an unavoidable natural disaster. The spoil tips above the village had been allowed to grow despite longstanding concerns about their stability. Watercourses beneath the waste made the location especially dangerous. The National Coal Board had failed in its responsibilities, and the subsequent tribunal exposed a catalogue of negligence.
The grief was compounded by what followed. Families who had suffered unimaginable losses found themselves confronting an establishment reluctant to accept responsibility and, at times, more concerned with protecting institutions than helping those they had failed. Even the question of removing the remaining dangerous tips became another battle.
This week’s television commemorations are particularly important. Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back (BBC Two, Monday, 9pm) examines the community’s fight for justice and the resistance it encountered. Meanwhile, Alex Jones: Un Diwrnod yn Aberfan (BBC iPlayer, from Sunday) offers another opportunity to remember the lives lost and the people left behind.
For me, Aberfan is also a story about class and power. It raises questions about whose warnings are heard, whose lives are valued and what happens when institutions become more concerned with defending themselves than acknowledging their mistakes. Those questions have certainly not disappeared in the intervening sixty years.
This is our principal recommendation of the week. These programmes deserve to be watched, discussed and remembered.
There are two other highlights I would particularly recommend.
The first is The Day the Earth Stood Still (Talking Pictures, Saturday, 4pm). This 1951 science-fiction classic is one of my favourite films. Its message about the dangers of militarism and humanity’s capacity for self-destruction is just as relevant now as it was during the early Cold War. There was a remake in 2008, which I actually rather like, but the original remains comfortably superior. Sometimes the simplest approach is also the most powerful.
Our third highlight is Thursday’s Mercury Prize: Album of the Year (BBC Four, 9.30pm). In an age dominated by streaming playlists and individual tracks, it might seem strange to celebrate the album as a distinct artistic achievement. Yet the album remains alive and well. It allows musicians to develop ideas, establish moods and tell stories in ways that individual songs often cannot. This year’s ceremony, featuring performances by some of the most interesting names in British music, promises to be more of a miniature festival than a conventional awards show.
Elsewhere, Stacey Dooley appears to be taking over the television schedules. Every time I look through the listings, there she is again. Fortunately, she’s very good at what she does, and her documentaries continue to investigate worthwhile and sometimes uncomfortable subjects.
We’re also particularly pleased to see another Storyville documentary. Regular readers will know how much we value this strand, which consistently introduces British audiences to films that might otherwise struggle to find a place on mainstream television.
Among the films, there’s everything from Hitchcock and Agnès Varda to Edgar Wright, a little political satire, some classic horror and several powerful examinations of injustice.
Plenty to enjoy, and plenty to think about.
Saturday 17 October
North by Northwest (1959) — BBC Two, 2.15pm
Alfred Hitchcock’s magnificent espionage thriller stars Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive mistaken for a secret agent and pursued across America by people who want him dead.
The film combines mistaken identity, romantic intrigue and spectacular set pieces, including the famous crop-duster sequence and the climactic confrontation on Mount Rushmore.
Grant is perfectly cast as the sophisticated innocent whose comfortable existence is turned upside down. Eva Marie Saint provides an intriguing romantic foil, while James Mason is wonderfully sinister.
Hitchcock was a master of suspense, but what makes this film so enjoyable is its elegance and humour. More than sixty years later, it remains a model of popular filmmaking.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) — Talking Pictures TV, 4pm
One of my favourite science-fiction films, and one whose message about peace seems especially appropriate for our troubled times.
Directed by Robert Wise, the story begins when a flying saucer lands in Washington and an extraterrestrial visitor, Klaatu, emerges accompanied by an imposing robot called Gort.
Klaatu has come with a warning. Humanity’s development of increasingly destructive weapons threatens not just Earth but potentially the wider universe. Unless human beings learn to control their aggression, consequences will follow.
Michael Rennie’s restrained performance gives Klaatu a quiet dignity. The film avoids the usual temptation to make aliens into monsters and instead invites us to look critically at ourselves.
Released during the Cold War, it reflects contemporary anxieties about nuclear annihilation, but its underlying concerns have lost none of their force.
The 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves is quite good and shifts the emphasis towards environmental destruction. Nevertheless, the original is much better. It trusts its ideas, its dialogue and its audience. There are lessons here that humanity has still not fully learned.
Talking Pictures: World Cinema Classics — BBC Four, 9pm
Celia Imrie guides viewers through some of the great achievements of international cinema, considering filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Luis Buñuel and Ingmar Bergman.
It’s an impressive collection of directors whose approaches differ considerably but who share a determination to explore what cinema can achieve.
Kurosawa brought extraordinary visual power and moral complexity to Japanese cinema. Varda helped pioneer the French New Wave with her distinctive, humane approach. Truffaut examined childhood, love and the cinema itself. Buñuel used surrealism to attack conventional morality, while Bergman explored faith, death, relationships and the human condition.
An excellent introduction for newcomers and a welcome opportunity for established film enthusiasts to revisit familiar favourites.
American Star (2024) — Film4, 9pm
Ian McShane stars as Wilson, an ageing assassin who travels to Fuerteventura to carry out what should be a straightforward assignment.
Instead, he finds himself drawn into the rhythms of island life and begins forming relationships with people who know nothing of his violent profession.
The film takes an unusually reflective approach to the hitman thriller. Rather than relying upon constant action, it examines loneliness, mortality and the possibility of finding something meaningful in an otherwise bleak existence.
McShane’s commanding screen presence makes him ideally suited to the role. A thoughtful variation on familiar territory.
The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven — Sky Arts, 9pm; NOW catch-up
Don and Phil Everly possessed one of the most beautiful vocal blends in popular music.
Their harmonies influenced everyone from the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel, while songs such as Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie and All I Have to Do Is Dream helped establish the sound of modern popular music.
This documentary explores their musical achievements, family background and frequently troubled relationship.
There’s something poignant about the contrast between those immaculate harmonies and the personal tensions that eventually drove the brothers apart.
A reminder that music can create an impression of perfect unity even when the musicians themselves are struggling to maintain it.
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) — BBC Four, 9.45pm
Agnès Varda’s celebrated French New Wave drama follows a young singer wandering through Paris while awaiting the results of a medical examination.
Corinne Marchand plays Cléo, whose apparent confidence gradually gives way to fear and self-examination.
Varda uses the streets, cafés and everyday encounters of Paris to explore mortality, femininity and the experience of being watched and judged.
The film’s treatment of time is particularly interesting. What begins as an ordinary afternoon becomes an intense examination of what it means to be alive.
Beautifully observed, humane and surprisingly accessible, this remains one of the outstanding achievements of French cinema.
Death Race 2000 (1975) — Great Action, 11.25pm
Paul Bartel’s outrageous dystopian action film takes place in a future America where a murderous cross-country motor race has become a major spectator sport.
Drivers score points by killing pedestrians, and the public treats the carnage as entertainment.
David Carradine stars as the mysterious Frankenstein, with Sylvester Stallone among his competitors.
The film is often remembered for its ludicrous violence, bizarre characters and low-budget exploitation thrills. What sometimes gets overlooked is the political satire.
Beneath the deliberately excessive action lies a savage attack on authoritarianism, sensationalist media, celebrity culture and the manipulation of public opinion.
Its vision of a society entertained by cruelty is uncomfortably recognisable. Sometimes satire has to be outrageous to make its point.
Saint Maud (2019) — Film4, 1.15am, early Sunday
Rose Glass’s unsettling psychological horror stars Morfydd Clark as Maud, a young private carer whose intense religious convictions become increasingly dangerous.
Caring for Amanda, a terminally ill former dancer played by Jennifer Ehle, Maud convinces herself that she has a divine mission to save her patient’s soul.
What makes the film so effective is its refusal to offer straightforward explanations. Is Maud experiencing religious revelation, psychological disturbance or some frightening combination of the two?
Clark’s performance is extraordinary, capturing both vulnerability and fanaticism.
This is an intelligent examination of religious obsession, loneliness and the frightening consequences of absolute certainty.
Sunday 18 October
The Addams Family (1991) — ITV2, 4pm
The gloriously macabre Addams family return in Barry Sonnenfeld’s film adaptation of Charles Addams’s famous creations.
Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia are wonderfully cast as Morticia and Gomez, while Christina Ricci almost steals the picture as the magnificently deadpan Wednesday.
The joke, of course, is that this supposedly monstrous family is often more affectionate and loyal than the respectable people surrounding them.
The film revels in gothic imagery, eccentric humour and cheerful disregard for conventional values.
A thoroughly enjoyable comedy that has lost little of its appeal.
The Balkans: Europe’s Forgotten Frontier — BBC Two, 8pm
BBC Europe editor Katya Adler travels through Croatia, Bosnia and Albania, exploring how the region has changed since the violent break-up of Yugoslavia and the wider upheavals of the 1990s.
The wars that followed Yugoslavia’s disintegration left deep political, social and psychological scars. Old tensions have not simply disappeared, while questions of national identity and European integration remain contentious.
Adler is a knowledgeable guide to a region often neglected in British coverage of European affairs.
The Balkans have repeatedly played an important part in European history. Understanding their present requires an appreciation of the complicated past that continues to shape everyday life.
Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car Road Trips — Channel 4, 8pm (1/6)
Kevin McCloud combines an enthusiasm for design with a journey through the history and culture of some of Europe’s most celebrated cars.
His opening trip takes him along the French Riviera, travelling from Cannes towards Monaco in a beautiful 1960s Citroën DS convertible.
The DS was one of the most remarkable cars ever produced. When introduced in 1955, its futuristic appearance and advanced engineering seemed to belong to another age.
Its hydropneumatic suspension and elegant styling helped establish it as an icon of French design.
There are worse ways to spend an hour than travelling through the Riviera in such a magnificent machine, particularly with McCloud explaining the design philosophy behind it.
Living (2022) — Film4, 9pm
Bill Nighy gives one of his finest performances in this deeply moving drama about an emotionally reserved civil servant who discovers that he has a terminal illness.
Set in 1950s London, the film follows a man who has spent much of his life observing routine and convention but now begins questioning what that life has amounted to.
Adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro from Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, the film explores mortality, bureaucracy and the possibility of meaningful action.
Nighy brings an extraordinary restraint to the central performance.
It’s a gentle, thoughtful and ultimately uplifting film about the importance of making our limited time count.
Time — BBC One, 9pm (series finale; full series on iPlayer)
We’ve deliberately avoided saying too much about this latest series because we’ve been saving it up for a proper binge-watch.
David Tennant stars as prison officer Bobby Bailey, and Tennant’s involvement is reason enough to attract our attention. He’s one of those actors who can make even a quiet moment compelling.
The prison setting also promises an opportunity to explore questions of institutional power, punishment, responsibility and human vulnerability.
Rather than concentrate on the finale alone, our recommendation is to watch the series from the beginning on BBC iPlayer.
Some dramas are best experienced as a complete work, allowing their characters and tensions to develop without interruption. This looks like one of them.
French Connection II (1975) — Talking Pictures TV, 10.10pm
Gene Hackman returns as the obsessive New York detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in John Frankenheimer’s sequel to William Friedkin’s celebrated crime thriller.
This time Doyle travels to Marseille in pursuit of the heroin trafficker Alain Charnier, played once again by Fernando Rey.
The change of location gives the sequel a distinctive character, while Hackman delivers another uncompromising performance.
It’s a darker, sometimes more psychologically disturbing film than its predecessor, particularly in its treatment of Doyle’s vulnerability.
A worthy sequel to one of the defining American crime films of the 1970s.
Priscilla (2023) — BBC Two, 10.45pm
Sofia Coppola approaches the Elvis Presley story from an unusual perspective, concentrating on the experiences of Priscilla Beaulieu, who met the singer when she was still a teenager.
Cailee Spaeny plays Priscilla, while Jacob Elordi portrays Elvis.
Rather than presenting another celebration of the King’s musical genius, Coppola examines the imbalance of power within the relationship.
The glamour of Graceland gradually gives way to isolation, control and frustration.
It’s an intimate film about a young woman discovering that life alongside one of the world’s most famous entertainers can be deeply restrictive.
Children of Men (2006) — BBC One, 11.40pm
Alfonso Cuarón’s extraordinary dystopian drama imagines a future in which humanity has become infertile and society is collapsing.
Clive Owen plays Theo, a disillusioned former activist drawn into a dangerous mission to protect a young refugee.
The film’s images of authoritarian government, desperate migration, social breakdown and institutional cruelty have acquired an unsettling contemporary relevance.
Cuarón’s direction is remarkable, particularly the extended action sequences that place viewers directly inside the chaos.
Yet beneath the violence lies a profoundly humane argument about compassion and hope.
One of the finest science-fiction films of the twenty-first century.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (2024) — Channel 4, midnight, early Monday
Raoul Peck’s documentary tells the story of Ernest Cole, the South African photographer whose images exposed the brutality of apartheid.
Cole documented the everyday humiliations, restrictions and injustices imposed upon Black South Africans by the racist state.
His work was both artistic achievement and political testimony. It made visible a system that depended partly upon controlling what outsiders could see.
His photographs contributed to his exile, and much of his later life was marked by hardship and displacement.
Peck uses Cole’s remarkable archive to explore racial oppression, memory and the terrible personal costs that can accompany the pursuit of truth.
An important documentary about a photographer whose work deserves to be much better known.
Monday 19 October
Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back — BBC Two, 9pm; repeated Tuesday, 11pm
Sixty years after the Aberfan disaster, this documentary examines the struggle that followed the deaths of 144 people, including 116 children.
For the families, the nightmare did not end when the rescue operation finished.
They faced official resistance, evasions and an extraordinary struggle to have the remaining dangerous coal tips removed from above their village.
The disaster tribunal placed responsibility upon the National Coal Board, but securing practical justice proved another matter.
Particularly shameful was the pressure placed upon the Aberfan Disaster Fund to contribute towards the removal of the remaining tips. Money donated in sympathy for bereaved families was treated as a potential source of funding for work that public authorities should have undertaken.
This is not simply a historical account of industrial negligence. It’s about the relationship between ordinary people and powerful institutions, and the lengths those institutions may go to in order to avoid accountability.
The villagers’ persistence deserves recognition alongside the suffering they endured.
Essential viewing, and our most important television recommendation of the week.
Selma (2014) — BBC Two, 11.05pm
Ava DuVernay’s absorbing historical drama examines the 1965 campaign for voting rights in Alabama, culminating in the famous marches from Selma to Montgomery.
David Oyelowo is outstanding as Dr Martin Luther King Jr, capturing both his charisma and the enormous pressures of leadership.
The film avoids presenting the civil rights movement as a simple procession of heroic speeches and inevitable victories.
Instead, it explores the difficult strategic decisions, internal disagreements, state violence and extraordinary courage involved in challenging segregation.
Its depiction of collective action is particularly powerful.
Progress did not arrive because powerful people suddenly became generous. It came because ordinary people organised, protested and refused to accept injustice.
Priyo Maloti (2024) — Channel 4, South Asian film season; time to be confirmed
This Bangladeshi drama, directed by Shankha Dasgupta, stars Mehazabien Chowdhury in her feature-film debut.
She plays Maloti, a young pregnant woman whose life is devastated when her husband dies in a catastrophic fire.
What follows is a struggle to survive financially and emotionally in circumstances where support cannot always be taken for granted.
The film examines grief, insecurity and the vulnerability of those suddenly left to confront hardship alone.
It’s a welcome selection from Channel 4’s South Asian film season, which provides an opportunity to discover cinema beyond the industries and countries that usually dominate British film schedules.
Tuesday 20 October
Hot Fuzz (2007) — Film4, 9pm
Edgar Wright’s wonderfully inventive action-comedy stars Simon Pegg as Nicholas Angel, a London police officer whose extraordinary efficiency embarrasses his colleagues.
Transferred to the apparently peaceful Gloucestershire village of Sandford, he discovers that beneath the picturesque surface something decidedly sinister is happening.
Nick Frost is excellent as his enthusiastic but less disciplined partner, Danny Butterman.
The film affectionately mocks the conventions of Hollywood action movies while delivering a wonderfully sharp satire of small-town respectability, authoritarianism and the desire to preserve appearances at any cost.
Its rapid editing, visual jokes and lovingly constructed action sequences reward repeated viewing.
One of the finest British comedies of its generation.
Stacey Dooley: Down the K-Hole — BBC Three, 9pm; BBC One, 10.40pm
Stacey Dooley at the National TV Awards 2019 at the O2 Arena, London.
Stacey Dooley investigates ketamine use and the growing concern surrounding the drug.
Originally developed as an anaesthetic and now also being researched and used in carefully controlled medical settings, ketamine has become increasingly prominent as a recreational substance.
Its effects can include dissociation and altered perception, while repeated heavy use can cause serious harm, particularly to the bladder and urinary system.
Dooley’s strength as a presenter is her willingness to speak to people without immediately passing judgement. That approach can be especially valuable when examining drug use, where moral condemnation often gets in the way of understanding.
An important subject deserving careful investigation.
Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley: Can Blue Dye Make Me Smarter? — BBC One, 11.40pm
Stacey Dooley is certainly keeping herself busy.
Here she examines the growing enthusiasm for methylene blue, a substance with established medical uses that has also attracted attention for possible effects on brain function.
Some preliminary research has explored potential neurological applications, including areas relevant to Alzheimer’s disease, but that is a long way from demonstrating that healthy people can improve their intelligence by taking it.
The distinction between interesting scientific research and commercial exaggeration is crucial.
The programme should offer a useful examination of how tentative findings can become exaggerated promises in the world of online health trends.
Midnight Run (1988) — Film4, 11.25pm
Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin form one of cinema’s most enjoyable mismatched partnerships in this action-comedy directed by Martin Brest.
De Niro plays Jack Walsh, a bounty hunter tasked with bringing a former Mafia accountant across America.
Grodin plays the accountant, Jonathan Mardukas, whose apparently mild personality conceals a remarkable ability to frustrate his captor.
Their journey becomes increasingly chaotic as criminals, federal agents and competing bounty hunters join the pursuit.
The action is entertaining, but the real pleasure lies in the developing relationship between the two men.
A clever, funny film that knows exactly how to combine comedy with genuine character development.
Storyville: A Want in Her — BBC Four; time to be confirmed
Another documentary from the excellent Storyville strand, which has long been one of our favourites at Counter Culture.
This deeply personal film explores the complexities of caring for someone affected by mental illness and addiction.
Such relationships can involve extraordinary love and loyalty, but also exhaustion, resentment and an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
The challenge for documentary filmmaking is to acknowledge these difficult feelings without reducing the person experiencing illness or addiction to a problem that needs solving.
Storyville has built its reputation by presenting demanding subjects with intelligence, honesty and humanity.
Its documentaries regularly demonstrate why independent filmmaking remains so important.
Wednesday 21 October
Caligula’s Hidden Legacy — PBS America, 7.05pm (1/2)
The Roman emperor Caligula has entered popular imagination as the embodiment of cruelty, extravagance and madness.
But how much do we actually know about him?
Many of the surviving accounts were written by historians hostile to his rule, raising questions about the accuracy of the more sensational stories.
This documentary investigates the historical figure behind the notorious reputation.
Ancient Rome remains endlessly fascinating partly because its politics, ambitions and struggles for power can appear so familiar.
A useful opportunity to distinguish historical evidence from the legends accumulated over centuries.
The World’s End (2013) — Film4, 9pm
Edgar Wright reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for the final instalment of the celebrated Cornetto trilogy.
Five former friends return to their hometown in an attempt to recreate a legendary pub crawl from their youth.
Their reunion is complicated by the behaviour of Gary King, played by Pegg, a man who has never properly accepted that his teenage years are over.
What begins as a comedy about ageing, friendship and nostalgia becomes something rather more extraordinary when the group discovers that the town has changed in unexpected ways.
The science-fiction elements are entertaining, but beneath them lies a surprisingly affecting exploration of disappointment and the difficulty of moving on.
Alongside Tuesday’s Hot Fuzz, this provides an enjoyable opportunity to revisit two very different Edgar Wright comedies.
The Experiment — Channel 4, 10pm
Matt Fraser and Sophie Morgan invite ordinary people to participate in a social experiment within a new care facility.
The programme examines attitudes, behaviour and the relationships that develop when people are placed in an unfamiliar institutional environment.
There’s an interesting parallel with Netflix’s new Stanford Prison Experiment, which also begins with participants placed into assigned roles within a controlled setting.
The situations are different, but both invite us to consider how surroundings, expectations and power structures can influence behaviour.
The crucial question is whether people simply adapt to the roles given to them or retain the ability to challenge the assumptions underlying those roles.
Alison Steadman Remembers The Singing Detective — BBC Four, 10pm
Alison Steadman looks back at Dennis Potter’s extraordinary 1986 television drama, one of the most ambitious works ever produced for British television.
Potter combined psychological investigation, musical fantasy, detective fiction and autobiography to create something genuinely original.
Michael Gambon played Philip Marlow, a writer hospitalised with a debilitating skin condition whose memories and imagination become increasingly entangled.
The drama remains a testament to an era when British television was willing to take enormous creative risks.
The Singing Detective: Lovely Days, Stroke Clues — BBC Four, 10.15pm
An opportunity to revisit Potter’s masterpiece immediately after Alison Steadman’s introduction.
The series moves between Marlow’s hospital experiences, childhood memories and the imaginary detective story he has created.
Popular songs become part of an elaborate psychological landscape, while apparently unrelated incidents gradually reveal deeper connections.
Potter’s work demands attention, but the rewards are considerable.
Few television writers have explored the relationship between memory, illness, guilt and imagination with comparable originality.
Night of the Demon (1957) — Talking Pictures TV, 9.10pm
Jacques Tourneur’s classic supernatural horror follows an American psychologist investigating a mysterious cult led by the sinister Dr Julian Karswell.
Dana Andrews plays the sceptical investigator, while Niall MacGinnis gives a wonderfully unsettling performance as Karswell.
Based on M. R. James’s Casting the Runes, the film creates an atmosphere of growing dread.
Much of its effectiveness comes from the tension between rational explanation and the possibility that supernatural forces really do exist.
There has long been debate about the decision to show the demon itself, rather than leaving everything to the viewer’s imagination.
Whatever one’s view, the film remains one of the finest examples of British supernatural cinema.
Stacey Dooley: Rape on Trial — BBC Three, 11pm (1/2) and 11.50pm (2/2)
Stacey Dooley follows women who have reported being raped by men they know, examining the difficult and often lengthy journey towards trial.
The first programme introduces the women’s experiences and the challenges involved in pursuing their cases.
The second considers the approach of the trials, particularly the way complainants’ credibility may be scrutinised during proceedings.
These are sensitive and difficult subjects. The criminal justice system must protect the rights of defendants while also ensuring that complainants are treated fairly and respectfully.
The programme raises important questions about evidence, credibility, trauma and confidence in the justice process.
Another demanding assignment for Dooley, whose documentary work continues to cover an impressive range of subjects.
Thursday 22 October
Mercury Prize: Album of the Year — BBC Four, 9.30pm
The Mercury Prize returns to Newcastle, celebrating outstanding albums by British and Irish musicians.
Lauren Laverne hosts an evening featuring live performances from Florence + The Machine, Nia Archives, Kojey Radical, Olivia Dean, RAYE, Suede, JADE, Dove Ellis, Knats and Pulp, with the latter representing the charity album HELP(2).
This year’s shortlist also includes Paul McCartney’s The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving and RAYE’s THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.
Last year’s winner was Sam Fender, another artist with strong connections to the North East.
There’s something pleasing about the continued importance of the album in a musical world increasingly dominated by individual tracks, algorithms and streaming playlists.
Albums allow musicians to develop themes and create a sustained artistic experience. They can be ambitious, personal, experimental and occasionally difficult. That’s part of their appeal.
The Mercury Prize has often helped introduce audiences to performers they might otherwise have overlooked, while recognising established musicians who continue to take risks.
With so many acts performing live, the event promises to be much more than an awards ceremony. It’s effectively a miniature festival celebrating the continuing vitality of contemporary music.
Sweat (2020) — Film4, 1.40am, early Friday
Directed by Magnus von Horn, this Polish-Swedish drama follows Sylwia, a successful fitness instructor and social media influencer.
She has hundreds of thousands of followers, a carefully constructed public image and apparently everything needed for a glamorous modern life.
Yet behind the motivational videos and polished appearances lies a woman experiencing profound loneliness.
Magdalena Koleśnik gives an absorbing performance as Sylwia, whose online confidence conceals insecurity and emotional vulnerability.
The film examines the strange contradictions of social media celebrity, where the appearance of intimacy can coexist with a lack of meaningful personal relationships.
It’s an intelligent and uncomfortable portrait of a world in which being constantly visible does not necessarily mean being understood.
Friday 23 October
Sicily: The Conquered Isle — PBS America, 7.10pm and 8.30pm
Two programmes explore the remarkable history of Sicily, an island whose strategic position in the Mediterranean has made it a crossroads of civilisations.
The first, Crossroads of the Mediterranean, examines its ancient past and the succession of peoples who fought to control it.
Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans all left their mark, creating a distinctive cultural inheritance visible in the island’s architecture, traditions and historical monuments.
The second programme, Borderlands, explores Sicily’s role in the nineteenth-century unification of Italy.
The island’s history demonstrates how geography can shape politics and culture over thousands of years.
For anyone interested in European history, this should be rewarding viewing.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) — Great Action, 9pm
Ang Lee’s drama follows a young American soldier who returns temporarily from Iraq after an act of battlefield heroism makes him a national celebrity.
Joe Alwyn plays Billy Lynn, whose experiences of combat contrast sharply with the patriotic spectacle organised around him.
The film examines the way soldiers are transformed into symbols and used to promote reassuring narratives about war.
Behind the ceremonies, applause and carefully staged celebrations lies a young man struggling with memories of violence and the reality of returning to combat.
Its anti-war message emerges from the gulf between public mythology and personal experience.
An interesting and thoughtful film about the exploitation of military heroism.
Disco Night — BBC Four, from 9.45pm; BBC iPlayer
BBC Four devotes the evening to disco, a musical movement that transformed popular culture.
For some, disco still conjures up images of mirror balls, extravagant clothing and dance-floor anthems. Yet its history is considerably more interesting than those familiar images suggest.
Emerging from Black, Latino and gay communities, particularly in American cities, disco became an expression of freedom, identity and collective enjoyment.
It also changed how records were produced, mixed and experienced.
The influence of disco can be heard throughout contemporary dance music, electronic pop and club culture.
A welcome opportunity to celebrate music that has sometimes been dismissed by critics who underestimated both its artistry and its cultural importance.
The Blackening (2022) — BBC Two, 11.30pm
This comedy horror follows a group of Black friends gathering at a remote woodland cabin to celebrate Juneteenth.
For British viewers unfamiliar with the occasion, Juneteenth commemorates 19 June 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned that emancipation was being enforced following the American Civil War. It has since become a major celebration of freedom and Black American history.
The film takes familiar horror conventions and turns them into a sharp comedy about race, stereotypes and representation.
One of its central jokes concerns the old horror-film convention in which Black characters are frequently among the first victims.
By placing an entirely Black group of friends at the centre of the story, the filmmakers gleefully undermine that convention.
The result is a mixture of horror, comedy and cultural satire.
Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution — BBC Four, 12.15am, early Saturday
This documentary series explores disco’s origins, cultural significance and lasting influence.
Far from being merely a commercial musical craze, disco provided an important outlet for marginalised communities and helped create new spaces for social and personal expression.
Its history also involves the commercial music industry’s attempts to profit from an underground culture, and the backlash that followed its enormous success.
The opposition to disco sometimes carried racial and homophobic undertones, making its history inseparable from wider social struggles.
A valuable companion to BBC Four’s evening of disco celebrations.
I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol — Sky Arts, 1am, early Saturday
The emergence of the Sex Pistols in the mid-1970s helped transform British popular music and youth culture.
Their brief but explosive career challenged the musical establishment, attacked social conventions and gave expression to the anger and frustration of a generation.
Punk was never simply about musical ability or even musical style. It was also an attitude, a rejection of established hierarchies and an assertion that young people could create their own culture.
This documentary revisits that extraordinary moment and the personalities at its centre.
The Public Image Is Rotten — Sky Arts, 2.50am, early Saturday
John Lydon’s career did not end when the Sex Pistols disintegrated.
With Public Image Ltd, he moved into far more experimental musical territory, combining elements of post-punk, dub, electronic music and avant-garde experimentation.
This documentary examines the band’s turbulent history and Lydon’s determination to resist easy categorisation.
There’s an interesting contrast with BBC Four’s disco celebrations. Disco and punk were often treated as opposing movements, yet both challenged musical conventions and created new cultural possibilities.
Lydon has remained an abrasive and unpredictable figure, but Public Image Ltd’s contribution to the development of post-punk deserves recognition.
A suitably unconventional conclusion to the week’s musical television.
Streaming
Netflix
Fading Grandeur — All six episodes available Friday 23 October
This Spanish comedy drama explores the tensions between appearance and reality, drawing upon the familiar attractions of family relationships, social embarrassment and personal ambition.
Spanish television has developed an impressive reputation for combining comedy and drama, often finding humour in situations that are far from comfortable.
A six-part series should provide enough room to develop its characters without unnecessarily stretching the story.
The New Stanford Prison Experiment — All six episodes available Wednesday 21 October
Does power corrupt?
That is the central question behind this new Netflix social experiment, which places thirty participants inside a real prison and randomly assigns them the roles of guards or prisoners.
The programme deliberately recalls the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in California in 1971.
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues recruited male college students and placed them in a simulated prison environment. Some were assigned the role of guards, others prisoners.
The study was supposed to last up to two weeks but was abandoned after just six days amid disturbing behaviour and psychological distress.
For many years, it was presented as evidence that ordinary people could rapidly become abusive when placed in positions of unchecked authority.
However, the original experiment has subsequently faced serious criticism. Researchers have questioned the way participants were instructed, the influence of expectations upon their behaviour and the validity of the conclusions drawn from the results.
The new Netflix programme uses a real prison setting, a mixed-gender group of participants and additional ethical safeguards.
It will be interesting to compare the findings with the original study, while remembering that this is also a television production intended to entertain.
Power certainly influences behaviour, but the relationship between authority, obedience and individual responsibility is more complicated than the old Stanford experiment sometimes suggested.
One of the week’s most intriguing streaming choices.
Judge John Deed — All 29 episodes available Saturday 17 October
Martin Shaw stars as Sir John Deed, a High Court judge whose determination to follow his conscience regularly brings him into conflict with the judicial establishment and political authorities.
Originally broadcast by the BBC between 2001 and 2007, the drama combines courtroom cases with political intrigue and personal complications.
Shaw brings considerable authority to the central role, making Deed an engaging if occasionally exasperating character.
The series is also interesting for its depiction of tensions between law, justice and institutional pressure.
Legal professionals may sometimes find themselves questioning the dramatic liberties taken with courtroom procedure, but the programme remains entertaining and frequently thought-provoking.
Channel 4 Streaming
Walter Presents: When the Night Comes — All six episodes available Friday 23 October
In an apparently idyllic seaside town, Stephanie wakes to the horrifying realisation that she has been raped in her own home.
The crime shatters her sense of security and exposes tensions beneath the community’s peaceful exterior.
The six-part drama explores the consequences of sexual violence, the search for truth and the difficulties faced by those attempting to rebuild their lives.
The Walter Presents collection continues to provide British viewers with access to international drama that might otherwise remain relatively unknown.
Its willingness to tackle demanding subjects has made it one of the most worthwhile streaming collections available.
Prime Video
The Last Viking — Available now
Anders Thomas Jensen directs this Danish black comedy starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen.
Kaas plays Anker, a bank robber who entrusts stolen money to his brother Manfred before serving fifteen years in prison.
When Anker is finally released, he discovers that Manfred has developed serious psychiatric difficulties, believes himself to be John Lennon and no longer remembers where the money was hidden.
What follows is an increasingly bizarre attempt to recover the missing fortune.
Jensen has a gift for combining dark humour with damaged characters and unexpected emotional depth.
Mikkelsen is particularly well suited to this kind of material, bringing both intensity and comic unpredictability to his performances.
An unusual mixture of crime story, family drama and eccentric comedy.
BBC iPlayer
Smiley’s People — Available now
Sir Alec Guinness returns as George Smiley in this acclaimed BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s Cold War thriller, first broadcast in 1982.
Following the success of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the series once again immerses viewers in a world of espionage, deception, old loyalties and deeply compromised individuals.
Guinness’s performance is a masterclass in restraint. His Smiley is outwardly unremarkable, but beneath the quiet manner lies an extraordinary intelligence and a formidable capacity for investigation.
Unlike the glamorous spies of popular adventure fiction, le Carré’s characters inhabit a morally ambiguous world in which personal betrayal and political calculation are inseparable.
One of the finest achievements of British television drama, and a perfect companion to this week’s Radio 4 Extra adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Alex Jones: Un Diwrnod yn Aberfan (One Day in Aberfan) — Available Sunday 18 October
This Welsh-language programme forms part of the commemorations marking sixty years since the Aberfan disaster.
On 21 October 1966, a collapsing colliery spoil tip engulfed Pantglas Junior School and surrounding houses, killing 144 people, including 116 children.
The tragedy remains a defining moment in the history of Welsh mining communities.
Commemorative programmes such as this are particularly important because they preserve personal memories and ensure that the experiences of those affected are not reduced to statistics.
The disaster also raises enduring questions about industrial responsibility, the treatment of working-class communities and the failure of powerful institutions to listen to warnings.
An essential companion to Monday’s BBC Two documentary, Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back.
Paramount+
Treasure Island — Episode 2 available Monday 19 October
The latest adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure features David Oyelowo as Long John Silver.
The original novel remains one of the defining works of adventure fiction, introducing generations of readers to pirates, buried treasure, betrayal and the dangerous attraction of the high seas.
Long John Silver is the story’s great achievement: charismatic, resourceful, manipulative and morally ambiguous.
A successful adaptation needs to capture both his charm and the threat concealed beneath it.
Oyelowo is an interesting choice for the role, and the series offers an opportunity to introduce Stevenson’s enduring characters to another generation.
HBO Max
The Narco Hack — All three episodes available Friday 23 October
This three-part documentary tells the extraordinary story of Sky ECC, an encrypted messaging service that became popular among organised crime networks.
The attraction was simple. Subscribers believed that their communications were protected by encryption powerful enough to prevent the authorities from reading their messages.
For criminal organisations, that apparent security made it possible to conduct business with a confidence that would otherwise have been impossible.
In 2021, however, investigators led by French authorities succeeded in compromising the system, exposing communications that provided unprecedented insights into criminal networks.
The documentary examines the technological operation and its consequences.
It’s a fascinating illustration of the increasingly sophisticated struggle between organised crime and law enforcement, as well as the wider questions raised by encrypted communications, privacy and surveillance.
Radio
Sunday 18 October
Childline — BBC Radio 4, 1.30pm
Forty years after Esther Rantzen launched Childline in 1986, this programme examines the organisation’s remarkable history.
Childline was founded upon a simple but enormously important principle: children experiencing abuse, distress or fear needed somewhere they could turn for confidential support.
In the decades that followed, the service helped countless young people who might otherwise have remained unheard.
The programme has acquired additional poignancy following Rantzen’s death in September.
She was an influential broadcaster, but her work establishing Childline may prove to be her most enduring achievement.
It’s a reminder that the value of a public life is not simply measured by celebrity or professional success, but by the practical difference someone makes to others.
A fitting tribute to an important legacy.
The Mysterious Case of Annie Elizabeth — BBC Radio 4, 7.15pm
For history enthusiasts, this intriguing programme investigates the story behind Annie Elizabeth, a variety of apple with an unusually personal name.
Who was Annie Elizabeth, and why did an apple come to bear her name?
It’s the kind of apparently obscure historical question that can lead to unexpected discoveries about the people and communities of the past.
There is something rather appealing about the way ordinary objects can preserve human stories long after the people involved have disappeared.
A gentle but potentially fascinating piece of historical detective work.
Monday 19 October
Book of the Week: Stalin’s Apostles — BBC Radio 4, 11.45am; late repeat 12.30am
An adaptation of Antonia Senior’s book about the Cambridge Five spy ring.
Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross became Soviet agents despite occupying positions of considerable privilege within British society.
Their activities exposed the vulnerability of an establishment that relied heavily upon personal connections, class background and assumptions about loyalty.
The story remains fascinating because it involves conflicting allegiances, ideological conviction, personal ambition and extraordinary betrayal.
It also provides an interesting historical companion to our television and streaming selections featuring John le Carré’s fictional world of espionage.
How Houdini Made Magic with Derren Brown — BBC Radio 4, Monday to Friday, 1.45pm
Derren Brown examines the life and extraordinary achievements of Harry Houdini, one of the most celebrated entertainers of the twentieth century.
Houdini became famous for his astonishing escapes from handcuffs, locked containers and seemingly impossible situations.
Yet his achievements were not simply physical feats. They also relied upon psychology, showmanship, misdirection and an understanding of audience expectations.
Perhaps most interestingly, Houdini later became a determined critic of fraudulent spiritualists, exposing techniques used to convince grieving people that mediums could communicate with the dead.
Brown is an ideal guide, possessing both practical knowledge of illusion and a fascination with the psychology of belief.
A promising series about entertainment, deception and the boundary between what we see and what we think we see.
The Essay: John Foxx — Key Moments — BBC Radio 3, 9.45pm
John Foxx, the original frontman of Ultravox, reflects upon five pianos that have played important roles in his life.
Foxx was a significant figure in the emergence of British electronic music, helping establish the foundations of what later became known as synth-pop and new wave.
After leaving Ultravox, he developed a distinctive solo career, combining electronic experimentation with atmospheric, often introspective songwriting.
His reflections upon the piano offer an interesting contrast with his reputation as an electronic music pioneer.
The relationship between traditional musical instruments and modern technology has always been more complicated than the familiar opposition between acoustic and electronic music suggests.
For those interested in the development of modern British popular music, this should be particularly rewarding.
Tuesday 20 October
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — BBC Radio 4 Extra, 6am, 11am and 5pm
A radio adaptation of John le Carré’s 1974 Cold War thriller.
George Smiley is drawn out of retirement to investigate the possibility that a Soviet mole has infiltrated the highest levels of British intelligence.
The story is a masterpiece of deception, suspicion and psychological investigation.
Its world is far removed from the glamorous adventures of James Bond. Le Carré’s spies are frequently tired, disappointed and morally compromised individuals operating within bureaucratic institutions.
This adaptation was originally broadcast in 1988, nine years after the celebrated BBC television version starring Alec Guinness.
With Smiley’s People also available on BBC iPlayer this week, there is an opportunity to explore two of le Carré’s finest stories in different formats.
His novels remain among the most intelligent examinations of espionage, loyalty and betrayal ever written for a popular audience.
Final Thoughts
There is a particularly strong historical and political thread running through this week’s choices.
Aberfan reminds us of the terrible consequences of institutional negligence and the determination of ordinary people to secure justice. Selma examines the struggle for civil rights, while Ernest Cole: Lost and Found demonstrates the power of photography to expose oppression.
The Day the Earth Stood Still and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk approach the subjects of war and peace from very different directions. Both invite us to question the comforting narratives that societies construct around violence.
Meanwhile, The New Stanford Prison Experiment and Channel 4’s The Experiment ask questions about power, authority and human behaviour.
Music is particularly well served, from the harmonies of the Everly Brothers to the experimental work of John Foxx, the Mercury Prize, disco and punk.
And there’s plenty of room for entertainment that makes fewer demands: Hitchcock’s magnificent North by Northwest, Edgar Wright’s comedies and the eccentric delights of The Addams Family.
That’s what makes a good week’s viewing. There should be opportunities to learn, to think, to be challenged and, occasionally, simply to enjoy ourselves.
Enjoy the week.
Selections and reviews by Pat Harrington
Spoilers?
