If you thought Channel 4 had no depths left to sink to, you reckoned without Go Back To Where You Came From. This asinine mini-series attempts to make people who disagree with the daily arrival of illegal immigrants look callous and moronic. It’s poverty tourism served with a sniggering side-bar of “aren’t these people plebs?”
Three Brits were sent to a refugee camp in Somalia and three roughed it in a bijou bombed-out building in Syria (even though most small-boat folk hail from war-free Albania). Four of them were belligerently anti-illegal immigration – like most voters; the other self-righteous pair could have come straight from an SWP rally. We were supposed to be shocked when blunt-speaking Nathan, a Barnsley haulage company boss, branded a run-down Mogadishu market street “a s***hole” – even though it was.
On the “progressive” team, posh Mathilda wanted no immigration controls whatsoever, while Bushra Shaikh – ex-The Apprentice and notorious for antisemitic posts – ranted about Boris Johnson joking (seven years ago) that burqas make women look “like letter boxes”.
“It’s humour and jokes like that that needs to be taken away,” she fumed. Give Keir another year and it will be.
The show is inherently dishonest. We know parts of the world are hellholes but nobody discussed the phenomenon of economic migrants posing as refugees or questioned the legitimacy of people arriving in Dover from the safe-haven of France. Nobody mentioned that Syria was a French mandate until 1945.
Dave, a cook from Nottingham, wept as he watched children scavenge in bins. But it’s perfectly reasonable to feel compassion for people without concluding it’s Britain’s responsibility to provide housing, education, health care and welfare payments to the rest of the world.
The six will return home via people-smuggling routes. Which will prove what? That dinghies aren’t ideal transport for the high seas? Who knew?
This was the TV equivalent of clickbait, unsubtle, shallow, and disingenuous. It’s been years since C4 made space for genuine alternative views. Without Walls featured opinionated documentaries by everyone from Auberon Waugh to even me. J’accuse dined out on sacred cows – Christopher Hitchens on Mother Teresa, Brian Sewell on Leonardo da Vinci etc. These shows challenged TV’s narrow liberal consensus. Why not revive both?
Sky Atlantic’s Mussolini: Son Of The Century burst onto our screens like a pumped-up circus clown on LSD. Italian TV’s take on Benito Mussolini’s rise from disillusioned socialist to fascist dictator manages to be rip-roaringly grotesque and thoroughly exhausting. They’ve turned Antonio Scurati’s prize-winning book into a cross between Peaky Blinders and avant-garde theatre. It looks fantastic, courtesy director Joe Wright, but it’s quite bonkers.
Charismatic Luca Marinelli gives depth, menace, and a dollop of absurdity to Il Duce as he founds his fascist movement and his own newspaper. “Follow me, you’ll love me too,” he coos. “You’ll become fascists.” Probably not.
There are violent clashes between his black-shirted war veterans and Communists in the claustrophobic bars and backstreets of 1919 Milan. Everything is grim and gloomy except the electro-dance soundtrack (by the Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands).
Sometimes Marinelli is terrifying, sometimes cowardly. He clashes deliciously with Russo, his sidekick, and Margherita, his mistress, and breaks the fourth wall to slyly leer “Make Italy Great Again!” Because he’s like Trump you see.
Except he isn’t. In many ways this version of Il Duce as a pathetic/psychotic clown is closer to PG Wodehouse’s spoof fascist Roderick Spode than the real Mussolini.
There’s a clear message for modern politicians though: ride roughshod over the will of the people and reap an unwelcome whirlwind.
Not as terrifying but nearly as deranged is Celebrity Bear Hunt a Netflix reality show that mixes I’m A Celebrity with Celebrity Hunted. And boobytraps. We’re in Costa Rica with various nuisances and Bear Grylls who effortlessly nabbed Mel B in her sinking boat and Steph McGovern in an immobilized car. She didn’t even get a packed lunch. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen didn’t last long either, despite claiming he was “quite hard”. Well Lottie Moss is there too. Grylls then released them and Leomie Anderson into his Bear Pit. Laurence was caught short – in the slang sense, relieving himself against the pit fence, and literally, just seconds short of escaping.
Boris Becker is also here. The tennis star thought prison was tough. Now he’s stuck in a baking hot Central American jungle with Shirley Ballas and Mel B. Will his punishment never end?
Comedy lovers can breathe easier. BBC1’s Motherland spin-off Amandaland has promise. It’s built around Lucy Punch’s alpha-mum Amanda – think a young Hyacinth Bucket with sex appeal – who has left Chiswick for the more downmarket South Harlesden, or “SoHar” as she calls it. Without Liz or Julia to ground her, she’s more of a caricature and the humour is broader; but her boozy, disparaging mother Felicity (Joanna Lumley) adds poignancy, her chirpy punchbag Anne is back too and the opener episode built to a comically chaotic conclusion.
Even better Hacks is now running from scratch on Sky after starting life on Prime. The clashes between old-school Vegas stand-up Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and upstart writer Ava, who is younger and bolshier. Their unlikely team work give this award-winning comedy-drama real depth.
Finally, RIP Brian Murphy, a fine actor who will always be remembered as the hen-pecked husband on George & Mildred (ITVX). In one glorious episode, Yootha Joyce’s Mildred complains about their honeymoon: “Two solid weeks of Monopoly! The only thrill of the fortnight was when he landed on my waterworks.”
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