AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL, BBC iPlayer
ANOTHER view of America is always welcome these days when we’re at risk of getting just one: Trump’s, which is aggressive and defensive.
His rage threatens to blot out all other versions of the country, so let’s forget him for a while and slip into this other America, one full of loud teenagers, not angry old men.
This six-part documentary series follows the pupils at Orangeburg-Wilkinson, a high school in South Carolina which is predominantly African American.
The first episode is called The Quest To Be The Best and focuses on the new principal, who is keen to sort out the school’s poor discipline and bad exam results.
However, he has quite a job on his hands, especially when a huge brawl breaks out on his first day, and when many pupils have terrible lives outside school.
As he says: “Some of our children go home not knowing where they’re going to stay that night.”
As one of the pupils warns: “This ain’t no fairytale high school. This ain’t no fairytale story.”
BAFTA AWARDS 2017, BBC1, 9pm
STEPHEN Fry hosts the annual award show from the Royal Albert Hall. He’s brave, having been chased by pitchfork-wielding mobs on social media after last year’s event because he made a silly comment about an award-winner’s style. He affectionately called her a “bag lady” and the usual, tiresome “outrage” erupted online.
Thou shalt not make a joke which doesn’t come from the pre-approved list of politically correct comments. This year, all the attention is on the giddy, retro musical La La Land which is nominated for Best Film, as is a production at the opposite end of the spectrum, Ken Loach’s grim and realistic I, Daniel Blake.
Meryl Streep is also nominated for an award and many will be hoping she wins just so we might be offered another blistering speech against Donald Trump, though Loach might also have a few mildly political things to say.
Yes, for once, the acceptance speeches might be rather more than just gushing and tears.
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