THE SIXTIES, YESTERDAY, 7pm
THERE are lots of annoying things about Twitter, mainly the people who tweet, but another prime irritant is the way masses of people latch on to one phrase or sentiment and tweet it again and again, thinking they’re witty and insightful.
There was a fine example when the Russian ambassador was shot in Turkey and armchair historians and bedroom bloggers began to tweet, en masse, “And so it begins …”
Another constant sentiment is the feeling we’re going back in time: how Trump and Brexit and almost every Daily Mail headline are somehow spinning us back to the dark ages.
This documentary series takes us back to the 1960s, and is cosy and approachable enough for the Twitter mobs to understand.
Two episodes are broadcast tonight, giving us the bloody year of 1968, a year of political assassinations, civil rights marches, and violent protests, all topped off by Richard Nixon’s US election win.
Those who think our privileged, politically-correct age is akin to these turbulent, racist and sexist times have no idea what they’re tweeting about.
ALL ROUND TO MRS BROWN’S, BBC1, 9.15pm
IF I keep watching this, will I start to appreciate what everyone else sees in it? Or will I just start softly weeping? So far neither has happened; I just get annoyed.
This is the second week of Mrs Brown’s new chat show where celebrities drop by Mammy’s house to sit on the sofa and have a natter. Despite the show being crude and loud, Mrs Brown has managed to pull in some genuine celebrities – by which I mean “people who are obviously recognisable”.
You can’t shake your head at her guests and snort, “Celebrities? Never ’eard of ’em!”
Last week she had Pamela Anderson, for crying out loud! Someone who has actually been to Hollywood!
Tonight she welcomes daytime TV overlords Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, plus Lulu and Adam Woodyatt, the latter better known as Ian Beale from EastEnders, and, in the pub, Kaiser Chiefs play a few songs.
LINE OF DUTY, BBC1, 9pm
THE big question after last week’s shocking opener is: will Roz Huntley survive? Last week, we saw her pinned to the floor, unconscious, as Tim Ifield loomed over her with a chainsaw.
When her eyes fluttered open at the last moment, even the most hardened and cynical viewer must have gasped.
Huntley is played by Thandie Newton, and the BBC wouldn’t bring in such a big star just to kill her off, would they? Ah, but this show has form in instantly bumping off a character we think will be the lead.
So, did she survive? I can’t say, but I am allowed to tell you she doesn’t show up for work the next morning and a dismembered body is found in the woods.
We also get one of the long interview scenes which are becoming classics of this show, and some tensions sprout between Arnott and Fleming with both in competition for an inspector’s job. Big, fatherly Ted has to choose between them and displays little flickers of sexism, with someone slapping down his use of “darlin’” with a demand he use “gender-neutral language”.
GREEK THOMSON – GLASGOW’S MASTER BUILDER, BBC2, 10pm
“AH, this is gonna be a treat!”
So says David Hayman, striding towards a beautiful old house designed by the famous Glasgow architect Alexander “Greek” Thomson (pictured, below). Hayman champions the man who created so many of Victorian Glasgow’s famous buildings, galleries and churches, as well as its tenements and suburban villas, “transforming the Victorian powerhouse into a new kind of metropolis ... a bold, monumental style which defined Glasgow’s ambitious age”.
Indeed, Hayman believes Thomson was greater than the fashionable favourite, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and when we watch this programme it’s easy to agree.
Hayman visits some of Thomson’s most famous buildings and it’s good to see the interiors for once, as they are just as decorative and striking as the imposing stone frontages.
He also asks where Thomson got his love of the classical Greek style, given that he never left Britain, and he meets the architect’s devotees who preserve and promote his work.
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