THE KENNEDYS: DECLINE AND FALL, C5, 9pm
THIS drama about the Kennedy clan is brilliant fun. It opens with the other Kennedy assassination: Bobby is shot and the shocked family wonder what they should do next. Matthew Perry plays Ted Kennedy, a spoiled man who feels obliged to fill his big brothers’ shoes even though the rest of the family are saying: Er, no thanks.
Rose, the old matriarch who has already lost three sons and is played here like an evil Disney queen, sneers: “We owe this country nothing!”
Katie Holmes plays Jackie. She has the air of a wee girl playing dress up and totters around like a breathy little bouffant doll. She lies in her grand bed, popping pills and sobbing on the phone to her lover, Onassis, who utters cheesy lines like, “You will be free! Free from fear!” in his comic seduction.
It’s remarkable how the tragic, tangled story of the Kennedy family can be reduced to schmaltzy drama. Watch it as a camp curiosity, the dramatic equivalent of Eurovision.
MAY V CORBYN LIVE: THE BATTLE FOR NO 10, C4, 9pm
THIS is what election campaigns are all about. It’s not the celebration of democracy, the vigour of debate or the testing of ideologies – no, for me it’s the glorious sight of Jeremy Paxman as he pins down our leaders and menaces them with a sneer.
If the Prime Minister thought she could dodge uncomfortable TV moments by refusing to take part in leaders’ debates, she hadn’t stopped to consider Paxo. He may have left Newsnight but that doesn’t mean he’ll be leaving these slippery politicians alone.
This is a collaboration with Sky News, so Paxman will question both leaders separately and then Sky’s Faisal Islam will host an audience Q&A session.
However, if you like your politics limp, pale, and in need of iron tablets, BBC1 have an Ask The Leaders programme at 7pm with wee Willie Rennie.
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