CITIZEN KHAN, BBC1, 8.30pm
I DESPISE this sitcom. I cannot understand its appeal. It is excruciating and yet the BBC insists on repeatedly giving it new series. Here it is again on what is, inexplicably, its fifth outing. How can this be?
I feel psychic when I’m watching Citizen Khan because the gags are so wildly obvious you can predict them. In those long, sagging minutes before the panto punchline is delivered you can see it coming, and you drum your fingers on the desk and you look at the clock and you bite your lip and then, boom-tish!, the wee joke is said and the thing creaks on to its next cartoonish scene.
In the series opener, Khan forgets his wedding anniversary so his wife makes him sleep in the car. And his boasts that he knows a famous cricketer gets him into trouble when he’s asked to invite him to a community fundraiser.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, guest stars, suggesting he has less decorum than his predecessor.
THE CROWN, NETFLIX
NETFLIX continues to astonish us, and perhaps to embarrass terrestrial TV channels.
Last Friday they gave us the incredible Black Mirror and today, when everyone is surely still reeling from Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi marvel, they release yet another big-budget series and it’s one which everyone who keeps an eye on TV has been anticipating. The budget for this whopper was $100m which makes the quibbling over the Bake Off deal look embarrassingly small.
The drama covers the reign of Elizabeth II. The Queen is played by Claire Foy who was last seen as the chilly and calculating Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall. The brilliant John Lithgow plays Churchill and Matt Smith is the young and dapper Prince Philip.
We all know the history here so no one is watching for plot twists. Instead, watch to be submerged in the splendour and impeccable casting.
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