IMAGINE, BBC1, 10.30pm
OH yeah, sure I frighten people. Don’t ask me why. It’s not my problem!”
Margaret Atwood is fierce, confident and wonderfully unapologetic. Alan Yentob meets her in Toronto and they stamp about in the snow, discussing how Canada once “thought of itself as a cultural backwater” and if you wanted to make a name in the arts you had to leave.
Born in 1939, the Canada of her youth was wild and empty, with the writer and her country both growing into prominence and attention together. Through interviews and archive footage, plus contributions from fellow writers such as Ali Smith, who calls her “as much a visionary as HG Wells was”, we meet this prickly, funny, brave writer who reached a whole new generation of readers through their discovery of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Thankfully, this show reminds us there is far more to her than that terrifying novel, and this might push readers towards her other great books. My recommendation would be Alias Grace.
IN SOLITARY: THE ANTI-SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, C5, 9pm
BIG Brother caused a huge fuss when Channel 4 launched it back in 2000, but by the time it had been demoted to Channel 5 it had lost its novelty and edge. Maybe the channel is hoping to dredge up some of the old notoriety with this new reality series.
Three members of the public will be asked to endure solitary confinement for five days, although there is no dark prison cell involved. Instead they’ll be housed in comfort. The only thing they won’t have is a mobile or an internet connection, or any kind of human contact at all. How long will they last before pressing the emergency exit button?
For people who’ve lived alone, and have felt real loneliness, this won’t be any kind of revolutionary experiment, but for others who live their lives online, and have their egos propped up with retweets, likes and chat, this will seem very unnerving.
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