Tuesday
The Capture
9pm, BBC One
Darren McGarvey's Scotland
10pm, BBC Scotland
By now, we’re so used to every new cop drama being led by a female detective that they’re blurring together just as much as all the old shows about male detectives used to. In The Capture, a six-part thriller by writer-director Ben Chanan, Holliday Grainger plays DI Rachel Carey, and, at first, it seems as if the series is content to simply line up the clichés for her.
Young, ambitious, etc, she’s been selected for fast-track promotion, and parachuted into the Homicide unit, to the resentment of other officers in the squad who have paid their dues and done time on the beat. Meanwhile, the first time we catch sight of her silvery, middle-aged mentor, Commander Hart (Ben Miles), we instantly know she’s been having an ill-judged affair with him.
But Rachel gets more interesting as the opening episode unfolds, because Chanan and Grainger aren’t afraid to let her grow less likeable. Grainger gives her a secretly self-absorbed, self-satisfied air. All smiles on the surface, if that’s what it takes, there come glimpses of something calculating and impatient under the skin.
She’s playing the system, of course, but it’s surprising how close the show is prepared to take Rachel toward being unpleasant. There’s a particularly striking moment late in this week’s episode, when she gets word that her team might have found a body, and practically punches the air with joy, because it means a juicy, career-boosting, high-profile murder case.
As the series develops, though, Rachel has reason to grow less certain. Chanan previously wrote the memorable one-off Cyberbully, and technology is his theme again here: the ways in which we have come to rely on it without question, and the ways in which it, and our trust in it, can be misused and manipulated.
At the heart of the story is a young soldier, Shaun Emery (a striking, sometimes unreadable Callum Turner). We first see him in a London prison, jailed for murdering an unarmed Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, largely on the strength of video captured on a colleague’s helmet-cam. But the conviction is overturned when it is proven that this evidence is seriously flawed. On his first night of freedom, however, Shaun finds himself arrested thanks to video footage once again, when CCTV cameras appear to place him in the middle of a shocking incident.
Chanan’s chewy, tricky story moves at a pulpy pace, but taps large, timely concerns about fake-news, the post-truth era, and an insidious surveillance culture: when any image or any footage can be doctored, when the past and even the present can be re-written, how can we know what to believe? For all this, though, it’s the characters that will lead us through the themes, and it’s the intelligent, slightly unexpected performances of Grainger and Turner that make The Capture worth grabbing.
Still, while The Capture seeks to reflect the real world, it actually feels about as connected to reality as Star Wars. This will be made bracingly clear if, after it finishes on Tuesday night, you turn over for the first episode of Darren McGarvey’s Scotland. Expanding on his Poverty Safari book, in this six-part documentary the writer and rapper explores the side of Scotland the tourists never see, to chart how poverty, austerity and inequality play out on the ground.
He begins in Dundee, here subtitled “Drug Death Capital,” looking beyond statistics to show in close-up the human face of the rising tide of drug deaths, the costs of addiction, and the ways it is perpetuated by a system unable, perhaps even unwilling to cope. It’s plainspoken, punchy, very grim, low-budget, and recommended.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
Today
Untouchable: The Rise And Fall Of Harvey Weinstein 9pm, BBC Two Since the first claims of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein exploded into the public realm in October 2017, more than 80 women have come forward to accuse the movie mogul of harassment, assault or rape. Two years on, the ramifications continue to rip through Hollywood, and, if anything, the case is about to grow more heated yet: Weinstein’s trial is scheduled to start next week. A timely showing, then, for director Ursula Macfarlane’s meticulous documentary, which lays out Weinstein’s spectacular rise – from his early days as a music promoter, to co-founding the powerhouse Miramax movie company – while detailing the allegations of abuse that span his entire career. There’s candid testimony from Weinstein’s accusers, while colleagues reflect on his talent – but also the silent complicity of their industry.
Monday
Rise Of The Nazis
9pm, BBC Two
This three-part documentary uses a disconcerting amount of soft-focus dramatic reconstruction to illustrate the period under scrutiny, but the story told grows so grimly fascinating it powers through. Under study is the death of a democracy: how, in four short years, Germany transformed from a liberal society to a fascist dictatorship ruled by murderers. With contributions from historians and experts including Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and General Sir Mike Jackson, tonight’s opener explores how Hitler, a practically washed-up political figure, exploited the turmoil of Germany’s hung parliament in 1930 to move from the fringes to the heart of government. Meanwhile, the episode spotlights the story of Hans Litten, a Jewish lawyer who fought to expose the supposedly mainstream Nazi party for the thugs they were – a brave and lonely campaign that would cost him his life.
Wednesday
The Reluctant Landlord
10pm, Sky One
Romesh Ranganathan’s grumpy, deadpan style is well suited to this pub set sitcom, returning for a second series. The show, in which his character has been reluctantly obliged to take over the running of his father’s shabby neighbourhood pub after his dad’s death (a situation loosely based on Ranganathan’s own experiences), doesn’t quite set the heather on fire, but its easygoing strengths are all the clearer to see this week when set against the notionally similar Scarborough (see Friday), another comedy with a cast of idiosyncratic characters knocking around a publand setting. Best of all, The Reluctant Landlord also has Car Share’s excellent Sian Gibson as Romesh’s healthy eating wife, Natasha. Tonight, she’s unexpectedly called in to work, leaving him with the kids – but juggling the demands of his family and his regulars grows difficult when the fruit machine goes on the blink.
Thursday
Billy Connolly's Great American Trail
9pm, STV
The Loudest Voice
9pm, Sky Atlantic
He might be moving a little slower, but Billy Connolly shows no intention of stopping, and tonight begins a brand new show in his familiar travelogue mode. In this three-part series, he’s following the footsteps of Scottish settlers across America, a migratory trail that has helped shaped its history – not least by producing a couple of Presidents of Scottish parentage. Connolly starts in New York, where he launches the city’s annual Tartan Day celebration, then heads to Plymouth, where the first pilgrims landed, and meets with a Native American tribe that was almost wiped out as a result. Another view of the States begins tonight in The Loudest Voice, a seven-part drama on the rise and fall of Roger Ailes, the infamous founder of Trump’s favourite TV show, Fox News. Russell Crowe plays Ailes…from behind some distracting prosthetic makeup.
Friday
Scarborough
9.30pm, BBC One
A good cast kick their heels in this surprisingly underwhelming new sitcom, written by Benidorm creator Derren Litten. Set amid the pubs, amusement arcades and hairdressing salons of the seaside town, the ex-Coronation Street wonder Catherine Tyldesley stars as the sad-faced Karen, who has just got back together with her ex-boyfriend Mike (Jason Manford) five years after they split up over his ambition to become a professional singer. As the series begins, however, their second go at being a couple is already hitting the rocks, because Karen discovered Mike in a drunken snog with another woman. The great Stephanie Cole co-stars as Karen’s unimpressed mother, but the gags feel forced and there’s something generally flat about the opening episode. Tyldesley is terrific, though. In fact, the timing of the series feels suspiciously like a trailer for her forthcoming appearance in this year’s Strictly.
Saturday
Monty Python Night
9pm, BBC Two
The Pythons have another anniversary – 50 years! – and BBC Two is devoting a night to help them get over it. First, Monty Python: Almost The Truth – The Lawyers Cut is a repeat for the 2009 documentary made to mark their 40th birthday. Putting the show in the context of its times, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam are on hand, surrounded by clips and contributions from fans including Tim Roth and, er, Hugh Hefner. Next, Silly Talks And Holy Grails (10pm) is a new compilation of rare Pythonese from the BBC archives, including Graham Chapman discussing the pressures he felt as a gay, alcoholic comic, and Palin promoting The Life of Brian on kids TV. Finally, at 11pm, the first episode itself, featuring “The Funniest Joke In The World” – look out.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here