Reviewed: DI Ray, The Franchise, A House Through Time

I am worried about DI Ray (ITV1, Sunday-Tuesday), returning for a second series this week. I’m worried because its central character, DI Rachita Ray, looks so worried. She is the Chicken Little of TV detectives, forever walking around as though a grand piano is set to fall on her head.

We know that Ray, played by Parminder Nagra, has not had her troubles to seek. There was that bad business in the first series when everyone seemed to have it in for the DI even though she was right all along. Now “upstairs” has ended her suspension, but she still doesn’t trust some in the senior ranks as far as she could throw them. Quite right, too.

I reckon there are a few more layers to be peeled from DI Ray. The risk-taking, the questionable choices of evening companions, something is off, but it will have to be parked while she solves the crime. Yes, believe it or not, there is one buried among all the brooding. A Brummie crime boss has been shot dead and a gang war looms unless DI Ray can get answers from a community that doesn’t want to give them.

Speaking of fast, DI Ray isn’t. The pace is often so slow I thought it was being shot in real-time. The car chase was zippy enough, but the pursuit on foot of a wrong ‘un went on for ages. Nor was I convinced that Ray, who must be five foot and seven stone sopping wet, could subdue and handcuff a wrong ‘un twice her size once she eventually caught up with him. Perhaps the bloke just got bored waiting.

Nagra is excellent as the enigmatic Ray, and it is great to see Gemma Whelan back playing her boss. Whelan is also a detective in The Tower. There must be so many TV crime dramas the actors are having to do double shifts. Maybe that’s why Ray looks worried: she fears a call from Midsomer Murders.

Five years ago some dude by the name of Martin Scorsese said Marvel superhero movies were not cinema. It caused a stushie at the time and everyone was talking about it. Well not everyone, just you, me and the usual chickens.

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Anyway, that was 2019. This week Armando Iannucci unveiled his new comedy, The Franchise (Sky Comedy, Monday), about superhero movies falling out of favour.

Can you see the problem here? If timing is everything in comedy, The Franchise has missed the bus by years.

But never mind because besides Iannucci (The Thick of It, Veep), The Franchise is the creation of Oscar-winning film director Sam Mendes, and Jon Brown (Succession). Plus it stars Daniel Bruhl, comedy royalty Richard E Grant, Jessica Hynes and Himesh Patel. Plus there has been a heap of money spent and it looks the part.

Bruhl plays the director of Tecto: Eye of the Storm, yet another superhero movie. The real work on set is done by the first assistant director Daniel (Patel). It is his job to keep everyone happy, from luvvie English theatre actors slumming it as comic book villains (Richard E Grant having a ball) to the ultra-demanding and frankly terrifying studio chiefs.

Everyone walks fast, talks a blue streak, and there’s some quality swearing going on. “Anyone can do f****** Ibsen,” Daniel reassures the leading man. “When you’re flying through the air on a jackhammer made of soundwaves you look awesome!”

The main characters manage the difficult balance between awful and likeable (Lolly Adefope, Kitty from Ghosts, is a standout), and each episode rattles along at 35-40 minutes.

Overall it’s like hanging out with the coolest kids in school, except here we arrive at another problem with The Franchise. It should be a giggle but it isn’t. Now and then it raises a smile, but that is about it. For all the big names behind The Franchise, spoofs like this have been done before and done better - not least by the movie industry itself.

David OlusogaDavid Olusoga (Image: free) The best history programme on television at the moment is A House Through Time: Two Cities at War, BBC2, Thursday). David Olusoga sets out to find “untold stories” of the Second World War through the residents of two blocks of flats, one in London, the other Berlin. It is utterly fascinating and so well made. There is even a German historian taking care of that side of the tale, which makes a real difference to the level of detail unearthed.

Olusoga must be the most trusted historian on television. Not only do today’s residents of the flats allow him to wander around their homes, but the relatives of those he is studying send him photos and other personal material. A lot of effort must have gone into building relationships.

It has been worth it. What stories he has found, from the Jewish family living in the same block as the SS officer, to the Italian waiter who went from loyally serving Churchill at the Savoy to an internment camp, set up on the same Prime Minister’s orders. There’s gratitude for you.