Between Halston on Netflix and The New Look on Apple TV+, fashion is having a moment on the streaming channels. On free to view all I can offer is Prisoner (BBC4, Saturday, 9pm, 10pm), and even that’s a stretch.
The award-winning Danish drama series stars Sofie Grabol as one of four guards finding life tough inside and outside the prison where they work.
While Grabol has had a long and illustrious career in her home country, she found international fame via, of all things, knitwear. Remember the 2011 crime drama hit The Killing, with Detective Sarah Lund and that jumper? I’ve only seen as far as episode two of Prisoner, but I don’t think Grabol’s wardrobe is going to have viewers scouring the web for similar designs. Navy trousers and V-neck, prison blue shirt and tie, this is utility wear at its most no-nonsense. As such it suits Grabol’s character Miriam to a tee.
The staff in Prisoner (original, and for my money better, title Huset or “The House”) are divided between those who make a point of wearing the tie and those with a more relaxed attitude to the rulebook. Miriam is the sole tie wearer before new recruit Sammi (Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt) arrives with his wish to “make a difference”.
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His new workplace could certainly do with a shake-up. As Sammi soon discovers, the guards in this run-down, under-staffed pressure cooker of a prison just want a quiet life, and if that means turning a blind eye to drugs and protection rackets, so be it. The salutation as guards go off to start a shift is “Have a boring day”.
But change is coming to the Big House. One of three local is to be closed. Given the place’s dreadful reputation it looks like Miriam and Sammi will be looking for new jobs - unless they can turn the prison around.
Dark, pacey, violent and crackling with tension, Prisoner looks like being Grabol’s biggest hit since The Killing.
There’s a funny if bittersweet moment in the opening episode of Darren McGarvey: the State We’re In (BBC Scotland, Tuesday, 10pm; BBC2, Thursday, 9pm). The Orwell prize-winning author and rapper is visiting Barlinnie as part of a look at the justice system when he says to a prison officer, “I probably know somebody in here.” A voice shouts back, “Aye, you do” and a brief catch-up with an old acquaintance ensues.
I don’t recall that ever happening to Louis Theroux or any other documentary maker, but then McGarvey has always gone his own way. In this new three-part series he looks at public services, how they work, why they often don’t, and what can be done about it.
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It’s a gig that takes him all over the UK and abroad. In High Wycombe he joins a new police recruit on her first day in the job. In Liverpool he meets the mother of Ava White who was stabbed to death in 2021, aged 12.
After a stop in London to interview barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind he travels to Norway, home to a prison system internationally lauded for its success in reducing recidivism.
Shhhh … can you hear that? It’s the sound of the latest Attenborough documentary approaching. Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough (Sky Nature, Sunday, 8pm) explores a hitherto largely neglected area. While scientists knew sound was fundamental to the natural world it could not be explored beyond the capacity of the human ear. Advanced audio tech has changed that, and the discoveries, as glimpsed in this three-part docuseries, are amazing. Here, Attenborough promises, is “life as you’ve never heard it before”.
It’s dawn on the African savanna and there’s a performance underway. In what is a strictly solo effort, a lion announces to everyone around that he, and his pride, are here. The sound can be heard up to five miles away, but even that is not enough to cover the area claimed by the lion, so younger males are sent out to “roam and roar”.
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From Africa it’s back to England (bees), then the Bahama Islands (bottlenosed dolphins), and the forests of Manitoba, home to the Great Grey Owl. The latter need to eat seven voles a day to survive, but how to find them under several feet of snow?
Animals use sound to hunt; sound, in turn, can be used against them. There’s a terrific sequence shot in a park in rainy Vancouver. When it rains, worms come to the surface and are eaten by gulls. Should the rain stop, the gulls do a “rain dance”, stamping the ground to imitate the pitter-patter of raindrops. The worms are fooled, for a little while anyway.
Queen Night (BBC4, Friday, from 9pm) opens with the band’s Christmas Eve concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975. Starting at 11.05pm, the BBC raids its vaults for Queen performances, and one of their greatest hits is explored in The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody at 12.05am. Get ready to do the Fandango.
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