IT is that time of year again, with life busting out all over the joint and cute, Disneyesque creatures competing for food and attention. Yes, Chris Packham and Micheala Strachan were back with Springwatch (BBC2, Monday-Thursday).
While they were in a field in Norfolk, fellow presenter Iolo Williams was on Mull, home to otters and eagles, or “super sexy wildlife” as he described them in a very non-Attenborough like way.
Lots of magical moments, including the regular look inside nests where chicks waited for parents to come back with the grub. If you think feeding time at your zoo is lively, try being a parent to adolescent herons. “Table manners are atrocious,” said Packham, loving every minute of it.
Best of all was the film of fox cubs playing in the sun. What a blissful way to end the day, unless you were a chicken of course, in which case the old warning from Crimewatch applied: “Don’t have nightmares.”
Between standing on a rooftop in Kyiv, hosting Mastermind, filling in for Sophie Raworth on Sunday Morning, and now presenting The Crown Jewels (BBC1, Friday), Clive Myrie has to be the hardest working guy on television at the moment.
His latest offering, The Crown Jewels, began with a confession as Myrie walked towards the Tower of London, home to the collection. “I’ve never seen the Crown Jewels,” he said. “As a child of empire there was no positive connection for me.”
Same here, I thought. Crown Jewels, little to no interest, let’s go back into town and see if Zara is still open. Alas, Myrie was made of sterner stuff. He was determined to discover how the collection came about and what it said about Britain’s past and present.
For some time, the film was as dull as that sounds. Myrie met various experts and toured the collection, trying to sum up the sparkling wonders before him. “So many jewels, so much gold,” he said, adding an “amazing” here and a “wow” there.
Bet Simon Schama and the rest of the TV historian top team were sitting at home snickering. You see, Clive mate, not easy is it? You think you have it tough reporting from a war zone, but try being in the trenches of description when the similes are flying like bullets.
Just when hopes of making it through the hour awake were dimming, Myrie upped sticks to learn more about the Honours of Scotland.
From Edinburgh he went to Dunottar Castle, where the honours were taken to keep them out of Cromwell’s mitts. With the castle eventually coming under siege, the priceless treasures were lowered to a “serving woman” who hid them in her basket and got them to a place of safety, which was jolly decent of her.
The film picked its way carefully through any political questions that came up, or steered clear entirely. No one asked, for example, why a country with food banks was in need of 13, count them, crowns. Shown on prime time BBC1 on Jubilee Bank Holiday Friday it was not that sort of programme.
Matters turned livelier when it came to the Koh-i-Noor, the huge diamond “acquired” for Queen Victoria in the manner of much Empire plunder. The Koh-i-Noor, said one contributor, represented for many the humiliation of colonialism, with the list of countries which claim it as their own and want it back including India, Pakistan and Iran. I don’t fancy their chances much.
The battle of the sitcoms ended with the finales of Here We Go and The Other One (BBC1, Friday). The former edged it for me over the siblings reunited comedy. Perhaps it was the presence of Alison Steadman and Katherine Parkinson, or Tom Basden’s writing, which offered big, silly laughs alongside quieter moments of genuine insight.
Basden had saved the best till last, sending the gang on holiday to Scotland. It could have been an EastEnders-go-to-Ireland-begorrah cringefest but it worked a treat, especially the visit to a distillery where the male guide’s kilt was on the short side. “He looks like Britney Spears,” hissed dad as his wife and mother drank in the view. In fact, the name that came to mind was a certain former First Minister who once paraded a similar look on the streets of New York. Evening, Mr McConnell.
The mighty Borgen (Netflix) was back after almost a decade away. The Danish political drama about a fearless female politician who is head and shoulders above the men around her, is for some reason a favourite of Scotland’s First Minister.
Borgen has come a long way from its homespun beginnings. Now it is as glossy as any American drama.
Everything from hairstyles to households has been upgraded, with the worlds of media and politics stuffed with good-looking, fast-talking, speed-walking sorts out to save humankind.
Just like Holyrood, really.
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