There is a lot to like in new sitcom Dinosaur (BBC3, Tuesday). For a start it is made and set in Glasgow and the old place looks great. They’ve even managed to get the sun to shine. This is the Glesga of Mayflies rather than Rab C, a shiny bright place with nice people having not too horrible problems that will be sorted out by the end of six episodes.
Ashley Storrie plays Nina, a young woman with autism whose painstakingly ordered life is upended by her sister Evie (Kat Ronney) getting married.
Nina, whose cringeworthy father is played by Greg Hemphill, is a likeable sort. There are no unlikeable characters in Dinosaur, though a fair few are unbelievable. But like I said, it is glossy, different, upbeat and it tries hard.
Trouble is, I did not laugh once. I smiled at a line about a green jumpsuit, but that was it. Sorry to be a party-pooping diplodocus here, but surely the absence of laughs has to go down as a serious flaw in any sitcom?
An armoured Land Rover screeches to a halt at a burning barricade. Within seconds a petrol bomb-throwing mob surrounds the vehicle. It is not looking good for the car’s occupants, but then an air horn blasts, a voice shouts “End ex!” (end exercise), and what seemed a life or death situation is revealed as just a training session. Gotcha.
It is a measure of the affection in which Blue Lights (BBC1, Monday) is held after just one series that viewers will forgive the pulling of that old prank. The blending of hard-edged and soft is one of the reasons for the show’s success. We want a police procedural set in today’s Belfast to keep it real, but not too real.
One year on in Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s drama and it is plus ca change, as the dogs in the Belfast street say, for our probationers of old. Drugs continue to cause havoc, sending the crime numbers rocketing and bringing new faces to the station to tackle the problem.
Meanwhile, partners Stevie and Grace are continuing their will-they-won’t-they dance, the useless probationer and daughter of the chief is now a solicitor looking into a bombing in the past, and the rest of the team are trying to make the best of a deteriorating situation. “Is everything just ****ed?” asks one officer. Maybe, but Blue Lights still does the business.
Danny Dyer, actor and presenter, has been hearing a lot lately about some “war on men” that’s supposed to be going on. Now he has all these questions that demand answers. “So Channel 4 bunged me a few quid to travel the country talking to geezers” he explains by way of an introduction to Danny Dyer: How to be a Man (Channel 4, Tuesday-Wednesday). Bish bash effing bosh, commission’s a good ‘un as you might say if you were Danny.
Danny loves his effing and jeffing. It’s his fing, that and being from east London. He duly travels “the country” - which does not include Scotland, natch - to find out what it takes to be “a good man” in this age of dodgy influencers and toxic masculinity.
Tonally the two hours were all over the shop, at some points devastatingly serious, other times less so (to the woman owner of a sex shop: “Of course, you’ve got a dungeon”). He seemed surprised at what he discovered, though much of the material has been widely reported on.
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Overall it was a trot through the bleedin’ obvious, with Dyer not wanting to ruffle any feathers. Still, it might have impressed a few young ‘uns and he means well, so no harm done, right? I expect that’s what Channel 4 are telling themselves.
If Dyer cares to learn about the art of documentary making he should head in the direction of Michael Palin in Nigeria (Channel 5, Tuesday).
Palin landed in Lagos at 5am to find the city, population 20 million, already up and at ‘em. By 2099 the capital alone will be home to an estimated 88 million people. Just thinking about that made me exhausted, as did watching Palin trying to navigate crazy traffic and get from A to B. He is 80 you know, a mere lad to Attenborough’s 97, but still.
As could be seen from the crew around him, and their mountain of luggage, Palin had all the help possible. But fair play to him, he’s not covering the country from an air-conditioned hotel room in Lagos. By the end of episode one he was in the dangerous north, HQ of Boko Haram jihadists. As one local emir said, he was “no ordinary journalist” and this was no ordinary country.
For the Love of Dogs with Alison Hammond (STV, Tuesday) had some pretty big designer trainers to fill, but she did a decent enough job. I still think they sent the offer to the wrong Alison, though. Sort it out, Battersea.
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