The week in TV: Doctor Who; Showtrial; How Green Is the Government?; Dalgliesh

Doctor Who BBC One | iPlayer
Showtrial BBC One | iPlayer
How Green Is the Government? Channel 4 | All 4
Dalgliesh Channel 5 | My5

The first episode of series 13 of Doctor Who splattered on to the screen like an intergalactic custard pie. Written by Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch)and directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, The Halloween Apocalypse kicked off Jodie Whittaker’s final run as the first female Time Lord. After this six-parter, and three specials, there’s a new Doctor and the return of the original modern Who showrunner, Russell T Davies (It’s a Sin, Years and Years), the latter a behind the scenes “regeneration” that has the Who faithful panting and drooling like oversexed Daleks.

Some of the criticisms aimed at Whittaker since she took over in 2018 have verged on “Hello deranged, meet sexist”. I’d reluctantly agree that Whittaker, a talented, naturalistic actor, was a trifle miscast here: the Doctor has to hold the sonic screwdriver with supreme conviction that the universe is at stake, not as though they’re trying to find their vehicle in a multistorey car park. Still, the show has bigger issues. I’ve found yoghurt pots at the back of my fridge that provoked more gasps than this opener. From the first scene featuring the Doctor and sidekick Yaz (Mandip Gill) dangling over an ocean of boiling acid (CGI by Robert Dyas?) to the Tardis decor (think: interstellar freshers’ disco) to new threat, the Flux (some misty stuff that makes planets dissolve like budget bath bombs), the keynote is “blah”. You want Doctor Who, not Doctor Whatevs.

It’s cluttered too: there’s everything from the Arctic Circle to newcomer John Bishop’s everybloke character to subpar monsters (including a dog-alien that looks like it should be nodding at the back of a Ford Fiesta) to lame jokes to Victorian flashbacks to explosions to food banks. On that last point, it’s bizarre that Doctor Who should be pilloried, as it is, for having a social conscience (oh gosh, I’m sorry, is the poverty ruining your sci-fi?). The real problem with the show is that there’s a lot going on and it’s still underwhelming. Whoever becomes the new Time Lord, an urgent change of tone is required.

The new five-part BBC One drama Showtrial, written by Ben Richards and directed by Zara Hayes, is from the producers of Line of Duty and, more recently, Vigil, the submarine thriller that was scuppered by endless plot convolutions (psst, next time, sink the sub, not the viewer). In Showtrial, based in Bristol, university student Hannah (Abra Thompson) is murdered and the chief suspect is her former friend, Talitha (Celine Buckens), a wealthy screw-up with green nails and blazing, furious eyes, who delights in alienating the detective (Sinead Keenan) and even her own coolly competent solicitor, Cleo (Tracy Ifeachor), who has messed up herself and been bounced off the professional fast track.

A few episodes in (all are available), and without wishing to give away early twists, Showtrial is impressive: composed, intriguing, layered. While the question mark hovers overs Talitha’s innocence, the drama travels elsewhere, from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service to Talitha’s jittery friend Dhillon (Joseph Payne), to the bereaved mother (Claire Lam) to Talitha’s wealthy parents (James Frain and Mika Simmons), whose chilly vileness gives Talitha her backstory and then some.

Showtrial isn’t perfect. At times, there are jarring echoes of real-life cases, such as when Talitha (laughing, behaving inappropriately) recalls Amanda Knox. Elsewhere, it overstretches, encompassing many “issues”: class, trolling, abuses of power, exploitation in academia. Talitha herself ticks hackneyed rich bitch/poor little rich girl boxes – she even does sex work as “Lady Tease”. Even so, watching as the trial gets under way, I’m finding Buckens quite brilliant: bridling, savage, audaciously dislikable. Ifeachor is equally strong, in a different – patrician, controlled – way. These are performances that hum alongside each other in separate powerful solar systems.

Against the backdrop of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, the Channel 4 documentary How Green Is the Government?, directed by Callum Macrae, asks: do you trust Boris Johnson on climate issues? Personally, I don’t trust Johnson to put matching socks on in the morning, but Macrae goes further, rigorously delving into the government’s much-trumpeted 10-point green plan, which aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Prepare to be enlightened, albeit horrified. According to assembled experts in the documentary, far from being a “global leader”, the UK hasn’t invested sufficiently in green areas (wind, water, rocks), while spending billions on incentivising fossil fuel production. Meanwhile, belching clouds from the burning of biomass (trees/tree waste scrunched into pellets) isn’t even counted in the UK, as these emissions are officially the responsibility of the biomass supplier: China. Which sounds a bit like stabbing someone in London but not being arrested because the knife was manufactured in Germany.

There was more – so much more – interspersed with footage of Johnson behind assorted microphones, at one point raving: “‘Cake, Have, Eat’ is my message to you” like a deluded eco Yoda. This timely and thorough documentary does a fine job of pointing out that, climate-wise in the UK, “cake is crumbs (at best)”.

The new Channel 5 series Dalgliesh stars Bertie Carvel (Doctor Foster, Matilda, Ink) as the late crime novelist PD James’s detective character, Adam Dalgliesh, in the first of three two-part dramas, starting with Shroud for a Nightingale. Directed by Jill Robertson, with lead writer Helen Edmundson, and also starring Natasha Little and Helen Aluko, Shroud… details murders unfolding at a nursing training college.

A period piece, set in the 1970s (you could almost smell the boiling cabbage and disinfectant), this was a festering miasma of blood-splattered gingham, secret resentments, illicit liaisons and Nazi war criminals. Following in the sombre overcoats of previous Dalglieshes Roy Marsden and Martin Shaw, Carvel did a sterling job of portraying the detective-cum-poet-cum-bereaved husband, staying immersed in the still, deep waters of character, whether interviewing witnesses or sitting in dark pubs beside crackling fires. This is a solid, old-school production, no bells and whistles, which these days feels hysterically radical. Sometimes it just works to have a good story plainly told.

What else I’m watching

Joanna Lumley and the Human Swan
(ITV)

Joanna Lumley follows eco-activist Sacha Dench, AKA the Human Swan, paramotoring around Britain. This documentary poignantly includes a tribute to Dench’s fellow pilot, Dan Burton, who died after an in-air collision with Dench (herself badly injured) during filming.

What We Do in the Shadows
(BBC Two)

Third series of the cult vampire comedy. Laszlo (Matt Berry) sulks at being appointed a Vampire Council “pen-pusher”: “I became a vampire to suck blood and fuck for ever!” The show’s co-creator Taika Waititi appears in a cameo.

Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution
(BBC Two)

Last episode of the political docu-series finishes with Gordon Brown losing the general election in 2010, signalling the end of New Labour. Engrossing, cutthroat, this series has equalled Thatcher: A Very British Revolution, which came from the same team.