BROKEN, BBC1, 9pm
IF Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn got together to write a drama they would surely produce this.
This new series from Jimmy McGovern targets the cruelty and impassivity of the British benefits system. It’s a noble message, and one that needs to be told, but oh, it’s laid on thick here.
Anna Friel plays Christina, a desperate single mother who’s just lost her job. She has three children to raise and needs cash for food, rent and a fancy Communion dress for her daughter.
Sean Bean is her kind local priest. He tries to help his flock but has troubles and secrets of his own, relayed in nasty flashbacks to his childhood. His religious advisor is an equally kind Adrian Dunbar, but these decent men can’t begin to appreciate Christina’s desperation, and a tragic event spins her into further despair and a dangerously irrational act.
It’s all massively over the top but I did shed a tear at the end, so there is meaning under the heavy-handed emotion.
HORIZON: SPACE VOLCANOES, BBC2, 9pm
YOU can’t spot “space volcanoes” in the TV listings and not be intrigued.
WE might marvel at tales from Krakatoa or Pompeii, where the awesome destruction of Earth’s volcanoes could wipe out a population or cover the skies in ash, but volcanoes are now being discovered on other planets that are so spectacular they make ours seem like poxy wee puffs of smoke.
“Rivers of lava” once ran across the moon, and a volcano three times the height of Everest can be found on Mars. The most violent volcano is on Jupiter, and computer wizardry plus Nasa photography allows us to see these wild eruptions.
But apart from marvelling at the power, these space volcanoes have something to teach us. By drawing parallels between earthly and space volcanoes, we can learn what the Earth was like at its birth and perhaps gain insights into how life began.
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