FRONT ROW,
BBC2, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS new series is a TV equivalent of the famous Radio 4 arts show, and it’s already caused a mini-controversy on Twitter. Journalist Nick Cohen tweeted his displeasure at the choice of presenters – Giles Coren and Amal Rajan – saying it was like asking him to compere London Fashion Week. Theatre critics are also aggrieved, as the pair have admitted they rarely attend plays.
So have the BBC chosen presenters who are smooth and eloquent, rather than those who might have expertise in the world of theatre, literature, music and film?
The series promises news and in-depth interviews with figures from the arts, and tonight we have the DJ Nihal Arthanayake and the writer Viv Groskop giving us their cultural highlights of the week. Then, lest the BBC be accused of cultural elitism, we get a live performance from the alternative-rock band Wolf Alice.
STRICTLY COME DANCING,
BBC1, Saturday, 6.25pm
A FORTNIGHT ago Strictly had its glitzy launch show where the celebs were paired with their professional dancers and everyone got misty-eyed at the musical tribute to good old Brucie. Now the show starts in earnest, as the actual dancing contest and the public voting begins.
The show has caused a lot of discussion online, some of it quite unpleasant, as two of the celebrities are gay (Susan Calman and Rev Richard Coles) and this provoked a debate about whether Strictly should allow gay contestants to dance as part of a single-sex couple. Of course, such debates always tempt the trolls out from the darkness, and it was strange to see such a happy, glittery, feel-good show mentioned alongside such antagonism.
The fifteen couples take to the floor tonight, and we also welcome a new judge, Shirley Ballas, known as “the Queen of Latin”.
THE CHILD IN TIME,
BBC1, Sunday, 9pm
Based on the Ian McEwan novel, this one-off drama stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald as the heartbroken parents of a missing child.
Stephen and Julie have a perfect life. She’s a piano teacher and he’s a writer, and they live in middle-class comfort in London with their cute little daughter, Kate.
But on a trip to the supermarket, Stephen loses sight of Kate for a moment. He panics. He runs through the shop shouting for her, but she has gone.
We see Stephen and Julie fall apart. She can’t help but blame him. He searches for her every day, coming home helplessly to his depressed wife who says: “You always let me down. You never bring her home.”
There are sightings of Kate in dreams, sometimes in her yellow coat, reminiscent of the child in Schindler’s List. “Mummy, mummy, come to the shops,” she calls.
I think parents all over the country will be in floods of agonised tears at this drama.
ELECTRIC DREAMS,
C4, Sunday, 9pm
Some people complained that this new sci-fi series is a poor attempt by Channel 4 to fill the dystopian void left by Black Mirror. But let’s just stop right there: that’s a hugely unfair criticism as nothing – nothing! – is as good as Black Mirror, and so it’s not right to compare the two. Black Mirror occupies a higher plane that we mortals can’t even begin to comprehend. I’d liken the show more to Doctor Who.
Tonight’s story is called “Impossible Planet” and is set on a spaceship which acts as a luxury cruise liner, taking its passengers across the universe.
Norton, a disenchanted tour guide, meets Irma, a very elderly lady who has a desire to visit Earth, but the planet was destroyed long ago, and humanity wiped out. Nonetheless, Irma will pay a lot of money to whoever can take her to the dead and ruined planet.
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