TUNES FOR TYRANTS: MUSIC AND POWER WITH SUZY KLEIN, BBC4, 9pm
NO wonder some people hate the concept of “muzak”; when music is at its finest it can alter a person’s mood, spirit and character. It shouldn’t be reduced to giving a bit of tinny atmosphere to a shopping mall.
This new series would probably agree, as it shows the awesome power of music and how tyrants have used it to stir and goad people, but also how rebels have used it to keep an anarchic flame alive.
Lenin loved music passionately, but was wary of its power. He feared that it made you want to “stroke people’s heads — and now you mustn’t. You must hit them without mercy.”
And Hitler used the stirring music of Wagner to evoke some mythical Germanic identity, but the free-spirited Germans of the Weimar era indulged in glorious, sexy, ribald cabaret which celebrated the unconventional, especially gay lifestyles.
Suzy Klein takes us to revolutionary Russia and pre-war Germany to show us music’s power to change history.
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, SKY ATLANTIC, 10pm
I WON’T exaggerate here. I won’t use fancy words and tortuous phrases. I’ll just speak plainly. Here goes: this is the best comedy in the world. Ever.
This is the new series, and I admit I haven’t seen it yet (no previews were allowed), but if it’s anything like its previous eight series then, yes, I can tell you with total confidence that it’s the best comedy in the world.
For those who’re new to it, it’s a loosely improvised sitcom about the life of Larry David who, in real life, was the co-creator of Seinfeld. In this show, he potters around in LA, rich and selfish and at a loose end. He gets into agonisingly awkward situations, and his wife rolls her eyes.
Bryan Cranston stars in the new series, and tonight’s episode sees Larry offend Jeff’s barber.
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