NILE RODGERS: HOW TO MAKE IT IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS, BBC4, 9pm
MERCIFULLY, the answer is not “audition for X Factor as a wannabe Whitney with a sad story about your gran”. Neither is the answer “have lots of talent and originality”. If it was, then we wouldn’t need a three-part series.
Instead, Rodgers shows us how the business works, and reveals the tricks through his anecdotes of working with the greats, such as David Bowie and Madonna.
Tonight, the second in the series, he takes us back to the 1980s. Disco had begun to fade, and so lots of stars were seeking to reinvent themselves. Rodgers worked with Diana Ross to transform her, shaking off her glittery 70s image, and he helped Bowie perfect Let’s Dance, one of the ultimate hits of the 1980s.
He also talks honestly about his battles with drink and drugs, and how success comes down to “hard work, consistency and luck” – and when the latter runs out, you can always turn to re-invention.
LORE, AMAZON PRIME
A NEW series which isn’t about crime and murdered women? How lucky we are!
It’s Friday the 13th, a good start date for this new show which comes from the producers of The X Files and The Walking Dead.
It’s based on the hugely popular Lore podcast which tells the true stories which inspired the world’s creepiest tales and most frightening figures, such as vampires, werewolves, and body snatchers. The podcast tries to show how most horrors have a basis in real life. This TV version has a voiceover by the podcast’s presenter, Aaron Mahnke, and uses dramatisation and animation.
Tonight’s opening episode is about the spread of tuberculosis in 19th-century New England. It caused a panic, with many believing it was caused by figures we would later know as vampires, and corpses were dug up to check they were really dead and not prowling the streets at night.
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