Wednesday, 25th
DOMINIC SANDBROOK: LET US ENTERTAIN YOU, BBC2, 9pm
It’s irritating, and even cruel, when Simon Cowell tells his talent show hopefuls that they are special: You’re a star! I believe in you! You can achieve your dreams! You’ve got what it takes to go all the way! These platitudes are normally uttered at an unremarkable boy in a baseball cap or a girl weighed down by cheap sequins, both of whom are squirming with delight yet always back in the call centre or checkout in a few weeks’ time.
Our popular culture is obsessed with the notion of individuality, weaving the foolish tale that we’re all special and simply have to believe in ourselves. In this final episode, Sandbrook shows that this idiotic idea wasn’t invented by Saturday night TV talent shows but stretches back to the Victorian era.
Samuel Smiles published his book, Self Help, in 1859 which urged Victorians to see that success could be achieved with education, and that every individual had a great destiny to accomplish. Everyone was special – if they’d only roll up their sleeves and work hard and Britain’s post-war art colleges practised this philosophy, argues Sandbrook, by welcoming the working classes and encouraging mavericks, thereby producing pop culture geniuses like John Lennon, Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood and Pete Townsend. This has been an excellent series, even if Sandbrook is sometimes too zealous in pinning everything to the Victorians.
SUSPECTS, C5, 10pm
This is the new series of the crime drama about three London detectives where the actors improvise their own dialogue having first been presented with a detailed plot summary. I love this idea: it worked spectacularly with comedy in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and now we can observe it in drama where the absence of rehearsed dialogue can provoke a sense of grim reality.
Tonight’s episode is about the tensions between some former Army buddies, one of whom is suffering from PTSD.
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