Seeing these kids attempt journalism is extremely relatable
“When I Grow Up” sees kids attempting to try adult jobs (plus “Line of Duty” finishes this Sunday
Hello,
Firstly, a thank you.
Yesterday I ran the London Marathon to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK. You guys helped raise £3309.34 towards a charity that means a lot to me and a close friend. Thank you so much. I finished the race in 3:43:30, the last six miles hurting beyond belief. Trying to stand up and sit down since then has been absolutely hilarious.
A few things to look out for this week:
When I Grow Up (Channel 4, Thursday 8pm) - We’ve seen this sort of show a trillion times now. Young children being filmed for ‘scientific / social experiment’ reasons, when actually it’s just an excuse for Channel 4 to entertainingly make us laugh at the comedic antics of four and five year olds (this is not a complaint).
Give this version a go. In this series, a bunch of kids have been asked to become journalists at Hello! magazine. There are many moments these kids experience that would resonate with any journalist, heck anyone who writes for living. In one scene, a group of children were asked to write news report, resulting in them spending ages staring at a screen. One of them then admits: “I’ve barely got anything written down. It made me feel like I was rubbish.” The camera then zooms out to show another kid spinning round and round on in circles whilst hugging a chair.
There’s then a lunch with a PR that results in the children scooping a load of chips into their mouths whilst the PR talks about Myleene Klass. Then, in a photography challenge, the pictures chosen by the children are mostly of the children themselves, instead of the celebrities. This is directly followed by an editorial meeting that descends into arguments over orange juice. I think I’ve been in all of these situations so far in my career.
Only Connect (BBC Two, Monday 8.30pm) - It’s the final tonight of one of the nerdiest quiz shows on television. I used to find this quiz show alienating (for example, contestants choose what question to answer by choosing a hieroglyph), but over time, I’ve really grown to like it. It’s currently my favourite gameshow on television.
I love Victoria Coren Mitchell’s amazing burns to each team, TH MSSNG VWL RND (the missing vowel round) and the exceptionally British character biographies at the top of the show (e.g. “Anne Miller, a politics and sociology graduate who ran the tango society at the University of Edinburgh, and knows more about puffins than anyone else.”) I wrote about this more for the Radio Times. Good luck and god speed getting any answers right tonight.
Line of Duty (Sunday, BBC One, 9pm) - Yep. We’re wrapping up this series already. It has certainly been one of the most complicated series so far, sometimes furiously so, but it is still a show that is worth investing your time in. Ted Hastings himself (Adrian Dunbar) on this week’s 5Live’s Must Watch this week, where we learnt that Dunbar does know how to spell the word “definitely,” that some characters know what happens next in some scenes but other characters don’t. When we asked him whether he was ‘H’, he made the sound of a police tape for ten seconds.
There was also this anecdote about a recent fan exchange: “A woman came up and gave me an envelope full of bent coppers in it.”
Also make sure you check out… Pose (the whole series is available on BBC iPlayer and is extremely bingeable), Our Dementia Choir (a difficult watch in parts, but an important one), Game of Thrones (turn all of the lights out in your house first before you start watching, you’ll see what I mean when it starts).
If you have a show that you love that you want to tell others about, tell me! Respond to this email and I’ll try to include it in next week’s email.
That’s it for now (not much else on this week).
Thanks so much,
Scotty x