Hello,
Happy New Year! And welcome to Worth Watching.
The thing I love about television is how inherently unpredictable it is: the best shows can be ones that even the broadcasters didn’t know would resonate with viewers, or would become such big hits. As a result, it can be rather difficult to predict the shows that will be big in 2024 — made worse this year by the fact that the acting and writing strikes have affected the shows in the pipeline.
Having said that, there are some shows which are piquing my interest, so I’ve written about them below in this week’s recommendations.
EARLY CONTENDER FOR A DRAMA OF THE YEAR
Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITVX, all episodes) - A four part drama looking at the Post Office scandal, where hundreds of postmasters and postmistresses were accused of theft by their bosses because of discrepancies in the shop finances, when in fact it was caused by bugs in the Post Office software running their accounting.
This drama is guaranteed to enrage you. 3500 postmasters were wrongly accused by the Post Office, and 736 postmasters ended up being prosecuted. Four postmasters ended up taking their own lives. The Court of Appeal has overturned fewer than 100 of these wrongful convictions, whilst no Post Office manager has ever been charged.
This drama, which stars Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Shaun Dooley and Julia Hesmondhalgh is thoroughly well told. Not a scene is wasted in highlighting how the scandal was caused, and the devastating financial and mental health consequences that it caused.
It feels a bit bold to say that this four part drama will be considered one of the best shows of 2024, when we are literal days into 2024. But I really think it will.
REALITY SHOW TELEVISION
The Traitors (BBC One and iPlayer, three episodes a week) - The MOTHER of all reality show competitions is back, where 22 people go to a castle in Scotland to compete and win money in a series of challenges but several contestants are there to saboteur the cash prize by ‘murdering’ contestants in the middle of the night.
I was anxious that the second series was not going to match the first, simply because this time the contestants might come in with strategies which undermine the unpredictable and addictive gameplay, but I needn’t have worried. Some of their guesses of who the Traitors might be are as idiotic as ever. Long may that continue.
My favourite contestants so far include: Claire, the one with a constant quizzical facial expression and comes across like Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons, and also Sonja, whom we saw during a montage attempting to knit with an eye-mask on. High camp!
There are three episodes to watch this week. The rest of the nine episodes will be uploaded one-by-one, with new episodes dropping on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. There will also be a podcast on BBC Sounds, where the ‘banished’ and ‘murdered’ players find out who the Traitors are.
DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK
Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution (BBC iPlayer, all three episodes) - A fabulous and fascinating three part documentary looking at the rise of disco music and how it conquered the world. In particular, the series looks at how the history of disco is intertwined with the activism of queer, black and minority ethnic communities, who used disco music venues as a safe space to express themselves.
“Disco started almost as an unintentional movement,” says DJ Coleen Murphy; “it started with parties, it started with people dancing together.”
“Being able to dance and being able to dance together is part of what makes us human,” says Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters, who is a contributor to the series.
SHOWS TO LOOK FORWARD TO
JANUARY
Criminal Record (Apple TV+, from 12th January ) - Apple have been on a winning streak when it comes to thrillers of late (including the fabulous Slow Horses) so what could be better than a new crime thriller starring Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi. I’m reviewing episodes this weekend, so should be able to let you know what I think about it in the next newsletter.
Big Boys (Channel 4, all episodes) - Jack Rooke’s semi-autobiographical sitcom received rave reviews for the way it depicted male friendship, grief and mental health. It was also full to the brim with 2010s nostalgia and jokes about Alison Hammond.
The second series builds on the success of the first and fleshes out some of its characters. Episodes are out later this month and, weirdly, are even available to watch now if you pay to get rid of the adverts on the Channel 4 website.
FEBRUARY
One Day (Netflix) - A new 14 part adaptation of the overwhelmingly successful David Nicholls book about two people, Dexter and Emma, who meet on the same day each year. This show has piqued my interest because Emma will be played by Ambika Mod. She was the absolute best thing about the 2022 medical drama This is Going to Hurt, but was criminally overlooked for both a BAFTA TV award and nomination.
SPRING
Renegade Nell (Disney+) - Why is this Disney+ highwaywoman drama (starring Louisa Harland from Derry Girls, pictured above) causing such an intrigue? Because it’s written by the one and only Sally Wainwright, one of the best screenwriters of our generation, the pen behind Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax.
MARCH
The Regime (HBO, Sky) - One of the biggest US series of 2022 was Mare of Easttown, a Happy Valley-ish drama about a police detective, starring Kate Winslet. Now expect Winslet in a completely different role, this time playing an authoritarian dictator in a fictional Middle European country which is falling apart at the seams.
ALSO LOOK OUT FOR…
Stranger Things (Netflix), the second series of We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4) and House of the Dragon (NOW and Sky) and the third series of Bridgerton (Netflix)
WHERE TO FIND ME THIS WEEK:
Must Watch was on as normal during the Christmas break, with mine and Hayley Campbell’s television picks of 2023, and reviews of Truelove and Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
I was on BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show with a TV lookahead for 2024.
I wrote for the TV industry bible Broadcast Magazine with New Year’s Resolutions which I hope the industry follows, including solving the crisis of lack of available work for freelancers: “It’s not only the god-awful uncertainty for freelancers that worries me, but also the long-term ripple effect on programming: the young people who will be put off from entering the industry because there are hardly any opportunities; the entrants from lower socio-economic groups who will leave the sector because their family or friends are not able to financially support them when the work dries up; and the inclusion schemes no longer seen as a necessity and ditched because of the general lack of available work.”
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