Worth Watching: "Glastonbury 2020," "Disclosure" and um... "Snoop Dogs"?!
Here are the shows you should be taking time out for this weekend.
Hello,
Welcome to Worth Watching, the newsletter that tells you what is worth watching on television and streaming.
Glastonbury (BBC iPlayer) - With the festival having a break in 2020, the BBC has rolled out comprehensive coverage featuring memorable sets from year’s past. As well as more than 100 complete sets being available on demand, there’s also a live iPlayer channel showing you a new set every hour or so.
The live iPlayer channel is an inspired idea, providing an opportunity for us all to have shared moments instead of feeling that we’re the only one watching.
On-demand highlights that stand out to me include: Stormzy, Arcade Fire, Christine and the Queens (the dancing in this set is incredible), Dave, Florence + The Machine, Foals, Glass Animals, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem (the mud was apocalyptic when I saw them back in 2016), Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Orbital, Underworld and the XX. If you are a bit busy at the moment (it is nice outside, after all), these sets are available to watch for the next month. Here’s the full schedule.
Glastonbury is also on your television set this weekend too. Beyonce’s headlining set will air on Friday night on BBC Two, Adele and Coldplay will air on Saturday night, with Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie and Brian Wilson’s Legends slot on Sunday, along with a set by David Bowie later that evening. These sets won’t be available to watch on-demand until they have aired on television, though.
Disclosure (Netflix - available now) - A fantastic documentary about the improving representation and visibility of trans people on television, and how depictions have been poorly reflected in the past.
“I think, for a very long time, the ways in which trans people have been represented on-screen have suggested we’re not real, have suggested that we’re mentally ill, that we don’t exist,” says Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox. “Yet here we are, and we’ve always been here.”
I’ve always found television a great tool in removing stigma, bigotry and prejudice. As Disclosure points out, 80% of American viewers don’t know anyone who is transgender in everyday life, so their perceptions of the community come through what they learn through the media and television. This documentary is a powerful reminder of the responsibility programme makers have.
Snoop Dogs (Channel 4, Friday 8.30pm) - Truly, one of the most WTF shows of the year. Lockdown restrictions mean that we are not able to visit other people’s houses, apart from the odd ‘support bubble’. TV filming has equally been affected by this problem, so to get around this problem for a new Through the Keyhole property gameshow on Channel 4, they strapped dogs with cameras and let them into the property.
The show is a bit of a nauseous mess. A lot of this is down to the fact that the footage that the dog films is not very good, because it is filmed by a dog.
I did a behind-the-scenes piece for The Telegraph. Let’s just say the process of filming was not necessarily a smooth one: “A lot of dogs knocked their cameras off their backs,” says Snoop Dogs series director Jamie Wightman. “We filmed this absolutely beautiful puppy, that you'll see in episode two. [He] just turned their immaculate owner's home upside down, rifled through her very expensive wardrobe and unfortunately in the end, relieved himself on his owner’s lap during the interview.”
On the BBC Sounds Must Watch this week… we speak to Line of Duty’s Rochenda Sandall and what it was like to star a new adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (warning: it then turns into a weird discussion about whether it is dangerous to eat more than five bananas at once). We also review The Luminaries and speak to the show’s star, Eve Hewson.
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That’s all for this week. See you by the cider bus.
Scotty / @scottygb