Layman’s terms

Wednesday, 18th February 2009

Iran and the West (BBC2, Saturdays); The Victorians (BBC1, Sunday); The Firm (BBC4, Monday); The Krypton Factor (ITV)

I often drone on about how there are television programmes made with love and there are those that are knocked out cynically, to win ratings and advertising, or because the programme makers are just too lazy to come up with anything new, challenging, informative or even entertaining. Hole in the Wall is obviously cynical, as is I’m a Celebrity. On the other hand, Strictly Come Dancing might be as camp as a drag act at Pontin’s, but it is at least made with craft and dedication. You may not care for the show, but somebody plainly cares about getting it right. A classic instance of getting it right is Iran and the West (BBC2), which has been running over three weeks on Saturdays.

And then there’s The Victorians on BBC1 (Sunday), presented by Jeremy Paxman, with, of course, an accompanying book. At first I was annoyed by the BBC’s timidity. You can imagine some programme controller saying, ‘Oh, gosh, a programme telling the story of the Victorians through their paintings. And you’re thinking of getting some art expert? Oh dear, I think we’d better play safe and get Paxman. Not too much arty talk.’

So Paxman it was and, while he is undoubtedly a superb television performer, I did feel somewhat cheated. Couldn’t they have got someone who knows a bit more than him? But then I read the howls of anguish from the art critics, who detest the notion of laymen clambering over their patch with their dirty hands and hob-nailed boots. Like rock music critics, who may be the worst critics in the country since they write principally to impress other rock critics, art critics exist in their own private world from which the rest of us are admitted only on their terms. So good luck to Paxman, who caught the ambiguity of our feelings about the Victorians — as well as giving us engineering achievements, they created the workhouse, an institution based on the notion that you can terrify people out of being poor. The sight of Paxman tucking into a bowl of gruel — ‘like porridge, without the porridge’ — was one I shall not quickly forget. (They should serve it at The Ivy; poverty chic could be big this year.) An amusing and informative programme, and Paxman was an excellent choice.

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Frank P

February 23rd, 2009 6:33pm Report this comment

"… while he is undoubtedly a superb television performer"

Really? Paxo has become a parody of himself: arrogant, lugubrious and boring.

First Dimbleby; then Marr; now Paxman - all political-hacks-cum-anchors (a consonant missing there perhaps) unjustifiably gifted a series by the Beeb about Britain's history; all done better before by experts who actually knew their subjects.

Dimbleby just about pulled it off, because he isn't a snide with a built in sneer and appeared to enjoy his boondoggle as well as picking up the second pension royalties. Marr wandered through his benefit match as though he hadn't been there when any of it happened and accepted the account of the Gramscian disciples as if it was kosher rather than counter-culture agitprop, pop music footage and plain bullshit.

Paxman has told us nothing so far that wasn't recently explained much more generously and interestingly by Adam Hart-Davis in his excellent 2001 series "What the Victorians did for Us", which is currently being repeated, so why is even more of my poll tax being used for over-priced Paxo to stuff the Victorians? Last night's emphasis on sexual repression and hypocrisy was a bit rich from this compére, who seemed to take a somewhat unhealthy interest in onanism and syphilis – not to mention ladies’ corsets! The lady trying them on took a definite interest in him, too, seemingly as a possible SM partner and the edgy exchange made me wonder whether he was a possible punter, too, albeit his having just whinged about the whited sepulchres of Victorian chauvinistic men (his example of some Sussex photographer taking saucy pictures of his missus and girl friend seemed a bit tame considering today's tsunami of TV porn).

Actually, as we normally see only the top half of Paxman, the only thing new that emerged for me from the two episodes so far (and I shan't bother with the rest) was that Paxo is now as bandy as a crippled crow: he couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel. His tailor should take that into account – the drainpipes just accentuate it. And the gimmick of the pink shirt with one button too many undone had already been trademarked by Dimbleby major for his premature golden handshake series.

Before he was elevated to TV celebrity Jeremy was quite a good investigative reporter. I remember his probe into the Calvi affair in the Eighties. Horses for courses! This equine-featured newsreader was anything but an “excellent choice” for yet another romp through Victorian Britain, particularly in an age when vice and hypocrisy are worse now than then. Unconvincing cant! And this time it’s the vowel that is questionable.