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Friday 9 January 2009

Riotous ride

Lost Land of the Jaguar (BBC1); House of Saddam (BBC2); The Kevin Bishop Show (Channel 4)

The most exciting scenes came when Steve Backshall lowered himself down the side of the 720ft Kaieteur Falls, and having reached the bottom had to stay there, even though a tropical storm came over. It must be possible to get wetter, but not so very wet for so very long. And we saw a jaguar, if briefly. It is rare for a television critic to want to see the rest of a series, but I’ll certainly watch this.

And the rest of House of Saddam, which also had an unpromising start. By the end of episode one (BBC2, Wednesday) I was hooked. It’s a combination of a soap in the American style (think Dallas and Dynasty — fabulous wealth, gorgeous women, thoroughly evil men) and a Greek tragedy. The fact that when we see Saddam at the height of his evil pomp we have in our minds the frightened old hobo winkled out of his hole, and the tyrant shambling to his botched execution, only heightens our involvement, the sense of horror and pity.

The appeal of J.R. Ewing was that he always went one step further than anyone might imagine. He had to get worse in order to maintain the dramatic momentum. For Saddam to decide that, on balance, he ought not to execute his best friend would be as pointless as J.R. thinking he had been a little harsh on Cliff Barnes. Saddam played out his life as a tragic hero composed of terrible flaws and nothing else; the difference was that the extras in his drama didn’t go home to lick their wounds, but were shot with a single bullet, up against a wall.

There are faults — a little too much clunky filling in of the back story (but then how else could they do it?) and some obvious scenes — Saddam symbolically washing his hands after having all possible rivals murdered — which should have been lost. (It is so easy nowadays — you just punch a few buttons on the computer. You don’t actually have to drop film on the cutting-room floor any more.) But overall this was a very classy production. It might even give some opponents of the war pause for thought.

The Kevin Bishop Show (Channel 4, Friday) is billed as going beyond bad taste, which I suppose it sort of does, though it’s really another TV show about TV for TV fans. A lot of the sketches fell flat, but there were enough that worked to keep me giggling happily: Harry Hill in his doctor days, diagnosing a patient in his comedy persona, an incredibly rude scene about ‘Sir’ Richard Branson, which might console some travellers on his railway, a Health and Safety official running a check on a suicide bomber, and Stephen Hawking as a benefit cheat. We can put up with a lot of rough for a handful of diamonds.

More articles from: Simon Hoggart | this section

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