Sunday 9 July 2017

TV Review: MELVYN BRAGG ON TV: THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD + ROCK 'N' ROLL GUNS FOR HIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIDEMAN

This article was originally published in The Courier on 8 July 2017.


MELVYN BRAGG ON TV: THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: Saturday, BBC Two

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GUNS FOR HIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIDEMAN: Friday, BBC Four

It’s no exaggeration to claim that the birth of Melvyn Bragg triggered a cultural revolution of staggering importance.

That much I gleaned from MELVYN BRAGG ON TV: THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, a two-hour muse-a-thon in which the veteran arts nabob examined the myriad ways in which British television has reflected, challenged and transformed society over the last 60 years.

Clips from his own - admittedly unforgettable – interviews with Dennis Potter and Francis Bacon were included among the wealth of familiar archive material, lest we forget that Lord Bragg has played a major role in bringing culture to the masses.   

The programme spliced a series of Bragg-narrated essays on various key areas – news, documentary, drama, comedy – with sensible round-table discussions from broadcasting luminaries such as Joan Bakewell, Michael Grade and Ken Loach.   

They didn’t have to work particularly hard to support the overarching point that television is the most important technological innovation since the Industrial Revolution.

This window to the world has expanded our horizons via explorations of inner and outer space while chronicling the ways in which society has developed over the last seven decades.

It’s brought truth to power by making politicians more accountable. It’s challenged lies and prejudices, broken down class, race and gender barriers, and brought news of vital historic import into our homes with increasing speed.

However, as Bragg observed, it’s also undermined these noble egalitarian achievements by presenting simplified, reactionary and sometimes dangerously irresponsible reflections of society past and present.

Most of the points raised were sound and reasonable. But they were also blatantly self-evident and unchallenging, especially for viewers with even a passing interest in or knowledge of television history. Which is most of us, right?

I’m a television critic – you may have noticed – so this is my field of so-called expertise, but I doubt that anyone over the age of 35 learned anything new. So who was the programme aimed at? Young media students? If that’s the case, then a superficial overview involving dry discussions between Melvyn Bragg and the author of Foyle’s War probably wasn’t the ideal approach.

I’m not suggesting that it should’ve been replaced by a dumbed-down clip show hosted by Nick Grimshaw and a wacky talking iPad, but the comfortably old-guard, Radio 4-ish tone of the programme was at odds with the theoretically wide-ranging, pan-generational, democratic spirit of the medium it sought to examine.  

It reminded me of seminal news spoof The Day Today’s classic ‘Attitudes Night’ sketch, which so perfectly skewered the well-meaning pomposity of these sociological TV essays over 20 years ago. I dare say Bragg has never seen it.  

Still, I can’t thank him enough for giving us another chance to enjoy that rarely-seen footage of Del Boy falling through the bar. 

The secret to exploring well-worn avenues of popular culture is to approach them from a niche perspective. ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GUNS FOR HIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIDEMEN did just that.

This enjoyable documentary featured revealing contributions from a handful of notable payroll musicians – those unsung heroes whose job it is to support the vision of spotlight-hogging artists – such as Wendy and Lisa (Prince), Bernard Fowler (The Rolling Stones) and our endearingly rock ‘n’ roll cliché of a host, Earl Slick (David Bowie).

The pathos and insecurity of a life spent sublimating your ego to the whims of musical icons was sympathetically captured in this warm odyssey into the shadows of stardom. 

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