Douglas Is Cancelled
Thursdays, ITV1 & ITVX
Rating: 
Written by Steven (Doctor Who, Sherlock) Moffat, this never-less-than-intriguing four-parter about cancel culture certainly got off to a lickety-split start.
With its super-smart, satirical dialogue machine-gunned by a stellar cast, at times it was like watching classic Hollywood screwball comedies – think His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby.
Written by Steven Moffat, this never-less-than-intriguing four-parter about cancel culture certainly got off to a lickety-split start
Hugh Bonneville is beloved TV news anchor Douglas Bellowes, whose indiscretion – the alleged telling of a ‘sexist joke’ at a wedding, news of which goes viral on social media – appears likely to end his career.
Karen Gillan is his (inevitably younger, certainly savvier) co-presenter, Madeline Crow, and Ben Miles their slippery producer/boss, Toby – with a magnificent Sir Simon Russell Beale as Douglas’s agent, Bently.
Meanwhile, at home, Alex Kingston is Douglas’s cynical newspaper editor wife, Sheila (‘For the love of God, please delete these messages.
I work with people who hack your phone!’), and Madeleine Power is the Bellowes’ (scene-stealing) student daughter, Claudia, whose eye-rolling exchanges with her dad are some of the funniest – CB: ‘OK, boomer… it’s so good to be mansplained!’ DB: ‘I’m mansplaining a man – that’s got to be legitimate!’
With its knowing take on both social and ‘legacy’ media, celebrity takedowns, #BeKind and #MeToo culture wars, and the potential for men of a certain age to be wrong-footed by Millennial/Gen Z mores, the first two episodes were mostly broad and bouncy laugh-out-loud satire – CB: ‘None of us drink, actually.’ DB: ‘Good for you. Have you considered starting?’
However, the four-parter proved to be a game of two halves. While some early scenes felt more theatrical than necessary and a couple of monologues felt slightly flat, this was counteracted by the pleasures of such great dialogue.
The series started out as a play (and it shows), which Moffat wrote several years before the travails of Huw Edwards and Phillip Schofield, and while I’m not sure when real life caught up, at some stage a decision was made not to play it all for laughs; to engage with some bigger, darker, more difficult themes.
Hugh Bonneville is beloved TV news anchor Douglas Bellowes, whose indiscretion – the alleged telling of a ‘sexist joke’ at a wedding news of which goes viral on social media – appears likely to end his career. Above: Pictured with Karen Gillan, his co-presenter, Madeline Crow
While edgy, dark and funny can co-exist (Black Mirror, for example), I do think this needs flagging up to viewers from the start.
The third episode switched tone and focus in ways that, while very watchable, felt uncomfortable. But perhaps viewer discomfort was Moffat’s plan all along?
The third episode is set mainly in a hotel room and as the atmosphere got darker, I felt slightly cheated by the loss of all that comedy dialogue. And I didn’t entirely buy into the ‘Harvey Weinstein v Any Woman’ set-up.
Instead, I kept thinking, ‘C’mon, girl, just leave!’. Then again I’m an ‘OK, boomer’, so I would say that, wouldn’t I? But please don’t let any of that stop you making up your own minds, because Douglas Is Cancelled is very nearly, if not quite, brilliant.
A well-timed peek at Kate
Kate ‘will make the most authentic, compassionate, relatable Queen’ empathised Viscountess Hinchingbrooke
With the Princess of Wales’s return to frontline royal duties at Trooping the Colour, this well-timed look at her life, Kate: A Queen For The Future (My5), rattled along predictably (theme: she’s fabulous; more soon, please!), with insightful observations from seasoned royal-watchers, including the Mail’s own Richard Kay.
Kate ‘will make the most authentic, compassionate, relatable Queen’ empathised Viscountess Hinchingbrooke.
The Terracotta Army with Dan Snow
My5
Rating:
Recalling 2007’s fab Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum, Dan Snow compared it to the same venue’s 1972 Tutankhamun blockbuster. Having visited both, I felt incredibly old and incredibly fortunate.
Aged eight, I queued for hours with my father to catch a glimpse of the Boy King’s glittering death mask, igniting a life-long (if very amateur!) interest in Egyptology. Thirty-five years later, I queued to see the Army with a five-year-old in tow. Ideally, my fidgety son would have been a couple of years older; nonetheless, when the queuing was over we were equally riveted.
On the show, Snow – the ever-enthusiastic guide – was gifted behind-the-scenes access to the restoration works
Yet, when Snow reached their breathtaking permanent home in Xi’an, China, it was clear the British Museum had exhibited a mere handful of the thousands of Warriors unearthed over the past 50 years.
This was a fascinating hour. Snow – the ever-enthusiastic guide – was gifted behind-the-scenes access to the restoration works too, so for anyone who dreams of seeing the extraordinary Army on home turf this engrossing doc is the next best thing to ticking it off the Bucket List. I knocked one star off simply for the intrusive musical soundtrack.
While football still dominates the schedules, the Beeb gave us Andy Murray: Will To Win (iPlayer). Twenty years of archive and contributions from his peers told the story of Britain’s most successful tennis player very well.
Mind you, Andy – a devoted Andre Agassi fan as a kid – may not thank mum Judy for sharing one memorable detail: ‘I remember having to buy him a cap that had a fake ponytail on the back!’
