MATT Baker was in Alaska this week. Probably the safest place after his appearance on the list of Auntie’s highly paid men (£450k-£499k in the case of the determinedly genial One Show host). I bet Chris Evans and Jeremy Vine, who had to stay to face the backlash, were well jealous.
Even more so when they drank in the landscapes that were home to the action in Wild Alaska Live (BBC One, Sunday, 7pm). I say “action” but the show took a while to warm up. That’s the trouble with these gigs, the last of which was Big Blue Live in 2015: you turn up and take what you get. If that fails, whack on some footage shot earlier.
Initially, much of the wildlife seemed to be having a kip. No wonder. The BBC was there to catch the salmon season, when all creatures great and small stuff themselves silly to build up fat stores for the winter. One brown bear lying in the sunlight had been gorging himself all morning, his fat furry belly rising and falling with each zzzz. “Come on mate,” said your ungrateful reviewer, “we’ve only got an hour. Get a wriggle on.”
Matt was perched on a wooden verandah, on the floor of which was a map of Alaska. In the down moments, when the director was not cutting to yet another yawn-inducing shot of packed rivers (seen one Sauchiehall Street of salmon, seen them all), Matt was pointing to areas on the map with a big stick. Yes, a stick. It was hardly Jeremy Vine on election night, but then again, Jezza does get paid considerably more than Matt. Now we know why.
But forget all that; fellow presenter Steve Backshall had breaking news.
“We have a live wolf!” he cried, sounding for all the world like the lamb in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. And there it was, lolloping across the sands, stunning. As were the eagles, bear cubs, whales and even, oh all right, the salmon. Somehow, in a world that seems determined to go to hell in a handcart, it felt good to know these fantastic beasts are out there doing their thing regardless. Now if we can keep the oil firms at bay …
Top of the Lake: China Girl (BBC Two, Thursday) found detective Robin Griffin relocated from New Zealand to Sydney, Australia. Written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Elisabeth Moss as the modern-day sheriff standing up for abused women, the second series promises to be as handsome and harrowing as the first. Nothing seems to be going right for Griffin, but when a suitcase containing the body of a woman washes up on Bondi Beach she snaps straight into shape again. If Campion (The Piano) and Moss are not enough movie gloss for you, Nicole Kidman turns up as the fiercely feminist mother of a daughter determined to marry her sleazy, controlling beau.
After saturation coverage of Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy (STV, Monday, 9pm) in the papers, one wondered why anyone would bother tuning in to see the programme itself. There is a world of difference, though, between reading that Harry said Diana was the best mum in the world and watching him say it, his voice catching with emotion. Made to mark 20 years since Diana’s death, this documentary was never going to feature anything critical of the princess. For that, see elsewhere. This was unashamedly a tribute to a lost mother from her adoring sons. What it also showed was that no matter how privileged the life, grief is the great leveller.
There were plenty of opportunities to well up during Against the Law (BBC Two, Wednesday, 9pm), but this being a drama about the brutal treatment of gay people before Wolfenden, the tears were likely to be of rage. The dramatised account of the arrest of Mail journalist Peter Wildeblood (played by the routinely brilliant Daniel Mays) was dotted with interviews with men who lived through those not so long ago dark ages. At first the talking heads threatened to interrupt and dilute the drama, but those fears soon disappeared. Some of the real-life accounts were so horrific that cutting back to Wildeblood’s story only made it more compelling.
999: What’s Your Emergency? (Channel 4, Monday, 9pm), the documentary series that often tells you more about the state of the British nation than many a newspaper, was back for a new run. Man it was grim out there on the streets of Wiltshire, with the EU vote over and racially aggravated aggro on the rise. From the Sri Lankan-British shop owner punched by a drunk woman (interviewed later she said of the referendum, “I didn’t watch it”), to the nine-year-old girl called the N-word by boys (Dad cried when she told him), it was enough to make you want to move to Alaska and ask a bear for a hug.
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