JUST as Donald Trump can be seen lurking on TV screens in the background of Chimerica, so pictures of Monica Lewinsky act like wallpaper in the road-to-9/11 drama The Looming Tower (BBC2, Friday, 9.30pm, above). The suggestion in both cases is that the public is frequently too busy looking at the wrong thing to pay attention to the right one.
Directed by the Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney, and based on Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer-winner, The Looming Tower smells of money in the way that only streamed dramas can; indeed, the show first aired on Amazon Prime a year ago. Never mind, it is here now.
Its central premise is that the CIA and FBI were so busy fighting a turf war over Osama bin Laden they missed the chance to stop him carrying out 9/11. As was shown here in real news footage intercut with the drama, OBL issued a clear warning prior to the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi embassy bombings of 1998 that Al Quaeda now considered all Americans to be targets. Yet US law enforcement was not paying enough attention, or did not understand what it was hearing (in one telling factoid, it was revealed that the FBI had only eight Arabic speakers out of more than 10,000 agents).
The Looming Tower blends real people, including Jeff Daniels’ philandering FBI chief, with fictional ones, led by Peter Sarsgaard’s CIA analyst. Unlike Diane “Mojito on the Move” Abbott, I don’t like my dramatic liquor mixed. Still, it keeps the action rattling along. As an added attraction, Tahar Rahim (star of A Prophet) is outstanding as an FBI agent. For a natural born Frenchman he has acquired a terrific American accent.
Unless you have been greedy and scoffed the series all in one sitting, Don’t Forget the Driver (BBC2, Tuesday, 10pm) is half way through its six week run with Toby Jones gently breaking our hearts almost, but not quite, as much as he did in Detectorists.
Jones plays Peter, a coach driver forever missing the bus in life. He also plays Peter's brother Barry, now settled in Australia far from family hassle.
Peter is now regretting his moment of bravery in rescuing a young woman from the grasp of traffickers. In a lovely scene showing the wonders of Google translate assisted by basic human kindness, Peter’s daughter and her pal are able to find out who Rita (Luwam Teklzgi) is and what brought her to Bognor. I’m keeping fingers and toes crossed for Peter, Rita, and the rest of them, but there is a rich vein of sadness running through this comedy, and I don’t like the look of that washed-up figure on the beach.
It would have taken a Wildean heart of stone not to laugh at Miriam’s Dead Good Adventure (BBC2, Monday, 9pm), which was odd given the subject matter.
It did not bode well either that the actor’s examination of dying started at a home for people with dementia. “This depresses and scares me,” said Margolyes, who practically sprinted from the place after spending a night there.
From Blighty she flew to the US to visit a place near San Diego where people are ten times more likely to live to 100 than the average American. In this case, it was a community of teetotal, vegetarian, Christians who exercised for several hours every day, which did seem rather a high price to pay.
She also met so-called “death activists” who want to live forever. “Precedent is against them,” observed Ms M.
As Evelyn Waugh observed long ago in The Loved One, dying in America is a business like any other. If you are rich enough you can buy more time; if not, an early exit (50 for homeless people) and a pauper’s grave awaits.
Life Stateside made Margolyes glad to return to the British nursing home where Jeff’s wife June was still asking him over and over when he was taking her home, and he was tenderly deflecting her inquiries. That kind of love money simply cannot buy.
Margolyes concluded that the important thing was to live life as fully as possible in the moment, appreciating all you have. Not exactly the philosophy flourishing in Hard to Please OAPs (STV, Tuesday, 8.30pm), which was basically Grumpy Old Men and Women Do Gadgets. From former BBC political correspondent John Sargeant to Ruth Madoc of Hi-de-Hi, they harrumphed over everything from home saunas to vibrating exercise plates.
Gently amused by it all was narrator Jennifer Saunders, of Ab Fab fame. Oh, how the piece could have done with the late, great, June Whitfield, who played Saunders’ mother in the fashion sitcom. I was reminded of the time Eddy (Saunders) said that inside of her there was a thin person screaming to get out, to which mum replied, "Just the one, dear?”
Stars recall kindness of colleague
Keep laughing; you'll live longer.
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