Reviewed: The Traitors; The Night Manager; Red Eye; Celebrity Apprentice; Titanic Sinks Tonight
The Traitors (BBC1, New Year’s Day) has a tough act to follow after the record ratings for its recent celebrity version. How does one cap Alan Carr? (It sounds like a pitch for yet another show fronted by the bespectacled wonder.) The producers put their heads together and came up with the idea of a secret Traitor in a scarlet cloak.
After a teaser trailer on Christmas Day, all was revealed when the series began. First, however, came a gathering of the new clan at Ardross Castle. There is a strong showing of Scots among the 22 contestants competing for a potential £120,000 prize, including Stephen, a cybersecurity consultant from the Isle of Lewis, a Royal Navy veteran, and a nursery teacher from Glasgow. More could be lurking in the ranks. Is this “putting a kilt on” things just a coincidence, or a reaction to criticism that Scotland deserves a bigger slice of the Traitors pie?
Other contestants include a psychologist, a retired detective chief inspector, and a couple of barristers, one of whom is a potential threat to the secret Traitor. Hugo from Cardiff - “There’s a hug in my name, but get too close and there will be a dagger in your back” - was rather looking forward to going on a murder spree, only to be told that he has a boss above him, the secret Traitor.
Neither the viewers nor the contestants know the identity of this caped overlord. Hugo’s outrage at this upset to the Traitor order of things was a wonder to behold. “I do not require middle management,” he harrumphed. From such petty grievances do ratings-winning clashes grow.
It has been a decade since The Night Manager (BBC1, New Year’s Day) wowed viewers with its Bond-ish spy smashing an illegal arms ring, showing the world his bahookie in the process. Remember that scene?
We meet former night manager Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) and his handler Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) four years later in Syria. Their old foe, arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), has been executed by his captors, and the body must be identified.
Fast forward to London and Jonathan is now “Alex Goodwin” and a bona fide MI6 agent. Alex heads a nighttime surveillance unit called the Night Owls, which monitors hotels where shady operators stay. Why a special team is required for this, and who gave it that ludicrous name, are two of many mysteries surrounding Alex, including how Corky, his cat, escapes their Thames-side flat to do a whoopsie.
Alex assures the suits in HR that he’s fine, but in truth, he is still haunted by the business with Roper. So when one of Roper’s hired goons turns up in London, Alex has to pull at that thread, wherever it may lead.
So far the game is shaping up much the same as last time: two men locked in a battle over arms shipments, with a beautiful woman standing between them (this time, however, she has her own company, so that’s, er, progress).
Repetition aside, the biggest problem with The Night Manager is that it is a snooze. Little happens for very long stretches, and when it does it’s not much to write home about. Somebody needs to get in a round of double espressos before we all drift off.
ITV went away for Christmas, leaving a note and a lot of repeats behind. The channel started 2026 with a bang, however, with a new run of Red Eye (ITV/STV, New Year’s Day-Friday).
The first series drew an audience of more than 8 million, with 30 million streams on ITVX/STV Player. Its success was due to a bonkers plot - think Murder on the Orient Express, but 36,000 feet in the air - and high-octane performances from all involved, including Jing Lusi as DS Hana Li, and Lesley Sharp as Madeline Delaney, head of MI5.
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This time, they are joined by our own Martin Compston as the Scottish head of security at the US Embassy in London.
“Whoa there, Nelly,” the canny viewer cries. We’re no international security consultants, but wouldn’t such a job be filled by a US citizen?
It’s that kind of nitpicking that forces the magnificently named Clay Brody (Compston) to stop the very important work he is doing to explain that he has dual citizenship, so there.
Otherwise, it is pedal to the metal in a plot involving murder, espionage, and diplomatic manoeuvrings. Compston does a lot of glowering and talking into his cuff. He looks the part, and for one moment, you wonder why the search for the next Bond has not reached him. I thought the same while watching Hiddleston in The Night Manager. In both cases, the physical presence is not quite there, whether it’s height or bulk. Either way, it’s a pity, for Compston in particular. What better tribute to the original and best Bond than casting a fellow Scot?
Partway through the festive break, on one of those days when you don’t know if it’s New York or New Year, The Celebrity Apprentice (BBC1, Monday) trundled into view. The word “celebrity” does a lot of heavy lifting, and nowhere more so than when applied to the 12 contenders here. There was a bloke from Gladiators, a woman from a once-popular sitcom, a gaggle of television presenters, actors, athletes, comedians, and that lump from Strictly, Tom Skinner, who was in a previous series of The Apprentice. “Be good if I knew any of you,” said Lord Sugar in one of his rare amusing asides.
The groups went off to Lapland to create a new gingerbread biscuit to be sold in aid of Children in Need. One lot came up with a character called “Gary the Penguin”. The other side plumped for “Jolly McTrouble”. “Is he some sort of Scottish pirate?” asked Rob Rinder.
They had to make a pig’s ear of things, as usual, shoot a commercial, as usual, and head back to London for the big presentation to professionals (as usual). “Tom thinks he’s Guy Ritchie,” said Mike the Scottish judge of Skinner’s advert, involving as it did robbery and GBH. I do hope the money raised by the biscuits exceeds the cost of the Lapland jolly.
A four-part documentary on one of the world’s worst maritime disasters may not sound like festive viewing, but Titanic Sinks Tonight (BBC2, Sunday-Wednesday) would have been a gripping watch whenever it was shown.
Made by Belfast-based Stellify Media, Titanic Sinks Tonight told the story in real time, using actors to voice survivors’ accounts, with historians providing context. Adding to the ranks of talking heads were the writer, Jeanette Winterson, and JJ Chalmers, the former Royal Marine turned television presenter. This seemed odd at first, until I recalled Winterson’s radio series on the Titanic. Chalmers’ expertise - honed from personal experience - lay in crisis response and how the body reacts to extreme trauma. Both contributors turned out to be excellent.
The only thing better than a novelist and memoirist to tell the story would have been someone there at the time. This is where the technique of using actors came into its own. We heard from passengers in first class and in third, from officers on the bridge to engineers deep in the bowels of the ship. In the background, a clock marked 160 minutes from just before the ship hit the iceberg to the moment it sank.
Much of the detail was familiar from James Cameron’s Oscar-winning epic, but the filmmakers added fascinating new angles. As one historian noted, the ship has become known for its wealthy passengers and luxurious fittings. In fact, two-thirds of those on board were in second and third class. This was a ship of migrants, heading to America for a better life. The parallels with today hardly need spelling out.
The migrants had something in common with the first-class passengers: neither could quite believe what was happening - the rich because they had paid for a safe, luxurious passage and expected to get it; the migrants because they thought they had left chaos and uncertainty behind. Things like this were not supposed to happen in the well-to-do West.
The series ended by detailing what happened to the survivors afterwards. You would hope living through such hell would get a person a free pass from further heartache, but for some, that was not to be. One way or another, the Titanic had the last word.
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