The Fall of the House of Maxwell – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
The media tycoon Maxwell dynasty has always been mired in scandal and corruption. It finally collapsed for good last year when Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of grooming and trafficking underage girls. This riveting three-part series, which plays out like an epically horrific thriller, examines the relationship between Robert Maxwell and his daughter: two utterly disgraced people who exemplify the toxic brutality of extreme wealth and power. Those white collar criminals felt they were above the law. Episode one focuses on Maxwell Senior, a megalomaniacal gangster who ‘mysteriously’ fell off his luxury yacht and drowned in 1991. The programme boasts access to secret recordings – paranoid Maxwell bugged his own phones – and a revealing wealth of hitherto unaired footage.
Cadbury Exposed: Dispatches – Monday, Channel 4, 8pm
Cadbury: a much-loved confectioner you can trust. Or so you and I thought until Dispatches came along with this undercover report. Legal disclaimer: for tedious technical reasons I haven’t seen the programme, so please, Cadbury, don’t sue me or DC Thomson for what I’m about to write based on the official Channel 4 press release. Thanks. Filmed in Ghana, the report exposes child labour in Cadbury’s supply chain. We hear from exhausted farmers who earn less than £2 a day, and children who have been injured while working long hours in searing heat conditions. Cadbury pride themselves on being an ethical company. This sounds like an important piece of journalism, hence why I’m bringing it to your attention.
Travel Man – Monday, Channel 4, 8:30pm
For obvious reasons, Travel Man took an enforced sabbatical in 2019. Now it’s back. Original host Richard Ayoade has been replaced by fellow comedian Joe Lycett, but the format remains the same: Lycett spends 48 hours in a foreign city alongside another professional mirth-maker. Shallow fun ensues. Lycett is joined this week by James Acaster (check out his Netflix stand-up specials, he’s great). Their destination is the Spanish part of the Basque Country. As always, it’s an affable diversion, but wouldn’t it be nice if Travel Man occasionally deviated from the same old roster of podcast/panel show guests? Imagine 48 Hours in Zagreb with Julian Cope. Or Ruth Madoc. We’d all watch that.
Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
In the concluding episode of this excellent series about the censorious busybody, we arrive at Whitehouse’s imperial phase – if only in terms of her prominent public profile. It suggests that, while this self-appointed moral guardian was presumably sincere in her clueless crusade against the permissive society, she also really enjoyed being famous. She craved power and celebrity, but I daresay the irony of that ambition never occurred to her. This was not someone troubled by nuance of thought. The programme does attempt some balance, with more decency than perhaps she deserves, but the abiding impression is one of a fearful, guilt-ridden person who went to her grave convinced that she was right. And we were all wrong.
A Believer’s Guide to… – Tuesday, BBC One, 10:35pm
Regardless of your faith or lack thereof, this warm-hearted series is a gentle force for good. It follows people from various religious backgrounds as they experience pivotal moments in their lives. This week’s stars are Grace and Jess, a young gay Christian couple who are engaged to be married. They’re also about to move into their first home together: a canal boat. Their extended family is fully supportive, but they need to find a similarly inclusive new local church. And that, alas, isn’t straightforward. Naturally, they start to question their commitment to Christianity. “I can’t change loving Grace,” says a tearful Jess, “but I can change my faith to suit me, to have a better life, a richer life.”
The Great Home Transformation – Wednesday, Channel 4, 8pm
Imagine the meeting at Channel 4 HQ. They’ve made every home renovation show you could ever possibly conceive of. But they need to make more. They absolutely have to make more. The engine must be fed. But are there any gimmicks left, any extra layers of froth on the formula? Agonising minutes of silent brainstorming ensue. And then, at last, the Eureka moment: Hey! Why don’t we hire a massive lorry stocked with emergency furnishings and some specialist heat-mapping technology? Which will, I dunno, somehow help people to declutter their homes and fill several hours of airtime? A reigning TV executive smiles quietly and nods. Make it so. Meanwhile, a TV critic files some heavy-handed satire.
Nikki Grahame: Who Is She? – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm
I’m recommending this programme with caution. Please bear in mind that previews weren’t available, but one hopes that it will pay sensitive tribute to the Big Brother contestant who died from anorexia nervosa last year. Grahame was the ‘breakout’ star of the Big Brother series she appeared in; an endearing, funny person prone to verbose emotional tantrums. Viewers, myself included, really liked her. But it was blatantly obvious that she should never have been selected for Big Brother in the first place. She was far too vulnerable. Whether Channel 4 are capable of making a programme that admits to their culpability remains to be seen. All I can say is this: Nikki Grahame’s story is terribly sad.
