Bristol’s ‘Wild’ West

by Ben Soton

The Outlaws. BBC TV series currently showing on BBC1, Mondays 9pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer. Created by Elgin James and Stephen Merchant. Directors: Stephen Merchant and John Butler. Stars: Rhianne Barreto, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, Jessica Gunning, Clare Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson, Charles Babalola, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Walken.

Stephen Merchant’s Bristol-based sit-com The Outlaws has now been running for the last few weeks on Monday nights. Merchant has been responsible for an array of comedies including The Office, Extras and Small World.
    The focus of his latest drama is group of Bristolians undertaking Community Payback for a range of minor offences. The characters include a lawyer, a social media celebrity, a small business owner, a civil-rights activist, a student, and an American draft dodger who has been living in Bristol since the Vietnam war.
    Merchant takes a non-judgmental view of every member of this highly diverse group. The story includes flashbacks to the offences that led to each of them finding themselves wearing high-vis vests and clearing derelict waste ground. This results in an array of amusing scenes, often depicting sad situations. In one instance Greg, the lawyer (played by Merchant himself), drives into a police car whilst trying to avoid being caught with a prostitute.
    In The Outlaws Merchant attempts to show some of the issues prevalent in his home town of Bristol, which last summer hit the headlines when Bristolians threw the statue of the slave-trader Edward Colston into the Bristol Channel.
    Another character, Myrna (played by Clare Perkins), is a Black civil rights activist who took part in the destruction of the hated statue. Myrna finds herself doing Community Payback for towing away a police recruitment caravan in Bristol High Street. Her situation shows the price some political activists pay for a lifetime of commitment. She lives alone in a bedsit surrounded by posters and old books and finds herself kicked out of her own organisation by younger activists.
    Although some of us have done a bit better for ourselves, many of the issues depicted in the drama could apply to much of the country – the work-place bullying suffered by Greg the lawyer from his cocaine-snorting colleagues; Frank (played by Christopher Walken), the American who lives with his single-parent daughter, struggling to make ends meet on a low income. The drama also touches on the issue of drug-related crime; something not unique to Bristol.
    Everything changes when a bag-load of money is found on wasteland. John, the businessman (played by Darren Boyd), needs it to help his ailing business; however Myrna, surprisingly, believes the money should be handed over to the authorities. The consequences of this are likely to give the series an extra edge.

Crimes at sea

by Ben Soton

Vigil : six-part series. BBC1, 9pm.Also available on BBC iPlayer. Stars: Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie, Shaun Evans, Paterson Joseph and Martin Compston.

Underwater adventure is a genre that’s been around for over 150 years. Jules Verne kicked it off in 1869 with Captain Nemo and his Nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and hundreds of books, films and documentaries have followed set in both World Wars, the Cold War, and fantasy and science fiction scenarios.
    BBC1’s latest Sunday night drama, partly set on a nuclear submarine, raises issues over Britain’s so-called independent nuclear deterrent, the Trident nuclear weapons system.
    In episode one a sailor, Petty Officer Craig Burke (played by Martin Compston), is found dead and a civilian police officer, Amy Silva (played by Suranne Jones), is sent aboard to investigate. Tension mounts between Silva and senior members of the crew who view her as an interfering outsider. In an earlier scene Burke had raised concerns about the sub’s descent causing the sinking of a fishing trawler.
    Back on dry land Silva’s partner, Kirsten Longacre (played by Roe Leslie), discovers that Burke was in a relationship with an anti-nuclear campaigner, opening up possibilities for a conspiracy or cover-up. Meanwhile, events on the sub show that those in charge of this highly dangerous and not to mention expensive piece of kit (according to CND the total cost comes to £205 billion) are not as competent as they should be.
    The series is a reminder that Britain has not faced the threat of invasion for 80 years, whilst raising issues around the dangers of this country’s independent nuclear deterrent in the form of the Trident submarine. Firstly, it is not independent but under de-facto US control. Secondly, in terms of deterrent, it is comparable to using a hand grenade to swat a fly. In other words, more of a danger than a deterrent.
    After watching this drama, I’m relieved that this county’s risk of invasion is so small – but one might ask the question that if Britain is in any danger at all why does it have so many troops stationed abroad?
    As the series continues it transpires that a foreign sub may have been responsible for the sinking of the trailer. In total, six world powers have nuclear submarines: Britain, the USA, France, People’s China and India. Any of these states, with the likely exception of China and India, could have had a submarine in the North Sea at any time. But the opening credits of the drama show footage of the Russian President Vladimir Putin giving viewers the idea that the responsible vessel must have been Russian.
    Could this be part of the New Cold War against Russia (and China) with the narrative that Britain is not adequately defended with naval personnel involved with naïve but well-meaning peace campaigners, thus encouraging viewers to support increased defence spending and a further crack-down on dissent and protest?

Doing Time

 

by Ben Soton

Time (2021) BBC One; three-part series; Dir: Lewis Arnold; stars: Sean Bean and Stephen Graham

For the record I have spent time in prison…teaching literacy and IT skills to inmates at HMP Winchester. Prison is also the subject the BBC Sunday night drama Time by Jimmy McGovern. For those in Her Majesty’s Prisons time is something they indeed have plenty of. The main character Mark Cobden, played by Sean Bean, is a guilt-ridden former teacher serving a four-year sentence for a drink-driving offence in which he killed a cyclist, whilst the drama contains a variety of sub-plots revolving around the lives of other inmates and prison officers.
     The drama correctly dispels the myth that prison life is easy. Prisons are unpleasant, overcrowded, violent places serving horrible food and where there is little to do. Regular readers of this column are probably aware that I am not a liberal, and many of those in prison should be there. What needs to be asked is whether prisons serve their purpose, which ultimately is rehabilitation.
    Most of those in jail are from the lowest section of the working class and those from minority backgrounds make up a disproportionate share of the prison population. Time shows the tragedy of those people’s lives.
    A prisoner who meets the parents of the man he killed explains that he got into a fight over a spilt drink that he could not afford to pay for and did not want to admit to only having £1.20 in his pocket. My first thoughts were why go into a pub in the first place if that’s all you.ve got? But I have not lived that man’s set of experiences. The programme encouraged me to confront my hard working-class prejudices.
    What makes Time watchable is that Mark is not a typical prisoner. The ultimate fish out of water, Mark is not a violent man. He has a degree level education. His ability to read and write helps him gain favour with other prisoners. On the other hand, he is forced to learn to defend himself against violent convicts and takes a short crash course from the prison’s Mr Big, Jackson Jones, played by Brian McCardie.
    Although Time ended last Sunday it is still available on BBC iPlayer and is well worth watching. It’s the story of a man coping with extraordinary circumstances he did not expect to have to deal with. In many ways it shows the essence of the human condition; namely having to adapt to our surroundings in order to survive. Meanwhile, if you learn nothing else from the drama remember to drive carefully, and if you enjoy a drink go to a local pub or get a bus.

Axes to grind

by Ben Soton

Small Axe (2020). TV mini-series of five 60-minute episodes on BBC1, Sundays at 9pm; currently also available on BBC iPlayer. Series Director: Steve McQueen.

Small Axe, BBC1’s latest Sunday night drama, is a series of feature-length stories covering the struggles of the West Indian community in Britain. Obviously, a response to this summer’s Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, I can already hear those of a racist persuasion crying about the BBC getting on the bandwagon. This should be seen in a positive light however, namely would these programmes have been made had it not been for this year’s wave of protest?
The work of director Steve McQueen, the drama covers issues from police harassment to the West Indian music scene. The series successfully depicts the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, which is gradually fading from memory. The drama does not pull any punches about the West Indian community, in particular the issue of domestic violence towards women and the use of soft drugs.
    Episode I, Mangrove, covers the issue of police harassment of the black community. This episode centred around the Mangrove Restaurant in Notting Hill, which was subject to continuous police harassment by the Metropolitan Police. The restaurant was regularly raided on spurious grounds and issued with fines for minor infractions. Fed up with continuous harassment, members of Notting Hill’s black community marched on Notting Hill police station to protest. Those later arrested with riot and affray later became known as the Mangrove Nine.
     Episode II, Lovers Rock, depicts the story of a young black woman caught between white racists and over amorous men from her own community. This episode largely focusses on the West Indian music scene. With an almost entirely black cast, it depicts the tensions within as well as the customs of that community.
    Episode III, Red, White and Blue, on the other hand, covers the experience of a young black man who joins the Metropolitan Police.
     This series of films, along with the BLM protests, comes at a time when many of the gains made by the anti-racist campaigners are, albeit indirectly, coming under attack. This includes the Windrush scandal as well as the hostile environment created toward migrants with its inevitable effect on more established ethnic communities. It was not so long ago however, when the UK was the only state in Europe where an Interior Minister, in the name of Home Secretary Amber Rudd, was forced to resign for racist behaviour. Meanwhile, when far-right activists descended on London to defend (boarded up) statues one of their number was caught urinating on a memorial to a dead police officer. It’s not all doom and gloom but time to remain vigilant.

Splitting images

by Ben Soton

The BBC has a tendency to create dramas about people whose lives are a totally dethatched from the rest of the population. Recent examples are Gold Digger, which this column reviewed last year and to a limited extent the comedy Motherland; although this drama may have been redeemed with the inclusion of the working-class character Liz played by Philomena Clunk.

These dramas are exclusively based in London and feature the sort of entitled malcontents you get on Peoples Vote Marches. My heart bleads for them when you hear about them having to wait longer in the passport queue when they visit their Tuscan villas.

A recent example is the legal drama, The Split, now in its second series. It centres on the Defoe family who own a law firm specialising in high class divorce cases. The main character Hannah Stern, played by Nicola Walker, is involved in an affair with a male colleague.  Meanwhile her husband Nathan, a barrister is about to have an affair with his new pupil.

Female celebrity Fi Hansen, played by Donna Air, who bares an uncomfortable resemblance to the recently deceased television presenter Caroline Flack, is the plaintiff in a divorce. Hansen is almost certainly the victim of coercive control from her husband. Ironically Flack may have been guilty of coercive control herself if police reports are to be believed.    

The drama features Hannah’s sisters; one of whom is having difficulties conceiving while the other has a shoplifting and alcohol problem which, at least shows that theft is not the preserve of those who cannot afford to buy the stolen items. 

The emphasis on female characters gives the drama a liberal feminist edge – another piece of equipment in the elite metropolitan tool-kit. This simply means well-heeled women getting into the board room at the expense of everyone else – men and women included. Less well-off women can assist in this crusade by working as child minders and cleaners.       

You would be excused for simply saying who cares? On the other hand, the drama gives an insight into the liberal-metropolitan elite. This highly pretentious group is a product of a highly imbalanced economy where wealth is sucked into London at the expense of the rest of the country. These people fear any form of disruption to their comfortable lifestyles resulting from leaving the European Union and suffer from a disconnect with anywhere outside of the M25.  Their fake internationalism is nothing more than a contempt for the majority of their own population; as well as justification for hiring low-paid au pairs and builders.      

The recent tragedy of British politics was when the fake left sided with this group against the working class. The Tories played their hand with promises of a more balanced economy and, of course, honouring the 2016 referendum. Most of the Tories promises will come to little more than hot air. But it would be nice to see television series feature ordinary folk who don’t live in London once in a while.