If you watched the film Boiling Point, well – sorry to bring it up. You’re probably still feeling the anxiety of that one, aren’t you? Did your heart start fluttering again? All right, deep breath, deep breath. You OK? Right, so if you saw that film, you’ll know it was notable for three reasons: one, that dizzying logistical feat of the single camera single take, a perfect choreography of acting and directing; two, that it was incredibly stressful throughout, a hyper-realistic portrayal of how the most normal night in the kitchen of a high-standards restaurant can make or break people in 90 minutes flat; and three, an astounding central performance from Stephen Graham, because he’s incapable of doing anything otherwise. A wonderful film and a brilliant achievement and one that I am in no personal rush to watch again.
So how much do you fancy four more hour-long episodes of that, with the same cast and writer-director team? You’re right to be hesitant. But the series of Boiling Point (BBC One, Sunday, 9pm) is British TV at its very finest, and deserves an hour of your week where you deliberately expose yourself to stress in exchange for drama.
The first episode starts with another unbroken take, one that forces you to put your phone down and really watch. From there on, you’re in. We meet the front- and back-of-house teams, see some tiny dramas that could easily snowball into larger ones (a new starter is late and inexperienced; two of the bar staff are having an affair; a phone keeps ringing; a temper flares; a little bit of banter goes too far). All of the emotional mise en place is there. What’s particularly enjoyable – beyond a brilliant script, a stacked cast and the fact that it’s shot beautifully – is watching for those little moments that may turn bad, like looking at a murder mystery for hidden clues. That pan’s been on too long, look! We haven’t seen that character for a while. Hold on, but that’s the wrong … Nope, too late, it’s gone up to the pass. Nailbiting stuff.
But “nailbiting”, “stress”, “Stephen Graham doing that thing where he shouts then slumps against a wall and falls into a dry, manly sob”: these are not unwinding terms to describe television, and to focus on the high-wire stakes of Boiling Point – a show where stress is a character as well as a pulsing story engine – does a disservice to how great and how human these four episodes are.
There are wild mood swings, hurt feelings and healed ones, too-close friendships and a disaster with the duck. There are missed tickets and the clawing feeling of falling behind, and there are quieter, touching scenes of these people at home, no longer shouting but just silently coping. Boiling Point is a very unafraid show – early themes include casual hospitality drug-taking, alcoholism and self-harm, which is all a bit gritty for the channel that still produces The One Show – but it’s greater for it. You really can’t look away.
Shall we talk about it? Go on, then. This year saw the second, hallowed season of The Bear, the US stress-and-cooking show (which also had an episode done in one extended take). It’s strange that two of the better shows of 2023 have overlapping DNA, but to call Boiling Point a British The Bear misses the point of both. The Bear leans hard on family connections, a more cartoonish what-can-go-wrong-this-week propulsion, and larger-than-life caricatures that lend better to moments of true comedy (Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie may be my favourite character currently on TV). Boiling Point has humour – heaps of it, especially held together by Gary Lamont’s Dean – but it’s more interpersonal comment-as-you-pass-with-a-hot-plate stuff than slapstick laughs (nobody, for instance, has to wrestle a big, inflatable hot dog into a small car).
For the first half-episode of Boiling Point, I was worried it might have been too much dazzle and not enough life: that opening shot (don’t worry – the show soon drops the “we’ve only got one camera” shtick), the too-smart kitchen banter, characters who serve as roles rather than actual people. But it quickly finds a working rhythm, and by the end of episode two it was so investing I – a very miserable and hard-to-move person – almost cried at one of the story twists. I’d advise you to pop a handful of statins and switch to a low-cholesterol spread before watching it, but Boiling Point really is one of the best things on TV this year.
