Unforgotten (ITV) | ITVX
Coronation Street ITV | ITVX
Django (Sky Atlantic/ Now)
A Whole Lifetime With Jamie Demetriou (Netflix)
Replacing a lead player in a popular, long-running TV drama must be the office-temping of thankless thespian jobs. When DCI Cassie Stuart perished at the end of the last series of Unforgotten (ITV1), who, we griped, could replace Nicola Walker’s dour, ruminative goddess? And who could play opposite Sanjeev Bhaskar’s DI Sunny Khan, Cassie’s steadfast office husband, the enduring yin to her brooding yang?
The answer is Sinéad Keenan (Showtrial), joining series five as new boss DCI Jessie James – a cowboy outlaw name for a hard-riding character. By the end of the first episode (all six are on ITVX), Jessie has seen her marriage crumble and looked into her first cold case with the team: a dusty corpse with the look of a charred Alice Cooper lodged in a west London chimney. Elsewhere, interlocking subplots feature everything from drug addicts to vintage dresses to politicians with health problems, all primed to unfurl, Unforgotten-style.
High-handed, abrasive (“I don’t intend to run this team like she did”), Jessie treads so hard on Sunny’s corns, it isn’t long before he’s hissing “I don’t like her” into his phone. Their clash of working styles (“This isn’t therapy, DI Khan”) is such that Jessie asks if he applied for the job himself. Sunny snaps back that he was offered it several times. “In fact, they fucking begged me.”
Would – should – Sunny talk to his new superior like that? In what other scenario would we cheer on an angry man allowing his passive aggression to go thermonuclear? Still, writer-creator Chris Lang seems to be saying, this is how you do it. First, acknowledge the yawning chasm left by the departed character (it’s there in the defeated sag of Sunny’s shoulders as he absent-mindedly orders an extra morning drink for Cassie). But don’t sneak in the new lead in some weak, hesitant way or make her a Cassie clone. It all bodes well for Unforgotten’s changed dynamic.
Remaining with ITV1, Sunday-night behemoth Endeavour begins its final series (farewell Shaun Evans’s poetic, pretentious Morse; cheerio Roger Allam’s unflappable Fred Thursday), marking the end of not one, not two, but (counting the original John Thaw’s original Inspector Morse and the Kevin Whately spin-off, Lewis) three eras. Meanwhile, Coronation Street – “Corrie” to all right-thinking folk – is tackling the issue of sexual consent.
Corrie isn’t anyone’s idea of gritty reality: right now, there’s a wonderfully preposterous storyline involving evil Stephen secretly dosing factory boss diva Carla with LSD to make her look mad. Still, the Street has a solid track record on issues. Years ago it ran a coercive abuse storyline featuring Shelley (Sally Lindsay) and Charlie (Bill Ward) that, intelligently paced, finely acted, evolved into a small-screen masterpiece. Now (spoiler alert), two young characters, friends Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) and Aaron Sandford (James Craven), engage in drunken sex. Waking with no memory of it, Amy feels she was in no condition to consent.
Future episodes will deal with the aftermath; thus far there has just been the lead-up to the sex. And how well done it is. Both actors (more spoilers ahead) deliver a seamless choreography of youthful naturalism that nevertheless hums with tension. It’s all there, from an earlier regretted kiss to their drunken but genuine rapport to her mumbled “I’m going to be sick.” Then, the long, loaded silence, his hand on her, stroking, as she slumps into sleep.
Just a soap lunging for controversy? Or, executed responsibly (the programme-makers are working with the Schools Consent Project), do such ideas resonate powerfully in the mainstream? Too often, issue storylines land as sanctimonious, oversimplistic “teaching moments”, but so far this is subtle, taut drama pulling off a complex, delicate balancing act.
Last year, BBC Two’s The English, the wilfully outlandish epic from Hugo Blick, upped the ante for TV westerns. Now there’s Django on Sky Atlantic, a new 10-part reimagining of Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 film of the same name, created by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli and directed by Francesca Comencini, Enrico Maria Artale and David Evans.
Set in Texas in the late 19th century, seven years after the abolition of slavery, its focus is New Babylon, a fictional city founded by Sarah (Lisa Vicari) and her intended, John Ellis (Nick Pinnock), as a refuge for outcasts regardless of race or beliefs. One day, mysterious stranger Django (Matthias Schoenaerts) shows up in search of his long-lost daughter.
Having sampled the first four instalments (a double episode airs weekly), I’m not entirely convinced. Cluttered themes (dynasty, racism, oil) mingle with stark brutality – the murder of a sex worker; hangings on horseback – and a bumper pack of extended flashbacks. Characters include Noomi Rapace’s sadistic religious maniac (“I’m an echo of our Lord’s wisdom”) – a good idea but so overplayed I was reminded of the mum in Brian de Palma’s Carrie.
Django isn’t terrible, just sluggish and woozy – there are times it feels like trudging ankle-deep through blood-splattered sand. I’ll keep watching for Django himself (played intriguingly mellow, with a sleepy-eyed, Kurt Cobain-esque quality) and because the subversive twists suggest things may – eventually – pick up.
After the success of his lauded Channel 4 sitcom Stath Lets Flats, Jamie Demetriou is riding high on his signature mix of intrinsic oddness, vulnerability and physical clowning. He deploys all this and more in his new one-off Netflix comedy special, A Whole Lifetime With Jamie Demetriou.
A kind of rejigged Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life with the absurdist tone of Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave, AWL starts with Demetriou as a foetus, being advised about future life stages. Though frankly this concept soon collapses like an existential souffle, and the show becomes a series of loosely linked sketches, songs and general weirdness.
At times it doesn’t work (sketches drag on far too long). Still, there’s a strong supporting cast (Katy Wix, Sian Clifford) and moments of inspiration, from the toadying absurdity of royal wedding commentary to a Kiss Villa spoof ofreality TV (“My best feature? I’d probably say my gums”). Things need to be tighter, but there are some decent laughs. Demetriou has a wayward, experimental comic energy still very much in the making.
Star ratings (out of five)
Unforgotten ★★★★
Coronation Street ★★★★
Django ★★
A Whole Lifetime With Jamie Demetriou ★★★
What else I’m watching
Sex on Screen: Storyville
(BBC Four)
A documentary examining the evolving sexual mores of Hollywood, from the grim days of sexual harassment/gratuitous nudity to modern intimacy coordinators/prosthetics. Interviewees include Jane Fonda and Rosanna Arquette.
The Mormons Are Coming
(BBC Two)
This offbeat documentary explores how Mormon missionaries learn to convert people. Starting with an induction course in Chorley, Lancashire, it feels a long way from Utah.
Daisy Jones & the Six
(Amazon Prime)
Based on the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, this is a kind of rockumentary drama about a 1970s Fleetwood Mac-esque band (think: Spinal Tap, but serious), starring Riley Keough, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter.
