Catch up TV reviews: Secret Life of Puppies and Kittens, Bus Garage, It’s Not Me It’s You, Oscar Pistorius
David Farnor | On 26, Jun 2016
What’s available on-demand on Freeview? Keep up-to-date with our weekly catch-up TV column, including reviews of shows on ITV Hub, new releases on All 4 and a guide to My5.
(For BBC TV reviews and round-ups, see our weekly Best of BBC iPlayer column. Or for reviews of the shows on All 4’s Walter Presents, click here.)
The Secret Life of Puppies and Kittens (My5)
With the UK plunged into political and economic confusion in the wake of the EU Referendum, a little bit of close-up puppy and kitten footage goes a long way.
The Secret Life of Bus Garage (ITV Hub)
Stick “The Secret Life” in front of an idea and you’re guaranteed to have it made into a TV show right now. Everything from children to dogs and cats have had their hidden day-to-day existence caught on camera. Now, it’s the turn of – yes – a bus garage. What might sound boring and trivial, though, turns into an engaging portrait of the everyday operations at Stockwell Bus Garage, where a diverse workforce, speaking 50 languages, keeps London’s transport system working.
“Bombay, Ireland, Ethiopia, Portugal, Ghana, Jamaica,” says one smiling employee. “We’ve got Moroccans, Algerians, people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexicans, Ecuadorians.” The result is an inspiring picture of a multicultural society working together. After the negative campaigning for the Leave vote in the EU Referendum, this is just the kind of TV the country needs.
Photo: David Modell Productions
It’s Not Me, It’s You (My5)
“An panel show about online dating hosted by Eamonn Holmes.” Channel 5’s new seres sounds like something Alan Partridge would come up with. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s absolutely terrible. The show aims to tackle questions of love, lust and Tinder with wit and humour and fails at every mediocre turn. Team captains Kelly Brook and Vicky Pattison are game for a giggle – Pattison steals the show as we watch her cycle through some potential Internet suitors – but Holmes is woefully out of his depth, delivering his lines with a nervy smile that suggests even he’s not sure if he looks edgy or stupid. But this is so far from the edge that he might as well have a restraining order against U2. Throughout, Anton Du Beke grins like a Pez dispenser that thinks it’s the new Frankie Boyle. Abysmal.
Oscar Pistorius: The Interview (ITV Hub)
True crime has become the lucrative blockbuster of the TV world, from Netflix’s Making a Murderer to HBO’s the Jinx and Channel 4’s The Murder Detectives. Now, hot on the heels of the dubious Killer Women with Piers Morgan, ITV is back again with the exclusive first TV interview with Oscar Pistorius.
Journalist Mark Williams-Thomas is the one asking the questions, but what might be a insightful, probing exchange seems mostly like a chance for Oscar to talk through events from his perspective once more. How much you believe his emotional account will vary, as he talks of how he can “smell the blood” and “feel the warmness of it” on his hands, but the timing of the piece – just before his new sentencing on 6th July – makes this feel like uncomfortable posing to get sympathy or tasteless exploitation to grab an audience. Why does this piece of TV exist? Whatever the answer, it’s not very pleasant to watch.
The Steenkamp family were asked to take part in this programme, but declined.
Photo: ITV
