David Farnor | On 10, Nov 2015

From a spy thriller starring Ben Whishaw to a charming story of an OAP choir, we review the best TV shows and films currently available on BBC iPlayer:

TV

London Spy

How do you make a spy drama stand out only a few days after SPECTRE has blown up the cinema box office? Hire Ben Whishaw. And start with a slow romance. Whishaw plays Danny, a warehouse worker who crosses paths with Alex (Ed Holcroft) one day near the HQ of MI5. Alex is good-looking, he’s quiet, he’s mysterious. And, it turns out, he’s a spy (in case the title didn’t give that away). But it’s a whole hour before we, and Danny, discover that – a lingering 60 minutes from writer Tom Rob Smith (Child 44) that ropes us in with a restrained, chilled love affair that is so well performed by our couple that any contrivances (including Jim Broadbent as conveniently placed father figure Scottie) are swiftly locked up in a box and put out of sight.

Photo: BBC/WTTV Limited

Simply Nigella

Nigella’s back and she’s lost none of her touch, flinging together ingredients with no emphasis on quantity and all of it on presentation. Mashing avocado on toast is hardly educational, but by golly, it looks good. Thai dishes and cake are better equipped to get your creative juices flowing in the kitchen, while the addition of bloopers at the end of each episode add to the glossy charm of it all.

Photo: BBC/Gary Moyes

The Great Pottery Throw Down

“My base is undulating,” says someone halfway through The Great Pottery Thrown Down – ceramics’ answer to Bake Off – and you immediately wish Mel and Sue were here. Presenter Sara Cox plays coy with the innuendo in a way that fits the milder setting of a barn full of clay, although the sight of a judge crying at how beautiful a bowl is may amuse more than move. The rest fits the successful BBC formula, with an array of contestants (from Mr. Dreadlocks And Waistcoat to Mrs. Shy, Nervous One) that should keep any avid pottery lover engaged. For non-kiln fans, it’s hard to shake the fact that cakes are better than bowls.

Photo: Love Productions / Mark Boudillon

The Hunt

David Attenborough returns to the BBC with this nature series following predators as they hunt their prey. “Frustration…” growls our narrator, as we see a cheetah’s attempted attack fail. Fantastic.

Available until: 8th December (Episode 1)

Photo: BBC/Silverback Films/Huw Cordey

Is This Rape? Sex on Trial

Will Best hosts this discussion about whether sexual assault by a boy and a girl counts as rape. The short answer? Absolutely it does – and Best’s questions and “playing devil’s advocate” only serve to muddy the waters among the show’s young participants. But for all its flaws, this remains a question that needs to be asked – if only to teach younger generations the vital respect for (and understanding of) consent. For a better demonstration of how to do this, Google “Thames Valley police” and “tea”.

Photo: BBC

The Dresser

Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins star in Ronald Harwood’s amusing play about devoted backstage hand Norman, who spends his days catering to the whims of “Sir”, the demanding head of a Shakespeare company – applying his make-up, laughing at his jokes, helping him to remember his lines. Their relationship is one of dependence, but neither would admit it, a sad state of affairs that echoes the tragedy of King Lear unfolding on stage. The chance to see Hopkins, long since retired from the boards, railing at an auditorium is one to treasure, but it’s the behind-the-scenes interactions that bring the house down. Director Richard Eyre, a master of both stage and screen, goes in close for shots of the duo’s frail faces and terse tongues, while the two towering stars underplay as much as possible to keep things convincing. As Sir becomes increasingly irrational and weary, we get to see the many sides of the seemingly harmless Norman; part Othello, part Iago, part Fool, part Lear, he’s the kind of character Shakespeare would’ve relished in unravelling.

Photo: BBC/Playground Entertainment/Joss Barratt

Available until: 30th November

Cuffs

The BBC’s new police drama is the latest in a long line-up of police dramas, each one hoping to stand out to audiences seeking their next usual suspect for a weeknight viewing. Cuffs has come up with a neat calling card: the whole thing is set in Brighton, a world away from your usual cop shows. Shots of the pier and the beach add a sense of colour and location to events – especially when contrasted with the grim activities going on there, from suicide to racist attack. Amid it all, rookie Jake (Jacob Ifan) is struggling to find his feet, not least because his dad is the police chief.

Ifan is likeable, if bland, as the stereotypical newcomer. He’s a perfect fit, though, for what initially feels like a bunch of all-too-familiar character types and tired story lines. Luckily, Ashley Walters is arresting as the veteran colleague tasked with showing Jake the gritty ropes, and Amanda Abbington adds shades of nuance to background bobby DS Jo Moffat. They do just enough to make this average boys-in-blue ensemble compelling – it’s telling that the most intriguing part of the show is one that doesn’t involve dialogue or heavy plotting, as we witness a quiet officer save the day, but refuse to make an effort to save his marriage, instead popping down to the local brothel. Detain this one for questioning and the show might yield some interesting answers.

Photo: BBC/Tiger Aspect

Available until: 26th November

Detectorists

“Nostalgia conventions ain’t what they used to be…”

Is there a more quietly hilarious show in recent years than Mackenzie Crook’s Detectorists? The BBC Four BAFTA-winning show, which follows two metal detectorists in Essex, hardly sounds like a riot, but it’s a gem worth digging up in a field of louder, less valuable series. Crook plays Andy, a member of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club and long-time friend to Lance (veritable national treasure Tony Jones). Together, they share a passion for something that seems outwardly dull – and that genuine sense of friendship is what makes their uneventful existence so enthralling. Should Lance try online dating? No, comes the response, he’s going through a period of voluntary chastity. Should the group try a naked calendar to boost their profile? The withering looks the suggestion from one member gets are alone enough to make you sigh and giggle at the same time. A brasher show would emphasise the failures for awkward, bleak laughs, but Detectorists is happy to accept its characters as they are: losers. As the season starts, we see them scanning the ground inches from a treasured find from centuries before. They stroll on by, none the wiser. We never see it again.

Photo: BBC/Channel X North/Treasure Trove/Lola Entertainment

Available until: 28th November

Class of ’92: Out of Their League

Buying players. Counting coins. Cleaning the toilet. It’s not easy running a fantasy football team. But if you find your weekly team selection stressful, try running a club for real: that’s what Class of ’92: Out of Their League conveys brilliantly, as we see Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary and Phil Neville – the five Manchester lads who would endure as footballers and go on to win the Champions League, despite the sudden influx of big bucks behind-the-scenes transforming the sport in the 1990s – buy amateur team Salford City FC. It’s long way from Old Trafford, seven tiers down from the Premiere League, to be exact. And the real people they meet, on a few hundred quid a week, juggling day jobs on the side, are the stuff the beautiful game was named after.

Photo: Rachel Joseph / BBC

Available until: 28th November

The Last Kingdom

This BBC historical epic will be compared by many to Game of Thrones, but its closest cousin is actually Vikings (released by Amazon Prime in the UK) – and that’s a compliment. Like Vikings, The Last Kingdom packs in a boat-load of violence, including one nasty sword-through-the-neck moment, but doesn’t skimp on the character stuff, following a smaller-scale story than HBO’s fantasy series, which gives it some emotional heft to make up for lack of sorcery and dragons.

The focus is on young Uhtred, who finds himself inheriting his father’s land and title amid the skirmish between the Danes and Saxons. That doesn’t sit too well with the others, so it’s probably for the best that he’s whisked away by the Vikings and raised as a prisoner-slash-step-son – not least because we get to spend time with Rutger Hauer as a blind poet called Ravn. Yes, really.

Hauer’s not the only impressive name to be found. Young Tom Taylor is excellent as the earnest tyke, with Alexander Dreymon convincingly carrying on his manly, determined streak as the grown-up boy, while Matthew Macfadyen steals the show with a brief, authoritative appearance. It all paves the way nicely for the arrival of Alfred the Great – and suggests that Bernard “Sharpe” Cornwell’s history of books becoming TV hits was no fluke.

Available until: 21st November (Episode 1)

Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes

The Apprentice (Rap Up / Honest Subtitles)

Why do people watch The Apprentice? An hour every week with foul human beings all trying to impress each other – and, worst of all, Lord Alan Sugar? The irritating reality game show lost its initial hate-watch appeal years ago, as contestants seem to be more self-aware of the potential for small-screen celebrity than ever before. Even a trip to France for some frog-out-of-water negotiations (“After several hours, they’ve only got one cheese…”) doesn’t quite vary the formula enough. But BBC iPlayer’s exclusive content relating to the series helps make it seem fresh again. Honest Subtitles accompanying a highlights reel only spell out the things that are obvious and covered in the dialogue or narration, but Radio 1’s Matt Edmondson provides a fairly witty recap of each week’s events in rhyme form (“Rap Up”) – something that keeps you in the loop without having to spend time with these awkward, annoying people.

Available until: 20th November (Episode 3)

Photo: Boundless

Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review: SPECTRE Special

We could listen to Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo witter entertainingly about movies at any time of the day – but now, hot on the heels (or at least cool on the calves) of their YouTube “Film Thing”, comes another chance to watch them in action. Freed from the 5 Live radio studio, where they live-stream each Friday show on the BBC website, they’ve taken over Empire Leicester Square to record a Bond special for BBC iPlayer. Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig both make lengthy appearances – even for a free streaming service, it’s good value for money – but it’s the silly fun of an IMAX cinema full of people saying “Hello” to Jason Isaacs, and the pleasure of seeing their Well Done U short film competition winner having their entry screened on the big screen, that raises this above your typical TV film programme. The doctors’ relationship is as endearingly tetchy as ever, although it’s softened by the addition of the fabulous Flora Shedden off GBBO, whose film-themed cake and sincere enthusiasm for the church of Wittertainment is the icing on the cake. More please.

Available until: 22nd November

Concerto – A Beethoven Journey (BBC4)

Is there a greater pianist working today than Leif Ove Andsnes? Certainly within the field of Beethoven, he’s an unrivalled talent, thanks to his decision in 2011 to go on a four-year tour playing only Ludwig van – specifically, his five piano concertos. This BBC Four programme films him throughout that tour, hopping between Beethoven biography and technical insights with a passion and personality that makes for engrossing viewing. It’s seeing Andsnes in action, though, that proves the most thrilling. Conducting the orchestra at the same time as playing the piano, his hand movements to guide the other instruments flow seamlessly into his pressing of the keys – a virtuosic demonstration of man connecting with music. Bravo.

Available until: 22nd November

Photo: BBC/Holger Talinski

How gay is Pakistan?

YouTuber Mawaan Rizwan is no stranger to being out and proud, but in Pakistan, the country of his birth, homosexuality is no laughing matter. This revealing documentary sees Rizwan travel to the fundamentalist society to see how gay the country really is. He presents his trip with humour that avoids a preachy, heavy-handed tone, but as he uncovers transgender women and underground sex dens, he laughs less and less – until a climactic conversation with an Imam who politely informs him that he has a sickness and that he can be cured. (“This hole made for the human body is for waste, not sex.”) Claiming to diagnose a heated liver from just feeling his pulse, the attitude of this figure of authority, and the inability of people to live openly within persecution, is eye-opening stuff – not just for us, but for Rizwan himself, whose journey of discovery makes for a moving and affecting POV.

Photo: BBC/Madeeha Syed

River

Nicola Walker goes head-to-head with Nicola Walker in this month’s TV ratings, as the star of ITV crime drama Unforgotten also bags a leading role in BBC’s River. But there’s a twist here that makes River far from your typical cop show. Stellan Skarsgard is on stellar form as the troubled detective, who is haunted by murder victims and failures – something that doesn’t get any easier when he finds himself under scrutiny and calls for his resignation. Obsessively tracking a suspect across London, a mother also piles on the pressure for him to find her daughter, but it’s the relationship between Stellan’s veteran and Nicola’s upbeat sidekick that brings both complexity and comedy to proceedings. Their exchanges give Skarsgard real dramatic meat to sink his teeth into. The scenes of them performing karaoke and ordering banana milkshakes at a drive-thru are a bonus.

Available until: 12th November (Episode 1)

Photo: BBC/Kudos/Nick Briggs

The Kennedys

Katherine Parkinson continues her quest to take over our TV screens in this new BBC sitcom – and thank goodness she is. Bringing an expert sense of comic timing, with just the right shade of domestic ennui, she elevates what could be a hackneyed, dull sitcom about a family in the 1970s into a pleasantly jolly 30 minutes. Jokes mostly involve her moustached husband not knowing what lasagne is, but the cast go at it with charming energy, with Lucy Hutchison as the daughter making for a likeable narrator.

Available until: 11th November (Episode 1)

Photo: BBC/Gary Moyes

The Face of Britain by Simon Schama

Simon Schama teams up with the National Portrait Gallery for this new series examining the paintings on display. Covering areas such as “Love” and Power”, the historian brings his signature presenting style to the subject, walking through the gallery halls like he’s just been invited round there for dinner and has come prepared with a smattering of anecdotes. With talk of how we attach ourselves to faces as a key part of human evolution and the use of portraits to reinforce or undermine authority, it’s hard not to imagine inviting him back for another course.

Available until: 18th November (Episode 3)

Photo: BBC/Oxford Film and TV

Danger Mouse

The BBC once again proves a safe pair of hands for rebooting your childhood favourites, as the all-new Danger Mouse introduces cutting edge tech (goodbye, eye patch; hello, iPatch) but sticks to an old-school formula of silly voices, non-stop puns and an extremely villainous toad. The opening double-bill proves narrative isn’t the show’s strong point, but the promise of more chaos squeezed into 11-minute chunks of zany Bond parodies is enough to raise anyone’s eyebrows as high as Penfold’s.

Photo: BBC / FremantleMedia Limited

The Naked Choir

Between Glee and Pitch Perfect, a cappella has been having something of a moment in recent years. If the glossy production values have turned you off, though, Gareth Malone’s return with The Naked Choir is for you. Picking a selection of local groups to train up, the realistic obstacles facing our singers – drowning out the soloist, not counting rhythm – are a welcome change to Hollywood fiction, while the sincere sense of teamwork (one Stratford group allows anyone to join, resulting in a pleasingly diverse bunch) makes the belting arrangements even sweeter on the ears. Forget The X Factor: this is real singing entertainment, right down to its distinctly non-prime time presenter.

Available until: 28th November (Episode 6)

BBC/Twenty Twenty Brighton/Mark Johnson

Music Box with Guy Garvey

The Elbow’s likeable frontman throws the curtains wide on a new music series exclusive to iPlayer, which sees Garvey share and discuss artists that he is most excited about. The series will run every other week for six episodes, with the first living up to its promise of introducing audiences to new music through its focus on Here We Go Magic. The exclusive premiere of the video for Falling – from their new album Be Small – is an apt coup, with Garvey providing the kind of amusing and insightful commentary that listeners to his Radio 6 Music show will be familiar with. Space for archive music from Radiohead brings diversity to the line-up, while the sub-30-minute runtime makes this an easy fit into your commute. Most impressive, though, is the BBC’s Playlister, which enables you to add tracks to a music playlist – a feature that, while not always relevant to the Beeb’s catch-up TV content, really comes into its own. Much like YouTube’s links to purchase audio from its videos, it’s the kind of innovative touch the BBC is good at – and could signal a strong future for IPlayer in the music VOD world. One day like this a fortnight will see us right.

Available until: June 2016

Photo: BBC / Dean Chalkley

Matt Berry Does…

Matt Berry proves once again that almost anything he says is funny, mostly because of the way he says it. After several excellent comedy shorts for BBC iPlayer, the IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi star now has his own series of six iPlayer short films titled “Matt Berry Does…”. Father’s Day and Summer Holidays are the kind of arbitrary topics that get the absurdist treatment from him and Bob Mortimer – there’s something undeniably hilarious about Matt Berry’s voice playing on top of screaming fish – while the latest, Matt Berry Does… Ghosts, is another testament to how effective Berry’s silliness is when distilled down to one brief, concentrated dose. Especially if you like learning about ghosts called Kenneth.

Available until: June 2016

Photo: BBC iPlayer

Comedy Feeds

The BBC’s latest season of comedy pilots has arrived and it’s a consistently hilarious batch. Highlights include warped game show spoof Funz and Gamez, complete with depressed host and a production team that breaks into their contestants’ homes to steal prizes, and sketch show People Like Us, which just might be the best ensemble sketch programme since Big Train. Elsewhere, the return of a wayward daughter from university to her rural home is a delightfully original piece of comedy in an age where many sitcoms have become bland and familiar. These feeds should come with a warning – because they’ll leave you hungry for more. (Read our full review.)

Available until: June 2016.

Photo: BBC

My Jihad

As BBC iPlayer’s Original Drama Shorts return for another season, one of 2014’s best, My Jihad, returns as a miniseries of three 15-minute films. The first introduced us to Fahmida (Anjli Mohindra) and Nazir (Hamza Jeetooa), two single Muslims who crossed paths at an unsuccessful speed-dating night. Picking up events one month later, this is a universal exploration of love in modern Britain that packs in twice as much warmth and wit as most 30-minute shows do in a whole season. (Read our full review.)

Available until: 2016

Original Drama Shorts

BBC iPlayer continues to prove a platform for new talent with its latest bunch of shorts. From a moving demonstration of isolation and connection in an online age to a darkly funny – and unpredictable – story of female love and family loyalty, this is an impressively versatile collection of stories that are more than worth spending time with. (Read our full review.)

Available until: June 2016

Clangers

“This is the Earth, our home…” begins Michael Palin at the start of each episode of The Clangers. “A tiny, wet planet, lost and alone. Lost in the vast silence of space…”

It’s not the introduction that older viewers will be used to, but it’s immediately clear that the Beeb’s updated version of Oliver Postgate’s classic has no intention of rebooting the show for modern audiences. In a year where Gerry Anderson’s equally loved series was given a CGI makeover, new characters and a different back-story, The Clangers feels like the antithesis to ITV’s Thunderbirds.

Palin’s avuncular tones are the perfect fit for The Clanger’s reassuring voice-over, which rejoices in the small details of our creatures’ lives. The result is something that feels as timeless as ever, because it doesn’t alter what made The Clangers special in the first place: its ability to present imagination as the most natural thing in the universe. (Read our full review.)

Photo: BBC/Coolabi, Smallfilms and Peter Firmin

Women Who Spit

“Your shabby, slipped-stitch mistakes make you miraculous,” spits Vanessa Kisuule in a short poem urging women to stop shrinking back and to take up space. It’s one of countless brilliant lines you’ll hear during this series of short films, which see female poets tackle topics facing young people today.

Cecilia Knapp’s explanation of why she writes is inspiring, Deanna Rodger’s look at those forced off the street is provocative, while Jemima Foxtrot’s double-performed examination of confidence and doubt is an entertaining and powerful reminder of the importance of self over surface. Each are excellent performers, leaving your tongue tripping back over syllables to savour their taste, but keep Megan Beech’s passionate cry for more women on our TV screens until last: after the previous four fantastic compositions, you’ll be hard pushed not to agree.

Important and urgent, this collection shows just how valuable BBC iPlayer can be as a platform to voices that should be heard more often.

Available until: May 2016

Photo: BBC/Thomas Caron Delion

Movies

Song for Marion

Frank (Terrence Stamp) is a grumpy old git. He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t sing. He doesn’t laugh. He doesn’t even like taking his wife, Marion (Vanessa Redgrave), to singing practise. It’s hard to see why: doing everything from hip-hop and the Love Shack to AC/DC, The OAPz are a toe-tapping bunch of pensioners. Some of them can even dance the robot – intentionally.

But everything hits a bum note when Marion is told she’s dying of cancer. Can Marion continue singing? Will Frank change his tune? Do The OAPz actually stand a chance of winning the upcoming choir contest?

There are no prizes for guessing how it all turns out: Song for Marion is basically Sister Act 2, but with old white people instead of school kids and Whoopi Goldberg. But while Paul Andrew Williams’ drama may be a spreadsheet titled Feel-Good Drama that ticks all the necessary boxes, it’s also a superbly made spreadsheet that will make you cry.

Available until: 14th November (11.30pm)

Looper

Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Rian Johnson’s sci-fi thriller, which combines brains, heart and time travel with exhilarating ambition.

Available until: 15th November

Fear Itself

BBC iPlayer’s second original feature is the follow-up to teen documentary Beyond Clueless. Young director Charlie Shackleton and the Beeb’s streaming platform prove a scarily perfect match, the lack of constraints giving him the chance to fully embrace the experimental nature of his film essay. The documentary stitches together clips from existing horror movies to explore how and why they scare us, but instead of an explanatory voice-over critiquing and giving context, we’re given a whispered narration from an anonymous woman who is working through her own fears. Contrasting cuts and eerie echoes arise during the hypnotic 80-minute montage, quietly raising questions while offering a fresh insight into films that have, in some cases, become all too familiar. As interesting as it is creepy. (Read our full review.)

Available until: October 2016

Bitter Lake

Adam Curtis’ bizarre, surreal, brilliant provocative documentary deconstructs the media’s presentation of politics and history with a dizzying complexity and a dark sense of humour. At over two hours, it’s a daunting watch, but an important one – not least because it showcases the potential for BBC iPlayer as a platform for bold, experimental work. (Read our full review.)

Available until: 2016

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