The Latest TV Reviews from The Arts Desk

The Arts Desk’s tv reviews this week encompass the latest TV news, a Depression-era drama, a US remake of a British hit and the future of 3D dance films.

But first up are Howard Male’s thoughts on ‘Imagine: The Man Who Forgot How to Read and Other Stories’, a fascinating BBC Two documentary in which Alan Yentob met with famous neurologist Oliver Sacks to explore the complex business of eyes. To coincide with Sacks’s new book The Mind’s Eye, they looked at novelist Howard Engel, who woke up one morning unable to decipher the written word, and other courageous individuals who have had to adapt to strange new debilities, which in a cruel irony now includes Sacks himself, who has lost one eye to cancer and can no longer see in three dimensions and suffers from “face blindness”. This is the first programme in a new series, and Male was left hoping the rest will be just as good.

Earlier in the week Adam Sweeting was taken back to Depression-era California in the first instalment of ‘Mildred Pierce’ on Sky Atlantic. Most well known from the 1945 Joan Crawford film, James M Cain’s novel has now been adapted by director Todd Haynes into a far more faithful 5-part miniseries for HBO. Indeed, although it looks gorgeous, boasts some careful performances (including lead actress Kate Winslet) and impressive period details, Sweeting felt its slavery to the original text could be its undoing. The story of a woman who must swallow her pride and get a job as a waitress to support her children when her husband leaves her is too slow paced, with the dialogue seemingly ripped from speeches in the novel. Many viewers will be seduced enough to stick with it, but Sweeting just hopes the melodrama kicks in soon.

And in a double bill of tv reviews, Sweeting first took a look at BBC Four’s ‘The Wonder of Weeds’, hosted by horticulturist Chris Collins, which, despite its unpromising subject matter on the histories and hidden qualities of our most pesky plants, he found surprisingly interesting and informative. Following that he switched over to BBC Two for ‘Afghanistan: War Without End?’, the first of three documentaries by John Ware. Pulling in soldiers, politicians and diplomats to discuss the ongoing conflict, the conclusion was somewhat bleak and suggested that if we are to leave by 2015 as hoped, negotiations with the Taliban may be the only way.

And the jury is still out for Sweeting on ‘Shameless US’ on More4, the American remake of Paul Abbott’s successful UK show about a feckless family living on a Stretford council estate. With Abbott still involved as writer and executive producer, the first episode has so far stuck surprisingly close to the original, with all the lowlife sleaze we would expect present and correct. But with proceedings transported to Chicago, the conspicuously attractive cast and a slightly forced lead performance by William H Macy, the show doesn’t quite sit comfortably in the context, feeling too much like a deviant mainstream sitcom. Sweeting concedes, however, that these UK-specific preconceptions won’t hamper American viewers’ enjoyment one little bit.

Ismene Brown, meanwhile, has been investigating the faltering future of 3D dance films as Sky Arts gets ready to air a film of Matthew Bourne’s all-male ballet ‘Swan Lake’, shot in 3D at Sadler’s Wells. She talked to Fiona Morris, executive producer of the film, about how the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami also damaged the 3D industry, how that extra dimension can enhance the storytelling power of dance, the technical difficulties that 3D film-makers face, and even the advent of 3D TV sets.

And finally, reporting on tv news this week, Jasper Rees pays tribute to film and TV actor Peter Falk who died on 23 June aged 84, relating a memorable run in and chat with the man who simply was the legendary crumpled detective Columbo.

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