Rose Ayling-Ellis, Jay Blades and Lesley Sharp in Before We Die: TV highlights this week

Ancient Egypt by Train with Alice Roberts (Saturday 24/06/23, Channel 4, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

If you’ve ever daydreamed about exploring the wonders of ancient Egypt, maybe you’ve pictured yourself riding a camel through the desert, or maybe even taking a cruise along the Nile (preferably without an Agatha Christie-style murder to disrupt your trip).

However, Ancient Egypt by Train with Alice Roberts has been making a good case for seeing the country by train. As the presenter and anthropologist told What to Watch: “It’s just a great way to get around. It’s much better than flying or driving as you get to sit back and appreciate the landscape, which was just beautiful.

“You’ve got the green, lush, fertile strip which is the flood plains of the Nile, running by the rail track, and then the amazing contrast of arid desert as you get down to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.”

She added: “The train was tiring but they were clean, comfy and on time, which was nice!”

The series has also been a great chance for her to fulfil her childhood dream of seeing Egypt. Speaking to What to Watch, she says: “I grew up in north Bristol and remember being at St Mary’s Church in Henbury, looking at the crosses and angels in the graveyard, and noticing a grave marked with an obelisk and stone ankh – the Egyptian symbol of eternal life.

“It was the grave of Amelia Edwards, a pioneering Egyptologist who [after touring Egypt in the late 19th century] wrote a fantastic book called A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. It sparked my interest in Egypt and after reading her book I knew I wanted to travel in her footsteps.”

Over the past three episodes, Alice has done just that. Her adventure began in Alexandria, where she went in search of Cleopatra, and learned more about how the ancient Greeks and Roman’s reacted to Egypt’s wonders.

From there, she went on to Cairo, armed with the book by the aforementioned Amelia Edwards and ready to explore the Great Pyramids, while the third episode took her to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.

This week, her journey comes to an end as her final rail trip takes her to upper Egypt and the city of Aswan, which played a key role in the creation of the country’s ancient monuments – its quarries supplied the granite that built them.

The railway journey proves to be pretty impressive in its own right, as Alice discovers that the towns along the line from Luxor to Aswan each have their very own ancient temple, which she describes as being ‘strung out, like pearls on a string’.

However, once she alights, it’s time for Alice to swap the train for a boat as she sees the extraordinary Philae Temple that was rebuilt in the 1970s due to flooding caused by the Aswan dam.

Before We Die (Sunday 25/06/23, Channel 4, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Remakes aren’t exactly uncommon – including in the murky world of Scandi/Nordic-noir.

Both The Killing and The Bridge have had English-language versions; in 2021, Before We Die received similar treatment when Channel 4 made its own take on the Swedish crime drama (the original show had been available via on demand service Walter Presents).

Set in Bristol and starring Lesley Sharp as DI Hannah Laing of the South Western Police’s Organised Crime Unit, it went down a treat with viewers, so it should come as no surprise to see it back for a second run.

“I’m delighted to welcome back this gripping crime thriller to the channel,” says Caroline Hollick, Channel 4’s Head of Drama. “Series one struck a chord with audiences, with over 12 million viewers tuned into the show on All 4 – from the edge of their seats. I can’t wait for audiences to enter back into this world – with more surprises, twists and turns in store and I’m delighted to have Lesley Sharp back at the helm playing the formidable Hannah Laing, along with the rest of our brilliant cast.”

Sharp, who recently reprised her portrayal of Jean in the The Full Monty TV series, was immediately attracted to the role of Hannah.

“Usually you’re sent scripts and you make up your mind from reading a character on the page, but I was sent a cut down version of the original Swedish series and asked to watch it,” explains the star, who previously spent five years playing another detective, DC Janet Scott, in ITV’s Scott & Bailey. “The proposition was ‘this is a TV show and what do you think of it? Would you like to be in our version?’ It was a no brainer, I couldn’t stop watching the Swedish version, it was fantastic. Hannah is a superb role and the show built a brooding sense of suspense.

“I think that the aspiration for our show is that it doesn’t look or sound like a UK cop drama. European shows are unafraid of investigating philosophical questions on behalf of their characters or elevating imagery or letting moments play out. I think that whilst there will still be those elements of ‘who did what’ in our version, hopefully the audience is engaged with the psychology of these characters, (and) invests in them.”

Although the second series – which is being broadcast each day until Thursday – features the same characters and recaptures the atmosphere of the original Swedish run, it won’t follow the same storyline. Instead, it focuses on Hannah’s efforts to bring down Dubravka (Kazia Pelka), the matriarch leading the Mimica Croatian crime family.

With help from maverick investigator Billy Murdoch (Vincent Regan), Hannah must bring her nemesis to book if she’s to stand any chance of saving her son Christian (Patrick Gibson) from the gang’s clutches.

“The second season will return with more fast-paced action sequences and plenty more dramatic plot twists,” adds executive producer Jo McGrath. “So very rarely at the centre of crime thrillers, women this time round will be pulling all the strings, leading to a breath-taking climax.”

We can’t wait to see how it all pans out – particularly as there won’t be any Swedish spoilers this time around.

Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change (Monday 26/06/23, BBC1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Rose Ayling-Ellis is used to breaking down boundaries. She was the first-ever deaf person to play a regular character on EastEnders and, in 2021, became the first deaf contestant – and eventually, winner – on Strictly Come Dancing.

While her success may be celebrated as a sign that TV and society are becoming more inclusive, it seems that Ayling-Ellis would be among the first to point out that there’s still a long way to go.

In fact, it seems she thinks even her own TV work has sometimes fallen short when it comes to representing the experience of deaf people. Although she has described playing Frankie on EastEnders as a ‘huge privilege’, she has brought up some issues with some of the scripts she has been given by hearing writers.

Speaking at last year’s Edinburgh International TV Festival, she said: “They will write my characters who are in a room with a big group of people arguing with each other, following everything that is being said and even repeating things back to them.

“Or they will write my character as lipreading someone from impossibly far away – like I have a superpower, which is not realistic at all!”

Now though, she’s getting a chance to put across a different picture of the deaf community. Commissioned last year in the wake of the announcement that British Sign Language is now officially recognised in law, it sees Rose exploring the challenges, discrimination and barriers that are still faced by deaf people.

The actress says: “This documentary will be real, emotional and hard-hitting, and it is high time that the realities of deaf people in the UK were shared with a wider audience. My hope is to encourage people to look at our attitude as a society and to reflect on how we can improve the lives of deaf people.

“It will not paint me as an inspiration, but will instead lift the lid on the gritty stuff that we desperately need to confront.”

Filmed over a period of time which sees her performing Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the documentary finds Rose challenging the perception of deafness as something that needs to be ‘cured’.

She meets with MP Rosie Cooper, whose parents were both deaf, to discuss some of the misconceptions surrounding the issue and whether attitudes are capable of changing.

As she reflects on her own experiences growing up, Rose speaks to her parents about the advice they were given following her diagnosis and asks if anything has changed for deaf youngsters now.

With the help of expert Dr Kate Rowley, she learns more about her own language abilities, which raises questions about the role of sign language in the actress’s formative years.

Rose is introduced to Katie and her son Alvie, who were advised not to learn sign language and who has since started a petition to encourage the UK government to make it more accessible, and also learns about the growing role that technology plays in the lives of deaf people.

However, this leads Rose to question whether the hearing world is focusing too much on potential fixes and not enough on encouraging signing.

Jay Blades’ East End Through Time (Tuesday 27/06/23, Channel 5, 9pm)

Words by Richard Jones

This week’s award for the busiest man in TV goes to Jay Blades.

Not only is his journey through London concluding on Channel 5 tonight, he is also presenting a Repair Shop NHS Special on BBC One tomorrow night and Channel 4’s Britain’s Best Beach Huts alongside interior design expert Laura Jackson on Thursday.

Not bad for a regular bloke from the East End, you could say.

However, for all his TV projects over the past few years, you get the feeling this show, in which the 53-year-old furniture restorer returns to his roots and meets historians and local experts, is particularly special.

“Last year I made the series No Place Like Home where we looked at the area where I grew up but there was so much more that we didn’t delve into,” Jay said in an interview with What To Watch.

“So I was over the moon to go back and uncover more stories that were right on my doorstep.”

Tonight’s programme begins as Jay talks to Dr Laura Schwartz.

She explains how Emmeline Pankhurst’s daughter, Sylvia Pankhurst, set up a federation of suffragettes in East London which didn’t just campaign for the vote – it was also revolutionary in creating jobs and providing childcare for women in the area during the Second World War.

Then, in Canning Town, Jay sees beautiful photos showing how the area had become a melting pot even before the Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury Dock on June 22, 1948, as sailors and travellers from all over the world set up home there.

Sri Lankan born Kamal Chunchie was a leading member of the community and founded the ‘Coloured Men’s Institute’ in the 1920s to welcome and support people new to the area.

Later in the programme, local historian Kate Thompson paints the picture of how Bethnal Green and other parts of East London coped with the blitz during the Second World War, often finding safety in the London Underground tunnels and platforms.

Meanwhile, 93-year-old Babs Clark tells the story of how 173 people were crushed to death in what was one of the worst civilian tragedies of the war.

Jay then meets former Krays firm member Chris Lambrianou at the notorious Blind Beggar pub.

Now a born-again Christian, he was present at the murder of Jack McVitie and he gives the host an insider’s take on the infamous Kray twins.

Next, Jay heads to Brick Lane where locals tell him how the Bangladeshi community were subject to horrific abuse and violence from the National Front in the 1970s, and how it all came to a head in 1978 when 25-year-old Altab Ali was murdered.

And finally, Jay sees how parts of East London have been totally transformed in recent years.

He travels to Canary Wharf (‘the Manhattan of London’) and hears what the development meant for locals on the Isle of Dogs.

Quite a few of them, like a certain Mr Blades, seem to be doing alright for themselves.

The Trouble with KanYe (Wednesday 28/06/23, BBC Two, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Whether you love him or loathe him, nobody can deny that there’s never a dull moment in the life of Kanye West.

Just the past year has seen him hit the headlines on numerous occasions, and usually for strange, downbeat or controversial reasons.

For instance, not only did he change his name to Ye, the settlement of his divorce from media superstar Kim Kardashian was finalised (he will pay her a reported $200,000 a month in child support), and he announced his 2024 presidential campaign.

On top of that, Adidas revealed it was terminating its lucrative deal with him after he praised Hitler and denied the Holocaust, declaring, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

The move hit his personal finances, with the estimated £1.05billion worth of unsold trainers, known as Yeezys, eventually going on sale last month with part of the profits going to such organisations as the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.

It’s all a far cry from his early days. The son of an English professor and a Black Panther member who became a photojournalist, he was raised in middle-class comfort. Ye did well at school, but dropped out of university to pursue a music career. His undoubted skills as a producer then caught the eye before he launched his own rap career.

Back then, everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, but times have certainly changed.

Ye’s extraordinary rollercoaster life and career were the subject of Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, a three-part Netflix documentary which debuted early last year. It featured archive footage, some of it previously unseen, detailing his rise to international stardom as a music mogul, fashion designer and businessman.

Now the BBC is shining a new spotlight on him, held by award-winning investigative journalist Mobeen Azhar, who previously delved into the music industry with The Battle for Britney, about Britney Spears’s conservatorship, back in 2021.

Azhar seems to have picked his moment well – filming took place against the backdrop of Ye’s election campaign, at a time when his behaviour was beginning to spark outrage while threatening his place as a pop culture icon.

The reporter is keen to figure out how someone once so revered due to his creative success could cause his own spectacular fall from grace.

Accompanying the programme is an eight-part podcast series, The Kanye West Story, in which guests offer further insights into Ye’s life and reputation.

It seems that no matter our own personal views and what the future may hold for this controversial figure, there’s always going to be something to discuss and dissect. But whether he can rescue his shattered reputation and return to the top of the cultural tree is another question altogether.

Secrets of the Bay City Rollers (Thursday 29/06/23, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Famous for their bubblegum pop hits including Bye, Bye, Baby, Give a Little Love and Saturday Night, as well as wearing too-short tartan-trimmed trousers, the Bay City Rollers were heralded as the biggest band since The Beatles.

Selling over 300 million albums worldwide, the Scottish group attracted fans of all ages, but particularly adolescent girls, with a phenomenon known as Rollermania sweeping across the globe during the 1970s.

However, behind the scenes of the Rollers, there was a dark side.

This documentary, presented by Nicky Campbell, shows how an endless stream of young groupies, who used to follow the band members around, led to exploitation.

From its early days, the group were managed by the imposing and controversial former big band leader Tam Paton.

He was notorious for his rigid control over all aspects of the Rollers’ career, including the shuffling group members in and out at a very high rate.

In 1982, Paton was convicted of gross indecency with two teenage boys at a time when the legal age of consent for gay male sex was 21.

He was released after serving one year of a three-year jail sentence.

Then, in 2003, he was accused of a string of sex abuse crimes, including having attempted to rape guitarist Pat McGlynn in 1977.

Police decided there was not enough evidence for a prosecution, and Paton died in 2009, but Campbell is hoping this new documentary will shine a fresh light on the facts.

He goes in search of the Rollers – who hailed from his own home town of Edinburgh – and learns the dark secrets of the abusive Svengali who managed them.

He hears painful recollections from people who were around at the time, and interviews former members of the band, learning how, as their fame faded, it became clear Paton was not the champion and protector he appeared.

It’s a subject that clearly resonates with Campbell, who has also been on ITV1 from Monday to Wednesday this week in a new series of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, alongside Davina McCall.

In July last year, Nicky revealed he had been the victim of sexual abuse in Edinburgh 50 years ago and described how he is still haunted after witnessing a teacher abuse one of his schoolmates in a changing room at the Edinburgh Academy.

The 62-year-old presenter has also spoke out about the abuse he faced and how he was beaten up by a teacher, claiming his mother’s complaints were “hushed up”.

“What I witnessed was horrific and I realised how much it’s just a part of my psychological furniture – always there,” he says.

The past understandably still affects Campbell, and he can therefore fully sympathise with what some of the Bay City Rollers and their fans went through.

By reassessing the sex crimes that surrounded the band, and the climate that existed at the time to allow the abuse to take place, he will be hoping for some sort of closure to this dark element of the tartan-clad teen sensations’ legacy.

Riches (Friday 30/06/23, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

At first glance, some viewers may wonder if the new drama Riches is ITV1’s answer to Succession – after all it follows the power struggles that ensue when a self-made businessman suffers a stroke, leaving his family to battle it out for control of his empire.

However, the show’s creator Abby Ajayi points out that it draws on a TV tradition that’s much older than that.

She says: “Brash, glamorous, American series like Dynasty and Dallas have always held a special place in my heart and I’ve long been fascinated by shows about family businesses and how the tensions, flowing from boardroom to sitting room, fray and jeopardise relationships.”

The writer adds: “Burt Reynolds once said, ‘You can be poor and unhappy or you can be rich and unhappy, I’d rather be rich and unhappy.’

“Rich, unhappy people make for great television and in creating Riches, I set out to tell a story about a successful, Black, British family who prove that money can buy all sorts of things but happiness isn’t always on the table.”

Hugh Quarshie stars as Stephen Richards, one of the UK’s most successful Black entrepreneurs, who built his multi-million-pound cosmetics company, Flair & Glory, through hard work – and ruthlessness.

Along with his second wife, Claudia (Sarah Niles) and their adult children, Alesha (Adeyinka Akinrinade), Gus (Ola Orebiyi) and Wanda (Nneka Okoye), he’s now enjoying the rewards of all that graft.

But then a devastating change in circumstance brings Nina (Deborah Ayorinde) and Simon Richards (Emmanuel Imani), his estranged children from his first marriage, back to the UK…

It was a very deliberate decision to put the beauty industry at the heart of the show.

Abby says: “In telling a story about a Black-owned, hair and cosmetics empire, I wanted to tap into entertaining, contemporary stories about British identity. Black beauty is political, it is also irreverent, creative and very lucrative.”

It also taps into Riches’ glamorous, soapy side, but Abby says she hopes that even when she’s depicting the lives of the wealthy, the drama will still strike a chord with viewers.

“The show is unashamedly glamorous, and it was a joy to shoot London with an eye on showing its beauty and showcasing the myriad sides of the City. The series explores contemporary questions about power, identity and Black ambition.

“In every episode, we have stories about the business and the fight to save Flair & Glory and yet, at its core, the show is about very relatable relationships — sibling rivalry, complicated matriarchs, messy blended families.”

And there’s also the fact that Riches focuses on a Black family.

Abby says: “The appetite for Black British stories has always been there and it has been thrilling to create the Richards family and celebrate their opulence, their ambition, and their immigrant grit. Shooting during Covid presented many challenges and I’m proud of the crew and our talented ensemble of actors, all of whom brought a phenomenal level of commitment and passion to the project.

“I’m excited to bring this show to the screen and I hope audiences will fall in love with the Richards family.”