Robbie Williams (Netflix)
The Newsreader (BBC Two) | iPlayer
The Buccaneers (Apple TV+)
007: Road to a Million (Amazon Prime Video)
Ghosts (BBC One) | iPlayer
In the new four-part Netflix docuseries Robbie Williams, the most salient comment on modern celebrity culture is probably the fact that Robbie does the entire thing in his pants.
Vest and pants, to be precise, with tattoos on display, quiffed, silver-streaked hair and a body shrunk by an Ozempic-type weight regulating drug (being Robbie, he’s admitted to it). He resembles a cross between a punk leader in a dystopian sci-fi thriller about gangs who ride giant rats through sewers and a bloke in the pub who reckons he can get hold of fake number plates.
The series requires that Williams studies decades of behind-the-scenes footage, which he does sprawled in bed with a laptop. The effect is of a hyper-extended “duvet day”, with added self-therapy. Watching, there are times I wonder: does this look like a human being who has healed?
Docu-confessionals (such as Netflix’s recent mega-successful Beckham) are turning into big business, and a major part of the fame life cycle: first, live it, then explore being eaten alive by it. It’s all here, from Williams’s turbulent Take That days to solo triumph to breakdowns to recovery to children with his wife, actor Ayda Field (barely seen here). Along the way, there’s media harassment and celebrity relationships (in a somewhat syrupy segment, Williams regrets believing a rumour that then-girlfriend, Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, tipped off the press about the couple’s movements). There’s also lots on Williams’s drug intake: booze, ecstasy, cocaine, prescription drugs. Sometimes, even footage of when he’s on them (the singer rattling like a one-man Aerosmith).
Director Joe Pearlman (Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now) needs Williams to be honest and raw, and he is. We witness his yearning for credibility (“I want to write Karma Police”), his cruelty (denigrating fellow Take That member Gary Barlow) and his coldness. He appears to drop longtime songwriting partner Guy Chambers (his co-writer on myriad solo hits including Angels and Feel) like litter into a bin. At his worst, Williams comes across as a jealous, resentful child who thinks any attention or credit going elsewhere means he’s deprived. Still, you’re missing a heart if you don’t feel for him as he disintegrates on stage in front of tens of thousands.
At times, the nuclear-strength solipsism grates, and the documentary feels airless (where are the other interviewees?). However, while it’s no David Bowie’s Cracked Actor, it delivers on broken boyband member: a devastating meditation on fame and its side effects.
Australian 1980s-set period workplace drama The Newsreader, created by Michael Lucas, was – via BBC Two – one of last year’s well-deserved sleeper hits: a rough and tender sonata of unspooling mental health, complex love stories, “brick” mobile phones and rivalries at fictional news station News at Six.
In the new six-part series (spoilers ahead), Helen (Anna Torv) and Dale (Sam Reid) are now together as the “golden couple of news”. Against a backdrop of sundry late-80s news events, tensions spike at work (a boss, played by Daniel Gillies, finds Helen “aggressive”). Away from the station, Helen (part stiff-haired diva, part walking scar tissue) and bisexual Dale (this time, less of an adoring uncritical puppy) take turns to self-sabotage. As before, supporting players are vividly drawn, including volcanic-tempered station boss Lindsay (William McInnes), with Rory Fleck Byrne joining the cast as an ostensibly fluffy chatshow host: “For me, this election has been all about dental work.”
I couldn’t resist inhaling the entire series (all of it on iPlayer), and The Newsreader continues to encompass a thematic smorgasbord: sexism, racism, sexuality, ethics, addiction, blackmail and flinty ambition (“a great newsreader is for ever”). If this series feels a shade jerkier than the first – sometimes it’s as if it doesn’t know what to do with Helen and Dale as a couple – it remains classy, laser-focused and like nothing else on the box.
Over on Apple TV+, somebody no doubt thought: “How about a version of Bridgerton, but with even less historical accuracy?” The result is eight-part period dramedy The Buccaneers, based on the unfinished 1938 Edith Wharton novel. It features young American socialites blasting a bold marriage-hungry path through fusty 19th-century British society.
Starring Kristine Froseth, Alisha Boe and Christina Hendricks, it is indeed a quasi-Bridgerton, with added shrieking, pink poodles and the now obligatory anachronistic pop soundtrack. The 1870s look as though they’ve been steam cleaned, and (unfinished or not) I’m not sure how much Wharton survives.
That said, going by the first three available episodes, it’s darker and spicier than I expected (sapphism, illegitimacy, coercive abuse), and heaps better than the last couple of series of Bridgerton. If you’re in the mood for period froth laced with verbal poison (“This place is a pit of snakes. Watch you don’t get bitten”), it’s worth a look.
I was rather excited at the thought of 007: Road to a Million (Amazon Prime Video). It’s a Bond-themed reality challenge show, billed as Race Across the World meets Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Groups of two (sisters, brothers, nurses, ex-cops and more) run around international locations (Scottish mountains, Venice streets, Amazon rainforests and the like) to answer multiple-choice questions and potentially win £1m. Brian Cox (Succession) is a shadowy string-puller, sitting at a bank of screens, observing their progress (or lack of it).
Sadly, the episodes I saw are repetitive and dull. The early locations are all a bit Duke of Edinburgh award, and once you’ve seen one couple splashing about in a lake looking for a chrome suitcase, you’ve seen them all. Even Cox seems a mite lost, chuckling “evilly”, like a serial killer without portfolio. With a gameshow based on Squid Game imminent, this series needs to up its game.
And so, a fond farewell to Ghosts, with the final episode of the last series. Without wishing to dish spoilers, Button House couple Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe make a decision about the house, with the panicked ghosts trying to influence them (”Operation Be Really, Really Nice”). What an exquisite exemplar of British comedy rep theatre Ghosts has been. If you find the episode a little inconclusive, there’s a Christmas special to come.
Star ratings (out of five)
Robbie Williams ★★★★
The Newsreader ★★★★
The Buccaneers ★★★
007: Road to a Million ★★
Ghosts ★★★★★
What else I’m watching
Culprits
(Disney+)
In this eight-part vendetta/thriller from J Blakeson (I Care a Lot), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Gemma Arterton are among the former criminals who find themselves pursued. Character-led hyper-violence with a glossy, high-spec spin.
Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius
(BBC Two)
Ambitious three-part docudrama narrated by Juliet Stevenson. Contributors including Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Jessie Buckley and Adrian Lester talk about the Bard, while there are dramatised scenes from his life.
Hullraisers
(Channel 4)
A new series of the sparky, witty Hull-set comedy about a group of rowdy family and friends, starring Leah Brotherhead, Taj Atwal and Perry Fitzpatrick.
