George Michael: Outed (Channel 4) | (All 4)
The Bay (ITV) | ITVX
The Last of Us (Sky Atlantic) | (Sky/Now)
Kathy Burke: Growing Up (Channel 4) | (All 4)
Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers (BBC Two) | iPlayer
I still miss George Michael, who died in 2016. The attitude, the humour, the hair-trigger gob. In the opening moments of the two-part Channel 4 documentary George Michael: Outed, he’s full of it – ’tude – while he’s denying being gay. Heartbreakingly young, a crucifix earring dangling from one lobe, he shoots a withering look towards an interviewer, but also, you feel, the media, the nosey straight world in general: “Am I gay?… No, I’m not. But the main thing I’d like to express is, I don’t think it’s anyone’s business.”
This is the essence of Outed, which focuses on Michael’s arrest for “engaging in a lewd act” in a Beverly Hills public toilet in 1998, the global furore that followed, and the bold way he dealt with it. It also aims to be a social history of homophobia and Aids, particularly in Britain, including the hounding of closeted gay people (some of whom are featured), and the intrinsic oddness of society feeling it’s owed information about anyone’s sexuality.
Shown over consecutive nights, it included interviews with Michael’s cousin Andros Georgiou, his ex Kenny Goss, contemporaries such as the DJ Fat Tony, who makes the point that Michael was only ever partly closeted (“He was wearing espadrilles and three-quarter-length jeans. All the signs were there”). There’s also Will Young, Olly Alexander and representatives of the media. While there’s the now obligatory “evil journalist” vibe, it isn’t wholly undeserved: most recall the headline “Zip me up before you go go”, but there was also “Careless woofter” and more.
I’d have preferred more of Michael’s own voice and perspective (the programme is low on insight into the anxious control freakery of his early career), but this is interesting, pacy viewing. The red meat is in George’s defiant (ashamed, moi?) post-arrest reaction: going out to dinner within hours; booking himself on to chatshows to own the media narrative; and releasing Outside, spoofing the arrest with a video featuring shiny urinals, glitterballs and Michael strutting in a cop’s uniform. This becomes the story of a man hiding, then refusing to hide – a pent-up dam bursting and truth cascading out.
Over on ITV, it’s the fourth series of The Bay, the crime drama set in Morecambe, created by Daragh Carville and Richard Clark. Morven Christie starred as DC Lisa Armstrong for the first two series; since then, Marsha Thomason has taken on the lead role as police family liaison officer DS Jenn Townsend.
In this six-parter (all episodes are on ITVX), after a mother of four dies in a horrific arson attack, the race is on to unearth secrets and lies. The grieving husband is played by Happy Valley’s Joe Armstrong (the go-to actor for shifty, but is he implicated here?). Elsewhere, Jenn juggles a blended family, while her boss, DI Tony Manning (Daniel Ryan), sneaks around having a romantic tryst.
The drama lurches hither and thither at a tonal whim: one moment, atmosphere-drenched night-swoops around the bay; the next, unshowy seaside reality, where you can almost smell the congealed ketchup bottles in the old-school caffs. But I rather like it for that. Odd now to think that it was once perceived as an alternative to Broadchurch (it never quite managed to bang that gong), but it still manages to be watchable and convincing.
Let’s be frank, the seventh episode of The Last of Us, set largely in a deserted shopping mall, was ploddingly slow and (whisper it) boring. You really don’t expect Craig Mazin’s generally brilliant, post-apocalyptic, fungi-virus saga to feature longueurs of such tedium that you end up mooching off to stick a bit of washing on.
By contrast, last week’s eighth instalment, When We Are in Need, was fizzing dynamite, the best since the poignant masterstroke of episode three starring Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. In it – warning: spoilers lie ahead – Ellie (Bella Ramsey) manages to score medicine for wounded Joel (Pedro Pascal) from a religious group, but their leader, David (a chilling Scott Shepherd), is not all he pretends to be, nor are his followers eating what they think they’re eating.
With menace skilfully fostered, the pivotal scene features Ellie fighting off a rape-murder attempt. A violent staple in such dramas, but Ramsey plays it with such spitting, fear-drenched sincerity, I found myself holding my breath. What an amazing episode – a key reminder that other humans are always as big a threat as cordyceps. There’s now just one more instalment to go.
Over on Channel 4, Kathy Burke popped up hosting the two-part docuseries Kathy Burke: Growing Up, about ageing. The episodes were titled Old and Young (both screened last week), with the first one showing Burke just turning 58, receiving a birthday cake (inscribed “Old Twat”) and ruminating with Jennifer Saunders, Bill Bailey and others on funerals, cryogenics and more. Pointing to her own lack of grey hair, Burke puts it down to: “No kids, no dicky and plenty of marijuana.”
Part two features singer Charlotte Church discussing how she became sexual “fair game” to certain sectors of the media in the countdown to her 16th birthday. It also looks into youthful pressures, dating apps and influencers and more. It isn’t quite as strong as the first, but you’d have to be very po-faced not to enjoy Burke in doc mode. Along with her warming, earthy quality, she has an aura of pure naughtiness.
Another Harry Enfield & Chums alumnus appears in the BBC Two two-parter Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers. Though going by the opener, Whitehouse (who hosts the angling show Gone Fishing with fellow comic Bob Mortimer) is on a serious mission to highlight the polluted state of our waterways and what causes it.
He travels the country (including Ilkley in West Yorkshire, Manchester and Windermere) to examine rivers flooded and littered with human excrement, wet wipes and sanitary pads. Among the culprits, private water companies appear to be regularly flushing out untreated waste, which is only supposed to be done in an emergency. (In the documentary’s only boring bits, Whitehouse is forced to recite their lengthy, droning responses for balance.)
Among the people battling to expose this, former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey explodes: “There’s not a single river in England that is in good overall health.” In a documentary that’s equal parts depressing and illuminating, Whitehouse’s occasional attempts to puncture the gloom with levity feel unnecessary.
Star ratings (out of five)
George Michael: Outed ★★★
The Bay ★★★
The Last of Us ★★★★
Kathy Burke: Growing Up ★★★
Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers ★★★
What else I’m watching
Becoming Frida Kahlo
(BBC Two)
Increasingly, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s genius, image and influence seem to be everywhere, not just confined to art galleries. This three-part docuseries explores her life, work, relationships and the myths that surround her.
Paris Police 1905
(BBC Four)
Continuing the intense French period police drama series, with a plot that features everything from corpses to cold cases and syphilis. Starring Évelyne Brochu, it’s the follow-up to Paris Police 1900.
We Need to Talk About Cosby
(BBC Two)
A four-part docuseries in which writer, comic and presenter W Kamau Bell examines the lasting impact of the Bill Cosby sexual assault allegations.
