Hijack (Apple TV+)
Boris, the Lord & the Russian Spy: Dispatches (Channel 4) | channel4.com
Before We Die (Channel 4) | channel4.com
The Trouble With KanYe (BBC Two) | iPlayer
It comes to something when you don’t feel hijacked – sufficiently taken over – by a new series starring the mighty Idris Elba. He is the star turn in the new Apple TV+ seven-part airborne hostage thriller, Hijack, from Criminal/ Litvinenko team George Kay and Jim Field Smith. The problem is that Elba’s character, Sam, is so over-signposted as charismatic and authoritative, it backfires and he becomes one hugely annoying dude.
Even before he saunters on to the plane, Sam is seen successfully charming an airport security woman into allowing a late passenger through (“Miss, how bad can it be?”), when this would never happen, and for good reason. Once on the fictional Kingdom Airlines commercial flight from Dubai to London, he stops another adult passenger playing a video game loudly (“Please”), giving the unfortunate impression of a jobsworth teacher on a school trip. By the time the hijack starts playing out in real-time, 24-style, and Sam, some kind of alpha business negotiator, starts manipulating the hijackers (led by Neil Maskell), you’re thinking, but would they listen to him? Would they really?
Once you make peace with the fact that Elba (Stringer Bell! Luther!) is playing a character who’s about as cool as Alan Partridge with added air miles, Hijack isn’t a bad ride. Sure, it takes the concept of implausibility to new heights, and (spoiler alert) it’s all so rigorously bleached of international politics that the motivation for the hijack, once revealed, verges on dull. It’s also true that passengers are reduced to stereotypes (posh bloke, vicar, squabbling couple), and there’s a bulky spaghetti tangle of diversions on the ground (including Archie Panjabi in counter-terrorism, and Max Beesley as a detective who’s also with Sam’s ex), only some of which feel necessary.
Still, the onboard tension and claustrophobia build well, and the pace is cracking. Unlike too many draining, drawn-out streamer thrillers, you don’t watch it feeling as though your soul is being sucked out at 35,000 feet. Ultimately, Hijack has all the dramatic gravitas of a fidget spinner, but it calls itself a thriller and it is.
On Channel 4, the Dispatches documentary Boris, the Lord & the Russian Spy makes a rookie error right out of the trap. By now, we’ve all learned the hard way not to refer to Boris Johnson as Boris, which makes the former PM sound like a teddy bear whose only crime is to be too cuddly. Other than that, BTLATRS grapples with the same problem suffered by any serious examination of Johnson: how to get across that his behaviour is shocking to watching Britons who quite understandably are already all shocked out, what with lockdown/Partygate and the rest of the ever-churning ethics tsunami to deal with.
This time, it’s about Johnson and Russian billionaire and former KGB operative Alexander Lebedev and his son, Evgeny. The Lebedevs became influential after taking control of London’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers a decade or so ago, and some questions in the documentary concern Johnson’s attendance at certain events at the pair’s residences in Umbria. Elsewhere, it covers how M15 intervened to advise against Johnson putting Evgeny into the House of Lords, and the unsuccessful attempt to get the Queen’s office to block the younger Lebedev’s life peerage (it was all forced through by Johnson, who dismissed concerns as anti-Russian xenophobia).
This is a tight, compelling 50 minutes, involving former government and M15 spokespeople (the point is made that Alexander Lebedev was sanctioned in Canada in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine). If it sometimes feels a little stiff, you appreciate the legal sensitivities. Still (and I never thought I’d say this), we don’t see nearly enough of Johnson in footage, images or anywhere else. With his feet held roasting to yet another self-inflicted fire, for once I would have liked considerably more of him.
The most positive thing to say about labyrinthine crime drama Before We Die (also on Channel 4), based on a Swedish thriller and starting a second five-part series, is that it’s entertainingly immoderate. It stars Lesley Sharp as DI Hannah Laing and Kazia Pelka as crime family boss Dubravka Mimica, who square up to each other like old-school Martina Cole-esque matriarchs.
I say “matriarchs” because their sons are central to their unbridled mutual venom, which fuels the entire saga. While former intelligence officer Billy (Vincent Regan) works with DI Laing, he’s reduced to the status of emotional support character. All available screen oxygen goes to Hannah and Dubravka slugging it out like Alexis and Krystle in a Bristolian criminal underworld version of Dynasty.
By the end of 2021’s first series, someone important had died. In this one there’s hammy fulminating about “retribution” amid a febrile story involving drugs, guns, bent cops, Costa Rica and watery graves. In short, don’t come to Before We Die for gritty realism, or indeed any form of realism. While there’s fun to be had with the brazenly intemperate plot, even with Sharp on board there’s no believing a solitary overheated moment.
Mobeen Azhar’s BBC Two documentary The Trouble With KanYe looks into Kanye West (now Ye) and how “a once loved artist became a megaphone for hate and division”.
West has been morphing into a profoundly troubling individual for some time: the White Lives Matter messaging at his Yeezy fashion show; the antisemitism that finally led to brands dumping him; the “alt-right” figures (such as America First’s Nick Fuentes) and presidential ambitions (a Jewish former colleague agrees with Azhar that West thinks he can “supersize” what Donald Trump achieved). West also has serious (likely unmedicated) bipolar issues, though a fellow sufferer doesn’t think this exonerates him: “It is you but magnified.”
Azhar’s investigation ends up at a Christian church, purported to be West’s new HQ. There are some neglected areas in this documentary (to me, the death of his mother is pivotal), but Azhar commits to delving – he even fleetingly gets the rapper on the phone before he hangs up. I’m left feeling as disturbed and uneasy as ever: can West ever be dragged back from the precipice?
Star ratings (out of five)
Hijack ★★★
Boris, the Lord & the Russian Spy: Dispatches ★★★★
Before We Die ★★
The Trouble With KanYe ★★★★
What else I’m watching
Champion
(BBC One)
From Queenie novelist Candice Carty-Williams, a new drama about a young south London woman (Déja J Bowens) helping her brother (Malcolm Kamulete) revive his post-prison rap career. When she becomes his musical rival, it ruptures their family dynamic. Powerfully played, it features original music.
McEnroe
(Sky Documentaries)
With Wimbledon starting this week, here’s a strikingly raw profile of John McEnroe. Beyond tennis, the three-time singles champion opens up about his background, personal life, children, mental health and playing mindset.
The Clinic
(ITVX)
A documentary about the controversial Tavistock gender identity clinic (now scheduled to close next year). It features past staff, supporters and those who now regret receiving medical/surgical treatment. A basic primer for complex issues, it’s scrupulously even-handed.
