Amid the big programmes debuting this week, one homespun local beauty is well worth recommending to Courier readers.
Presented in eclectic fashion by the actor Mark Bonnar (Guilt, Shetland), Meet You at the Hippos (BBC Scotland) was on the face of it a documentary about Scotland’s pioneering New Town town artist programmes of the post-war years.
There’s plenty in here for those who love social history, art history and the aesthetics of concrete, but Bonnar has skin in the game.
His dad is Stan Bonnar, who created the much-loved Glenrothes hippos and East Kilbride elephants, and all the interesting factual elements are interspersed with a strange kind of quest for-come-dialogue with his father.
Which sounds indulgent, but Stan is as much a visionary art and architectural philosopher as Mark is a smooth on-camera presence, and their doc has the weird effect of actually making Glenrothes seem otherworldly and exotic. Highly recommended.
The Hunt for Bible John
Another outstanding Scottish addition of late has been The Hunt for Bible John (BBC Scotland), which appeared at first sight like a standard and fairly grisly true crime documentary.
But it revealed itself to be a real cut above in the level of forensic detail employed and the kind of personalities uncovered.
It included contributions from those who knew the victims of the notorious and unknown murderer, police, journalists, psychologists, forensic experts and even the author Andrew O’Hagan.
The programme pulled off the perfect trick of firmly centring the victims, while framing the story in such a way that Glasgow and Scotland of the 1960s were also lead characters.
Post-war deprivation, the way women were treated at the time, especially if they didn’t fit society’s expectations, and insight into crime detection of the period, including the weird origins of photofit – all this and more combined in a gripping (if short, at just two episodes) documentary worthy of a global streaming audience.
The Beatles: Get Back
Elsewhere, away from these passion projects, a couple of streaming blockbusters sprang into life last week.
Both are the kind of thing you’ll have been all over already if you like the subject matter, but for those who don’t know, The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+) is Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s epic, eight-hour remastering in fine detail of the footage for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s film to accompany the Beatles’ 1970 final album Let It Be.
With subtitle narration only, the camera stays on the band and their collaborators, friends and assistants as songs like the title track are willed into being in a Twickenham warehouse and the group come to the end of their life together.
It’s fascinating but seemingly neverending, one for the enthusiasts – although who isn’t an enthusiast for the Beatles?
Then there’s Hawkeye (Disney+), and while Marvel films might not be as universally adored as the Fabs, this new seasonal mini-series is as action-packed, characterful and lightly witty as their army of fans have come to expect.
This time, Jeremy Renner’s trick archer and super-agent turned hangdog middle-aged family guy Hawkeye is led astray by Hailee Steinfeld’s deceptively capable 22-year-old superfan, with the sense she’ll be picking up his mantle shortly as part of a new generation of heroes.
