Not sure there’s been a more aptly-named singing show than I’d Do Anything, which involves 12 tarts with a heart bidding to win the role of good-time girl Nancy in a London stage production of Oliver! But it would be a disservice to this BBC vehicle (Andrew Lloyd-Webber and his team are returning after similar outings to cast the leads in The Sound of Music and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) to suggest they’re all brazen hussies who would sell their own grandmother for a chance to appear on The Voice, because this is good, wholesome fun for the whole family. What can we say: it’s X Factor for the middle classes.
They’re also the target viewers for Oliver Twist (BBC Ent, Sun 16:05), which had the temerity to cast a black actress in the role of Nancy, sparking a nationwide debate over whether this was feasible. Well actually, there’s good evidence that Charles Dickens based the character of Fagin on a 60-year-old black gangmaster. A report in The Times detailed how “an intelligent boy aged 10 years” had run away from home and been befriended and taken home by Murphy’s son (the Artful Dodger), who is described by The Times as “a copper-coloured lad” – the politically correct terminology of 1834, no less.
Less PC were the 1960s, the era of The Kangaroo Gang: Thieves by Appointment (BBC Ent, Sun 21:30), a gang of Australian rogues who stole their way around Europe. Barry Humphries narrates.
And going back another 20 years, Blitz Street recreates the Luftwaffe raids on East London, demonstrating frame by frame the impact of its bombs, blast waves and flying shrapnel.
Elsewhere, you know you’ll be intrigued by Too Young to Kill: 15 Shocking Crimes (TV3 Puls, Fri 20:00 or Sun 22:05); there’s another chance to see acclaimed drama series The Pacific (DRHD, Mon-Thu, around 23:00) and Collision (SV2, Mon 21:45); revisit two classic music concerts with Blur Live at Hyde Park (BBC Ent, Sat 21:00), and Amy Winehouse: Live At The Shepherds Bush Arena (BBC Ent, Sat 21:50); while music fans will like Coldplay: Then and Now (BBC Ent, Sat 21:50) and The Choir: Military Wives (SV1, Mon 20:00).
Read this week's lising in The Copenhagen Post's InOut section.
