Many question whether there would have been a Cartoon Crisis had the drawings been offensive depictions of Christ or Buddha (or maybe both, at it), but that would be forgetting the offence caused by The Life of Brian in 1979 when Monty Python gave Jyllands-Posten a run for their money in the provocateur stakes.
Holy Flying Circus lovingly recreates a TV debate about the film – with such strong subject matter, it’s hard to see how it could go wrong. But it does, according to the Guardian.
“It meanders, wanders off at self-referential tangents, to the left and right, forwards in time, to Mexico, or up its own arse,” it observed. “Sometimes it’s too clever. I just wanted it to get on with the story.”
This would be my only criticism of the second series of Game of Thrones, which once again is brilliant, with episode nine a standout. While season one was an odyssey, little happens in two. One of the main characters spends five episodes on a boat, another seven episodes as a house guest, and another the entire series on a reconnaissance mission.
On a tighter schedule is 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park (TV2 Zulu, Wed 23:35), which follows the production of an episode, from conception to release. It’s a formula that seems to work.
The same could be said of the 12 Angry Men format followed by The Jury (SV1, Wed 22:00 & Thu 22:50), and the Call My Bluff format of Would I Lie to you? (BBC Ent, Wed 22:00).
Elsewhere, find out how Idi Amin brought his country to its knees by expelling all his shopkeepers in Exiled: The Ugandan Asian Story (BBC World, Sun 22:30); relive the Last night of the proms 2012 (SV2, Sat 20:00); see last issue’s pick, The Bletchley Circle (SV2, Sat 11:50), in its entirety; Queen Park’s Rangers – The Four Year Plan (TV2 Zulu, Wed 21:00) takes a look at the club’s ambitious 2007 plan to win promotion to the Premier League in just four years; Strictly Kosher (SV1, Mon 18:15) is an entertaining reality TV show set in Manchester’s Jewish community; and Gordon Ramsay’s Hotel Hell (TV2, Wed 20:35) sees the chef visit places that make Fawlty Towers look like the Ritz.
See this week's full TV listings on page 20 of our InOut section
