Bushell on the Box’s review of the week: A Thousand Blows, BGT, Unforgotten, Frost Vs

I’m enjoying A Thousand Blows despite Disney’s disturbing alert that it ‘Contains Tobacco Depictions’. The Singing Postman wouldn’t have had a career these days. Hev yew gotta loight, boy? Lock him up! Dot Cotton too.

ITVX recently slapped a content warning on Victoria Wood singing Let’s Do It lest the thought of a woman asking her man to ‘slap me on the bottom with a Woman’s Weekly’ unsettled the feeble-minded. Oddly there’s no warning that A Thousand Blows contains brutal boxing bouts and lusty gun-toting villainesses.

Two stories intertwine in Steven Knight’s 19^th century romp. Jamaican immigrant Hezekiah Moscow – a real historical figure – becomes a bare-knuckle boxer, and on the way, makes the acquaintance of ‘Queen’ Mary Carr, amoral leader of an all-female gang of thieves called The Forty Elephants. We first see Mary (Erin Doherty) faking childbirth in the street while her pals pick the pockets of gaping passers-by.

Stephen Graham plays Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson, the champion East End bare-knuckle boxer who cheats to win. Naturally Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) encounters fictionalised Victorian racism and has flashbacks of colonial cruelties the real Moscow might never have encountered – there’s no historical evidence that his father died when the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was suppressed but it’s a handy dramatic hook.

The content alert needed on most TV dramas is Warning: Woke Writer At Work. On Unforgotten we knew murder victim Gerry Cooper was a wrong’un when it was revealed early on that he’d voted for (an unforgettable crime in TV circles).

Later he was exposed as a negligent slum landlord and accused of being a woman-beater. After his daughter stabbed him, his lecturer wife chopped up his body, dumped him in Whitney marshes and claimed the life insurance. The CPS felt it wasn’t in the public interest to prosecute, largely because we’re clearly meant to think he had it coming. Quick question: was there ever a modern drama where the bad guy was left-wing? The last one I remember was GBH in 1991.

Britain’s Got Talent felt like Groundhog Day. There was the obligatory dog act, the cute kid magician, the rubbish novelty turn, an acrobatic dance troupe, the tearful singer, the professional foreign acts who won’t win, the terrible judges…We’d seen it all before. The only difference last weekend was ITV cranked up the hype, whipping the easily pleased audience into extraordinary frenzies. “Push the Gold!” they chanted, referring to the golden buzzer the judges push to propel special talents through to the semi-finals.

There were three imported acts – so much for Britain’s Got Talent. Japanese Akira came on naked, protecting his modesty with a plate. If any of the judges had known anything about variety, they would have mentioned similar routines were done better by The Greatest Show on Legs (formed 1978) and Danny Blue’s The Oddballs who have been on the circuit since 1980.

This show desperately needs a straight-talking, well-informed judge with critical faculties – a modern equivalent of Mickie Most on New Faces. What substitute panellist KSI knows about showbusiness he kept to himself.

The other imported turns included ‘danger act’ Auzzy Blood – as previously seen on America’s Got Talent (and the French and Spanish equivalents). The self-styled “walking freak show” sticks things through his orifices. Hurrah! At least 2024’s sword-swallower Heather Holliday was easy on the eye.

Cowell’s show asks viewers to “expect the unexpected”. I think what would surprise viewers most is a down-to-earth comedian came on and told jokes without a sob story or a box to tick. All we want is someone funny.

Sky’s David Frost Vs is a treasure trove of memories, some so vivid you can almost catch a whiff of his Romeo y Julieta cigar. Frost was at the forefront of television’s cultural revolution. He hosted early 60s satirical comedy series TW3 and went on to become the supreme interviewer. Episode one featured clips from Frost’s 15 encounters with the Beatles, including John Lennon and George Harrison discussing the difference between dropping LSD and transcendental meditation in 1967.

Unlike shallow modern chat-show hosts, Frost was genuinely curious about his guests’ views. His style was easy-going but his approach was diligent.

He also had guts. Episode two shows him squaring up to Muhammad Ali in 1968, telling the world heavyweight champ it was “dangerous rubbish to suggest that all white people are devils”.

In their final bout, 34 years later, Ali tells him, “The devil can be in any man…it’s the mentality not the colour.” Correct.

I filmed with David several times and he was the same off-camera as on. His laconic charm masked his inquisitive nature and his style was respectful – as we see in a 1972 clip. When audience members heckle Lennon and Yoko, Frost invites them down to join the stars for an awkward live encounter.

That’s entertainment.

Hopefully they’ll include the time David rattled Tony Blair by gently asking about his weaknesses. Blair was momentarily lost for words.

It was a measure of Frost’s standing that when the Beatles wanted to play Hey Jude on TV for the first time they went to him, and when Sir wanted to open up about his addictions, so did he.

Shopping channel QVC has 8million viewers a year. Our ailing soaps should take note. The Queen Vic Bath o’ Doom could make a nice few bob for them at Halloween. Avoid Linda Carter vodka though, the bottles are pre-drunk.