TV at paulcarvill.com, the home of Paul Carvill on the web

I’ve just finished watching part two of Britz, Channel Four’s drama about radicalized British muslims. Following the film I had a prolonged discussion and disagreement with my laydee, Kate, of which more later.

With Britz, writer Peter Kosminsky has crafted a solid, challenging drama following the divergent paths of two young British muslim siblings as they grow up in a country which is slowly eroding its citizens civil rights. Sohail is driven to repay a “debt of honour” to the UK for granting asylum to his parents, and becomes an MI5 operative highly motivated against the cause of terrorism. His sister, Nasima, is a medical student who experiences first-hand the targeting and incarceration of her and her fellow muslims by an institutionally bigoted police force. Following the death of a friend as a result of such bigotry, she becomes radicalized through college contacts and goes to Pakistan to train as a suicide bomber.

The program showed multiple facets of the current security situation we find ourselves in, but certainly doesn’t sit on the fence. While Sohail is just in his cause and has faith in a justice system to deal with the problems we face, a huge emphasis is put on the feelings of injustice, helplessness and alienation experienced by the British muslim community. We are challenged repeatedly to comprehend a suicide bomber’s mentality, and the weight of the evidence make it increasingly easy to do so. Ludicrous legal procedures, or lack of them, for dealing with suspected terrorists are quoted at length. The reasons needed for holding, without charge or a lawyer, anyone suspected of aiding terrorism are spurious and ambiguous in the extreme. Control orders may be imposed on a suspect to prevent them from committing a crime in the future, disregarding the fact that they have not, as yet, actually committed one.

At times the film feels a little compacted, as events are squeezed together into an already very long running time. Nasima’s radicalization is sudden and happens too quickly. Also, while Sohail’s story has a tension runnning through it the whole time, for the second half of Nasima’s story she doesn’t feel driven by anything other than complete resignation or, worse, boredom. She shares some small talk with a girl from Hounslow at the training camp. Later, when her colleague at a safe housewhere they prepare her bombs assures her “You’ll sit at God’s right hand”, she replies “That’s not why I’m doing this”. There seems to be no explicit reason for Nasima’s fatal anger, but anger, injustice and helplessness are enough for her, and widespread enough for anybody.

The film ends, after Nasima has exploded her bombs in a crowded Canary Wharf, with a supremely chilling video rshe recorded before her final act of anger and revenge. I’ve seen this videos before, the real ones, on the news. BUt somehow they didn’t seem real. They seemed fantastic and silly and pointless. But after watching four hours as convincing as those I’d just seen, Nasima’s actions were perfectly comprehensible, if not pardonable. A very, very scary insight into the mindset of young muslims in Britain today. And while we are all affected by a loss of civil liberties, some of us, obviously, are more affected than others.

Worth looking at: the post-show discussion forum on Channel Four’s website

One of the joys of the Humax 9100, a personal video recorder and the freeview version of Sky+, is stockpiling great TV to watch whenever you find yourself with a spare hour or two. In the last week or so I’ve been enjoying immensely the latest series by Jonathan Meades, “Abroad Again”. I don’t know how big of a telly star he is, but whatever size it is I can’t believe he isn’t a bigger one.

Of course talking about the size of Jonathan Meads comes with its own risks. Famously always appearing in a crumpled black suit, that suit has recently become much more capacious as Meads has faded away following some heavy duty dieting.

He is a sporadic presence in his own films. By turns comic, menacing and scathing, but always erudite and fascinating. His hovering otherwordly presence, clad in dark suit and dark glasses, is found all across his otherwise static and beautifully composed frames.

He talks about architecture, and touches on everything from the design and structure of buildings to the philosophical, political and psychological purpose of those structures and the people who ordered an built them. His documentaries are full of moments of high farce, linguistic twists, innovation and serious debate.

Meades is a renaissance man and a true televisual star.

I’ve nearly finished watching the Season 1 box set of Arrested Development.

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I’ve just finished watching two interesting, if lightweight, documentaries concerning the Irish republican movement.

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