Too Much Onscreen Is Making Me Scream

Comedies, Dramas, Docs...TV seems To Be Bursting with Goodies Right Now

Sorry if I haven’t posted a new opinion column in a while, I have an excuse. I don’t know about you but in the last few weeks so many great new TV shows have popped up that working through them has felt like it is eating up every inch of my day. If you like TV as much as I do, how do you cope?

I guess it’s to do with autumn and the schedulers assuming we all want to hunker down under a blanket and watch something. In the last few weeks, for example I’ve started burning through new runs of Greg Davies in The Cleaner and Alma’s Not Normal (pictured below with co-star Jayde Adams, BBC/Expectation TV/Matt Squire) on BBC. You can read an interview with Alma creator Sophie Willan here. And then just today I realised that I haven’t even started with the new dark comedy Sweetpea (Sky Atlantic), which features Ella Purnell from Yellowjackets and Ted Lasso star Jeremy Swift so must be good.

And of course there has been David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin in Ludwig (picture below, BBC/Big Talk Studios/David Emery). I tried to eke the six episodes out, honestly I did, but this was so good. Every time I thought I was out it pulled me back in, but it was undeniably six hours well spent. Read an illuminating interview with David Mitchell here.

It is not just comedies of course. I must admit I was relieved to hear that the highly recommended Kaos on Netflix starring Jeff Goldblum will not be returning as the first series is still sitting on my must-watch pile. I’m trying to resist the retro-crime drama Joan on ITV1 but how can I not watch Adeel Akhtar in Showtrial which has just started on BBC One on Sunday nights? Adeel or no Adeel? It’s no contest.

And then just as you think you are getting on top of things more things come out. Luckily I don’t have Apple TV+ otherwise I expect I’d be hooked on Disclaimer with Kevin Kline, Cate Blanchett and Lesley Manville. A clip on the Graham Norton Show on Friday night looked promising.

And at least I don’t feel I’m missing out on the much-hyped Jilly Cooper reboot Rivals. Yet, anyway. It seems to feature every notable actor in the Equity directory. I saw the ads and thought I was behind the curve but I checked on Disney Plus and it doesn’t even drop until October 18. 

Maybe I can make some headway on The Penguin before Rivals kicks off. Sky Atlantic is only releasing one Penguin a week so it is hard to fall behind, but somehow I’ve still managed it even though Colin Farrell – it it’s really him under all those prosthetics – is sublime as the waddling villain.

One of my problems is that I’m from the Mastermind school of TV viewing. Once I’ve started I have to finish, however bad something is. Or maybe I’m taking my lead from Pringles. Once I pop I can’t stop.

Occasionally I’ll manage to resist something. Recently I started watching Monster on Netflix, about the murderous Menendez brothers, but then I managed to hit pause. Except that last night somebody recommended it to me, so like a dog returning to its own vomit (an old Stewart Lee line I believe), I’ll have to go back to it.

So is it just me or is TV so brilliant at the moment it is hard to find the time to do anything else? How do other people cope? I was going to say please tell me if i’m missing something, but I’d rather you didn’t.

’m not sure I want any more recommendations. i’ve got enough on my plate as it is.