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I absolutely adored the ditzy-surreal joy that was Orla in Derry Girls – that messy mop of curls, the uncomprehending bovine stare, that husky voice full of wonder, and her propensity for a wee bit of spontaneous Irish dancing in the middle of the street. So I am delighted to see Louisa Harland, the actress who brought her to life, popping up in Disney’s new period drama, Renegade Nell.
Described by our reviewer as a swaggering 18th-century caper, Harland plays Cockney Nell (don’t call me Nelly) Jackson, a fairly ordinary young woman who finds herself on the wrong side of the law after stumbling upon a gang robbing a group of wealthy travellers in the woods. Framed for murder, she turns to the dark side and becomes a highway robber herself.
Read more: Renegade Nell: Sally Wainwright’s highwaywoman series is a swaggering caper of a show
Renegade Nell is fast, funny and furious, with social justice at its heart and lacerating comedy as its weapon – there’s plenty of witty verbal sparring as well as ultra-physical fighting for which Harland is more than equal to the task.
The show also stars Nick Mohammed (last seen in Ted Lasso) as Nell’s comical sidekick Billy Blind, and is written by Happy Valley’s Sally Wainright. With its focus on class inequality and feisty, indomitable women with an added dash of magical realism, the show will doubtless prove irresistible to fans of Wainright’s work. Like her previous dramas, this new comedy is a real treat, and not to be missed.
Bi-polar, two-tone and friendship
Yet another Derry girl – Claire, played by Nicola Coughlan – is starring in a new series, this time Channel 4 comedy Big Mood, alongside Lydia West (It’s A Sin). The pair play lifelong friends Maggie and Eddie, trying to navigate their thirty-something world of work, money, relationships and mental health as they chase that elusive goal of happiness.
For such a hilarious comedy, Big Mood is serious about mental illness. An exploration of Maggie’s bipolar disorder as she quits her medication and experiences extreme mood swings, the comedy doesn’t shy away from how deep the lows can be. But the glue that keeps the show together is the strong bonds of female friendship, which is celebrated in all its warmth and complexity.
Read more: Big Mood is a gloriously exuberant comedy about navigating mental health in your 30s
It’s certainly a strong showing for quality TV drama this week, with new BBC series This Town hitting our screens. Written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, the scene once again is Birmingham, but this time the early 1980s where the politics of disillusionment is playing out across inner cities. This is Knight’s paean to the two-tone music – an amalgam of ska, punk and reggae – that emerged during the troubled period, as Margaret Thatcher’s pitiless response to de-industrialisation drove up unemployment, denying jobs to young working-class people.
Against a backdrop of violent racial tensions, police brutality and Northern Ireland’s bloody Troubles, a young mixed-race poet called Dante starts a band with his friends, channelling the fears and frustrations of urban youth into music. Vividly realised with nuanced performances, Knight’s drama manages to capture the bleak era and the joyous rhythms of the rebellious music that came to embody the sound of disaffection in Thatcherite Britain.
Read more: This Town: new drama charts the influence of ska on inner city kids during bleak Thatcher years
Traditions and textiles
And the final series to binge this week is the FX dramatisation of James Clavell’s historical saga, Shōgun. In an excellent longer read, our reviewer compares the 21st-century version to the 1980 miniseries that took the world by storm, introducing millions to the culture and traditions of Japan.
The new ten-episode FX adaptation is garnering rave reviews – including a near-100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Both series closely follow Clavell’s 1975 novel, which tells a fictional story of Will Adams, the first Englishman to set foot in Japan. But perhaps what is most interesting in this comparison are the subtle differences that reveal the zeitgeist and shifting attitudes to Japan in each era.
Read more: James Clavell’s ‘Shōgun’ is reimagined for a new generation of TV viewers
Switching to exhibitions now, London’s Barbican latest show, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, is a cracker, revealing how textiles in art are experiencing a revival.
The show spotlights the themes explored by contemporary textile artists, while inviting deeper reflection on the shifts within society that have prompted this rebirth. Historically associated with femininity, domesticity and craft, textiles possess a deceptive simplicity that conceals their potential for subversion and political dissent – much in the same way Grayson Perry took the traditionally benign vase and subverted its aesthetics to create something more transgressive.
On show are tapestries, embroidery, hangings, blanket, bead and wire work. Some pieces are stitched with poignant messages, while others seek to confirm identity, reflect experience or highlight oppression.
Besides a new generation of curators keen to shape programmes that include a more diverse range of art, the exhibition highlights a growing interest in crafts and textiles born of a need to escape an increasingly digitised world. Who didn’t take to a little bit of soothing crochet for comfort during lockdown?
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