The Heritage
The most valuable historical evidence of the last 2,000 years may be on the mini cassettes of a VCR in my attic. The problem is that I lost the charger.
Of course, scholars will argue about whether my children’s home videos in the 1990s are really that important. And historically speaking, that’s not the case right now. But films like this, millions of which were recorded at family gatherings and weekend barbecues, will one day become an invaluable social record.
Imagine if we recorded thousands of hours of ordinary life in Tudor times or ancient Rome. Instead of piecing together the past from fragments of broken pottery, archaeologists would enhance screenshots to zoom in on fascinating background details.
The Legacy: Using a clever twist on the flashback technique, we’re able to delve into the backstory of three feuding siblings – because someone is studying their old family videos
Cast: Jemima Rooper is pictured as Chloe in new drama The Inheritance
All of these home videos will one day be the closest thing we have to a time machine.
In The Inheritance (Chapter 5), they could also provide evidence for a murder investigation. Using a clever twist on the flashback technique, we’re able to delve into the backstory of three feuding siblings – because someone is studying their old family videos.
Famous Friends of the Week
Rose Matafeo’s romantic comedy “Starstruck” (BBC3) lived up to its name: Minnie Driver, as a theater agent, talked “like a comic villain” and John Simm, with his unrecognizable sideburns, played the worst co-star in the world. Quite a cast.
The victim is Larry Lamb as Dennis, a wealthy widower who lives in a house he designed himself. When he is found dead on the hallway floor with a stomach full of alcohol and sleeping pills, his children protest to the coroner (Pauline McLynn): their dear old father wasn’t a drinker.
But that’s not the half of it. Dear old dad was secretly married to his best friend’s ex-wife, Susan (an ice-cold Samantha Bond). . . and he left her everything. House, jewelry, bank balance, everything.
Susan explains that she idolized her father and dated him for years before her mother died. However, she seems anything but upset about his death. By the way, the children aren’t exactly beside themselves with grief until they realize that they have nothing left.
Downton’s Robert James-Collier plays son Dan, an ambitious tyrant whose restaurant business has fallen into the hands of a loan shark. Gaynor Faye and Jemima Rooper are sisters Sian and Chloe. One is dating shady guys she met online, and the other has a suspiciously all-too-perfect marriage.
There’s plenty of melodrama, not least at the funeral, when Dan denounces his father before the coroner turns up with a police escort to seize the body.
The characters are roughly drawn and the unexplained deaths are a bit dull, but the combination of domestic thriller and psychological mystery in this four-part drama is strong enough to keep me hooked.
You me
The romantic, crying You & Me (ITV1 & ITVX) is even more straightforward. A boy meets a girl at the bus stop, a boy and a girl start a family, heartbreak ensues.
It’s a pleasantly unpretentious story, which is somewhat confused by jumps back and forth in time. Harry Lawtey and Sophia Brown are adorable as lovers Ben and Jess – we don’t learn much about them other than they fall in love at first sight, but that’s all we need to know.
“Romantic: You & Me” is a sweet, unpretentious story that is somewhat muddled by jumps back and forth in time. Harry Lawtey and Sophia Brown are charming as lovers Ben and Jess (pictured)
Adding some depth is Julie Hesmondhalgh as Ben’s mother, who shows up when his world falls apart. She doesn’t have many lines, but she doesn’t need them: she can speak volumes with a look of reproach or painful sympathy.
Author Jamie Davis adds touches that add conviction, like the way Ben and Jess still celebrate the weekly anniversary of their first date more than a year later. If that sounds too cheesy, this love story is not for you.
I enjoy it, but I’m a softie. “I’ve met someone very special,” Ben tells his mother, “and I’ll never meet anyone that special again.” If that gives you more of a lump in your throat than a curl on your toes, then it will Three-part series continues tonight and tomorrow and is worth checking out.