TV review

Published Monday 6 November 2006 at 14:05 by Harry Venning

All of the BBC’s blue filters must have been requisitioned for The Haunted Airman, a very disturbing, beautifully made and satisfyingly chilling ghost story.

Set in a convalescence home for shell-shocked servicemen during World War Two, it starred Robert Pattinson as a wheelchair-bound RAF pilot suffering from trauma, guilt and paranoia. Either that, or he’s actually imprisoned in a private hell run by the devil himself, who sends spiders, birds and the spirits of the dead to torment him. Make up your own mind.

Pattinson - an actor whose jawline is so finely chiselled it could split granite - played the airman of the title with a perfect combination of youthful terror and world weary cynicism. Julian Sands provided creepy support as the oleaginous Dr Barnes, with Rachael Stirling as the airman’s solicitous and attentive ‘aunt’.

Break With the Boss features mustard-keen executives flown off to exotic climes where they try and impress, flatter and smarm a promotion out of their employer.

First boss of the series, fitness centre magnate Duncan Bannatyne - aka the grumpy Scot from Dragons Den - was in Barbados where he set his candidates the task of organising beach activities to attract the local tourists’ attention.

The three came up with a game of beach cricket, a barbecue and hiring a floating bouncy castle respectively. Their efforts may have been rubbish but they weren’t anywhere near as feeble and unimaginative as Break With the Boss. A man in a cellar with a sack over his head would still recognize this pap as a flagrant and inferior copy of The Apprentice, with Bannatyne a very poor substitute for Alan Sugar.

The only highpoint was watching a hapless candidate try to point out Bannatyne’s hypocrisy while keeping his nose stuck firmly up his boss’ backside. If a career in leisure management fails to take off, the lad will always find a job as a contortionist.

In Perfect Day - The Wedding, part two of Five’s Perfect Day trilogy, Amy jilted Tom at the altar when her first love Pete suggested she run away with him instead. I missed part one but Perfect Day is clearly structured in such a way as to let tardy viewers like myself catch up. Ten minutes in and I was up to speed and fully involved in this well written, well performed and engaging twenty-something drama.

A couple of small grumbles. First, the two hours running time struck me as a little indulgent. A little judicious editing wouldn’t have hurt. Secondly, I found it hard to believe that the guests, having witnessed a social embarrassment of such cataclysmic proportions, would have stayed around long enough to hear the couple announce their reconciliation later in the day.

Indeed, the guests had partied on regardless, drinking, eating and playing croquet as if nothing at all had happened. A little implausible, but their continued prescence made for a more heartwarming ending. What’s a little artistic license when there’s the course of true love involved?

DETAILS

The Haunted Airman - BBC4, Tuesday, October 31, 10pm

Break With the Boss - LIVINGtv, Wednesday, November 1, 8pm

Perfect Day - The Wedding - Five, Wednesday, November 1, 9pm