Russell Brand: Skinned
Channel 4, 10pm
Whatever you may feel about this self-obsessed comedian, Skinned is a superb documentary. A tougher-than-expected interview with Frank Skinner is punctuated by footage from Brand’s performances on stage and off, so that you end up with a surprisingly clear idea of what makes this Byronic Goth tick. “My personality does not work without fame,” he says. “Without fame, this haircut just looks like mental illness.” He describes his ambivalent feelings about the Sachs furore that seemed to place him at the centre of the universe. “It’s where I belong,” he says. He talks about how alcohol and heroin made him aggressive; his womanising (“not the better part of me”); his ambition, his love of the English language and his appreciation of nuance. It is very honest and often extremely funny.
Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas
Channel 4, 8pm
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Kirstie Allsopp wants to get you set for one of those olde homemade Christmases. She begins by decorating a Christmas cake. Next, she is shown how to shape a polar bear from strange stuff you get from a cake shop. Never mind if it looks like a squashed hamster. “You start to feel festive,” she says. After that, it’s DIY Christmas cards (“you really feel you’re achieving something”), salt-dough decorations with children at the local primary school (“if you don’t mind a bit of mess, everyone should give it a go”) and wreaths for the door (“I’m never going anywhere without gold spray”). For all its good cheer, this programme just won’t do it for Scrooges. “If you can’t find fun in an edible glittery Christmas tree,” she says, “life isn’t worth living.” Clearly mine isn’t.
Can Gerry Robinson Fix Dementia Care Homes?
BBC Two, 9pm
In the next 20 years, one million of us will suffer from dementia. Watch enough Kirstie Allsopp and it will happen a lot sooner. Unless something drastic is done to improve standards in dementia care homes, we’ll be left on our own staring into space simply waiting to die. Anyone who doesn’t have a criminal record can open a care home. Staff work long shifts on little more than the minimum wage. There is a wholesale lack of specialist training. Care workers often know little about the lives of residents. Homes are judged more by safety than by the quality of life. “Christ, there’s just no dignity in it,” says Gerry Robinson. “We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.” In the first of a two-part series, he provides a simple solution. Provide better care.
Imagine
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BBC One, 10.35pm
Tonight’s profile of the folk legend Joan Baez, which includes contributions from Bob Dylan, Jesse Jackson and David Crosby, is immensely watchable. Baez says right at the beginning that: “My battle was — and, in a way, still is — how do I separate what they think I am from what I think I am, because they probably don’t have much to do with each other.” This portrait can only help. She describes her horrific stage fright (“like walking to an execution”), the highs and lows of her relationship with Dylan (“I was crazy about him. We were an item and we were having wonderful fun”) and a lifetime spent campaigning for human rights. In more than 50 years, her voice and her sense of right and wrong have lost none of their pristine clarity.