The culture review is back and this time, ‘it’s gonna be May!’ This month has been very BBC heavy but iPlayer is packed full of original comedy drama and reality TV that is too good to miss. I have also spent a lot of time on Audible and been letting my Spotify algorithm lead me to new (old) discoveries.
Film and TV
Dreaming Whilst Black, Streaming on BBC iPlayer
This twenty-five minute one-off, written by and starring Adjani Salmon, follows Kwabena (Salmon) who works in recruitment but is an aspiring writer and director. Within the workplace he is subjected to numerous micro aggressions including excruciating advice sessions with his colleague who has just started dating a black woman and being asked to eat his ‘spicy’ hot lunches in the kitchen rather than at his desk like his white colleagues. When he runs into an old friend, Amy (Dani Moseley), he is given the opportunity to pitch his feature film to a big time production company but ultimately we see the struggle that comes with trying to earn a living while chasing your dreams. There are moments that will make you kiss your teeth, scream at the TV in hope, and laugh a proper belly laugh. The show slips into dream sequences to show us what life could be like if everything worked out how we wanted it to, but in reality the choices and sacrifices made are all too familiar.
All That Glitters, All episodes available on BBC iPlayer
All That Glitters is a competition to find Britain’s next jewellery star. Hosted by Katherine Ryan, each week the contestants compete in two challenges, one focusing on more technical skills, ‘the bestseller’ and the other based on a creative brief, ‘the bespoke’. As the name would suggest for the bespoke round in each episode the jewellers are given a brief from a client looking for a one-off piece of jewellery to mark a significant moment in their lives. It could be a locket to commemorate a significant friendship, a broach to represent a family unit or a bib necklace for a drag show. What is great is that with each piece, each week you get a personal story and it really highlights what an investment a bespoke piece of jewellery is!
All the jewellers are amazing but my favourites have got to be Nicola for her instantly recognisable geometric style, and Sonny, who I followed on Instagram before the show. Sonny’s positivity and generous nature just shines through in buckets and I was rooting for him the whole time!
You can check out Sonny’s jewellery here.
Starstruck, Streaming on BBC iPlayer
I have definitely spent time fantasising about what I would do if I met a celebrity out in the wild. I like to imagine that I would be incredibly cool, incredibly interesting and an incredible breath of fresh air in their otherwise overly scheduled life. Like a Notting Hill for the millennial twenty-something, Starstruck focuses on Kiwi-Londoner, Jessie (played by Rose Matafeo, who also wrote the show) who meets Hollywood actor Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel) in a club on New Year’s Eve, they go home together and the two then stumble in and out of each others lives for the best part of a year dealing with multiple miscommunications, misunderstandings and bad timing.
Tom Kapoor is probably on the same level of celebrity as someone like Ryan Reynolds or Tom Holland, definitely mobbed in the street by fans and paparazzi, and would be instantly recognised by any friend or family member you tried to introduce them to. It is the perfect contemporary fairytale watching them come together and fall apart, with an ending that is absolutely the feel-good finish we all deserve. My personal highlight has got to be the ode to Sweet Charity, in episode 4 when Jessie is forced to hide in Tom’s five-star hotel bathroom to escape being discovered by his celebrity lover. Unlike Charity who left with a hat and cane (it’s a Bob Fosse show, of course she did!), Jessie leaves with just some crumbled macarons as compensation.
Books
Insatiable by Daisy Buchanan
I listened to Insatiable on Audible so I will start by telling you that listener discretion is advised when playing it out loud, it is absolutely FILTHY and completely fabulous. Insatiable, sub-headed ‘A Love Story for Greedy Girls’, is full of threesomes, organised group sex and the heady dynamic that is established when money, status and sex are all lined up on the table and snorted simultaneously. The sex scenes are plentiful but so is the discussion of art and how polarising a career in the arts can be. At one end it is private members clubs and European holiday homes, and at the other it is wearing dresses from high street store sale racks in rooms where women are wearing outfits that cost more than an entire months rent. It is for girls who want it all: love, lust, a satisfying career and good people around them, and how hard it can be to find those things, even when you know they feed you.
On Connection by Kae Tempest
This short work by musician and spoken word artist Kae Tempest was written and published last year in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Again, I listened to the audiobook which is performed by Tempest themselves. I say performed because given their background as a spoken word artist, the true lyricism of the prose is best delivered in their own voice, to hear the rhythm, the cadence, the South London lilt. Tempest is laying out a manifesto about what art can do for us as human beings, how we are biologically wired to be together and that through art: making, sharing, doing, we can connect in the way we are designed to. It is a beautiful piece, and running at just over two hours listening time, it can be done in a single train journey, like a performance.
Podcasts
BBC Radio 1’s Chillest Show, Available on BBC Sounds
DJ Sian Eleri hosts Radio 1’s Chillest Show on Sunday evenings. Each week there are thirty minutes of music curated by a featured musician or celebrity and this is mixed with Sian’s chillest choices for the week. The shows are shared over on BBC Sounds where you can catch up or re-listen to your favourite playlists over and over. You still get the chat from the show too, and Eleri’s voice is just as calming as the tunes she plays. She describes the music with passion and contemplation and gives me proper Mary Anne Hobbs vibes. My current favourite playlist is ‘anaiis Chillest Record’ which you can listen to here.
Music
Emotion (Deluxe Edition) by Carly Rae Jepsen
Carly Rae Jepsen is not to be underestimated. From her first single ‘Call Me Maybe’ to ‘Cut to the Feeling’, made legendary in my head by Monique Heart’s car crash lip sync on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Jepson releases feel good, punchy dance floor fillers. Emotion, released in 2015, has Jepsen in her feelings, trying to salvage a relationship but ultimately stepping out on her own. My favourite tracks are ‘Gimmie Love’, ‘Making the Most of the Night’ and one of the bonus tracks on the Deluxe Edition ‘Never Get to Hold You’, which I am currently playing on loop several times a day. Looking for some Monday morning motivation, this album is my new go-to!
Zitti E Buoni by Måneskin (Eurovision winners 2021)
Eurovision has been a yearly staple for as long as I have known how to watch competitive TV. I have memories of staying up until what felt like the early hours of the morning, scoring the entries and ranking my favourites along with the rest of the continent. With the competition’s cancellation last year, and the release of Netflix Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, the buzz around this year’s competition took on a new frenzy and the exposure for the artists was greater than ever before. In a landslide number of viewer votes, Italy were named this year’s champions and rock band Måneskin went home with the trophy. Their performance was sexy, sweaty and raucous, an homage to 70’s glam rock, and I’ve had the video on repeat ever since.
Midnight Culture 