Just when I'd become accustomed to my TV licence only funding about two hours of worthwhile entertainment a week -- currently, Ashes To Ashes and The Last Enemy (my fondness for Hotel Babylon is an aberration, I admit) -- the Beeb throws up something very special.
OK, the annual appearance of a new Poliakoff or two notwithstanding, quality drama output from the luvvies at Television Centre and White City can be very scarce indeed. Sorry guys, Lark Rise To Candleford just doesn’t count. Outfitting the cast in Edwardian costume and bolloxing around in a pastoral idyll doesn't make a drama and it certainly doesn't equate to quality. It's a period soap and not very good either. Move along..
But last night's White Girl was something else altogether. Part of the BBC's controversial 'White Season' and influenced, it seemed to me anyway, by gritty English dramatists a la Loach and Leigh, it examines the co-existence of white Christian and Asian Muslim working class in Bradford and how the 11 year-old Leah found balance, order and meaning in Islam in contrast to her negligent, destructive quasi-single parent white family.
Enough plot examination. If you saw it, you'll have a view. If not, then I urge you to catch it again on your TV provider's replay service or the BBC's wonderful iPlayer.
A welcome antidote to the standard 24 hours of meaningless crapola like Holby and In It To Win It.
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