Television: True Stories: Stanley Kubrick's Boxes | The Qur'an | Harley Street

Published on Friday 11 July 2008 18:18

True Stories: Stanley Kubrick's Boxes Tuesday, More4, 10pm The Qur'an Monday, Channel 4, 8pm Harley Street Thursday, STV, 9pm

TWELVE YEARS AGO, INVESTIGA- tive journalist Jon Ronson received a phone call out of the blue. The caller, Tony, was asking on behalf of his employer for a copy of a documentary Ronson had made about the Holocaust. After some initial reluctance, Tony revealed that his employer was Stanley Kubrick.

The legendary director died before Ronson had the chance to meet him, but a few years later Tony called again to ask whether he would like to visit Kubrick's gated mansion in St Albans and look through his enormous personal archive. Aside from the family's personal archivist, Ronson would be the first person ever to be afforded such an amazing opportunity.

Filmed over five years, True Stories: Stanley Kubrick's Boxes offers a tantalising glimpse into the private mindset of one of cinema's greatest enigmas. Notorious for his almost manic attention to detail, the reclusive director filled his house with over 1,000 boxes full of virtually every single photograph and written document relating to his life and art. Among many other things Ronson discovers that Kubrick filed every fan letter he received, even though he rarely wrote replies. Instead he personally earmarked the positive missives with the letters "F-P", the negative ones with "F-N", and "crank" on the letters from crazies. And each letter was filed according to the geographic location of the sender. Tony, his personal assistant for 31 years, reckons that one of the reasons he did this was to ensure that, if he were ever assassinated, then at least the police would have access to a list of potential suspects.

"By their memos shall ye know them," chuckles Tony as he reads old notes from Kubrick stating that there should be no fewer than three melons in the house at any one time, or inquiring after the barometric pressure in London during a very particular time period, with no explanation as to why he would require such information.

Was Kubrick mad? Certainly not, insist those who knew him. Instead, Ronson paints an intriguing portrait of a shy, intelligent man with a voracious hunger for knowledge and artistic perfection. One of the film's most telling revelations is that Kubrick could laugh at his own eccentricities and was fully aware of how he seemed to the outside world. He simply had little interest in engaging with that world. After all, as Ronson observes, he had the entire universe neatly filed away at home. More4 are showing a season of his films over the next fortnight.

Channel 4 has also got Islam on its mind this week, with a season of programmes devoted to this most misunderstood of faiths. Sadly, none of them is called How Do You Solve a Problem like Sharia?

Award-winning filmmaker Antony Thomas's epic documentary The Qur'an examines what this holy book actually says about issues such as women's rights, punishment, other faiths and martyrdom. He talks to a wide array of subjects, from Grand Ayatollahs to ordinary Muslims and religious experts, in an attempt to make sense of The Qur'an's influence and meaning.

It's a rigorous, thoughtful film which effectively highlights the often misguided interpretations surrounding "the unchanging word of God". You could, of course, make similar points about the New Testament or any other religious tract: fundamentalists will always hijack God's word to justify their dangerous beliefs. No wonder the big guy's washed his hands of us.

That said, someone's obviously been listening to my prayers, because this week sees the launch of yet another formulaic medical drama. Director of Drama for ITV, Laura Mackie, describes Harley Street as "aspirational", which in itself is enough to make me want to grab it with tongs and fling it into the nearest laundry basket.

As you've probably gathered, the action takes place in and around a posh private practice, the sole difference between this and every other programme in the genre. To ensure that we're not turned off by moneyed doctors administering expert medical care to the privileged, the lead character is a working-class lad made good who moonlights for the NHS at a busy A&E. What a terrific human being.

This almost determinedly uninspired series looks, sounds and smells like virtually every other mainstream drama out there. It doesn't even distinguish itself by being camp or ridiculous. It's just dull (despite the "racy" sex scenes), and there's nothing to suggest that it would be worth tuning into even if every other channel decided to play non-stop repeats of Mahabharat for the next six weeks.