TV review: The Culture Show: Martin Freeman Goes To Motown | Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey

Published on Tuesday 6 January 2009 19:00

The Culture Show: Martin Freeman Goes To Motown, BBC2 Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey, BBC2

IF THERE'S one thing British television does do well at the moment, it's the "authored" documentary: one man (and it usually is a man, but that's another rant) on a journey to tell us all about a subject close to his heart. Two good examples were on last night, with vastly different subject matter but similar enthusiasm.

Although getting actor Martin Freeman in to explore Motown for The Culture Show might seem like parachuting in a celebrity (like 'Claire Sweeney Eats Unhealthy Food And Discovers It Makes You Fat', which was over on ITV), in this case it's allowed as Freeman is a soul music obsessive. Going delightedly nuts in a Detroit record shop, he explained that while here we think of the label as Tamla Motown, in the US all the songs we know were actually released under various different linked labels. "Bored yet?" he grinned sheepishly. "All the women have just switched off."

Freeman has been in need of another really good role since his career-defining Tim in The Office and it's just a shame that High Fidelity has already been filmed, as he would have been perfect casting. You just know he has a mental list of his Top Five Motown singles – and probably his Top Five Motown B-sides recorded with a hi-hat backbeat, as well.

He wasn't really a smooth interviewer, managing to annoy both Martha Reeves (of Vandellas fame, now a local city councillor) and Chris Clark (a six-foot blond who was Motown's first white recording artist) with awkward questions. But Freeman's sheer joy at meeting those who made his favourite music, and seeing the original and very wee Hitsville studio, was infectious.

The remaining Funk Brothers, the long-unrecognised brilliant house band, played for him in a pub and he sang along in glee. They were left behind when Motown left Detroit for LA, as was Reeves, who came back from maternity leave to find the company was gone.

Despite that, the overwhelming emotion was positive. Asked by Marlon, Tito and Jackie Jackson – yes, the other Jacksons are all over British TV these days – what he felt when he first heard their songs, Freeman simply said: "It made me feel happy." That's as good a tribute to the Motown sound as any.

And here's a tribute from Nicholas Crane, too: "A work of staggering genius – nothing like it had been seen before … the British book of self-belief." He was talking about Britannia by William Camden, a contemporary of Shakespeare's and for a long time almost as influential via his guidebook, which was the first to explore and record the British Isles.

As considerably fewer viewers will have read Camden's work than have heard Motown tracks, it was obviously a tricky task for Nicholas Crane's Britannia… to convey its details. But the flavour certainly came across in this intelligent attempt to mirror Britannia's account not just of the land but its people, with Crane – as in his previous series Coast, Map Man and Great British Journeys – setting out cross country.

There were many scenes of him striding across the landscape in his waterproof jacket, rucksack on back – though, of course, the film crew's vehicles could presumably carry anything he needs.

But never mind, this was an inspiring encouragement to rediscover our own country with many curious Elizabethan facts thrown in: for instance, anyone who earned less than 40 a year was legally only allowed to eat meals of up to two courses and soup, though knights and bishops could have nine courses. I sense Jamie Oliver's next campaign…