TV Preview: Titanic | One Night | The Syndicate

IN case you hadn’t noticed, this year marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. So how best to tastefully commemorate a catastrophic disaster which claimed the lives of 1,517 people? A 3-D re-release of James Cameron’s 1990s blockbuster?

A requiem composed by Bee Gee Robin Gibb and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with 3-D hologram accompaniment? Or a 2-D BBC tribute hosted by razzle-dazzle Strictly hoofer Len Goodman, whose not-at-all tenuous link to the Titanic is that he once worked for the company which built it?

All of them are happening. And all no doubt extraordinary. But as far as ITV are concerned, TITANIC, an expensive mini-series written by Julian Fellowes, is leading the way in this crowded flotilla of all-star commemoration.

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The undisputed king of chandelier soap, Fellowes is clearly the ideal man for the job. Or rather, he’s the ideal man for creating a seaborne version of his hugely successful Downton Abbey, which is obviously what ITV were after.

Positing the Titanic as a teeming microcosm of Edwardian society, Fellowes has found perhaps the ideal vehicle for his obsession with class (he is, lest we forget, a Conservative peer). Like the strict upstairs/downstairs division of Downton, the Titanic carries salt-of-the-sod characters literally incapable of transcending their class, and snooty noblefolk aghast at the thought of mingling with the proles below deck. But once that iceberg hits, everyone’s an equal. Do you see?

Despite its laboured themes, Titanic generally succeeds as a decently-spun yarn packed with all the Mills & Boon romance, withering putdowns and good old-fashioned “Now look here!” decency one expects from Fellowes. It even includes Linus Roache as a blatant “kindly toff” Lord Grantham substitute.

So don’t be put off by the muddled opening episode, which introduces far too many characters to keep track of. Structured so that each instalment ends with the collision and evacuation, it shifts focus each week to expand upon different characters – some real, some fictional – and previously established sub-plots. Taken as a whole, this approach pays off quite effectively, although several scenes are needlessly repeated and some characters are hardly developed at all.

Granted, the immense tragedy of the Titanic disaster provides a guaranteed boo-hoo quotient that Fellowes doesn’t have to work particularly hard for. But come on, no one does this stuff better than him.

By sheer coincidence, another ambitious drama begins this week in which the intersecting lives of people affected by a single tragedy are explored from different angles – although it works far more ingeniously as a narrative device than in Titanic.

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Written by Paul Smith, ONE NIGHT begins with a young boy with haunted eyes handing a gun into a police station. The story then flashes back to the day before, when a beating and shooting took place on his high-rise London estate. Each episode focuses on a different character – the harassed middle-class salesman who lives nearby, the beautiful girl from the estate intent on winning a place at Oxford, her careworn mum, and finally the boy himself – who together form a slow-burning chain of events bound by themes of class/race prejudice and loyalty.

Smith – who must’ve plotted his multi-perspective narrative using dozens of Post-It notes linked by a flowchart – skilfully builds a sense of impending disaster as he plays upon contemporary fears about gangs and gun crime.

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As po-faced as that sounds, his background as a comedy writer is in evidence throughout, particularly in the vaguely Mike Leigh-ish opening episode in which Douglas Hodge – resembling a failed Jeremy Clarkson – tries to host a barbecue while growing increasingly paranoid and proactive in his desire to teach the feral youth a lesson. It’s an impressive turn from this celebrated stage actor, matched by Jessica Hynes with her nuanced performance as a caustic, funny single mum struggling to restore some direction to her life.

Although he occasionally gilds the lily with some unnecessary visual flourishes, director David Evans succeeds in creating a claustrophobic, clammy atmosphere – the urban summer as ticking pressure cooker. Despite a few niggling contrivances and implausibilities, One Night is the best British drama of the year so far.

So why has BBC1 marooned three out of four episodes after 11pm? It’s more than deserving of the wider audience it would attract at 9pm. Indeed, it’s clearly intended as a thought-provoking, relevant piece aimed at the masses. The decision to bury it smacks of cowardice and stupidity. BAH!

But at least THE SYNDICATE, a new drama from Kay Mellor (Band Of Gold; Fat Friends), is more promising than the usual primetime fare. And guess what? Its story is told from different perspectives in each episode.

Poignant, funny and surprisingly dark, it follows a group of budget supermarket employees who win £18 million on the lottery. You’d expect wacky japes to ensue, but Mellor is more interested in exploring the dysfunctional lives and moral dilemmas of her largely sympathetic characters. Definitely worth your time, this engaging series boasts standout performances from Lorraine Bruce and the always impeccable Timothy Spall.

PAUL WHITELAW

• TITANIC

Tonight STV, 9pm

• ONE NIGHT

Monday, BBC 1, 11:05pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, 11:35pm and Friday, 10:35pm

• THE SYNDICATE

Tuesday, BBC1, 9pm