Tonightly
Channel 4
The Kevin Bishop Show
Channel 4

SOMETIMES you wonder why you bother. Why did my generation, for example, bother kicking out our parents’ tired old comedians and replacing them with something edgier, only to see it all go down the pan with today’s new breed of humour-free comedy? I’m thinking of the latest offerings from Channel 4: Tonightly and The Kevin Bishop Show. Now that Channel 4 has laid waste to the brains of everyone under 40 with years of exposure to Big Brother, its executives seem to think they need only provide the most feeble of “light ent” programming. And especially if they present it in some kind of “yoof” wrapper, Tonightly sneaking in under the skirts of Channel 4’s Generation Next season, a showcase for young talent.

House of Saddam
BBC 2
The Money Programme: Who’s Buying Up Britain?
BBC 2

IT HAD to happen: the story of Saddam Hussein and his power-mad family retold as The Godfather. You could argue that these people could equally have resurfaced dressed in Roman togas in a Middle Eastern I, Claudius, in doublet and hose in Richard III or Macbeth, or in an episode of that vintage television drama The Borgias.

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception
by Scott McClellan
PublicAffairs, £16.99

MY DEAR friend and much-missed colleague, the great James Cameron, once offered a characteristically Cameronian description of those designated to the role of press secretary at the service of various world leaders; he described them as “exponents in a cottage industry in the service of sycophancy”. I cannot possibly improve on such a withering label, whether the exponent sits in the White House, the Kremlin, the Elysée Palace or, for that matter, Downing Street.

Vilhelm Hammershoi: The Poetry of Silence
Royal Academy, London

THERE are two surprises in the retrospective exhibition of the work of the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi – one is the engaging, almost haunting quality of these little-known images. The other is that half way through, after many paintings of domestic interiors, there are views of landscapes and woods that continue to evoke a sense of the intimate.

One Morning in Sarajevo
by David James Smith
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £18.99

IF BRITAIN had been invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, with Oswald Mosley at the head of a Quisling government, resistance would have begun immediately. Had he been Hitler’s regent in London, instead of Prague, Heydrich would have been assassinated on the streets of the capital. His killers would have been captured, tortured and shot, but their names would be revered to this day and the story of their exploits would be recounted in many books.

The Revenger’s Tragedy
National Theatre, London

SEX and violence is as much a theme of Jacobean drama as it is of more recent culture. The main difference is that while the 17th-century Brits allowed themselves to wallow in filth in the sure and certain knowledge that they would have to repent if they wanted to get into heaven, we no longer have that sense of eternal judgement. Our sex and violence is too often simply amoral and casual.

Citizenship: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Concept by Andreas Fahrmeir
Yale University Press, £30

LIKE the concept of a human being, the idea of a citizen is defined by rights and duties. But unlike the former, which essentially stands for that which is finite, alive and human, the latter depends on what it stands for. As the title of this book suggests, citizenship is a contingent concept.

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means
by George Soros
PublicAffairs, £12.99
IT IS now almost a year since the liquidity crisis of August 2007 set off a chain of events that looks set to impact on the lives of many people. As investment banks became concerned about the viability […]

The Frontline
Shakespeare’s Globe, London
CAMDEN Town on a Saturday night: the tube station vomits out a steady stream of drop-outs, misfits, addicts and other lowlifes, garnished with the sad, the bad and the lost. Yes, Che Walker’s The Frontline is a panorama of urban life, as Beth the born-again Christian swaps words with Erkenwald the […]

The Afternoon Play: Stuffing Their Mouths With Gold
Radio 4

RADIO 4 broadcast Stuffing Their Mouths With Gold by Jerome Vincent in its Afternoon Play slot on July 4 as part of the corporation’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service. The play bit off more than it could chew.