The Jewish Wife @ the BAC and some news...

Brecht's little play – more of an extended scene, really – doesn't get many outings. It's one in a series of snapshots called Fear & Misery in the Third Reich. Each shows Nazi policies affecting ordinary Germans in different ways – none of them positive. Here, the Jewish wife of the title is packing before leaving her German (Aryan) husband so that he doesn't lose his job for being married to a Jew. This is an intimate production at the Battersea Arts Centre, hinting at – then laying bare – the frustration of a woman whose world has suddenly turned against her. Matthew Evans – winner of the JMK Director's Award – directs a production in tune with its time and the burning issues of the text.

Meanwhile...

I've recently started working for Hoipolloi Theatre Company, a lovely bunch of people who are based in Cambridge and are about to enjoy a residency at (probably my favourite performance venue ever) the Barbican, in September. They have a blog and everything. Their shows have won a clutch of awards and I highly recommend the one that I've seen, so get to the Barbican for those if you can.

One of those awards was a ThreeWeeks Editors' Award at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe (it had nothing to do with me, though my five-star review of The Bone House may well have helped Canada's Village Theatre to their Editors' Award), and I'll be covering the Fringe for ThreeWeeks again this year.

They're a great outlet for Fringe coverage, reviewing more than anyone else, and it's also worth keeping an eye on FringeReview who tend to review as industry professionals delving more deeply.

The Fringe is less than a week away, and is naturally quite exciting. Let me know if there are any shows/venues you can recommend.

Identity Episode Three on ITV1

Aiden Gillen continues to be both the most watch-able part of this series, and the person with the worst dialogue. So much of what he says sounds wooden, but his on-screen charisma is enough to mean it doesn't matter too much.

This week a false identity on the witness protection scheme is breached – and some poor lad has bricks thrown through his bedroom window. It's not his fault; his dad abducted and murdered a little girl a few years back. Someone's after payback, and there's a £3m reward floating around while Gillen chases a man on a motorbike and trying to find the little boy. Meanwhile, Gillen's also checking into a prison as Brendan Shea (to see his Turkish mafia boss) and – the same day? – as DI John Bloom (to see the child-abductor)...this seems bad practice from a copper who's been undercover for fifteen years.

On the plus side, this third episode finally burrows under the skin of the identity theft team and gives them some depth. Tessa (Holly Aird) and Martha (Keeley Hawes) snarl at each other in a pre-cat fight stand-off, and finally there's some tension. It's good to see, but should have been there much earlier. Before that, the (frankly awful interview team) pairing of Wareing (Shaun Parkes) and Rodriguez (Elyes Gabel) swap roles after their last judgemental interview with a possible suspect. This time it's Rodriguez' turn to dish out the accusatory comments, but once again their technique is terrible. They're nearly as bad the stupendously insensitive police interview teams in the BBC's recent The Silence.

On the down side, Bloom still needs to get the hang of office wear and stop turning up to work in his jogging outfits.

Best bit:
Right at the end when a suspicious prison guard gets pictures of Brendan Shea (Aiden Gillen) and John Bloom (Aiden Gillen) on the same computer screen. Ooh, don't they look similar? Like they could be the same man...except that one of them's snarling a bit more.

The episode may still be available to view on itv Player here.

Identity Episode Two in ITV1

Well, at least we know who the woman in the green dress is now. And we know that DSI Martha Lawson (Keeley Hawes) had a point when, last week, she asked DI John Bloom (Aiden Gillen) if he was speaking to his girlfriend on the phone.

Though to be honest, it's not as though Bloom's life really works in terms of a girlfriend, as such. Sure, he's sleeping with the sister of a Turkish Mafia boss (who think he's called Brendan) – but she presumably doesn't know where he dashes off to in the morning...New Scotland Yard. You've got to wonder how undercover this man still is.

This week, Bloom's 9-5 life (which he decides to grace with his presence after disappearing for three days) involves a case of a young woman wanting to be a bit too much like her friend. Fatally so. British Olivia (Laura Aikman) has it all, living in Sydney and enjoying beach parties out of the reach of her parents(and step-mother) in Chelsea. She's also – according to Bloom – stunningly beautiful. No wonder then that her friend, Jane (Joanne Frogatt) wants to be her. One bottle of hair dye and a few seconds with a penknife later, and Jane has a new passport...a new identity.

But again – and this was a problem last time – Identity spends too long on the crime of the week (murder, identity theft) and not long enough on the team investigating it. Again, we see Lawson is under pressure from above regarding her tempestuous recruit, Bloom, but no real sense that anyone (bar Bloom) has a life outside the office. Ignoring (and it might be best ignored) that bizarre moment when DC Jose Rodriguez (Elyes Gabel) and (curiously unranked) Tessa Stein (Holly Aird) discuss previous lovers – Rodriguez really is a rather strange character. It seems any series-long arc is limited to the beginning and end of episodes, which doesn't give us much idea about the people we're watching each week.

Perhaps the seeds to watch for are DS Anthony Wareing's increasing dislike of Bloom, and the shark-faced Atif (Aleksandar Mikic) of the Mafia as he works his way toward the mole responsible for selling out his boss.

Best moment:
Either Anthony (Shaun Parkes, inexplicably billed lower than Gabel) hinting mysteriously that Bloom might be around for much longer, then telling Lawson not to worry about it, or when he asks to photograph the mysteriously cut-free hands of a stab victim...clearly, someone's got an issue with Bloom's unconventional methods.

The episode may still be available to view on itv Player here.

Dive: Lindey's Story on BBC Two

With British teen pregnancy on the rise, there's an increasing scrutiny on exactly what it is we're telling kids about all that stuff. Sex education lessons seem to be starting younger and younger, but it also seems that the mums are getting younger and younger. Dominic Savage's two-part drama, Dive, indicates that the problem doesn't lie so much with the kids' education as with their attitude.

Co-written by Savage and Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, Herons, Pornography), Dive opens up a group of teenagers who know how sex works – they've had the lessons, seen (and laughed at) the videos, got the T-shirt and avoided parents' questions. There's a brilliantly subtle moment to watch out for, when the biology class pair off to practice putting condoms on ominously-entitled 'demonstrators'. Main character Lindsey (Aisling Loftus) contemplates hers for a moment – over her shoulder, and just out of focus, her friend (Chanel Cresswell) slips one on in seconds and proudly announces “Perfect”. Someone's done this before...

So, they know what they're doing. It's their casual, carefree attitude that's the problem. Watch as Robert (Jack O'Connell) dashes off into the sea, telling his (girl)friend to leave her clothes on the beach – pregnant and likely to catch her death of cold. And not long before that, he'd been diving into a pool with just boxers on...what an irresponsible young man, no wonder he got her pregnant. Call me old-fashioned, but teenagers having a quickie up against a tree with someone they've just met doesn't seem to indicate that sex education is encouraging responsible or safe sex.

We're probably going to see an increasing amount of drama with some focus on the 2012 Olympics in the next two years. This is one that's been put together really well, with some beautiful shots and a careful balance between Lindsey's dreams of representing Britain at the Olympics (as a diver...obviously) and her life at home – watch out for Gina McKee, sensitive as ever, and Joseph Mawle as the resented-yet-caring step-father, to say nothing of Ewen Bremner's sweet turn as Lindsey's dad. There's plenty of 'mood' all round, with lots of lingering shots of diving bodies, sparkling lights and brooding teens, all with gently sentimental music layered over it.

We'll have to wait for Robert's side of it in the next episode, but somehow I don't think a baby is quite the Olympic legacy either of these two wants.

This episode might still be available to view here.

Identity Episode One on ITV1

Identity fraud's a bit of a hot topic these days, as more and more of our lives goes into electronic (traceable) transactions and we're increasingly encouraged to shred documents with personal details on them, just in case. As buying and selling becomes more impersonal, thanks to the rise of the internet and the credit card, so it becomes easier to interfere with the process and remove a person's humanity.

So ITV's drama about a new police unit tracking down identity thieves feels quite pertinent. Modern and highly relevant, in fact. DSI Martha Lawson (Keeley Hawes, taking another high-powered policewoman role focusing on the psychology of criminals, cf. Ashes to Ashes) leads a team that, to be honest, is in danger of merely following a paper trail. In this first episode, they're dealing with a former soldier who claims to have had his identity stolen by a mysterious man known only as Smith. But to be honest, that's not the interesting bit – the episode really gets going about halfway through when the team start to uncover previous victims and the chase hots up. Until then, they're basically following an electronic paper trail, and there's only so much dramatic interest that can be mustered by the coincidence of two people using a Nectar card in the same shop ten minutes apart.

Aiden Gillen (Queer as Folk, The Wire) is on Lawson's team, as John Bloom (yes, he's Irish and called Bloom, get over it Joyce-fans), an ex-undercover copper – see what they did there? He knows all about pretending to be someone else. Hopefully, that explains why he's able to make so many sharp remarks that cut straight through any psychological barriers people try to build up. And why he's so rude... The beginning of this episode sets up a nice tension between him and his new boss (ie. as an undercover copper, he's not used to having a boss), but their relationship takes a bit of a back burner. It's a shame, because this first episode – our first chance to meet the team – doesn't quite make them seem human for a long time. Bloom is also by far the most interesting of the team, and you'll see why in the last four minutes of this first episode. Apart from the fact that he's the only one with a history (undercover with drug smugglers) and something resembling a personality, there's definitely something shifty going on. Whose birthday is he turning up to, and who is that woman in the green dress?

The rest of them, ironically, don't seem to have much in the way of individual identities. Watch out for Shaun Parkes (Small Island, Moses Jones) and Elyes Gabel (Casualty, Apparitions), as the DS and DC respectively, when the younger rebels against this impersonal attitude – it's the first time (hopefully the first of more) that the show opens up the debate around identity theft, justice and the way the state handles such things. More, ITV, more.

Best moment:
Ex-squaddie Curtis: Are you calling me a coward?
Ex-undercover copper Bloom: I'm calling you a big...fat...girl's blouse.

The episode may still be available to view on itv Player here.

Gazza's Tears: The Night that Changed Football on ITV1

According to this wobbly tear-jerker of a documentary, the moment when Paul Gascoigne burst into tears in 1990's World Cup changed the nature of English football forever. No, really – forever.

Just look at that title; football changed. Overnight. Completely. Forever. Which you'd think this documentary would then go on to prove. You could be forgiven for expecting an hour's program that tells its viewers about a) the state of English football before that infamous match (England vs. West Germany, World Cup semi-final, 1990, if you're interested), b) the state of English football after that match (when Gazza's tears had changed it) and c) exactly how the aforementioned tears changed anything.

That isn't what happens. Instead, viewers are presented with a lengthy description of England's campaign in 1990's World Cup – one that doesn't stint on emotional intensity, patriotic optimism, talking heads and assumptions that its audience knows how the campaign ended. There's a certain air of nostalgia to all this; those that remember Italia '90, before English football became a multi-million pound business, get a glimpse of the good old days. Days when England's team were more interested in drinking than playing, when a defeat resulted in the team and manager being savaged by the press, and the fans were almost synonymous with hooligans...actually, not that much different from today. In fact, the rash optimism (phrases like 'we can go all the way') of fans has been echoed – despite England's poor performances against the USA, Algeria and Slovenia – in the 2010 World Cup. So, twenty years later the sense of disappointment felt when the team crashes out (despite this being fairly predictable from the start) is still present. What exactly did Gazza change when he cried in the semi-final against West Germany?

It's a question this documentary resolutely fails to answer. In fact, it poses the question in its title, then promptly ignores it. Its interest lies in reminding viewers about how close England came back in 1990. The film-makers aren't afraid to over-egg the pudding (but then that's often the problem with England's national side); with West Germany victorious (4-3 on penalties), England fans felt 'grief', apparently...they were disappointed, yes, fair enough, but to compare it to a death in the family seems a bit strong. Worse is when one former player laments how close England came to winning the Cup...then corrects himself when he remembers that they were only playing for a place in the final. It's not the same thing as winning the tournament; there's another 90 minutes (at least) after that.

Once viewers have been walked down the familiar path to defeat (and the tour bus that greeted the defeated team in England), this documentary almost goes back to its opening section – which was a cursory nod to the modern nature of English football, all glamour, big spending and high ticket prices. But no. Instead, some more emotional overkill, wheeling out Sir Bobby to watch a match played as a tribute to him and his long career just before he lost his battle with cancer. Touching as it all is, and undoubtedly genuine as more tears from Gazza are, it tells viewers nothing about the new nature of English football, or how that may have changed since 1990. The film merely asserts that such a change has taken place. Repeating a fact does not make it more true.

Is it so much to ask that ITV documentaries have some facts, or even some investigation, to back up their statements? Or that those documentaries have titles that reflect their content? Sure, the title grabs attention, makes it sound like the film examines a turning-point in sporting history...but that's not true. It's an examination (and an emotional, subjective one at that) of Bobby Robson's 1990 World Cup and later tribute. So why not call it that?


The show may still be available to view on ITVPlayer here.