CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night’s TV: Schmoozer Stormzy meets Louis Theroux… and goes down a storm
Louis Theroux Interviews… Stormzy (BBC2)
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Trawlermen: Hunting The Catch (BBC1)
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Such a charmer! With just a hint of self-mockery, the rap artist Stormzy acted the part of a starstruck admirer when Louis Theroux turned up backstage at an arena gig.
‘Big hug, I’ve wanted to meet you for so long!’ he exclaimed. ‘Being in front of you feels a bit like . . . ya know what I mean?’
‘Like I’ve just popped out of the TV?’ suggested a delighted Louis. That’s all it took. He was wrapped around Stormzy’s fingers faster than the rapper’s quick-fire lyrics.
For the rest of Louis Theroux Interviews . . . Stormzy (BBC2), the atmosphere was one of a reverential society of mutual appreciation.
Britain’s most successful rap star was happy to talk about traumatic personal problems — his violent youth, the breakdown of his one serious relationship, his bouts of mental illness — but if the issues were difficult, the questions never were.
Louis Theroux Interviews . . . Stormzy (BBC2): With just a hint of self-mockery, the rap artist Stormzy (right) acted the part of a starstruck admirer when Louis Theroux (left) turned up backstage at an arena gig
Stomzy, the stage name of Michael Owuo, is an elegantly sensitive man with a deep Christian faith, at odds with his casual attitude to knife crime and drugs
‘Are you OK?’ Louis kept asking, ‘do you want to stop?’ This was far removed from one of his Weird Weekends, where he wins the confidence of his interviewees to coax them into unguarded revelations.
Stomzy, the stage name of Michael Owuo, is an elegantly sensitive man with a deep Christian faith, at odds with his casual attitude to knife crime and drugs.
His cure for depression, he said, was to ‘just stay at home and smoke a lot of weed’.
Overload of the week
The semi-final of Make Me Prime Minister (C4), with candidates promoting their political agendas in a bid for power, was bumped back in the schedules, airing after 10.30pm. A wise move. We’ve all had more than enough of that game, thanks.
In a more provocative mood, Louis might have leapt on that, perhaps even offered to share a joint — the way he won over Neil and Christine Hamilton by getting sozzled with them.
Instead, he let Stormzy talk as much or as little as he chose. It proved a smart tactic, because the rapper seemed to enjoy the chance for a confessional conversation.
As a teen, he said, he didn’t grasp how abhorrent most people would find the violence that passed for normal life to him.
It wasn’t until he started work, on an apprentice scheme for an oil company, that he realised his fellow students were appalled by the scars of his knife wounds.
He quoted lyrics from one of his hits: ‘If you knew my story you’d be horrified.’
To my surprise, the words didn’t come straight to his tongue. He had to close his eyes and concentrate, to remember them.
Another lyric, one of his most heartfelt, about his anger towards the father who walked out on him in childhood, was almost completely forgotten.
Louis had to pull a piece of paper from his back pocket and speak the lines from Lay Me Bare aloud.
Louis read it aloud with strangled, middle-class vowels. Peter Sellers once had a hit reciting the lyrics of the Beatles’ She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah) in a manic German accent. Louis ought to release his version of Lay Me Bare.
Altogether now: ‘Keep the change . . . I’ll keep the pain . . . I’m cold as f***. F*** that! I’m still not over this. F*** that! No, I’m still not over this.’
How different to the music skipper Stiggy chose, aboard his fishing boat the Tydus, as he headed home to Hartlepool after a week gathering crabs in the North Sea, on Trawlermen: Hunting The Catch (BBC1)
No one writes rap songs about life at sea. One thing is for sure, trawlermen don’t stay at home and ‘smoke weed’ all day
How different to the music skipper Stiggy chose, aboard his fishing boat the Tydus, as he headed home to Hartlepool after a week gathering crabs in the North Sea, on Trawlermen: Hunting The Catch (BBC1).
Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli’s voices rose and mingled in the operatic aria, Time To Say Goodbye. His crew, frozen and exhausted, slept with their hands under their legs, to thaw their fingers.
This raw and engrossing series, documenting the lives of men with one of the hardest jobs imaginable, fills me with awe and admiration.
No one writes rap songs about life at sea. One thing is for sure, trawlermen don’t stay at home and ‘smoke weed’ all day.
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