TV programs worth watching
Sun December 12 — Sat December 18

December, month of shop windows full of fake snow, everybody 
else complaining of all the parties they have to go to, and 
television littered with "Christmas Specials". The latter, of 
course, are almost all from the Northern Hemisphere, where 
Christmas images of snow and sleighbells are fitting.

For many years Australian writers strove to create a Christmas 
tradition rooted in the reality of this country in mid-December: 
heat, flies, bush-fires and native wildlife instead of reindeer.

Regrettably, the domination of the mass media by big business 
means that we get mainly imported North American Christmas 
stories. We certainly see few stories anymore like the lovely 
Aussie realist classic Santa Claus in Boyangs.

So, to SBS' Christmas Special, The Christmas Tree (SBS 
7.30pm Sunday), tracing the origins and associated practices of 
the decorated fir tree.

Apparently, it originated in Alsace in the 16th century, and 
spread through Germany and then elsewhere in Europe. But if 
decorating a tree at Christmas is thus a rather recent practice, 
using green trees in ceremonies on December 25 dates back to long 
before the birth of Christ.

The Romans used evergreen trees on December 25 to celebrate the 
winter solstice and the return of the invincible sun god, Sol 
Invictus. So the next time some dour bible-basher complains that 
the "real meaning" of Christmas is being forgotten, tell him to 
get out of the sun.

Grass (SBS 10.30pm Tuesday) follows the trail of dubious 
20th century propaganda, legitimate scientific enquiry and knee-
jerk policing that produced the modern-day US narcotics policy.

Narrated by pot activist Woody Harrelson, the program tends to 
restrict itself to the absurd propaganda and often extraordinary 
moral arguments used to justify the criminalising of marijuana. 
These included claims that pot smoking would turn America's 
younger generations into "insane murderers", "sex-crazed 
maniacs", "heroin addicts" and "Communists" — and sometimes a 
combination of all four.

It would have been a stronger — but a longer — program if it 
had also covered the covert campaign by the Dupont Chemical 
Company, inventor and manufacturer of Nylon, to destroy its 
popular, organic and cheaper main potential competitor, hemp 
(derived, like marijuana, from the cannabis plant).

55 Degrees North (ABC 8.30pm Tuesdays) is the lattitude of 
the English city of Newcastle, and that's where this new police 
series is set. If the series is any guide, then it's a rather 
racist city, at least within the police force.

The central character is a black London detective, Dominic 
'Nicky' Cole, who has been relocated to Newcastle after blowing 
the whistle on police corruption.

Made to work the nightshift by a superior who does not want him, 
surrounded by unfriendly colleagues and very quickly aware that 
the local criminals have a contact in the nick itself, Cole has 
to work extra hard to keep himself out of trouble and to do his 
job.

Although the setting is north east England, the series is made by 
BBC Scotland, and is a well-made, exciting police series laced 
with humour and some astute observation. Cole is excellently 
played by Don Gilet, and he receives good support from some 
accomplished actors such as Dervla Kirwan (from the original 
series of Ballykissangel) as a Crown Prosecution Service 
lawyer and Andrew Dunn (from Dinner Ladies) as a not very 
friendly police sergeant.

There is a type of program, almost always from the US, which 
seeks to demonstrate the "historical truth" of the Bible. Moses 
(ABC 8.30pm Wednesday) is one such program.

They are all alike: they pose the question as black or white. 
Either the Bible account is all fiction or it is entirely true.

That the stories of the Old Testament (and the Koran and the 
Torah) are a mixture of myths and legends, of embroidered oral 
history and outright invention, augmented by tales from other 
lands and cultures, is raised as a possibility (to show the 
program's objectivity).

But it is then dismissed, in favour of literal interpretations 
based on the flimsiest of archeological evidence.

It is a pity, because a genuinely scientific program on the same 
subject using the same archeological evidence would be very 
interesting. But not nearly so certain!

The French-made Iraq: War At Any Cost (ABC 9.25pm 
Wednesday) essentially sets out to show that France did not try 
to sabotage the US in the United Nations during the leadup to the 
invasion of Iraq.

What the program succeeds in showing very clearly is that the 
combination of lying and bullying used by the US was singularly 
unsuccessfdul in persuading most other countries to support its 
war drive.

That it was a war drive, and that the US was operating to a 
military timetable which required that they go to war when they 
did regardless of any vote at the UN, is also demonstrated 
clearly.

As the French Foreign Minister points out towards the end of the 
program, the US withdrew its second resolution on Iraq in the 
Security Council because it had failed to get support. Put to 
vote, the US would have lost.

So they simply went to war behind a smokescreen of bullshit. UN 
weapons inspector Hans Blix, ever the diplomat, nevertheless 
makes it very clear that there were no Iraqi weapons of mass 
destruction to justify the US claims.

But it is the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin who 
makes the most eloquent speech, when telling the Security Council 
— to uncharacteristic applause from other delegates — that 
France will veto any resolution to go to war.

This is a fascinating piece of television journalism. Well worth 
watching.

The Legend Of The Tamworth Two (ABC 8.30pm Thursday) is 
based on a true incident from 1998: two Tamworth pigs escaped 
from an abbttoir and eluded recapture for a week.

The tabloid media, of course, made stars of them, and the public 
took up their cause, sending donations and offers of homes, etc. 
By the time they were recaptured they couldn't be killed, so one 
of the papers bought them and sent them to an animal sanctuary.

Inately amusing, this tale is ripe for satirical embroidering. 
Unfortunately, here it labours under a heavy dose of whimsy, 
which makes the story pall after a while.

The ABC is repeating the two Doc Martin dramas, starting this 
week with the first, Doc Martin (ABC 8.30pm Friday), in 
which successful London obstetrician Dr Martin Bamford discovers 
that his wife has been sleeping with all three of his best 
friends, and heads off to Cornwall on the spur of the moment to 
get his head together.

There he finds himself contemplating a possible future as a 
lobster fisherman while also caught up in the mystery of the 
"jellyman", a local poison pen letter writer whose missives are 
left on villagers' doorsteps in a plate of jelly.

Martin Clunes, from Men Behaving Badly, does quite a good 
job of the Doc and it is not surprising that they made a second 
one (to be re-screened next week) and then a whole series, to be 
shown next year.