Small screen

According to the BBC, there was a ten year stretch of history that Britain had lost after the Second World War and which the well-meaning in-house documentary filmmakers down at White City wish to reclaim for us all. Unfortunately the result is the rather lacklustre series (tellingly relegated to BBC4), The Lost Decade 1945-1955, of which this week’s episode, A Very British Olympics, focuses solely on the trials and tribulations of the first British-hosted games only three years after war’s end.Its faintly retro comic address sounds dated, mainly as a result of Alan Coren’s all too familiar droning voiceover narration; it does very little in the way of highlighting the eccentricity of the subject matter. While some inventive rapid cross-cutting between conventional side profile interviews of those involved and vintage video footage from the 1948 competition works in certain sequences (the bobsleighing attempt in particular), the twee, in-those-days school of speak undermines any visual flair.The direction of the programme is also far too blurred by the conflicting pull of the episode’s specific topic and its concern to be faithful to the series’ house style. Thus we get much too much of the usual musings on the poverty-stricken state of post-war Britain (a general theme of the series it seems) and not nearly enough of the genuinely touching moments from Olympic home-turf triumphs such as Audrey Williamson’s 200 metres victory. There’s certainly not much here that will be bemoaned if it ever gets lost in the archives.Back to the present day and the eclectic inhabitants of the mysterious Pacific island are more than just Lost this week, they’ve grown delirious as well, which is about time given how long it’s been since they first set up camp. The love-hate triangle between dashing doctor Jack (Matthew Fox), far-too-efficient-for-her-own-good Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and everyone’s favourite loveable rogue, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) intensifies with the new discovery of a locked metal briefcase. There are the usual ambiguous, Lost-esque hints that it may contain insights into Kate’s not-so-clean-living past, and not surprisingly the focus of the episode’s narratorial flashbacks turns to her.Meanwhile, Sayid (a consistently excellent Naveen Andrews) tirelessly continues his quest to decipher the babbling Frenchwoman’s cryptics, enlisting the help of Shannon (an underused Maggie Grace) for the job.Closed door secrets and undecipherable riddles become the order of the day in this episode, cunningly titled Whatever the Case May Be. Writers Damon Lindelof and Jennifer Johnson do their best with what is essentially a bridge edition, spinning the tension even tighter in preparation for imminent revelations in future episodes. And I’m still awaiting more Ian Somerhalder screen time. Compared to the most recent instalments this one isn’t as urgently watchable, although it is infused with a real sense of the metaphorical closing net descending on the helpless cast of characters. Not a vintage episode by any stretch of the imagination, but at least we finally get to find out a little more as to why Kate is such a pro when it comes to handguns.ARCHIVE: 1st week MT 2005