Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

TV Review: Terrible lockdown TV is, I’m afraid, the new normal

© BBC / UKTV / Vishal SharmaMartin Compston and Molly Thomson in Traces.
Martin Compston and Molly Thomson in Traces.

Covid has visited some awful things upon us so it seems churlish to complain about small nuisances resulting from the pandemic.

Yet, like the weaselly guy in a war film who constantly whinges about rations not being up to scratch as his comrades face down the actual Nazis, I’m unable to maintain a stiff upper lip any longer. Not after sitting through Traces last week.

TV being increasingly rubbish is a growing source of irritation. A bit like those people in supermarkets who can’t pull their mask up over their nose. Listen, mate, how would you like it if I wandered about with my private parts draped over the front of my joggies? You wouldn’t, so get that conk covered. Dramas are just difficult to film with social distancing, which is why Traces was dragged from the relative oblivion of the Alibi channel where it originally debuted, to be shown on prime-time BBC1.

Despite sterling efforts from Martin Compston and Laura Fraser everything about Traces is tackier than a Blu Tack factory.

Dialogue, sets, plot, even the acronyms for the organisations the characters belong to are a bit limp. SIFA?

I watched Traces back when it appeared on Alibi and didn’t mind it, so perhaps Lockdown 3 has finally broken me.

Traces might be better left, much like a nose poking over a mask, nicely tucked away.


Traces BBC1, Monday, 9pm