Drawing Teeth

‘IF it’s anything like the book, it will be badly plotted, written in the mode of a sixth form know-all and full of trite observations. And, if it is anything like the book, the reviews will tell us it’s fantastic and we will sit down to watch White Teeth in our millions.

”Dentist!”

Tonight sees the first part of the four-part drama (sic) based on Zadie Smith’s book. It comes as little surprise that the show should be broadcast on Channel 4, a channel that is producing some real terrible TV of late (Elizabeth Hurley’s Brains, for example).

And how right-on is this. A host of half-drawn characters from a mix of racial identities – and sometimes mixed within once person – occupy the screen. There’s the Afro-Caribbean Bible basher, the Bangladeshi wannabe Englishman and the liberal Jews. Anyone say Please Sir?

And before you ask where he is, up pops the radical Muslim nutcase. It’s enough to have the Chinese community up in arms. Or is it that delighted that they have not been included in this racial mess?

But apart from all its many faults, White Teeth will be widely watched because many of us have read the book.

And if you want to watch it, it’s on Channel4 tonight at 10pm. And if you don’t want to, know this: everyone else is, which means it must be good – and that makes you a loser many times over.

‘

Posted: 17th, September 2002 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink