The week in TV: Colin in Black and White; The Outlaws; The Long Call; Universe

You only have to watch footage of then-president Donald Trump slating Colin Kaepernick to realise how much the former San Francisco 49er quarterback shook up sectors of white America.

A commanding, suited figure, he covers everything from “aggressive” black hairstyles to societal devaluation of black beauty to white privilege – “the audacity of whiteness” – that young Colin gradually realises he doesn’t possess, whether being gawped at in hotel lobbies or driving his father’s car.

I’m not convinced that Colin in Black and White is as interesting or trailblazing as its subject, but it works as a starter bundle of complex race issues for young sports fans.

Rani, “studious Asian good girl” turned shoplifter, played by Rhianne Barreto, observes: “Everyone’s a type: rightwing blowhard, leftwing militant, celebutante, shifty old timer.” There’s also Merchant as a dweeb solicitor, and Jessica Gunning as an officious overseer, who is inevitably reminiscent of Gareth from The Office, with an added soupçon of civic authority.

I’d wondered if Walken’s Hollywood star power would swamp things, but in the overstuffed opener his rogue barely gets a look-in.

Merchant has forged his own path since working with Ricky Gervais, but in the Outlaws opener, too many genres are crudely bolted together: comedy, crime, heartwarming drama, a bizarre segue into gangland Top Boy territory.

Crime novelist Ann Cleeves appears to have colonised British crime drama with Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn, BBC One’s Shetland, with Douglas Henshall, and now The Long Call.

Still, there is much to enjoy in Aldridge’s elegant, slow-burn performance, especially when offset by Pearl Mackie’s lively fire as his detective partner.

Talking of sinister religious cults, is eminent physicist Brian Cox thinking of leading one? I ask, because there were times during the opening episode of Universe, his new five-part BBC Two series on the origin story of the cosmos, when his delivery verged on Old Testament biblical.

In Universe, all of this is accompanied by the kind of overwrought, uber-cosmic visuals that made one think of how it must have felt to be trapped screaming at a Jean-Michel Jarre concert, circa Oxygène.

Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story explores the debt owed by British football to Caribbean migration.

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