Over three episodes the politician-turned-Strictly contestant aims to find out why Europe’s politics are shifting. He doesn’t quite manage it
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Is Ed Balls charming? I’m really struggling with this question, watching Travels in Euroland With Ed Balls (Thursday, 9pm,
BBC Two), a three-part series, for some reason, where Ed Balls goes around Europe asking workers why they voted for far-right parties and always getting the exact same answer, again and again and again, but occasionally doing what-the-humans-do bits in between to make it a TV programme rather than a doomed campaign trail. So we see Ed Balls take a castanet-clacking dance class in
Spain, or Ed Balls swimming in the frigid northern sea, Ed Balls for some reason inviting himself into a succession of European homes to make himself a coffee or Ed Balls waving silently at someone’s non-English speaking mum.
And throughout this, you are stuck in this strange liminal relationship with Balls, torn somewhere between liking him and not: why is Ed Balls in Europe again? And why are you watching him? The answer is: a new front of far-right-leaning populist parties have found continental success (basically, every European country now has its own version of Ukip, which is ironically quite a nightmare for Ukip itself: they come over here, don’t they, and steal our intolerance), and Ed Balls wants to know why.