Over three episodes the politician-turned-Strictly contestant aims to find out why Europe’s politics are shifting. He doesn’t quite manage it
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.