The Observer - 25.08.2019

56

The Observer

25.08.19

Television

Today Bank holiday Tuesday Wednesday

Peaky Blinders
BBC One, 9pm
Two years on, Tommy Shelby (MP!) and his
nattily dressed mob of henchmen return for a
fi fth series of Steven Knight’s peerless period
romp. See what happens when their world
comes crashing down in the wake of the Wall
Street Crash and fi nd out whether Tommy’s
razorboys really have left their bloody
Brummie past behind. Continues tomorrow.

Peter Taylor: My Journey
Through the Troubles
BBC Two, 10pm
To mark the anniversary of the deployment
of British troops in Northern Ireland in 1969,
Peter Taylor prompts new perspectives on the
confl ict in a retrospective on his 50 years of
reporting in the province, in which reveals he
“probably” would have joined the IRA had he
been a teenager there on Bloody Sunday. MB

Film

Sweet Country

(Warwick Thornton, 2017)
Sky Cinema Westerns, 2.35am
A superb Outback western from the maker of
Samson and Delilah. Set in Australia’s Northern
Territory, the action takes place between
various farms. One is run by religious-minded
Fred Smith (Sam Neill), along with Indigenous
Australian couple Sam and Lizzie Kelly
(Hamilton Morris, Natassia Gorey-Furber).
On another lives a rebellious young boy
named Philomac (twins Tremayne and Trevon
Doolan). Enter another farmer (Ewen Leslie),
scarred by the fi rst world war, and violence
breaks out. Bryan Brown plays the sergeant
out to catch the fugitives involved – and the
historic stresses of a nation play out to riveting
effect in an austerely beautiful landscape
photographed by director Thornton himself. JR

Pick of the Day

Sanditon

ITV, 9pm

Screenwriter Andrew Davies (Pride

and Prejudice, War & Peace) delivers an

eight-part adaptation/completion of

Jane Austen’s unfi nished novel (she only

wrote 11 chapters) which begins with

demure heroine Charlotte Heywood’s

introduction to polite society in the seaside

resort of Sanditon (thought to be based

on Worthing). What’s not so demure is

Davies’s ill-advised inclusion of odd sexual

exploits, but it doesn’t spoil a good tale led

by actors Rose Williams and Theo James.

Pick of the Day

Poldark

BBC One, 8.30pm

It seems hard to believe that Debbie

Horsfi eld’s popular television adaptation

of the Cornish novels by Winston Graham

began as long ago as 2015, but this charac -

teristically compelling fi nale is proof of

its enduring appeal. The show goes out

in style as Ross’s plan to foil the French

invasion almost lands him in hot water,

in particular with a slighted Demel za, and

Messrs Merceron and Hanson get their just

deserts. But why, you wonder, does the

ending seem to promise a new beginning?

Pick of the Day

The Great British Bake Off

Channel 4, 8pm

As judges Paul Hollywood and Prue

Leith reconvene for season three in the

company of presenters Sandi Toksvig and

Noel Fielding, we meet a baker’s dozen of

new faces led by bookies’ early favourite

geography teacher Alice Fevronia, 28, from

a fi eld comprising fashion designers, HGV

drivers and even a vet, all of whom are

looking forward to the challenges of Cake

Week. Watch their efforts to tackle a fruit

cake; a Technical involving a retro classic;

and fi nally a Showstopper birthday cake.

Pick of the Day

Cannabis: Miracle Medicine

or Dangerous Drug?

BBC Two, 9pm

As worries increase about the side-effects

of cannabis use and the world rushes

to embrace the drug as a miracle cure,

it’s the ideal time for A&E doctor Javid

Abdelmoneim (No More Boys and Girls: Can

Our Kids Go Gender Free?) to present the

facts in a hard-hitting Horizon that explains

the latest research, reviews the legalisation

of the drug in its medical form and reveals

a direct correlation between skunk and the

recent rise in cases of psychosis. Excellent.

Keeping Faith

BBC One, 9pm

Season two of Matthew Hall’s Welsh legal

thriller comes to a compelling close as

separate plot strands – Will’s murder, Gael’s

true intentions, Evan’s continuing betrayals

• are interwoven to devastating effect.
  Ingeniously, the show (via the brilliant Eve
  Myles’s Faith) fi nds time to remind us that life
  in Abercorran is all about love and family.

Revolutions

BBC Four, 9pm

Robots “Where we are with robots today

is probably about where we were with

computers in the 1950s,” says a scientist at the

start of the fi nal programme in Jim Al-Khalili’s

mesmerising popular science series. What

follows is a stunningly illustrated chronicle of a

timeline that stretches from an eighth-century

self-playing trumpet to the very latest AI. MB

Film

The Angels’ Share

(Ken Loach, 2012)

Film4, 1.05am

Late-period Loach, in a lighter mode than

usual – although he occasionally lets his

hair down with comedy, as in Riff-Raff and

Looking for Eric. This one, scripted by regular

collaborator Paul Laverty, is a Scottish caper

about a young man at odds with the law,

who fi nds he has a nose for fi ne whisky and

is quick to sniff out possibilities for a single

malt heist. Affable craggy-faced John Henshaw

and an imposing Roger Allam are among the

support, while debut actor Paul Brannigan

won a Scottish Bafta for his lead performance.

While you’re left with a warm peaty glow,

you’ll quickly detect signature notes of

political rage, as well as rich undertones of

Alexander Mackendrick’s Whisky Galore! JR

Instinct

Sky Witness, 9pm

It might seem odd to screen a new season of

a show cancelled only nine days ago by its

makers CBS, but anyone who enjoyed the fi rst

run of the dapper American police procedural

starring Alan Cumming as wisecracking

married gay gumshoe Dylan Reinhart will

welcome its return with another intriguing

campaign to catch a New York serial killer.

The Power of Women

Sky Arts, 10pm

Human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy and

comedian/mental health advocate Ruby Wax

are the fi rst participants in the opener to a

stimulating six-part series that each week

brings together two infl uential women to

discuss their approaches to discrimination

and challenges to make their voices heard.

Good sense. Good humour. Good TV. MB

Film

The Muppets

(James Bobin, 2011)

BBC Two, 1.10pm

Looking wryly back to the Muppets’ days of

TV glory, this makes witty post-modern sport

with the idea of Kermit and co as faded stars,

pluckily trying to connect with a new era. As

the gang fi ght Chris Cooper’s evil property

magnate (“Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh!”),

the in-jokes come thick and fast – Miss Piggy’s

entrance pays sublime homage to The Devil

Wears Prada – while Bret McKenzie’s priceless

songs include the ultimate comedy tearjerker

Man or Muppet. There’s no shame in saying

that the humans upstage their hosts – Jason

Segal, who co-wrote, scores a personal best as

Muppet-identifi ed man-boy Gary, while Amy

Adams joyously sends up her Enchanted image

as a latter-day Julie Andrews. Pure pleasure. JR

Who Do You Think You Are?

BBC One, 9pm

“Family history is a mystery,” says comedian

Paul Merton at the start of this week’s

adventure. “I have absolutely no idea whether

I’m related to the Duke of Cumberland or any

other pub!” Among the ancestors who emerge

with stories to tell are an Irish grandfather

with a controversial past and another relation

who also shared “the performance gene”.

Kevin’s Grandest Design

Channel 4, 9pm

To introduce a new series of the self-build show

and mark its 20th anniversary, Kevin McCloud

hosts a programme in which he reveals his top

fi ve buildings chosen from a total of almost

200 projects. Grand Designs proper returns

next Wednesday with a new run promising

homes made from converted concrete water

tanks and even a one built into a cliff. MB

Film

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

(John Ford, 1962)

Sky Cinema Westerns, 9.20am & 8pm

Black and white, studio bound, strangely

theatrical, even artifi cial – a distinct anomaly

among Ford’s lat er westerns, but generally

regarded as one of his greatest. It is certainly

among his most provocative in terms of

the complex light it sheds on the American

imagination and on history and its making.

James Stewart plays Senator Ranse Stoddard,

a man looking back at his past – precisely, a

quarter-century back when, as an attorney,

he tangled with Lee Marvin’s titular bandit.

John Wayne plays Tom Doniphon, a rancher

who takes a hand in the confl ict. The famous

line “When the legend becomes fact, print

the legend” has made this one of the most

controversial fi lms in the Ford canon. JR

The week’s highlights

By Mike Bradley

Films by

Jonathan Romney