The Daily Telegraph - 19.08.2019

The weekend on television

The Day Mountbatten Died

BBC TWO/BBC ONE NORTHERN IRELAND,

9.00PM



On August 27, 1979,

the IRA claimed its

highest-profile scalp:

Louis Mountbatten,

cornerstone of the

establishment, mentor

to Prince Charles and

formerly both First Sea

Lord and the last Viceroy

of India. While lobster-

potting off the coast of

County Sligo, Mountbatten

and three others were

killed by a bomb – an act

that caused widespread

outrage while achieving

the IRA’s goal of drawing

attention back to the

Troubles.

This excellent, fair-

minded film examines the

build-up and aftermath,

and features measured

contributions from all

sides. But the Mountbatten

bomb is only half the

story; on the same day,

18 soldiers and one

civilian were killed in

IRA ambushes in County

Down. Alongside Bloody

Sunday almost a decade

earlier, these were truly

the darkest of days in the

Troubles. Mountbatten’s

granddaughter India

Hicks, voice quivering

with emotion, concludes

with a powerful thought

that was embodied by the

Queen’s encounter with

Martin McGuinness years

later: “Forgiveness is

important, one has to

move on.” Today, as Brexit

approaches, the risks if

the peace process were

disrupted could not be

higher. Gabriel Tate

Arts

Natalia Osipova:

The Mother

SKY ARTS, 10.45PM

 Choreographer Artur Pita

directs ballet star Natalia

Osipova in this widely

acclaimed – and remarkably

dark – take on the Hans

Christian Andersen tale,

The Story of a Mother. It’s

anchored by Osipova as a

woman begging Death to

spare her child. GT

Comedy

Chris Ramsey:

Approval Needed

AMAzON PRIME VIDEO, FROM TODAY

 Strictly’s entry from the

comedy stand-up circuit

gives us a sample of his day

job, with a special filmed in

his town of Newcastle-upon-

Tyne. Ramsey does a very

impressive line in everyman

observational humour –

so sharp that it’s hard to

take against him. GT

Stath Lets Flats

CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM

 Jamie Demetriou’s

gloriously deluded and

inept London lettings

agent returns for a welcome

second series. He’s now

facing off with an ambitious

new boss (Dustin Demri-

Burns) and assessing a

romantic and domestic

situation which can only

be described, at the very

best, as “moribund”. GT

Documentary

Who Do You Think

You Are?

BBC ONE, 9.00PM; N IRELAND, 10.35PM

 The inescapable but

excellent comedian

What to watch

Radio choice Clair Woodward

Crying in the chapel?: Cecily Hanson (Lily Dodsworth-Evans) in Poldark

Poldark slowly sinks in the

west – but do we care?

N

ot long now before we

before we bid goodbye

to Poldark (BBC One,

Sunday) forever – which

may come as a relief

to many. This fifth series,

entertaining as it’s been in parts,

has also been the most compelling

argument for its demise. Dispensing

with Winston Graham’s original

novels, it has gone round and round

in circles of virtue-signalling (about

slavery, the environment, racism,

grief, mental illness, the social

benefits of education, forced

marriages et al) without always

bothering to check it was bringing its

audience with it. Few people, after all,

watch Poldark for its message.

In this episode the Ned Despard

(Vincent Regan) storyline finally came

to a conclusion with cartloads of

treachery, conspiracy, an abortive

prison break and oodles of will-they-

wont-they last minute suspense on

the gallows. In most dramas it’s the

bad guys we hope will get dispatched

but, frankly, it came as a relief when

the hangman kicked the stool out

from under this particular agent of

universal suffrage and social reform

who, over the course of six episodes,

had become less a lovable

revolutionary rogue and more a

monumental pub bore.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Charles

(Freddie Wise) and Cecily Hanson’s

(Lily Dodsworth-Evans) efforts to

subvert George Warleggan’s (Jack

Farthing) dastardly plan to force Cecily

to marry him, also came to a head.

Their romantic dash to Gretna Green

was foiled by George’s henchmen, but

they hadn’t counted on Cecily being

willing to scupper her reputation by

lying that she’s already slept with her

beau. “You’ll always wonder if her

first child is mine or yours,” jibed

Geoffrey Charles from the pews,

demonstrating a canniness beyond his

years. No wonder George, being

George, turned on his heel and ran.

That might have been it had Ross,

weeping manfully on a Cornish

clifftop following Despard’s execution,

not been mysteriously boffed on the

head and consigned to the bottom of

a sinkhole in the closing moments. By

whom was not entirely obvious. But

it certainly left the door open for a

rollicking Ross-focused romp to the

final curtain in Poldark’s “last ever”

episodes over the coming Bank

Holiday weekend. Gerard O’Donovan

T

he blockbuster success of season

one of David Fincher’s

Mindhunter (Netflix) was a

reminder that serial killers never go

out of fashion. Fincher had already

directed two of the classics of the

genre in Seven and Zodiac. The

challenge he faced in his Netflix

collaboration was sustaining our grisly

fascination with some of history’s most

twisted criminals over 10 hours of TV.

He prevailed not by raising the

shock factor but dialling it down.

There was none of Seven’s apocalyptic

gore or Zodiac’s existential dread.

Instead, Mindhunter was a

compellingly by-the-book portrait of

the groundbreaking FBI agents who,

through the Seventies and Eighties,

pioneered the then-controversial field

of criminal profiling.

Fincher and his writers strike the

same restrained tone as Netflix’s most

anticipated adult drama returns with

a gripping and deliciously intricate

second series. We rejoin FBI

Behavioural Science Unit agents Bill

Tench (Holt McCallany) and Holden

Ford (Jonathan Groff ), who is

recovering from a breakdown after

getting a little too deeply inside the

head of “Co-ed Killer” Ed Kemper. The

rogues’ gallery is expanded in season

two, where star billing goes to the

incarcerated Charles Manson. He is

depicted as a cackling latter-day

Rasputin by Damon Herriman. We

are also reintroduced to Kemper

(Cameron Britton) and BTK – for

“Bind, Torture, Kill” – murderer

Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti).

Unlike skin-crawling pseudo

horrors such as Seven, Zodiac and

Silence of the Lambs, a 10-part drama

cannot live on sickening killings alone.

So Mindhunter carves out space for

Tench’s troubled home life. And the

entrenched sexism of big institutions

in the Eighties is touched upon as Ford

and Tench’s criminal psychologist

colleague Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) is

sidelined by the FBI’s gung-ho boss.

Mindhunter’s most impressive

accomplishment is to weave an

engrossing mystery without

trivialising these real-life killers. The

series fascinates rather than unsettles.

Yet the picture it paints of Manson,

Rader and the rest is never glib. It’s a

remarkable achievement and one of

those rare “binge-watch” shows that

lives up to the billing. You really will

want to snaffle it down in one sitting.

The Country Girls

RADIO 4, 10.45AM

 An adaptation of Edna

O’Brien’s debut novel The

Country Girls shows how

far we’ve come since it was

originally published in

1960, with the tale of Irish

rural belles Cait and Baba

experiencing the joys of

young womanhood being

banned in Ireland upon its

publication, and described

as “filth... and should not be

allowed inside any decent

home” by the then-Irish

Justice Minister Charles

Haughey. Charlie Murphy

and Aiobhinn McGinnity

star as Kate and Baba in the

first of ten parts, broadcast

as part of this morning’s

Woman’s Hour.

Three Vicars Talking

RADIO 4, 11.00AM

 The Reverends Richard

Coles, Kate Bottley and Giles

Fraser share their tales

of hatches, matches and

dispatches in this first of

three programmes looking

at their careers in the clergy.

The series starts at the end

of life, when the vicars

discuss funerals and their

experiences of comforting

those who are approaching

their or their loved ones’

final days. Naturally, there’s

more than a smidgen of

gallows humour, but there’s

also a tremendous amount

of warmth in their stories

and reflections on what the

job of being a member of

the clergy means to them.

Katherine Ryan follows her

family tree into the past,

via a Methodist minister

in Nova Scotia, cod traders

in Newfoundland and,

eventually, all the way

to Dorset. GT

Rams: Principles

of Good Design

BBC FOUR, 9.00PM

 This is a solid profile of

the designer Dieter Rams,

whose work for Braun and

furniture company Vitsoe

was a key influence on the

now-familiar aesthetic

purveyed by Apple – but, as

it turns out, whose feelings

regarding his legacy are

intriguingly equivocal. GT

Factual

Call the Cops

CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM

 Channel 4 doesn’t mess

with a winning formula,

finding yet another angle

to the emergency services

with this new series set in

Devon and Cornwall’s Force

Control: the police nerve-

centre where the day’s

incidents are prioritised.

Tonight we witness all

manner of goings-on: there’s

a violent arrest, a concealed

number plate and the fallout

from a boozy weekend

on the counties’ streets. GT

Born Famous:

Michelle Mone

CHANNEL 4, 10.30PM

 This well-intended but

misfiring series follows

Bethany, daughter of

underwear entrepreneur

Michelle Mone; she spends

time with a young man and

his family in Glasgow as

his poor health thwarts his

best efforts to find himself

steady work. GT

Poldark ★★★

Mindhunter ★★★★★

Good Design: Dieter Rams

Born Famous: Mone Jr and Sr

Assassinated: Lord Mountbatten at the family castle

Radio 1

FM 97.6-99.8MHz

6. 3 0am The Radio 1 Breakfast Show
   with Greg James 10.00 Radio 1
   Anthems with Clara Amfo 11.00 Clara
   Amfo 12.4 5 pm Newsbeat 1.00 Scott
   Mills 4.00 Nick Grimshaw 5 .4 5
   Newsbeat 6.00 Nick Grimshaw 7.00
   Radio 1’s Future Sounds with Annie
   Mac 8.00 Radio 1’s Power Down
   Playlist with Phil Taggart 9.00 Rickie,
   Melvin and Charlie 11.00 Radio 1’s
   Indie Show with Jack Saunders
   1.00am Radio 1’s Drum & Bass Show
   with Rene LaVice 3 .00 Radio 1’s Hype
   Chart with Phil Taggart 4.00 -


7. 3 0am Early Breakfast with Adele
   Roberts

Radio 2

FM 88-90.2MHz

6. 3 0am The Amol Rajan Breakfast
   Show 9. 30 Ken Bruce 12.00 Jeremy
   Vine 2.00pm Steve Wright in the
   Afternoon 5 .00 Vanessa Feltz 7.00 Jo
   Whiley. Music and chat 9.00 The Blues
   Show with Huey Morgan. Sitting in for
   Cerys Matthews with new and classic
   tracks 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s Rhythm
   Nation 12.00 OJ Borg 3 .00am Sounds
   of the 70s with Johnnie Walker 5 .00 -


7. 3 0am Nicki Chapman

Radio 3

FM 90.2-92.4MHz

6. 3 0am Breakfast 9.00 Essential
   Classics 11.00 Edinburgh
   International Festival 2019 1.00pm
   News 1.02 Proms Chamber Music
   2019 2.00 Afternoon Concert 5 .00 In
   Tune 7.00 In Tune Mixtape 7. 30 BBC
   Proms 2019 10.1 5 Between the Ears:
   A Cow a Day. Pejk Malinovski follows a

cow in Varansi from sunrise until

sunset 10.4 5 The Essay: Forests.

Nancy Kerr explains why forests

provide such perfect metaphors in folk

music 11.00 Jazz Now 12. 3 0am -

6. 3 0am Through the Night

Radio 4

FM 92.4-94.6MHz; LW 198KHz

6.00am Today 9.00 Reflections with

Peter Hennessy 9.4 5 Book of the

Week: Coventry 9.4 5 LW: Daily Service

10.00  Woman’s Hour, including

The Country Girls at 10.45am. See

Radio choice 11.00  Three Vicars

Talking. See Radio choice 11. 30 Loose

Ends 12.00 News 12.01pm LW:

Shipping Forecast 12.04 Heartburn

12.18 You and Yours 12. 57 Weather

1.00 The World at One 1.4 5 World

War 2: The Economic Battle 2.00 The

Archers 2.1 5 Drama: The Bulbul Was

Singing 3 .00 The 3rd Degree 3. 30 The

Food Programme 4.00 Millennials in

the Workplace 4. 30 Beyond Belief

5 .00 PM 5. 54 LW: Shipping Forecast

5. 57 Weather 6.00 Six O’Clock News

6. 30 Just a Minute. Comedy panel
   show, chaired by Gyles Brandreth 7.00
   The Archers. Jim finds himself a new
   focus 7.1 5 Front Row. Arts
   programme 7.4 5 The Country Girls. By
   Edna O’Brien 8.00 On Baseball 8. 30
   Crossing Continents 9.00 Power of
   Petite 9. 30 Reflections with Peter
   Hennessy 9. 59 Weather 10.00 The
   World Tonight 10.4 5 Book at Bedtime:
   Heartburn 11.00 Word of Mouth


7. 30 Beyond Today 12.00 News and
   Weather 12. 3 0am Book of the Week:
   Coventry 12.48 Shipping Forecast
   1.00 As World Service 5 .20 Shipping
   Forecast 5. 30 News Briefing 5 .4 3
   Prayer for the Day 5 .4 5 Farming Today


8. 5 8 - 6.00am Tweet of the Day

Radio 5 Live

MW 693 & 909KHz

6.00am 5 Live Breakfast 9.00 Your

Call 10.00 The Emma Barnett Show

with Chris Warburton 1.00pm Nihal

Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live Drive 7.00 5

Live Sport 8.00 5 Live Sport: Premier

League Football 2019-20 10. 30 Sarah

Brett 1.00am Up All Night 5 .00

Morning Reports 5 .1 5 - 6.00am Wake

Up to Money

Classic FM

FM 99.9-101.9MHz

6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00

John Suchet 1.00pm Anne-Marie

Minhall 5 .00 Classic FM Drive 7.00

Smooth Classics at Seven. Relaxing

sounds 8.00 The Full Works Concert

10.00 Smooth Classics 1.00am -

6.00am Sam Pittis

World Service

DIGITAL ONLY

6.00am Newsday 8. 30 Business Daily

8. 50 Witness History 9.00 News 9.06
   The Inquiry 9. 30 Boston Calling 10.00
   World Update 11.00 The Newsroom


9. 30 The Conversation 12.00 News
   12.06pm Outlook 1.00 The
   Newsroom 1. 30 The Why Factor 1. 50
   More or Less 2.00 Newshour 3 .00
   News 3 .06 HARDtalk 3. 30 World
   Business Report 4.00 BBC OS 6.00
   News 6.06 Outlook 7.06 The
   Newsroom 7. 30 Sport Today 8.00
   News 8.06 HARDtalk 8. 30 Discovery
   9.00 Newshour 10.00 News 10.06
   The Why Factor 10. 30 World Business
   Report 11.00 News 11.06 The
   Newsroom 11.20 Sports News 11. 30
   The Conversation 12.00 News
   12.06am The History Hour 1.00 News

1.06 Business Matters 2.00 News

2.06 The Newsroom 2. 30 The Why

Factor 2. 50 More or Less 3 .00 News

3 .06 People Fixing The World 3. 30 In

the Studio 4.00 News 4.06 Newsday

5 .00 News 5 .06 The Newsroom 5. 3 0 -

6.00am Discovery

Radio 4 Extra

DIGITAL ONLY

6.00am To the Moon and Back 6. 30

The Walpole Chronicle 7.00 A Whole

’Nother Story 7. 30 Just a Minute 8.00

A Very Private Man 8. 30 Dad’s Army

9.00 The Unbelievable Truth 9. 30 The

Senses 10.00 Kate Brannigan – Clean

Break 11.00 TED Radio Hour 11. 50

Inheritance Tracks 12.00 A Very

Private Man 12. 3 0pm Dad’s Army

1.00 To the Moon and Back 1. 30 The

Walpole Chronicle 2.00 Reef 2.1 5 A

Brief History of Mathematics 2. 30

Bindi Business 2.4 5 Not My Father’s

Son – A Family Memoir 3 .00 Kate

Brannigan – Clean Break 4.00 The

Unbelievable Truth 4. 30 The Senses

5 .00 A Whole ’Nother Story 5. 30 Just

a Minute 6.00 Robert Aickman Stories

6.1 5 The Bionic Blob 6. 30 A Good

Read 7.00 A Very Private Man 7. 30

Dad’s Army 8.00 To the Moon and

Back 8. 30 The Walpole Chronicle 9.00

TED Radio Hour 9. 50 Inheritance

Tracks 10.00 Comedy Club 12.00

Robert Aickman Stories 12.1 5 am The

Bionic Blob 12. 30 A Good Read 1.00

To the Moon and Back 1. 30 The

Walpole Chronicle 2.00 Reef 2.1 5 A

Brief History of Mathematics 2. 30

Bindi Business 2.4 5 Not My Father’s

Son – A Family Memoir 3 .00 Kate

Brannigan – Clean Break 4.00 The

Unbelievable Truth 4. 30 The Senses

5 .00 A Whole ’Nother Story 5. 3 0 -

6.00am Just a Minute

Television & radio

32 ***^ Monday 19 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph

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