The Observer - 04.08.2019

The Observer

04.08.19 57

Thursday Friday Saturday Radio By Stephanie Billen

Pick of the Day

The Secret Teacher

Channel 4, 9pm

Wealthy business-owners who struggled

during their education adopt the guise

of school support staff in a worthwhile

four-part series that begins with

marketing mogul Paul Rowlett (below),

who volunteers to spend six weeks

at Haileybury Turnford secondary in

Hertfordshire as “Mr Williams”, offering

help and pep talks to Year 11 pupils.

Can he spot potential apprentices and

students in need of his sponsorship before

the vital moment when he lifts the mask?

Pick of the Day

Proms: The John

Wilson Orchestra

BBC Four, 8pm

This year John Wilson’s must-see virtuoso

orchestra celebrates the music of Warner

Brothers fi lm studios in Hollywood’s

golden age, spanning Steiner to Korngold

via Arlen and Loewe. Later concert The

Sound of Space (BBC Four, 10.30pm) sees

the London Contemporary Orchestra

perform music from science-fi ction fi lms

including Interstellar (Hans Zimmer ),

Under the Skin (Mica Levi), Gravity (Steven

Price) and Alien: Covenant (Jed Kurzel).

Pick of the Day

International Rugby Union

Channel 4, 1.30pm

Ireland v Italy As a diversion for those

eagerly awaiting the 2019 Rugby World

Cup which arrives next month (20

September), fans can enjoy live coverage of

this Guinness Summer Series fi xture from

the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, as both sides

continue preparations for the World Cup.

In February when these sides met in Rome,

Ireland ground out a 26-16 Six Nations

victory. They’ll need to do better today to

justify the 6-1 odds offered by the bookies

on them winning the trophy in Japan.

Picks of the Week

The dark side of showbiz comes under

scrutiny in Me and My Shadow (Sunday,

Radio 4, 7.15pm), a beautifully crafted

black comedy by Georgia Pritchett (Veep,

Succession). Miranda Richardson excels

as ruthless joke machine and “national

treasure” Joy, performing in a mid-20th-

century stage double act with humourless

stooge Jane (Fortitude’s Jessica Gunning).

Convinced she can be funny too, Jane

plots revenge on her co-star in a twisty

tale reminiscent of some of BBC Two’s

Inside No 9 offerings.

Glamour came to Tynecastle Park

football stadium in Edinburgh last week

when the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Orchestra celebrated the start of the

international festival with an evening of

sumptuous fi lm music from the golden  age

of Hollywood. The event can be heard in

an exclusive broadcast on The Full Works

Concert (Monday, Classic FM, 8pm). In a

glitzy week, listeners can hear more movie

scores in Wednesday’s sci-fi themed Prom

27 and Friday’s Proms 29 and 30 – all

broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Four.

Show-offy animal courtship displays are

one thing but in Power of Deceit (Tuesday,

Radio 4, 11am), Lucy Cooke reveals how con

artistry gets results too. A male squid can

apparently sneak past a rival by pretending

to be female but then use its hidden side

to fl ash a sexual signal to its potential

mate. Cockerels meanwhile like to attract

a hen by producing the kind of cluck

that advertises food, then hoodwinking

her into having sex instead. Light-

hearted but fascinatingly informative,

the fi rst of three programmes covers

bird, chimp and human deception from

an evolutionary perspective.

What do you do when you live

somewhere devoid of charisma? Hazel

Tours (Friday, Radio 4, 11.30am) stars Karen

Fishwick as local historian Hazel Begg

who vows to big-up her Scottish Borders

hometown by delivering a guided tour to

anyone who will listen. Written by Clare

in the Community creators Harry Venning

and David Ramsden, this engaging if low-

key comedy follows Hazel as she drags

an American couple round the hanging

tree and medieval cess pits while fending

off interruptions from her ex and other

Weith residents, determined that the show

must go on. What she does not realise is

that she, not Weith, is the star attraction.

Serengeti

BBC One, 8pm

This “dramatised natural history” show was

always going to be about the fi nale, and

tonight we are treated to a spectacularly

orchestrated resolution brimming with happy

endings. Best of all, for any loyal supporters

of beleaguered baboon Bakari, the aftermath

of the fi re brings a long overdue change in the

natural order as peace returns to the plains.

This Way Up

Channel 4, 10pm

Somehow you just knew that Irish comedian

Aisling Bea’s fi rst dramatic outing as both star

and writer would be a surefi re hit. Wickedly

egged on by co-star Sharon Horgan, Bea plays

a woman released from rehab after a nervous

breakdown in a mischievously funny tale

that manages to be tender and touching too.

A fi ve-star debut for a six-part series. MB

Film

Walk on the Wild Side

(Edward Dmytryk, 1962)

Talking Pictures TV, 1.30am

Hey babe... Lou Reed took his song title from

the 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, here adapted

by, among others, another eminent bard of

American low life, John Fante. It’s a depression-

era story about social outsiders crossing paths

in New Orleans, notably at the Doll House

bordello, where Barbara Stanwyck rules

the roost, and where drifter Dove (Laurence

Harvey) fi nds his old love Hallie (suave French

star Capucine). Some contemporary critics

were sceptical about its air of sophisticated

daring, but the fi lm is classily executed and

cast: it also stars Jane Fonda and Anne Baxter.

Plus there’s a prime Elmer Bernstein score and

an superb Saul Bass credit sequence that came

to be more celebrated than the fi lm itself. JR

Joan Jett: Bad Reputation

Sky Arts, 9pm

Director Kevin Kerslake’s feature-length

documentary about the mould-breaking

American rock star of Runaways and

Blackhearts fame is a superbly illustrated

chronicle of her journey from being told at 13

“Girls don’t play rock’n’roll” to shattering the

glass ceiling and garnering global fame. The

only aspect missing is her love life, but hey...

Below the Surface

BBC Four, 9pm & 9.45pm

The tension doesn’t let up for a second as the

Danish thriller enters an exciting new phase

aboard the hijacked ferry in the Øresund.

Former Terror Task Force chief Philip Norgaard

broods moodily at the heart of the drama, just

waiting for the right moment to strike at his

captors and ensure the safety of their quarry

June al-Baqee. Trouble is: things go awry. MB

Film

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

(Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey,

Rodney Rothman, 2018)

Sky Cinema Premiere, 12.20pm & 8pm

Just when everyone was getting tired of the

reliable old web-slinger and his humdrum live-

action adventures, along came this dazzling

animation to recharge the superhero genre.

With a screenplay co-written by Lego Movie’s

Phil Lord, this dizzy extravaganza delves into

Marvel mythology to offer multiple heroes, with

Peter Parker ceding the limelight to rising teen

contender Miles Morales, anime heroine Peni

Parker, trenchcoated Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas

Cage) and oddball porker Spider-Ham. Risking

downright silliness, the fi lm triumphs through

irreverent wit and the baroque jazziness of its

forms and colours. Not just a popcorn thrill

but a genuine aesthetic rapture. JR

Free Meek

Amazon Prime

Rapper Meek Mill has been on probation

for a decade. This fi ve-part fi lm chronicles

his battle for exoneration from drugs and

fi rearms charges, exposing fl aws in the US

criminal justice system. Cameras capture

the birth of the #FREEMEEK movement

and the ReformAlliance and monitor the

re investigation of his case. A new trial awaits.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

More4, 9pm

An enthralling new Italian detective series

opens in Turin, where tough Inspector Valeria

Ferro (real-life former Miss Italy Miriam Leone)

is summoned to an area of the city known

as “Little Bucharest” to view the body of a

missing 15-year-old girl. The fi nger points

in one direction, but we all know what that

means in TV crime dramas... Gripping. MB

Film

Crazy Heart

(Scott Cooper, 2009)

Sky Cinema Greats, 2pm

Jeff Bridges deservingly won an Oscar for best

actor as Bad Blake, an outlaw-style country and

western singer down on his luck and eclipsed

by his one-time prot eg e (Colin Farrell). Maggie

Gyllenhaal (who won best supporting actress)

is a reporter who interviews him, then becomes

part of his life. Writer-director Cooper – who

later made Black Mass and Hostiles – offers a

cannily observed, sharply written debut with

a lucid, pragmatic feel for the hard-knocks

life of a musical journeyman. Robert Duvall

also features, in typically imposing form.

With music by T-Bone Burnett and Stephen

Bruton, this knocks the recent country-styled

A Star Is Born – which perhaps borrows a lick

or two from it – into a battered Stetson. JR

The darker

side of comedy:

Jessica Gunning

and Miranda

Richardson.

BBC

РЕЛИЗ

ПОДГОТОВИЛА

ГРУППА

"What's News"

VK.COM/WSNWS

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS