AUGUST 3 2019 LISTENER 65
SUNDAY AUGUST 4
Funny As: The Story of New Zea-
land Comedy (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm).
No, they didn’t leave Billy T
out of this series: he is the Big
Bang of Māori and Polynesian
comedy, which is the subject
of tonight’s episode.Baptiste (SoHo, Sky 010,
8.30pm). The French detective
from The Missing, who helped
James Nesbitt search for his
missing son in 2014, gets his
own series. Julien Baptiste
(Tchéky Karyo) is supposed
to be recovering from brain
surgery in Amsterdam, but
an old friend from the Dutch
police asks him to help search
for a missing sex worker.
The case leads to some nasty
gangsters and quite a bit of
double-crossing. Don’t you
hate it when that happens.
Tom Hollander plays the
missing woman’s uncle andCall the Midwife’s Jes-
sica Raine is a British
detective.American Crime Story: The
Assassination of Gianni Versace
(Prime, 11.30pm). It begins
with the murder of fashion
designer Gianni Versace
outside his Miami Beach
mansion in 1997, but the
nine-part series is largely
made up of flashbacks of
the life and deeds of Andrew
Cunanan, a psychopathic
fantasist who had already
killed four men before he
pointed a gun at Versace. It
is an extraordinary perfor-
mance from Darren Criss,
who quite rightly won an
Emmy for playing Cunanan,
but the rest of the cast are
also excellent, especially
Penélope Cruz, who gets theodd speak-
ing style and
opaqueness of Don-
atella Versace just right. Cruz,
Édgar Ramírez, who plays
Versace, and Ricky Martin,
who plays Versace’s partner,
Antonio D’Amico, were all
nominated for Emmys.MONDAY AUGUST 5
Murdoch Mysteries (Vibe, Sky
006, 7.30pm). The Canadianment
compared with how we judge
men. I was also fascinated
with the idea that we are all
probably just two degrees from
having either done a terrible
thing or having been involved
in something in your teenage
years that could have gone
disastrously wrong.”
Miri is an adult beginner,
“trying to start her life with
all that is thrown at her and
all the baggage she’s dragging
behind her”. Haggard spoke
to former prisoners about
coming back after a long time
away and there are many
ostensibly mundane details
that made it into the show,
such as not knowing what to
wear or craving fresh, crunchy
food.
It’s this mix of poignancy
and awkward cheer that has
seen Back to Life spoken of in
the same breath as Phoebe
Waller-Bridge’s multi-award-
winning Fleabag. “It’s an
honour to be mentioned
alongside it,” Haggard told the
Guardian. “But I also can’t wait
until there are so many female
voices on screen that we don’t
need to compare them.” lAmerican Crime Story:
The Assassination of
Gianni Versace, Sunday.The Best of the Week
Television
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Baptiste, Sunday.