Times 2 - UK (2020-09-11)

the times | Friday September 11 2020 1GT 3

Film

The Broken Hearts Gallery

A wickedly funny screenplay

from the writer-director Natalie

Krinsky — a veteran of the

television series Gossip Girl —

and an indecently charismatic

central turn from the rising

Australian star Geraldine

Viswanathan, right with Dacre

Montgomery, elevate this

rom-com. See review, page 8.

On general release in cinemas

Talking Heads: The Shrine and

Bed Among the Lentils

The live version of Alan

Bennett’s monologue series

gets off to an immaculate start

with a 75-minute double bill

featuring Monica Dolan, left,

and Lesley Manville. So

delicately poised between

comedy and tragedy that

you don’t miss the TV close-ups

at all. Bridge Theatre, London

SE1 (bridgetheatre.co.uk),

today, tomorrow

Pop

Becky Hill

The Bewdley singer behind the

hits Gecko (Overdrive), I Could

Get Used to This and Wish You

Well showcases her distinctive

vocals at our first socially

distanced music venue,

where fans have separate

raised platforms. Virgin

Money Unity Arena, Newcastle

(virginmoneyunityarena.com),

Sunday

Comedy

Rachel Parris and

Marcus Brigstocke

The married comedians

are separate headliners on

a bill that also includes the

local mainstay Stephen

Grant. The Warren

Outdoors, Brighton

(warrenfestival.co.uk),

tomorrow

Outdoor art

Mount Stewart, Co Down

The playful range of sculptures

in the Italian Garden secretly

honours a member of the Ark

Club, an elite society formed in

1915 whose members

included poets and politicians.

Mount Stewart, Co Down

(nationaltrust.org.uk), today,

tomorrow, Sunday

The hot list

Your guide to the weekend

Theatre

Classical

meaty cello-and-piano

programme (BBC Four, tonight)

— followed by the much-

discussed Last Night of the

Proms (BBC One, tomorrow).

BBC Proms

A troubled season comes to

a close with a recital by the

famous siblings Sheku and Isata

Kanneh-Mason, left, playing a

Visual art

installation and video from

Robert Adams, Eija-Liisa Ahtila,

Tacita Dean and Peter Doig.

Hayward Gallery, London SE

(southbankcentre.co.uk),

tomorrow, Sunday

Among the Trees

Artworks from the late

1960s — when the modern

environmental movement

emerged — to the present day,

including sculpture, painting,

David Nicholls on his emotional

marital breakdown drama, Us

In Saturday Review tomorrow

“How dare you! What?” he says, but

avoids the question. Boorman jumps

in to reveal that he recently forgot his

age, celebrating what he thought was

his 55th birthday with his twin sister,

Daisy, only for her to tell him it was

actually their 54th. “I gained a year,”

he says. “Best birthday ever.”

Boorman already knows the price

of Zimmer frames, having bought

one after his smashes. “I went on the

internet and found one and thought,

‘That’s cheap.’ ”

Boorman seems unworried about

having another accident (“I have had

two big ones, so the chances of a third

are pretty low”) and McGregor

appears pleasingly confident that his

worst mishap — a collision near

a Shepherd’s Bush roundabout just

before the Africa trip in 2007 —

was a one-off. “I broke my leg, but

that was just the little bone. It sounds

so piddly by comparison,” he says.

Both men are actually talking about

another voyage. Scandinavia is one

possible destination, as is Australia.

The Long Way Down Under would be

a good title, they agree. And a trip on

very old bikes is another tantalising

idea. “I kind of fancy the idea of

Lawrence of Arabia and that period;

I kind of fancy a bit of that,”

Boorman says.

I hesitate before reminding them

that TE Lawrence met his end after

a motorcycling accident in 1935, but

it says a lot about their optimism and

infectious lust for life that it doesn’t

faze either of them when I do. In fact,

I doubt that anything can stop these

two in their tracks.

series sounds worse. One more bad

accident could mean he loses a leg.

Boorman also recalls the first trip,

when he thought intensely about his

beloved older sister, Telsche, who

died of ovarian cancer in 1997. The

initial grieving period took place

over a “busy time” — he and his wife,

Olivia, had just had their first child —

and the 2004 trip gave him the time

to process his feelings.

“I remember when a rainbow came

along and Ewan said to me, ‘It looks

like Telsche’s back on your shoulder,’ ”

Boorman says. “It’s something where

you can think very deeply about that

kind of thing. And the fact that Ewan

knows me so well and those kinds of

things can pop into his head as well is

very touching.”

Both men are adamant that the

butch, leather-clad stereotype of

motorcycling doesn’t represent

the pastime they love, which

McGregor says is as much about

dads motocrossing at weekends

with their children as anything else

these days. Yet I wonder if they ever

worry that they may get too old for

it. After all, I remind McGregor, he

turns 50 next year.

You can’t

allow special

relationships

to drift

the secret’