24 saturday review 1GR Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
When The Crown showed
Charles Dance’s Lord Louis
Mountbatten toying with the
idea of overthrowing Harold
Wilson’s government, viewers
were encouraged to see the
Queen’s cousin as a vain and
arrogant schemer — a view
that this rather facetiously
titled documentary does
not seek to banish. He’s less
hero, more cocky, meddling
narcissist supported
throughout his life by
patronage right up until the
moment he was murdered
by an IRA bomb in 1979.
Mountbatten was driven,
we’re told, by the burning
humiliation experienced by
his father, the all too German-
sounding Prince Louis of
Battenberg, who lost his role
as first sea lord in 1914; his son
did eventually land the job
himself, but not before he
changed his surname and
captained (with arrogant
ineptitude, it’s suggested)
HMS Kelly during the Second
World War. He was apparently
called the Master of Disaster
in Admiralty circles.
Mountbatten is also shown to
have relentlessly burnished
his image, which might
explain why his stewardship
of the Kelly was Noël Coward’s
flattering model for the
inspiring Captain Kinross in
the patriotic film In Which
We Serve. Mountbatten also
managed to charm his way
out of blame for his key role
in the disastrous Dieppe
raid in 1942 as well as the
bloodshed caused by his
rushed handling of
independence as India’s last
viceroy. After all this, perhaps
it scarcely matters if he was
bisexual; but the photographer
Allan Warren’s story of the
earl being caught with his
trousers down at least offers
one of the few unexpected
moments of light relief.
Ben DowellMozart’s Requiem
from ENO
BBC Two, 7pmFew pieces of music move
the soul as much as Mozart’s
unfinished choral masterpiece,
written towards the end of
his life. “I fear I am writing
a requiem for myself,” he
allegedly told his wife,
Constanze, and his words
were prophetic. Recorded
specially by English National
Opera, it invites us to reflect
on the Remembrance Day
commemoration and our
own national crisis. The
conductor Mark Wigglesworth
returns to his old Coliseum
stomping ground after the
withdrawal of his successor,
Martyn Brabbins. BDBritain’s Most
Historic Towns
Channel 4, 8pmWe’re moving from Lincoln to
London for episode two, and
Professor Alice Roberts leaps
straight from the Roman era to
the execution of Charles I and
the Restoration years. She
focuses on some of the
granular detail of the capital’s
rebirth after plague and the
Great Fire. There’s plenty to
delight and interest, not least
for those unaware that
Downing Street is named after
the unscrupulous Sir George
Downing, the one-time staunch
republican who shamelessly
became a ruthless hunter of his
former regicide friends when
the winds turned. BDDNA
BBC Four, 9pm/9.40pmThe concluding double bill of
this absorbing Danish child
abduction saga brings all the
answers — even if some of
the final reckonings stretch
psychological credibility. Still, it
has mostly been an absorbing
ride, not least in scriptwriter
Torleif Hoppe’s judicious use of
flashbacks, which help to pull
off an excellent closing reveal.
You may have seen some of
the other twists a mile off
(I know I did), but this is
a drama that has used the
obvious emotional lure of
missing children (and in
particular the travails of Anders
Berthelsen’s central copper
Rolf) to tell an epic story with
guts and humanity. BD7 .05Cacamwnci (r) 7 .20 Bach a Mawr (r)
7. 30 Tw t (r) 7. 45 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r)
8 .00 Larfa (r) 9 .00Y Brodyr Adrenalini (r)
9 .10 Pat a Stan (r) 9 .25 Bwystfil (r)9.40
Cic (r) 10. 00 Cynefin (r) 1 1. 00 Bywyd y Fet
(r) 1 1.30Pobl a’u Gerddi (r) 1 2.00Ffermio
(r) 1 2.30pmParti Bwyd Beca (r) 1 .00
Ffasiwn Mecanic (r) 1. 30 Cegin Bryn (r)
2. 00 Wil ac Aeron: Taith Rwmania (r) 2. 30
Dau Gi Bach (r) 3. 00 Codi Hwyl: Llydaw (r)
3 .30Taith Fawr y Dyn Bach (r) 4 .00Adre
(r) 4. 30 Trysorau Cymru: Tir, Tai a
Chyfrinachau (r) 5. 00 Live Sgorio: The
New Saints v Barry Town United (Kick-off
5 .1 5 ). Coverage of the Cymru Premier
encounter at Park Hall. English language
commentary is available 7 .1 5News 7 .30
C’mon Midffild. Confusion reigns as a
rumour that someone is about to get
married runs rife among the members of
the Bryncoch football team (r)8.00
Noson Lawen o Lundain. Alex Jones
presents a special evening of Boxing Day
entertainment from the Britten Hall at the
Royal College of Music in London (r) 9. 30
Jonathan. Nigel Owens, Sarra Elgan,
Rowland Phillips and Shelley Rees join
Jonathan Davies to look ahead to Ireland
v Wales in the Autumn Nations Cup (r)
10. 30 -12 .1 5 am Clwb Rygbi
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC One Wales As BBC One except:
3 .45pm Money for Nothing (r) 4. 15
Garden Rescue (r) 4. 45 - 5. 15 Weatherman
Walking (r) 1 0.20Don’t Take Me Home (r)
1 1.40-12.10amMrs Brown’s Boys (r)
● BBC Two N Ireland As BBC Two except:
6 .30pm Tricked-Out Tractors (r) 7 .00The
Championship 8. 30 - 9. 00 Dad’s Army (r)
● STV As ITV except: 1. 2 5pm-4.1 0 Live
Racing on STV: From Cheltenham. Ed
Chamberlin presents coverage of day two
of the November Meeting, featuring the
2 .1 5 Paddy Power Gold Cup and four
support races. Plus, two races from
Lingfield Park 12. 2 5am Summer on the
Farm: An Extraordinary Year. Alan
Titchmarsh, Angellica Bell and Amanda
Owen report on Britain’s farms (r)
1 .20-3.00 ITV Nightscreen. Text-based
information 3. 2 5- 6. 00 ITV Nightscreen
● BBC Scotland 7. 00 pmThe Seven 7. 15
The Edit 7 .30 Roads Less Travelled:
Atlantic Way (r) 8. 30 The Forest (r) 9. 00
Billy and Us 9. 30 Rab C Nesbitt (r) 10. 00
FILM Harry Birrell Presents Films of Love
& War ( 2019 ) 11.30 FILM Duck Daze
( 2019 ) 11.45-12.00 One More Tune
● S 4 C 6. 00 am Cyw: Y Brodyr Coala (r)
6 .1 0 Halibalw (r) 6. 20 Stiw (r) 6. 30 Ben
Dant (r) 6 .5 0 Octonots. The crew must
rescue Peso (r) 7. 00 Olobobs (r)Journey’s End (12, 2017)
BBC Two, 9pm
It’s to the credit of Saul Dibb, the director of this version of RC
Sherriff’s much-adapted play set in 1918, that the story feels new
again, more humane and horrible than we’ve seen it on screen.
Sam Claflin stars as Captain Stanhope, alcoholic and splenetic
yet still with the trust of his men, played by Paul Bettany, Toby
Jones, Asa Butterfield, below, and Stephen Graham. Dibb brings us
claustrophobically close to the men of C Company as they prepare
for a German offensive that they know will claim their lives. The
camera breathes down their necks and follows them at boot level
like a rat. The tension is excruciating, the fighting quick and
chaotic. It’s Bettany who leaves the lasting impression as Osborne,
the avuncular, stoic second-in-command. (108min) Ed PottonFilms of the day
The Manchurian Candidate (15, 1962)
BBC Two, 12.10am
John Frankenheimer’s dark, intelligent and prophetic Cold War
conspiracy thriller is full of hypnotic twists and turns. Laurence
Harvey stars as Raymond Shaw, a US soldier brainwashed by
North Korean intelligence, then sent home as a hero and political
assassin. Frank Sinatra co-stars as Bennett Marco, a fellow
veteran plagued by bad dreams and wary of Shaw’s story. It was
allegedly the film that Lee Harvey Oswald watched just days
before shooting John F Kennedy, and the film was withdrawn for
15 years after the assassination, apparently as a mark of respect
by Sinatra. The 2004 remake stuck close to the plot of the original
film, but it was reimagined for the Gulf War era, with Denzel
Washington stepping into Sinatra’s shoes. (126min) Wendy IdeDavid Crosby:
Rememb er
My Name
Sky Arts/ITV, 9pmHe’s in his seventies, has had
three heart attacks and also
happens to have enjoyed a
career with the Byrds as well as
Messrs Stills, Nash and Young.
But the moustached ol’ grizzler
nevertheless cuts a rather sad
figure in AJ Eaton’s film. “All the
guys I made music with won’t
even talk to me,” Crosby says,
admitting that in the early
years “I was not easy: big ego,
no brains”. But he’s still making
music, and the sight of him
beaming on stage, one of the
few places he seems to be
happy, is lovely to watch. BDRegional programmes
Saturday 14 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Lord Mountbatten:
Hero or Villain?
Channel 5, 8.40pm
Catch
up
Don’t Rock
the Boat
ITV Hub
The former Labour
Party deputy
leader Tom Watson
joins forces with 11
other celebrities to
row from Land’s End
to John o’ Groats
in ITV’s latest
entertainment wheeze.
There are two teams,
one red and one blue,
and it’s as tough as it
sounds. Many of the
contestants, such as
the supermodel Jodie
Kidd, right, thecaptain of the red team,
and the Love Island
winner Jack Fincham,
are serious competitors.
Only four rowers can
take part in the
arduous rowing
legs at any one
time (the
first is 90
miles from
Cornwall
to south
Wales), so
two are left
behind to
compete in land
challenges to
secure a night
in a comfortable
bed for their
team. As reality
contests go, this
is serious stuff.
Ben Dowell