The Times Saturday Review - UK (2020-11-14)

28 saturday review 1GR Saturday November 14 2020 | the times

Catch

up

The Fall

BBC iPlayer

All three series of the

queasy but gripping

serial-killer drama,

starring Gillian Anderson

and Jamie Dornan, right,

are on iPlayer. It’s a

psychological duel

between Anderson’s

Detective

Superintendent

Stella Gibson

and Dornan’s

“Belfast

Strangler”,

Paul Spector,

and could be

dismissed as

pretty sick if it weren’t for its

superior acting, compulsive

storytelling and classy

camerawork. By day Spector is

a bereavement counsellor and

family man, by night he’s a

deranged murderer who stalks

the streets of Belfast, with

Gibson determined to bring

her man to justice. Forget

Wire in the Blood or

Marcella, this is an

altogether higher

grade of primetime

psychopathy. It’s a show

full of menace

best not

watched alone

— you’ll be

triple-

checking that

you’ve locked

your door at

night. James

Jackson

The Crown

Netflix

Riding to the rescue during the
winter lockdown comes the
Queen (Olivia Colman) and her
deliciously dysfunctional family.
Series four of Peter Morgan’s
classy royal soap opera covers
1977 to 1990, a period still fresh
in the nation’s collective
consciousness. So it’s about
Charles (Josh O’Connor) and
Diana (Emma Corrin) and the
Falklands conflict, with Gillian
Anderson joining the cast to
play Margaret Thatcher. The
ten episodes will also cover a
health scare for Princess
Margaret (Helena Bonham
Carter) caused by years of
smoking, and the death of Lord
Mountbatten (Charles Dance).
See critics’ choice, p19 JC

I’m a Celebrity...

Get Me Out of

Here!

ITV, 9pm

Because of the pandemic,

instead of the Australian jungle,

2020’s campmates are off to

Gwrych Castle in north Wales.

Those swapping safari shorts

for thermals include the athlete

Mo Farah, the actor Shane

Richie, the Paralympian Hollie

Arnold, the TV presenter

Victoria Derbyshire and the

soap actress Beverley Callard.

It’s not how the producers

imagined the 20th series, but

there will still be a captive

audience of millions wanting to

find out who will be crowned

king or queen of the castle. JC

Sunday 15 | Viewing guide

Critic’s choice

Small Axe

BBC One, 9pm

The five-part film anthology
series from the Oscar-winning
director Steve McQueen ( 12
Years a Slave, Widows) comes
to the BBC. The title is derived
from an African proverb, “If
you are the big tree, we are
the small axe”, made popular
by Bob Marley, but with new-
found relevance in the Black
Lives Matter movement. Set
from the late 1960s to the
mid-1980s, each of the films is
a deeply personal account of
the black British experience.
Coming soon is Lovers Rock
(Nov 22), a vivid account of a
1980s west London house
party, and Red, White and Blue
(Nov 29), a gripping portrait of
the former Metropolitan
Police superintendent Leroy
Logan, played by John
Boyega. But we begin tonight
with Mangrove, which follows
the trial of the “Mangrove
Nine”, a group of black
activists prosecuted in 1970
for allegedly inciting a riot.

The Mangrove restaurant in

Notting Hill, west London, was

a hub for black people that

had been repeatedly raided

by the police, and the trial is

often seen to have presented

the first judicial evidence of

racism in the Met. Shaun

Parkes (Human Traffic) heads

a first-rate cast as Frank

Crichlow, who goes from

easy-going boss of the

Mangrove to avenger. Malachi

Kirby (Roots), Rochenda

Sandall (Line of Duty) and

Letitia Wright (Black Panther)

co-star as the activists Darcus

Howe, Barbara Beese and

Altheia Jones-LeCointe. The

protest is peaceful, but

the police respond with

batons and handcuffs. “We

mustn’t be the victims, but

protagonists of our stories,”

Jones-LeCointe declares,

which almost serves as a

mission statement for Small

Axe as a whole.

Joe Clay

Ronnie’s

BBC Four, 9pm

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in

Soho, London, is the best

known and coolest jazz venue

in Britain. Opened in 1959 by

the saxophonists Ronnie Scott

and Pete King, it was inspired

by the postwar jazz venues in

New York and has paid host to

all the greats, including Chet

Baker, Count Basie, Miles Davis,

Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Rich and

Nina Simone. They all feature

in Oliver Murray’s vibrant film,

exploring the history of the

venue (and the man after

whom it is named), which is

packed with stunning archive

performances and the

testimony of music legends

including Quincy Jones and

Sonny Rollins. JC

5 .30-6.00Landward (r) 1 1.40Sportscene

12. 2 5am The Women’s Football Show

1 2.55Weather for the Week Ahead

1 .05-6.00BBC News

● STV As ITV except: 1 .30pm-4.00 Live

Racing on STV: From Cheltenham.

Coverage of day three of the November

Meeting 5 .15-5. 30 STV News

1 .1 0 am- 3. 00 ITV Nightscreen

● BBC Scotland Midday-12.30pm The

Service 7. 00 The Seven 7 .1 5Rewind 1990s

(r) 7 .30 Roads Less Travelled: Atlantic

Way (r) 8 .30 Grand Tours of Scotland’s

Lochs (r) 9. 00 Selling Scotland (r) 9. 30

Scot Squad (r) 10. 00 The Big Scottish

Book Club 1 1. 00 -1 2. 00 Seven Days

● S4C 6.00am Cyw 8.50Penblwyddi Cyw

9 .00Ar y Dibyn (r) 1 0.00 Miwsig Fy

Mywyd (r) 1 1. 00 Oedfa Dechrau Canu

Dechrau Canmol11.30Dechrau Canu

Dechrau Canmol (r) 12. 00 Yr Wythnos

12. 35 pm Y Sioe Fwyd (r) 1. 05 Ffermio (r)

1 .4 0 Pobol y Cwm (r) 2. 05 Pobol y Cwm

(r) 2. 30 Live Clwb Rygbi: Munster v

Ospreys (Kick-off 2 .4 5 ) 4. 45 Sgorio

Rhyngwladol7.1 5News 7. 30 Dechrau

Canu Dechrau Canmol 8. 00 Drych (r)

9 .00Un Bore Mercher 1 0.00 Huw

Stephens: Cofiwch Dryweryn (r)

1 1. 00 -12. 05 amPandemig: 1918/ 2020 (r)

(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

● BBC One Wales As BBC One except:

10.00am-10.30Politics Wales 1 .5 0 pm

Money for Nothing (r) 2. 35 Escape to

the Country (r)3.35Weatherman Walking

(r) 4 .00 BBC Children in Need: The Big

Welsh Round-Up4.30 Coal House (r)

5 .00-6.00Garden Rescue (r)

● BBC Two Wales As BBC Two except:

5. 00 pm Border Lives (r) 5. 30 -7. 00 FILM

6 33 Squadron ( 1964 ) 10.20 Rick Stein’s

Long Weekends (r) 1 0.35Match of the

Day Wales 11.05Golf: The Masters

Highlights 1 .05am-1.45Heroes (r)

● BBC One N Ireland As BBC One except:

10. 00 am-1 0. 30 Sunday Politics Northern

Ireland 3 .5 0 pm Children in Need

4 .30-5.00 Life Is Magic: The Best Bits

1 1.40Nations League Highlights

1 2.20am The Women’s Football Show

12 .55- 6. 00 BBC News

● BBC Two N Ireland As BBC Two except:

1 .00pm Sporting Traditions (r) 1 .1 5Live

The Championship 3. 30 -4. 30 Around the

World in 80 Gardens (r) 7. 00 - 8. 00

Mozart’s Requiem from ENO (r)

● BBC One Scotland As BBC One except:

10. 00 am-1 0. 30 Politics Scotland

1 .50pm Beechgrove Repotted (r) 2. 00

The Customer Is Always Right 2. 30

Money for Nothing (r) 3. 30 Blue Planet II

(r) 4. 30 Children in Need (r)

Robin and Marian (PG, 1976)

Film4, 4pm

The centrepiece of a trio of films starring the late Sean Connery is

the bittersweet, revisionist blockbuster in which the James Bond

actor played a greying, balding Robin Hood. Set decades after the

events depicted in most film adaptations of the folk legend,

Richard Lester’s antiheroic take begins with Connery’s middle-

aged Robin returning from the Crusades to rekindle his romance

with Lady Marian (Audrey Hepburn, below with Connery). Robin

and Marian is showing between Terry Gilliam’s historical fantasy

Time Bandits (1981, 1.30pm), in which Connery plays Agamemnon,

and The Man Who Would Be King (1975, 6.10pm), John Huston’s

adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s novel about two conmen, with

Connery in tandem with Michael Caine. (106min) Wendy Ide

Films of the day

Don’t Breathe (15, 2016)

Channel 4, midnight

This horror thriller was a box-office smash in the US and features

Jane Levy as Rocky, one of three photogenic young burglars who

get more than they bargained for when they raid the home of a

blind and deeply unhinged Iraq war veteran, played by Avatar’s

Stephen Lang. That Rocky is then tied up in a bondage harness

by the villain (known as “the Blind Man” — Lang wore contact

lenses that greatly restricted his vision), hoisted into the air and

prepared, in detail, for an act of forced penetration by a man-made

object will be too much for some. Others will enjoy the

Hitchcockian house-of-horrors thrill-ride nature of the movie —

it’s skilfully made by the Uruguayan horror director Fede Álvarez.

(88min) Kevin Maher

Paul Merton’s

Heroes of Comedy

Channel 5, 10pm

As well as being a stalwart of

Have I Got News for You, Paul

Merton is a comedy boffin and

the perfect guide for this delve

into the archives to celebrate

some of our most beloved

comedy performers. It’s a

heavyweight list (homegrown

only), including Charlie Chaplin,

Laurel and Hardy, Gracie Fields,

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore,

Monty Python, Victoria Wood

and Lenny Henry. Merton’s

erudite thoughts and amusing

riffs are complemented by Jo

Brand, Ross Noble and Jasper

Carrott, who talk about their

influences, heroes and journey

in comedy. JC

Regional programmes