32 saturday review 1GR Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
Not long after visitors smelt
something unusual in the
early evening of April 15, 2019,
smoke was seen billowing
from Notre-Dame’s rafters
and the unthinkable was
happening: the symbol of
France, of Paris and, for many,
of love itself was ablaze.
Directors Jules and Gédéon
Naudet’s minute-by-minute
take on what unfolded, mainly
told by the heroic pompiers
and cathedral staff (including
a very emotional rector) is
extraordinary. And while
we know that the ancient
building’s basic structure was
eventually saved, the drama
of it all never fails to get the
heart pumping. First, there is
the small matter of saving the
treasures, including a relic of
Christ’s crown of thorns that
firefighters risked their lives
to retrieve, only for them to
be told they had salvaged a
replica. Some of the images —
such as molten lead spewing
from the mouths of gargoyles
— don’t even have to be seen
to be evoked. Yet the amount
of actual footage to hand is
also impressive, thanks to the
Naudet brothers’ quick-
wittedness in getting on
the scene. A particularly
astonishing sequence shows
an ashen-faced President
Macron in the control room.
The main roof of the cathedral
is ablaze, the central spire has
fallen and he has to decide
whether to authorise a
perilous mission to save the
north tower, knowing that if
Quasimodo’s huge bells came
crashing to the ground, there
was a fair chance that the
whole edifice would collapse.
It’s also clear to everyone
around him that if this tower
mission failed then Macron
could find himself at the
Élysée Palace standing in
front of scores of Tricolore-
draped coffins.
Ben DowellNigella’s Cook,
Eat, Repeat
BBC Two, 8pmIf I were ever a guest round
Nigella’s place, I’d ask for some
toast. She has perfected the
“two-stage buttering” solution,
letting the first wave melt in
before adding a second with
a sprinkling of sea salt. It looks
delicious, especially since
it’s made from her own
homemade sandwich loaf. Not
for Nigella the neediness (and
kneading) of sourdough. This
guide to the cooking she relies
on at home also features a fried
chicken sandwich, cheesecake
ice cream and cherry flambé,
all of which should perhaps
carry a health warning: may
cause salivating. BDMy Family, the
Holocaust & Me
with Robert Rinder
BBC One, 9pmOur presenter/lawyer guide
travels to Treblinka with his
mother, Angela, in the final
episode. It was where Rinder’s
Polish grandfather’s parents
and siblings died and the visit
makes for powerful television.
They meet Leon Rytz, 92, one
of the last survivors, who says:
“My family are here, my sisters,
my brothers, everybody,”
before Angela delivers the
Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of
mourning. Rinder is overcome
at times, but does find stories
of “light, truth and resilience”
amid the horrors. BDLockdown Chaos
Channel 4, 9pmProbably not one for Dom’s or
Boris’s planner (or for anyone
hankering for a bit of escapism
in the middle of the second
lockdown). Reporter Antony
Barnett takes the government
to task over its promise that life
could be back to normal by
Christmas. As well as a blow-
by-blow account of all the
errors that have been made,
this programme, which was
still being made at the time of
writing, promises new evidence
about some companies that
seem to be making millions
from the pandemic. And on
Thursday at 9pm, BBC Two
looks at the science behind
the government’s response
to the crisis. BD● UTV As ITV except: 8 .00pm-8.30
Lough Foyle. Joe Mahon lends a hand at
the flax harvest in the Laggan Valley
1 0.45-11.45 View from Stormont
● BBC Scotland 1.30pm Sign Zone:
Roaming in the Wild (r) 2. 00 Sign Zone:
Born to Be Wild (r) 3. 00 -4. 00 Sign Zone:
Paramedics on Scene (r) 7. 00 Landward
(r) 7 .30 The Mart (r) 8 .00 Making
Scotland’s Landscape (r) 9 .00The Nine
1 0.00 River City 10.30The Karen Dunbar
Show (r) 11. 00 Mirror Mirror (r)
1 1. 30 -1 2. 00 Rewind 2000s (r)
● S 4 C 6. 00 am Cyw 12. 0 5pmNews 12 .15
Datganiad Covid-19 1 .00Dau Gi Bach (r)
1 .30 Bwrdd i Dri (r) 2 .00News 2 .05
Prynhawn Da 3 .00News 3 .05 Dylan ar
Daith (r) 4. 00 Awr Fawr: Blociau Rhif (r)
4. 05 Jen a Jim Pob Dim (r) 4. 20
Shwshaswyn (r) 4. 30 Blero yn Mynd i
Ocido (r) 4 .4 5 Amser Maith Maith yn Ôl (r)
5 .00Stwnsh: Mwy o Stwnsh Sadwrn (r)
5 .2 5 Sbargo (r) 5. 30 Sgorio 5. 55 Ffeil
6. 00 Ffilmiau Ddoe (r) 6. 30 Dim Byd i’w
Wisgo (r) 6 .57News S 4 C7. 00 Heno
7. 30 News 8. 00 Anrhegion Melys Richard
Holt 8 .2 5 Adre 8. 55 News 9. 00 Ffermio
9. 30 Caeau Cymru (r) 10. 00 Bethesda:
Pobol y Chwarel (r) 10. 30 -1 2. 0 5am
Gwylio Sêr y Nos (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC One Wales As BBC One except:
7 .35pm-8.05X-Ray 8. 30 - 9. 00 Panorama
● BBC Two Wales As BBC Two except:
1 0.00pm-10.45 Scrum V 1 1.30Heroes (r)
1 2.15am-1.00 Coast (r)
● BBC One N Ireland As BBC One except:
7 .35pm-8.05 Suzie Lee’s Home Cook
Heroes (r) 8. 30 - 9. 00 Panorama 10 .45
Hawks and Doves 11. 45 Angels of the
North 12. 0 5am Angels of the North 12. 30
The Wall (r) 1 .15-6.00BBC News
● BBC Two N Ireland As BBC Two except:
1 0.00pm I Lár an Aonaigh10.30-10.45
Sporting Traditions (r)
● BBC One Scotland As BBC One except:
8. 30 pm Scotland’s Home of the Year (r)
9 .00-10.00 This Is Our Story: Inside
Hearts10.45My Family, the Holocaust &
Me with Robert Rinder 1 1.45Angels of the
North 12. 0 5am Angels of the North 12. 30
The Edit 12 .45 The Wall (r) 1. 30 Weather
for the Week Ahead 1 .35-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 6. 00 pm- 6. 30
ITV News Wales at Six 8. 00 - 8. 30 Coast &
Country 10 .45 Sharp End 11. 15 - 11. 45
Ainsley’s Food We Love (r)
● STV As ITV except: 10.35pmSTV News
10 .4 0 Scotland Tonight 1 1.1 0 The
Millennium Dome Heist with Ross Kemp
(r) 12. 0 5am The Diana Interview: Revenge
of a Princess (r) 12 .55- 3. 00 NightscreenThe Mummy (15, 2017)
Channel 5, 10pm
In the great tradition of bandage-based baloney, The Mummy
returns with an adventure-horror remake featuring Tom Cruise,
based on the mother of all mummy films, which starred Boris
Karloff in 1932. Cruise plays his usual boyish action hero, here
named Nick Morton, but he is stretching it a tad, aged 54, with the
immature character — a military reconnaissance chap who aims
to loot ancient artefacts in Iraq. Morton releases a 5,000-year-old
curse and, soon enough, an ancient Mesopotamian princess,
Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), is stalking round London and calling
Morton her “chosen”. A bearded Russell Crowe plays Dr Henry
Jekyll, who lurks in the Natural History Museum, where he has
a laboratory for monstrous experiments. (110min) Kate MuirFilms of the day
Shoplifters (15, 2018)
Film4, 11.10pm
This fascinating melodrama from the Japanese maestro Hirokazu
Koreeda (After the Storm, Nobody Knows) is his best film yet. It
presents a quirky clan of ne’er-do-wells (an ageing matriarch, a
couple of petty criminals and their son, a visiting teenager) who
live in a cramped and cluttered Tokyo home and flirt daily with
destitution. They steal shampoo from shops and handbags from
cars, and extort money from distant relatives. Anything to survive.
When they encounter Yuri (Miyu Sasaki, above), a damaged child
from an abusive family, they adopt her into their motley crew. This
one act of apparent altruism, however, slowly and ingeniously
turns the movie on its head and reveals the sinister lies that have
underpinned the family fiction all along. (121min) Kevin MaherThe Undoing
Sky Atlantic/Now TV,
2am/9pmHugh Grant’s murder suspect
Jonathan is back on the
offensive in another finely
tuned episode of the moneyed
Manhattan thriller. English
charm is his main weapon as
he seeks to persuade his wife,
Grace (Nicole Kidman), and
even the husband of murdered
mum Elena Alves that he is
innocent. But with the murder
scene a “shrine to his DNA”,
according to his attorney Haley
Fitzgerald (Noma Dumezweni),
and with public interest in the
case at fever pitch, he has his
work cut out. Grace’s ruthless
financier father, Franklin
(Donald Sutherland), also has
secrets to impart. BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
The Disordered Eye
BBC iPlayer
This new documentary by
Richard Butchins, right,
argues that “changed
vision” has long had an
impact on artists’
work. Arguably
Rembrandt,
Turner, Van
Gogh, Monet
and Constable
developed eye
problems that
affected their
work, and
Butchins visits
a professor of
ophthalmologyin California who says that
Degas definitely did — a retinal
disease that made itself known
in the decline in detail in his
later work. Decline in detail
doesn’t have to mean decline
in quality. Butchins meets the
blind academic Georgina
Kleege, who argues that
blindness is too often
identified as a tragedy
or a loss rather than just
another way of
being in the world.
Theory always
goes hand in hand
with practice in
this stimulating
hour. Butchins
meets the blind
sculptor Aaron
McPeake and the
neuroscientist Anil
Seth. Dominic
MaxwellMonday 16 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice The Night
Notre-Dame Burned: Storyville
BBC Four, 9pm