40 saturday review 1GR Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
The Repair Shop
BBC One, 8pmAnother helping of the
heirloom restoration show,
which tonight features a truly
tragic and emotional tale.
Margaret Dyson’s beloved doll
Alice was badly damaged in
1945, when an RAF aircraft
crash-landed into her family
home, killing her mother. Sheer
luck brought about a reunion
with the doll, which is, as you
might expect, in a terrible state
of disrepair. In this condition
Alice is a permanent reminder
of Margaret’s trauma. Can the
restorers Julie Tatchell and
Amanda Middleditch work their
magic? Also tonight, the wood
restorer Will Kirk is tasked with
returning a fishing tackle box
to its former glory. JCPaul O’Grady’s
Great British
Escape
ITV, 8pmPaul O’Grady continues his
adventures in his adopted
home county of Kent, visiting
Romney Marshes and
Dungeness. He boards the
Romney, Hythe and
Dymchurch Railway, a
miniature steam train, recalling
his first visit to Dungeness,
when he compared it to a “void
of desolation”. He has revised
his opinion and on arrival
heads to the RSPB nature
reserve, classified as Britain’s
only desert. He then heads to
Romney Marshes to do yoga
with a herd of alpacas... JC1 1.00-12.00Rugby Union PRO14
Highlights. Action from the sixth round of
fixtures, including Leinster v Edinburgh
and Glasgow Warriors v Dragons
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 11.00Dysgu Gyda
Cyw: Rapsgaliwn (r) 11. 15 Sam Tân (r) 1 1.25
Wibli Sochyn y Mochyn (r) 1 1.40Jen a Jim
Pob Dim (r)11.5 0 Timpo (r) 11. 55 Twm
Tisian (r) 1 2.05pm News 1 2.15 Datganiad
Covid-19 1 .00 Ffilmiau Ddoe (r) 1 .30 Antur
Adre (r)2.00News 2 .05Prynhawn Da
3. 00 News 3. 05 Yr Afon (r) 4. 00 Awr
Fawr: Caru Canu (r) 4. 05 Halibalw (r) 4. 15
Octonots (r) 4. 30 Gwdihw (r) 4. 45 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 5 .00 Stwnsh: Prosiect Z (r)
5 .25 Bernard (r) 5 .30Kung Fu Panda (r)
5 .55Ffeil 6 .00 Dau Gi Bach (r)6.30
Anrhegion Melys Richard Holt (r) 7. 00
News 7. 25 Live Sgorio Rhyngwladol.
Wales v Finland (Kick-off 7. 45 ).
Coverage of the UEFA Nations League
Group B4 encounter at Cardiff City
Stadium. With Dylan Ebenezer, Owain
Tudur Jones, Gwennan Harries and
John Hartson 10. 00 Drych. Tamlyn from
Port Talbot, Nikkeisha from Fforestfach
near Swansea and Pippa from
Aberystwyth discuss what inspires them
to succeed in the boxing world (r)
1 1. 00 -12. 05 amHydref Gwyllt Iolo (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC One Wales As BBC One except:
10.35pmBBC Wales Live 1 1.1 0 Match of
the Day Wales 1 1.4 0 The Rap Game UK
1 2.40am-1.05Step into the Ring
● BBC Two Wales As BBC Two except:
7 .00pmChildren’s Ward (r) 7 .30-8.00
The Yorkshire Dales (r) 1 0.00-10.45
The Noughties: 2004
● BBC One N Ireland As BBC One except:
10 .45pmNations League Highlights 1 1. 25
The Rap Game UK 1 2.25amStep into the
Ring 1 2.50-6.00BBC News
● BBC Two N Ireland As BBC Two except:
10. 00 pm-1 0. 30 Spotlight (r) 1 1. 30 -
12. 30 am Rugby Union PRO14 Highlights
● BBC One Scotland As BBC One except:
1 .45pmImpossible 2 .30Politics Scotland
3 .1 5Doctors 3 .45-4.30 I Escaped to the
Country 1 0.45 Sportscene11.30The Rap
Game UK 12. 30 amStep into the Ring
12 .55 Debate Night (r) 1. 55 Weather for
the Week Ahead2.00-6.00BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 1 0. 3 5pmSTV News
10 .4 0 Scotland Tonight 1 1.1 0 Peston
12. 0 5am Uefa Nations League Highlights
1 .15- 3. 00 ITV Nightscreen
● BBC Scotland 2.30pm-3.15Politics
Scotland 7. 00 Debate Night 8. 00 The
Children’s Hospital 8. 30 Roaming in the
Wild (r) 9. 00 The Nine 10. 00 Rab C
Nesbitt (r) 10. 30 Scot Squad (r)Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (15, 2010)
BBC Four, 11pm
Proof, if any were needed, that Andy Serkis doesn’t need to
squeeze into a motion-capture suit and conduct an orchestra
of special effects to deliver a memorable performance. This
warts-and-all biopic of Ian Dury gives Serkis free rein to create
a very human monster. Struck down by polio at an early age,
Dury was not the kind of man to let the resulting disabilities
stop him from becoming a proto-punk icon of British music.
The film has a scrappy anarchy and bolshie energy that seem
entirely fitting. Mat Whitecross directs, and Serkis is supported
by a strong cast of British talent, including Naomie Harris, Olivia
Williams, Ray Winstone, Mackenzie Crook and Bill Milner.
(110min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
The Fourth Protocol (15, 1987)
Talking Pictures TV, 10pm
Frederick Forsyth turned his 1984 Cold War novel into a gripping
thriller, with The Long Good Friday director John Mackenzie at the
helm. Pierce Brosnan stars as Valeri Petrofsky, a Soviet spy trying
to detonate a nuclear suitcase bomb next to an American base in
Britain. Meanwhile, Michael Caine’s British agent John Preston is
frantically trying to foil this apocalyptic scheme, which the Soviets
are hoping will shatter the “special relationship” between the two
countries (at a time when that meant something). Despite joint
top billing, Brosnan and Caine, above, only share two scenes and
exchange no dialogue. Caine wasn’t a big fan, commenting that
it was a “wordy action movie” that didn’t have the “speed and
pace of the best American action movies”. (119min) Joe ClayTrue North: The
Disability Paradox
BBC Four, 9pmNon-disabled people often
assume that people with
disabilities are unhappy and
treat them with pity, linking
disability to failure, weakness
and dependency. Research
suggests the opposite, with
many disabled reporting a
good or excellent quality of life.
This is “the disability paradox”
that Chris Lynch, who has
osteogenesis imperfecta and
has used a wheelchair since he
was six, explores in a deeply
personal film. He meets others
with various impairments
to hear more about their
experiences. Can you be truly
happy if you are disabled? JCRegional programmes
Wednesday 18 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
The Good Lord Bird
Sky Atlantic/Now TV, 9pm
Based on the acclaimed 2013
novel by James McBride, The
Good Lord Bird is Showtime’s
profound seven-part mini-
series telling the story of the
white abolitionist John Brown,
aka “God’s maniac”. Brown
was the leader of the reckless
and unsuccessful attack on
the federal armoury at
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia,
in October 1859 that failed to
initiate the slave revolt he
intended, but led to the Civil
War. Ethan Hawke, right,
takes the lead role (he is also
credited as a co-creator of
the drama), delivering an
electrifying take on the
contradictory Brown, a
Christian minister who
embraced Old Testament
justice, and a loving father
who sacrificed several of his
sons to the cause. Our
narrator is Henry “Onion”
Shackleford (Joshua Caleb
Johnson), a fictional slave boy
who becomes part of Brown’s
ragtag crew of abolitionist
soldiers. In a tremendous
opening we witness Brown,
who believed that slavery was
a sin, in full flow delivering
an impromptu fire-and-
brimstone sermon that ends
in tragedy and Onion being
orphaned. Brown takes him in
and shows him the kindness
and patience he affords his
family and followers, one of
whom neatly describes Brown
as “nuttier than a squirrel
turd”. There is plenty of
humour, much of it derived
from the fact that Brown
mistakes Onion for a girl,
giving him a dress and asking
if he has “bled yet”. Daveed
Diggs more than holds his
own as the black abolitionist
Frederick Douglass, while
the tremendous soundtrack
is peppered with a number
of contemporary recordings
of blues, gospel and soul. It’s
a riotously entertaining
history lesson. Joe ClayCatch
up
Console Wars
Sky On Demand/Now TV
In the early 1990s Nintendo
ruled all before it as the
console every child wanted to
find under their
Christmas tree. It
had 95 per cent
of the market.
Then Sega
came along.
Using an
abundance
of archive
material, this
tale of the
epic battle
between
the gamingGoliaths speaks to those
involved, including Howard
Lincoln, the former Nintendo
chairman, and at moments has
a pleasantly playful air. Yet as
with the best shoot’em-ups,
there’s also a nasty side. With
so much money at stake, the
battle between the forces of
Super Mario, below,
and Donkey
Kong (Nintendo)
and Sega’s
supposedly
cooler
offerings
(Mortal
Kombat, Sonic
the Hedgehog
et al) at times
takes on
elements
of a spy thriller.
Ben
DowellThe Balkans
in Flames
PBS America, 7.20pm
The Serb-dominated Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
was founded after the First
World War. After the death of
its leader, the dictator Tito, in
1980, the country started to
fracture, then sank into civil
war. During the 1990s mass
expulsions, systematic rapes
and brutal murders in Croatia
and Bosnia followed — four
million people were displaced,
more than 100,000 were killed.
In this comprehensive three-
part documentary historians
trace the story of the former
Yugoslavia, and witnesses
discuss what happened and
what the future holds. JC