SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER THE BEST TV FROM NETFLIX AND BEYOND...
1GThe new musical movie Tick,
Tick ... Boom! is on Netflix
from Friday (see review
in Culture). If you want to
tune up by watching other
modern musicals, consider
2016’s La La Land (free with
Amazon Prime membership)
or Tim Burton’s 2007 film
Sweeney Todd — The
Demon Barber Of Fleet
Street (Netflix). If you feel
more in step with vintage
song-and-dance films, BBC2
has three matinees for you
this week: 1949’s On The Town
(Monday, 1.10pm), 1935’s
Top Hat (Tuesday, 1pm) and
The Band Wagon, from 1953
(Wednesday, 1.30pm). The
first of those is prefaced by
Astaire And Rogers Sing
George And Ira Gershwin
(Monday, 1pm), and there is
yet more Fred and Ginger in
the BBC iPlayer collection
Silver Screen Favourites.
Edward PorterWitness (BBC1, 12.05am)
Harrison Ford received his
only Oscar nomination to date
for his performance in this
thriller, and Peter Weir’s film
stands out from the crowd in
other ways, too. Its tale of an
embattled cop gains a novel
setting when its hero lies low
in an Amish community — an
environment the film studies
with notable care. True,
we are never taken too far
from Hollywood: a love story
(involving Kelly McGillis)
comes to the fore and a
barn-raising get-together is
used as a feelgood set piece;
but the movie still gives us
a thoughtful account of a
remote culture. (1985)Rango (C4, 2.40pm)
The story of a chameleon
who becomes the sheriff of a
frontier town, Gore Verbinski’s
animated western could
almost be a peyote-fuelled
vision in its odder moments.
Its weirdness is fun for viewers
of all ages, though, and adults
might also enjoy the script’s
nods to other movies.
Edward PorterRichard’s Maidstone find (C4, 7pm) Scales of justice (C4, 2.40pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
Guilt (BBC iPlayer)
More coda than sequel,
the second season of Neil
Forsyth’s witty and gritty
Scottish noir finds our dour
antihero Max (Mark Bonnar,
perfectly cast) out of jail and
dead set on revenge against
Edinburgh’s Mr Big (Stuart
Bowman). If that seems like a
Doom Patrol (Starzplay)
After a lacklustre second run,
Jeremy Carver’s TV adaptation
of DC’s much-loved comic
series returns bolder, stranger
and funnier. It’s the superhero
saga retold as Pirandello’s
Six Characters in Search of
an Author, with the cast —
Timothy Dalton, Brendan
Fraser, Diane Guerrero —
digging deep into their
characters’ damaged psyches.
Andrew MaleHanna
(Amazon Prime Video)
David Farr, the series’ creator,
has modified and tinkered
with his show to impressive
effect from day one, yet this
never truly engaged until the
arthouse solemnity was ditched
in favour of a complex female-
centric action drama, with
Esme Creed-Miles hypnotic as
the teen assassin. There is just
enough time for a re-brief
before the final series begins.Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
(BBC iPlayer)
One of the best cinematic love
stories of recent years, Céline
Sciamma’s drama is set in the
18th century and depicts a
portraitist (Noémie Merlant)
falling for her sitter (Adèle
Haenel). Acting on same-sex
attraction is not easy in the
film’s world, of course. The
result is a tale of romantic
gazes, and it earns rapt
attention. (2019) EPsimple tale of retribution,
what follows is not. Forsyth
doubles down on the Fargo
comparisons to give us a
follow-up tale that’s resolutely
complex in its narrative twists
and turns. It may lack the
freshness of season one but it
makes up for that with some
incredible performances
(particularly Rochelle Neil’s
outcast cop, Yvonne) and an
emotional resonance that is
genuinely affecting.Lives in the fast lane: the return of Flintoff, Harris and McGuinness (BBC1, 8pm)Top Gear (BBC1, 8pm)
Paddy McGuinness, Andrew
Flintoff and the motoring
journalist Chris Harris are
back for another series of
automotive encounters that
may seem a little out of step
with a post-Cop26 world.
After some backfiring early
editions, the team’s humour
began to gel in the previous
run — perhaps not to “Jeremy
who?” levels yet, but the
signs are promising. Episode
one finds the trio pitted
against three F1 drivers
during the British Grand Prix
weekend at Silverstone, and
takes the former motorcycle
stuntman Eddie Kidd OBE
on an emotional trip in a
Rolls-Royce, accompanied
by hundreds of admiring
outriders. Events, a little
predictably, culminate in
McGuinness facing a jump
through a ring of fire.
Helen StewartThe Great British Dig —
History In Your Back
Garden (C4, 7pm)
Hugh Dennis accompanies
archaeologists (led by Chloe
Duckworth and Richard
Taylor) to Maidstone in Kent,
to spend five days looking for
ancient remains beneath the
gardens of Florence Road.
There are no Time Team-style
mysteries to be solved here,
as the mapping points in
advance to an extensive
Roman settlement: a farm,
outbuildings, dwellings, a
bath house and possible
links to a stone quarry.
Fragments of buildings and
artefacts regularly emerge
and community volunteers
join the pros — one of the
series’ key differences from
Tony Robinson and co.
John Dugdale
Adele — From 19 To 30: In
Her Own Words (C5, 9pm)
Ahead of the release of
Adele’s fourth album, 30 —
her first since 2015’s 25 — this
documentary provides an
overview of the singer’s
brilliant career and tries to
explain how she is able to
retain such a loyal fan base
after disappearing from the
business for long periods.Our Young Mental Health
Crisis (BBC1, 10.30pm)
A&E doctor Alex George —
whose 19-year-old brother,
Llyr, took his life in July 2020
— explores the harsh impact
of the pandemic on young
people’s mental health.
As well as following those
struggling, the film discovers
charities working to improve
an alarming situation.BBC Introducing Arts:
Drama Shorts
(BBC4, 10.35pm)
The actress Chizzy Akudolu
presents this selection of
shorts by up-and-coming
film-makers. Domestic
violence, homelessness and
alienation are covered; there
is also space for dreams,
sausages and zombies.
Victoria SegalCRITICS’ CHOICE
Lift the gloom
with a musical