The Times - UK - 04.12.2021

the times | Saturday December 4 2021 saturday review 23

t v & ra di o

Best of the rest

Full seven-day listings & previews

Podcast choice

Harsh Reality

Spotify, Apple etc

The strange, cruel celebrity

culture of the early 2000s is

explored through the story

of There’s Something About

Miriam, a reality show in which

six men competed for the

affections of a model who at

the end was revealed to be a

trans woman. James Marriott

Critic’s choice

And Just Like

That...

Thu, Sky Comedy, 9pm

The news that Sex and the
City, one of the most beloved
TV dramas of the past 25
years, was coming back was
cheered by fans, perhaps with
a celebratory cosmopolitan.
Even they, however, would
have felt a tinge of scepticism.
How often do such revivals
really work? What’s more, Kim
Cattrall’s show-stealing
man-eater, Samantha, would
be absent. This reboot could
prove flatter than week-old
Moët. Or it could be great —
no previews were available so
we won’t know until Thursday.
Either way it is the week’s
TV event and you have to
assume that the scriptwriters
have pulled out all the stops to
give zing to the fiftysomething
dilemmas of Carrie (Sarah
Jessica Parker), Miranda
(Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte
(Kristin Davis) in Manhattan.
Blunt sex talk is a given,
as is a more robust sense of
diversity (the LGBT characters
won’t be just mincingly camp
best friends). One thing is for
sure, it’ll be a fashion lover’s
paradise, so perhaps it’s time
to dust off those Manolos.
James Jackson

Radio choice

Soul Music

Today, Radio 4, 10.30am

The lyrics of Tim Buckley’s

Song to the Siren were written

by the poet Larry Beckett.

Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey,

they compare love to the

siren’s call, and this episode of

Soul Music explores what the

song means to various people.

“The song seemed to

already exist in some Platonic

sphere,” Beckett says. “I

merely accessed it. It was

pure inspiration.” Beckett

regrets the song’s association

with dying, but Buckley’s

death at 28 and the tragedy of

his son Jeff’s drowning in 1997

burden Song to the Siren with

a heavy sorrow.

Those contributing include

the choirmaster Dominic

Stichbury, who breaks down

the musical elements that

make this such a simple yet

devastatingly powerful song.

The image of lives lost at

sea is one that resonates

with Meg Bignell, whose friend

died swimming in the ocean

surrounding her native

Tasmania. She found solace

in the haunting version of

Song to the Siren by This

Mortal Coil, with Elizabeth

Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.

The British singer Rose Betts

recorded a version of the song

at the request of the film

director Zack Snyder, who

wanted to include it in Justice

League after the death of

his daughter. “I’ve never

encountered a song that has

such a place in people’s lives,”

she says. “It’s still finding

places in hearts and minds.”

Joe Clay

The best films

Cynthia Nixon,

Sarah Jessica

Parker and Kristin

Davis return

Phil Lynott: Songs for While

I’m Away

Today, BBC2, 10pm

Decent clips of the hits help

along an in-depth profile of

the Thin Lizzy frontman.

You Don’t Know Me

Sun/Mon, BBC1, 9pm

Drama of the week is this

powerful four-part crime

series in which a car salesman

(Samuel Adewunmi, right)

tells a jury how he ended up

in the dock for murder.

Two Doors Down

Mon, BBC2, 10pm

The amusing Scot-com is

back, with Arabella Weir and

Alex Norton again putting up

with their overbearing

neighbours.

Landscapers

Tue, Sky Atlantic,

9pm

Olivia Colman

and David Thewlis

are reliably good as

a couple driven to murder

in a tonally unusual drama

taking in clips of old films

such as High Noon.

Wordsworth and Coleridge’s

Romantic Road Trip

Tue, Sky Arts, 8pm

Frank Skinner and Denise

Mina go on a second road trip

together, this time to the

Lakes for some good-

humoured insights into

the Romantic poets.

Daffodils presumably

are a given.

Vienna Blood: The

Melancholy Countess

Fri, BBC2, 9pm

Something of a sleeper

success a couple of years

ago, this Viennese whirl of

a crime drama returns, and

it’s still Sherlock-meets-

Freud as psychiatrist Dr

Liebermann joins up with

detective Rheinhardt in

1907 to prove that a society

suicide was murder. JJ

The Last Duel (18)

Disney+

A squire (Adam Driver) is

challenged to a duel by a

knight (Matt Damon) in Ridley

Scott’s bad-hair medieval

tale, lit up by the luminous

Jodie Comer, right.

Blood and Wine (15)

Today, Talking

Pictures TV, 9pm

A darkly enjoyable

double act from

Jack Nicholson

and Michael

Caine in this

1996 neo-noir.

The Social Network (12)

Sun, Great Movies, 9pm

Jesse Eisenberg is suitably

opaque as Mark Zuckerberg.

The Wife (15)

Sun, BBC2, 11.10pm

Jonathan Pryce as a famed

author; Glenn Close his

long-suffering wife about

to upend their marriage.

The Old Man & the

Gun (12)

Sun, Channel 4,

12.30am

Robert Redford

twinkles as

an old rogue and

bank robber. JJ