28 saturday review Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
Michael Crawford:
Some Mothers Do
’Ave ’Em
Channel 5, 9pmIt’s quite something to be
talent-spotted by Benjamin
Britten. He adapted Noye’s
Fludde to suit the young
Michael Crawford’s changing
voice. Crawford’s career has
been marked by adventure and
variety — from the childlike naif
Frank Spencer in the 1970s
sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave
’Em to donning the Phantom
of the Opera mask. This
documentary uses archive
footage and contributions from
those who know him best,
including Andrew Lloyd
Webber, to tell his story. JC1.00am MOTD: FA Cup Highlights 2.00
MOTD Top 10: XI Played With 2.30
Weather 2.35-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 6.45-7.00pm STV
News 4.05-5.05am Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.15
Sportscene 8.30 The Mountain (r) 9.00
Inside Central Station 10.00 The Big
Scottish Book Club. With Miriam
Margolyes, Jackie Kay and Pete Paphides
11.00-Midnight Seven Days
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Sbridiri (r) 6.20 Tw t
(r) 6.35 Antur Natur Cyw (r) 6.50
Cymylaubychain (r) 7.00 Ben Dant (r)
7.20 Octonots (r) 7.30 Sbarc (r) 7.45 Cei
Bach (r) 8.00 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r)
8.10 Cacamwnci (r) 8.25 Stiw (r) 8.35
Amser Maith Maith yn Ôl (r) 8.50
Penblwyddi Cyw 9.00 Ffit Cymru (r)
10.00 Ffit Cymru (r) 11.00 Byd o Liw:
Cestyll (r) 11.30 Dechrau Canu Dechrau
Canmol (r) 12.00 Yr Wythnos 12.30pm
Adre (r) 1.00 Rygbi Pawb (r) 1.45 3 Lle (r)
2.10 Ffermio (r) 2.40 Clwb Rygbi. Glasgow
Warriors v Dragons 4.25 Clwb Rygbi.
Ospreys v Ulster 6.10 Pobol y Cwm
Omnibws (r) 7.15 News 7.30 Dechrau
Canu Dechrau Canmol 8.00 Priodas
Pum Mil 9.00 Y Ffair Aeaf 10.00 Cefn
Gwlad (r) 11.00-11.35 Sain Ffagan (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:
10.00-10.30am Politics Wales
4.25-4.55pm Gareth Edwards’ Great
Welsh Adventure. Gareth and wife
Maureen explore the Brecon Beacons (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 5.15pm
Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby.
Giles and Monica arrive at Royal Mansour,
one of the world’s most discreet hotels (r)
5.30 Richard Osman’s House of Games.
Jessie Cave, Ayesha Hazarika, Simon
Hickson and AJ Pritchard take part
6.00-7.00 Scrum V. Action from the latest
United Rugby Championship fixtures
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.00-10.30am Sunday Politics Northern
Ireland. Mark Carruthers looks at the
latest political news and debate
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
6.00pm Walking with Shappi Khorsandi.
The comedian and author strolls through
the Peak District 6.30-7.00 The Wild
Gardener (r) 10.00 The Blame Game (r)
10.30 Sunday Politics Northern Ireland (r)
11.00 The Office (r) 11.35 The Office (r)
12.10-1.45am FILM The Wife (2017)
Drama starring Glenn Close
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
10.00am-10.30 The Sunday Show 11.30
Reflections at the Quay 12.00-12.30 The
Bidding Room (r) 11.45pm SportsceneThe Social Network (12, 2010)
Great! Movies, 9pm
A formidable triumvirate of talent drives this film. Aaron Sorkin’s
writing is crisp, restless and perceptive — he dazzles us with
verbal fireworks, but painstakingly chisels out the nuances of his
characters. David Fincher’s direction is supremely confident;
effortlessly brilliant in much the same way that the central
character in the film, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg,
comes across. And Jesse Eisenberg gives the performance of
his career as Zuckerberg. Andrew Garfield is also excellent as
Eduardo Saverin, another co-founder of Facebook. Few films
capture the zeitgeist as effectively as this or the alienation
and vulnerability of relationships in the digital age.
(120 min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
The Wife (15, 2017)
BBC2, 11.10pm
Bjorn Runge’s gripping drama follows the unravelling marriage of
the pompous, oversexed novelist Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce)
and his loyal, long-suffering wife, Joan (Glenn Close, above with
Pryce). It’s based on Meg Wolitzer’s 2004 bestseller and is rooted
in one weekend in Stockholm. It’s 1992 and the couple are there for
Joe to pick up the Nobel prize for literature. He is fawned over by
the Nobel staff, has his past probed by a biographer (Christian Slater)
and his carnal desires threaten the fabric of his 30-year relationship
with Joan. However, it is Joan’s reactions to this behaviour that
elevate the film to a marital classic. She does not initially judge,
censure or castigate. He is her project and their relationship is
appallingly yet perfectly co-dependent. (100 min) Kevin MaherOther, Like Me
BBC4, 10.35pmCOUM Transmissions was the
music and performance art
collective formed by the Hull
provocateurs Cosey Fanni Tutti
and Genesis P-Orridge in 1970.
Operating on the margins of
society, it was a niche but
influential movement — Tutti
and Orridge went on to found
the pioneering industrial band
Throbbing Gristle, whose
sociopathic songs aimed to
“strip away all layers of artifice
and get to the true self”.
Marcus Werner Hed and Dan
Fox’s film draws on the group’s
archive of photos and video,
and features new interviews
with original members
including Orridge (who died
in 2020) and Tutti. JCRegional programmes
Catch
up
Shetland
BBC iPlayer
Shetland is Scotland’s
take on Nordic noir; dark
and gloomy, but that bit
richer for focusing on
one case over six
episodes and the
soulful performance
from Douglas
Henshall, right, that
gives this police
drama its heart. In
many ways, Perez is
to Shetland what Kurt
Wallander was to
Sweden. At the start
of series six, DI Jimmy
Perez (Henshall) isgiving a reading at his mum’s
funeral. However, he doesn’t
have much time to grieve
because he is called on to
investigate the murder of a
lawyer, Alex Galbraith, who
has been shot on his
doorstep. Galbraith was
known across the isles and
notorious for securing the
compassionate
release of Donna
Killick, the
murderer of Lizzie
Kilmuir. “To know
how a man died,
you must first
learn how he
lived,” Perez says.
Joe ClayThe Great
Starzplay
Tony McNamara’s riotous
“occasionally true story”
about life in the court of Tsar
Peter III returns for a second
series. In the first series Elle
Fanning’s Catherine (not yet
“the Great”) arrived from rural
Russia to marry Nicholas
Hoult’s boorish swine of an
emperor. She soon sensibly
decided that he had to go and
the series followed her plot to
overthrow her idiot hubby.
As we rejoin the irreverent
period romp, Catherine is
very pregnant and facing up
to the realisation that she has
liberated a country that doesn’t
want to be free. And despite
the coup, Peter is more in love
with his wife. JC
Piers Morgan’s
Life Stories
ITV, 8pmPiers Morgan’s guest is Kate
Garraway, his former colleague
on Good Morning Britain. He
has described her as “one of
[his] favourite people in the
world” and this interview will
mostly focus on Garraway’s
public battle to help her
husband, Derek Draper,
through long Covid. This will
be Morgan’s last appearance
as the host of Life Stories; he is
quitting to present a daily show
for the new channel talkTV. His
replacement? Garraway — so
this interview also represents
a changing of the guard. There
are three more episodes
coming early next year. JCSunday 5 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
You Don’t Know Me
BBC1, 9pm
The screenwriter Tom Edge
(Vigil) has adapted the
bestselling 2017 novel by the
criminal defence barrister
Imran Mahmood into a
gripping four-part courtroom
thriller. In the opening scene
Hero (Samuel Adewunmi,
recently seen in Angela Black),
a young man from south
London, is in the dock accused
of murder. We hear the
closing speech from the
prosecution barrister, who
reveals the overwhelming
evidence against him,
disclosing how “cell site
records place the defendant’s
mobile phone at the scene of
the murder at the time of the
murder”. There is CCTV of
Hero driving towards the
murder site moments before
the victim, Jamil (Roger Jean
Nsengiyumva, right with
Adewunmi), was shot dead.
Traces of Hero’s blood were
found beneath the victim’s
fingernails. Hero’s hair was
found in Jamil’s car. A witness
heard Hero shout, “You’re a
wasteman,” at Jamil. A firearm
was recovered from Hero’s
flat; there was gunpowder
residue on his clothing and
the ballistics report indicates
that it was the same weapon
that was used in the murder.
It’s an open-and-shut case,
right? Maybe not. Hero
dismisses his legal counsel
and exercises his right to
present his own closing
speech, telling the jury that he
is innocent and sharing a very
different sequence of events.
“I did not kill that boy,” he tells
them. “Drug dealers get shot
all the time.” Car salesman
Hero’s story — which our
protagonist narrates — shines
a light on gang culture and
the pressures on young men.
It’s also a love story. It’s a side
of London unfamiliar to the
members of the jury, but will
they believe him? It continues
on Monday. Joe Clay