36 saturday review Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
Wordsworth &
Coleridge: Road Trip
Sky Arts/Now, 8pmAfter following in the footsteps
of Boswell and Johnson, the
comedian Frank Skinner and
his crime-writing chum Denise
Mina are in a more Romantic
frame of mind, tracing the
steps of Wordsworth and
Coleridge. Like the original
poets, Skinner and Mina have a
great chemistry and also love
their subject, which makes this
a delight as they read poetry
while revisiting key sites in
the poets’ lives. Episode one
takes in Bristol and the West
Country, where Coleridge and
Wordsworth fired each other
up, resulting in their timeless
collection Lyrical Ballads. BDAmazing Hotels
BBC2, 8pmGiles Coren and Monica
Galetti turn a bit James Bond
at the start of this episode of
escapist fun, cruising into
Reid’s Palace hotel in Madeira
on a speedboat before their
amiable bickering sets in.
It’s an unusually old hotel
for this pair — 130 years old,
in fact — and stunningly
beautiful. Perched on a cliff,
its position means the
purpose-built tidal swimming
pool at its base is to die for
and each room is blessed
with a sea view. Coren
discovers the suite that was
once loved by Winston
Churchill, while Galetti cleans
crabs and visits a line-fishing
tuna boat. BDThe Cult of
Conspiracy: QAnon
Channel 4, 9pmThis compelling if faintly
depressing film takes us
behind the most prominent
conspiracies of modern times:
QAnon. The journalist
Benjamin Zand braves the talk
of being a mainstream media
figure to earn the trust of key
figures within the movement
(many of them Trumpists) to
give a rich portrait of what they
are about. And while some
may come across as idiots
spreading misinformation and
theories about global
conspiracies to feel important,
it’s sad to hear how convinced
they are — and how numerous.
Damn the internet. BD11.05 View from Stormont 12.00 Griff’s
Great New Zealand Adventure. On Queen
Charlotte Sound (r) 12.30am Heathrow:
Britain’s Busiest Airport (r) 12.50-1.20
Britain’s Busiest Motorway (r)
● BBC Scotland 2.15-3.00pm BBC
Scotland News Special Coronavirus
Update 7.00 Inside the Zoo (r) 8.00 This
Farming Life. A duo prepare to compete
at the Royal Highland Show 9.00 The
Nine 10.00 Talent 11.00-Midnight
The Big Scottish Book Club (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 10.45 Cei Bach (r)
11.00 Caru Canu (r) 11.05 Guto Gwningen
(r) 11.20 Da ’Di Dona (r) 11.30 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 11.45 Sbarc (r) 12.00 News
12.05pm Her yr Hinsawdd (r) 12.30 Heno
(r) 1.00 Bwrdd i Dri (r) 1.30 Ffermio (r)
2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00
News 3.05 Y Ffair Aeaf (r) 4.00 Awr
Fawr: Caru Canu (r) 4.05 Halibalw (r) 4.15
Guto Gwningen (r) 4.30 Sbarc (r) 4.45
Patrôl Pawennau (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Oi!
Osgar (r) 5.10 Mwy o Stwnsh Sadwrn 5.35
Y Dyfnfor (r) 5.55 Ffeil 6.00 Pysgod i
Bawb (r) 6.30 Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.57
News S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30 News 8.00
Pobol y Cwm 8.25 Rownd a Rownd 8.55
News 9.00 Cefn Gwlad 10.00 Rocco
Schiavone 11.00-11.35 Nyrsys (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 10.35pm
Live from Aberystwyth Pier 11.05
Backwashed 11.10 Backwashed 11.15
Backwashed 11.20 I Like the Way U Move
12.20am Have I Got a Bit More News for
You (r) 1.05-1.35 Question of Sport (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 1.45pm
First Minister’s Questions 2.35 Eggheads
(r) 3.05-3.15 Nature’s Weirdest Events (r)
5.15 The Hairy Bakers (r) 5.30-6.00
Walking with Shappi Khorsandi
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.35pm Spotlight 11.05 I Like the Way U
Move 12.05am Have I Got a Bit More
News for You (r) 12.55 The Graham
Norton Show (r) 1.40-6.00 BBC News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
11.15pm Crime NI (r) 11.55 NFL This Week
12.45-1.05am BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 7.00pm
River City (r) 8.00 EastEnders 8.20-9.00
Holby City. Dom is in denial
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 7.30-8.00pm
Coast & Country 11.05-11.35 In Their
Words. With Dame Shirley Bassey
● STV As ITV except: 10.50pm STV
News 11.00 Scotland Tonight 11.25
Against the Odds (r) 12.20-3.00am
Teleshopping 4.05-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 7.30pm Enterprise:
A Track Record 8.00-9.00 Up CloseSt Elmo’s Fire (15, 1985)
Sky Cinema Greats, 8pm
It’s fair to say that Joel Schumacher’s soapy 1980s saga of
post-college travails has not aged as well as its Brat Pack
contemporaries (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink). It is hard
to say what seems more ridiculous — the self-important pomp
rock of the soundtrack, the overinflated hair, the screamingly
unsubtle clothes or the idea that Judd Nelson was ever considered
to have sex appeal. Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore and Emilio
Estevez share navel-gazing duties, playing some of the most self-
obsessed whiners ever to grace the screen. And yet it’s still visual
catnip for anyone who came of age in the 1980s. All together now:
“I can see a new horizon underneath the blazing sky/ I’ll be where
the eagle’s flying higher and higher.. .” (108min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
Tully (15, 2018)
Film4, 11.20pm
The screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) was influenced by the birth of
her third child for the quasi-autobiographical Tully. Charlize
Theron, above, is the careworn mother Marlo, who has just given
birth to her third baby. At her lowest ebb Marlo is seemingly saved
by the arrival of a night nanny. Her name is Tully (Mackenzie Davis)
and she is an indispensable accessory for upper-class New Yorkers.
Tully helps Marlo to feed in the small hours. She changes Mia’s
nappies and soothes her to sleep. She also cleans the house, bakes
cupcakes and fans into life the dying embers of Marlo’s spirit. It’s a
complex and courageous film that’s full of surprises, the greatest
being how it understands, absorbs and expresses the mind-dulling,
soul-stirring ecstasy of parenting. (92min) Kevin MaherThe Sinking of the
Costa Concordia
Channel 5, 9pmIn January 2012 the Italian
cruise ship Costa Concordia ran
aground, capsized and sank in
shallow waters after striking a
rock off the coast of Tuscany,
with more than 4,000 people
on board. Given the scale and
horror of what happened, it is
remarkable that only 32 people
died, but it’s still a grim story,
told in detail in this two-parter
by those who were there.
“There was just a silent
acknowledgment that we were
going to die,” one says. But
was the captain to blame or is
he a scapegoat for those above
him who don’t want to share
responsibility? BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius:
The Alan Hull Story
BBC iPlayer
Alan Hull, the singer/
songwriter of Lindisfarne,
is rock’s forgotten man —
an injustice the young
Tyneside singer Sam
Fender wishes to correct.
In Fender’s film we hear
Peter Gabriel talk of
Hull’s “direct and
emotional voice” and
Sting explain how
“Alan was our Bob
Dylan”. Lindisfarne
(think Fog on the
Tyne) were briefly
hailed as “the 1970sBeatles” and Hull’s story is
interesting for being lesser
known: he was a good-time
spirit and political agitator,
whose art reflected the
concerns of real people rather
than rock-star hedonism. Hull,
below, died in 1995 at 50; and
this film, brimming with
affection, feels like an overdue
tribute. James JacksonTuesday 7 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Landscapers
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
In October the bodies of
two elderly people were
discovered buried in a garden
in Nottinghamshire, with
police attention turning to the
dead couple’s daughter, Susan
Edwards, and her husband,
Christopher, who were living
in France. What this strange
HBO four-part fictional
retelling of that story lacks
in dramatic jeopardy (I’d
recommend not googling the
case), it makes up for in being
a fascinating portrait of a very
odd central pair. The action is
overlaid with a heavy self-
conscious style and a bizarre
conceit about the actor Gary
Cooper (with whom the
couple were obsessed). Olivia
Colman plays Susan, who
masks her dark nature with
mousy, pleasant-seeming airs
and by saying things like “silly
old me”. David Thewlis, right
with Colman, plays Christopher
like a taut spring, a loyal and
obedient spouse living under
obvious strain, not least
because he is running out of
money and the net is closing
in. He also cannot speak much
French and is struggling to
find work, which results in
him doing something that sets
the UK police hares racing.
This then introduces us to
another strange part of the
drama: the incompetent-
seeming plods led by Daniel
Rigby’s hard-swearing lead,
DCI Collier. There’s a comic
edge to these scenes that
feels in questionable taste at
times. The action then flits
between the two worlds, with
Susan frequently segueing
into Walter Mitty-type reveries
involving her husband as
Cooper and taking the viewer
more deeply into their fantasy
world. But soon the midday
train will bring not Frank
Miller but a late-middle-aged
English couple to their own
High Noon-style reckoning.
Ben Dowell