40 saturday review Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
Walking with
Monica Galetti
BBC2, 7pmThe chef and MasterChef: The
Professionals judge Monica
Galetti is taking a stroll on the
North York Moors National Park
on a chilly, sunny morning. She
starts high on Chimney Bank,
drops down into the village of
Rosedale Abbey and crosses
from Rosedale into Farndale,
ending up in the quiet hamlet
of Church Houses, where she
enjoys a pint of local ale. It’s not
an area she knows well, so her
commentary is restricted to
exclamations about the
outstanding views and how
her perambulation is “great
for the soul”. But it is a restful
half-hour of slow TV. JCGrand Designs:
House of the Year
Channel 4, 9pmKevin McCloud, the design
expert Michelle Ogundehin
and the architect Damion
Burrows complete their tour of
the homes on the long list for
the Royal Institute of British
Architects House of the Year- The final five houses
reinvent beloved types of
buildings, including a modern
reboot of a classic Kentish oast
house, an eco-home in Devon
that reimagines the country
house, and a contemporary
take on a suburban family
home in Surrey. One will make
the shortlist, with McCloud
announcing the overall winner
before the credits roll. JC
11.00 Darren McGarvey’s Scotland (r)
11.30-Midnight The Disasters That
Shocked Scotland (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 7.20 Caru Canu a
Stori 7.30 Deian a Loli a’r Paent (r) 7.45
Sion y Chef (r) 8.00 Olobobs (r) 8.05 Jen
a Jim a’r Cywiadur (r) 8.20 Tomos (r) 8.30
Twt (r) 8.45 Llan-ar-goll-en (r) 9.00 Timpo
(r) 9.10 Octonots (r) 9.20 Bach a Mawr (r)
9.30 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 9.45
Cacamwnci (r) 10.00 Sali Mali (r) 10.05
Sion y Chef (r) 10.20 Caru Canu a Stori (r)
10.30 Pablo (r) 10.45 Amser Maith Maith
yn Ôl (r) 11.00 Dysgu Gyda Cyw: Yn yr
Ardd (r) 11.10 Peppa (r) 11.15 Heini (r) 11.30
Llan-ar-goll-en (r) 11.45 Y Dywysoges Fach
(r) 12.00 News 12.05pm Caru Siopa (r)
12.30 Heno (r) 1.00 04 Wal Gwestai’r
Byd (r) 1.30 Richard Holt: Yr Academi
Felys (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da
3.00 News 3.05 Parti ’Dolig Beca (r) 4.00
Awr Fawr: Caru Canu a Stori (r) 4.10 Sali
Mali (r) 4.15 Antur Natur Cyw (r) 4.30
Pablo (r) 4.45 Gwdihw (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:
Rhyfeddodau Chwilengoch a Cath Ddu
5.25 Ffeil 5.30 Live Rygbi Pawb. The
Welsh Colleges final 7.30 News 8.00
Pobol y Cwm 8.25 Sain Ffagan 8.55 News
9.00 Ffit Cymru 10.00 Priodas Pum Mil (r)
11.00-11.35 Dim Byd i’w Wisgo (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:
7.30-8.00pm BBC Wales Sports Review of
the Year 2021. Nathan Blake takes a look
at this year’s highlights in Welsh sport
11.35 Age of Outrage (r) 11.55 Top Gear (r)
12.55-1.25am Question of Sport (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
7.00pm Hope Street 7.45-8.00 Barra’s
Wild Days Out 10.35 The Wild Gardener
11.05 MOBO Awards 2021: Access All
Areas 12.10-1.10am Top Gear (r)
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
7.00pm-7.30 The One Show 10.00-10.30
Spotlight (r) 11.15 Live at the Apollo 11.45
Frankie Boyle’s New World Order (r)
12.20am Barra on the Bann 12.25-1.25
Sign Zone: Question Time (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 2.15pm
Politics Scotland 3.00-3.45 The
Tournament 7.30-8.00 Grand Tours of
Scotland’s Rivers 12.40am The Edit 12.55
Question of Sport (r) 1.25 Weather for the
Week Ahead 1.30-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 10.50pm STV News
10.55 Scotland Tonight 11.25 Peston.
Political updates 12.20-3.00am
Teleshopping 4.05-5.05 Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Highlands:
Scotland’s Wild Heart (r) 8.00 This
Farming Life 9.00 The Nine 10.00
Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland (r)Free State of Jones (15, 2016)
BBC2, 11.15pm
Matthew McConaughey stars as Newton Knight, a battle-weary
Confederate soldier who deserts, deciding that he no longer
wants to fight for the rights of slave owners. As corrupt, sleazy
Confederates take local farmers’ supplies, Knight fights a guerrilla
war and hides in a swampland forest with a group of runaway
slaves. The small revolution in Jones County, Mississippi, is
seen partly through the prism of a white rebel rescuing
African-Americans, but there is also a decent and complex part for
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Rachel, who becomes Knight’s common-law
wife. Directed by Gary Ross, the film tries too hard to chart years of
racial history in the South, but uncovers some fresh territory
nevertheless. (133min) Kate MuirFilms of the day
Another Year (12, 2010)
Channel 4, 1am
This treasure of a film is Mike Leigh at his best. It unspools in four
chapters, coinciding with the seasons of the year in question. It’s as
British thematically as mugs of strong tea sipped in the well-kept
allotment that provides a visual motif throughout, but structurally
it has more in common with European cinema. It is an organic
portrait of reality with no dramatic climaxes, just an ebb and flow
of daily life. This is a disarmingly humane work that celebrates
something rarely seen in contemporary cinema: the stable, happy
family. Leigh regulars Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play married
couple Tom and Gerri so easily that the joke of their names has
long since stopped being a talking point. Orbiting their stable core
are less sorted satellite characters. (129min) Wendy IdePositive
Sky Documentaries, 10pmThe frank documentary telling
the story of Britain’s 40-year
battle with HIV concludes with
a double bill. The second
episode starts in 1986, when
Aids was still seen as a disease
of “sexually active gay men, of
injecting drugs... and people
from Africa”, says Tony
Whitehead of the Terrence
Higgins Trust. At the height of
the crisis a hard-hitting public
health campaign instigated by
the health secretary Norman
Fowler doubtless saved
countless lives. The final
episode starts ten years later
and tells a more positive
story of landmark research,
enlightened attitudes and the
invention of anti-HIV drugs. JCRegional programmes
Wednesday 8 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Dolly: The Sheep
that Changed the World
BBC2, 9pm
On July 5, 1996, Dolly the
sheep became the first
mammal to be cloned from
an adult cell. Dolly’s birth
turned scientific thinking on
its head and the achievement
was controversial because
some saw implications for
cloning humans. However, its
biggest impact has been in
advances into research on
stem cells. This enjoyable
documentary, first shown on
BBC Scotland last month,
examines Dolly’s story 25
years on, told in depth by
the scientists at the Roslin
Institute in Midlothian who
created it. John Bracken, the
senior large animal technician
at Roslin, reveals how special
the animal was, even before
she was born. “We would
sleep in the surgical unit
during the night to make sure
that if [the ewe carrying Dolly]
started going into labour
there was someone here,” he
says. After the successful
birth, the team received calls
from Downing Street, the
White House and even the
Vatican and were
“overwhelmed by requests”
from the public, including
pleas to bring back loved
ones. The team even got a
shout-out from their creation’s
namesake, Dolly Parton (Dolly
the sheep was so-called
because of a quip about
mammary cells). The film also
reveals the story of the animal
activists who broke into Roslin
to try to liberate Dolly, only to
encounter a problem — they
couldn’t tell which one she
was. Dolly died aged six in
2003 from lung disease.
Professor Bruce Whitelaw,
group leader in animal
biotechnology at Roslin at the
time, says: “It was like losing
part of the team.” Dolly was
stuffed and can now be found
in the National Museum of
Scotland, Edinburgh.
Joe ClayWelcome to Earth
Disney+
Will Smith is everywhere at
the moment (promoting his
autobiography, playing Venus
and Serena Williams’s dad in
the movie King Richard) and
in case you haven’t had your
fix, he’s also fronting this new
natural history series from
National Geographic. Like a
Hollywood version of Steve
Backshall, Smith is throwing
himself into the unknown and
travelling to some of the most
extreme places on the planet,
including the deep ocean,
caves and volcanoes. “I asked
the best modern-day explorers:
take me to the ends of the
Earth,” Smith says in the trailer.
“And they said, ‘Oh, we can go
further than that.’ ” JC
Catch
up
Queen of Speed
Sky/Now
The story
of Michèle
Mouton’s
rise to the
top of the
male-
dominated
world of rally
driving in the
1970s and
1980s is a rich
one. Without
narration (as seems to
be the vogue with sports
films), it is packed with
adrenaline-filled highs and
lows as she made history bywinning four World Rally
Championships. But it’s also a
portrait of an extraordinarily
determined and talented
woman’s battle with sexism.
Rallying, when Mouton, below,
started, was seen as an
exclusively male
preserve and
nobody, we’re
told, “wanted
to lose to the
girl”. But win
she did —
in her first
year with the
Audi Quattro,
she took a
surprise victory
at the Rallye
Sanremo. It was to
be the first of many and
would lead to Stirling Moss
saying Mouton was “one of
the best”. Ben Dowellems to
ith sportsexclusively
preserv
nobo
told
to
g
s
in
y
Au
she
surp
at the R
Sanremo.
bethe first of man