32 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
If you’re familiar with Diane
Morgan’s taciturn (and that is
an understatement) character
you’ll be aware that she’s
probably not one for
Christmas cheer. Too
“commercialised”, Mandy
tells her nail technician friend
Lola (Michelle Greenidge) and
she hates the food. “If turkey
was nice we would have it all
year round,” she says, while
bread sauce is fit only for
dogs. And she’s not a fan of
Christmas TV specials either,
especially those of the ITV
soap Emmerdale. “I don’t see
what’s so special about
them... Who gives a shit
about the f***ing Woolpack?”
These are, perhaps, wise
words, but hark! An irony!
Mandy soon finds herself
inside the magical world of
seasonal entertainment:
falling drunkenly asleep in
front of Die Hard, she is visited
by three ghosts who show her
the error of her ways. Will she
reform or is that just the Tia
Maria talking? Of course,
Mandy is a comedy
traditionally served in very
small bites, and a feature-
length Christmas special of
this show runs to about 17
minutes. But fans of her often
delightful mix of the deadpan
and flight-of-fancy absurdity
will be in heaven because the
ghosts are brilliant: a fabulous
northern trio of the actors
Johnny Vegas and Pearce
Quigley and the poet John
Cooper Clarke, right with
Morgan, who offer novel takes
on their Dickens originals.
Could the sight of what
happens to Mandy Future
make her accept Lola’s offer
of lunch with her and her dog
“small Tim”? No spoilers here,
of course, except to say the
whole thing is great fun and
an excellent curtain-raiser
to the new series, which
starts in January.
Ben DowellMary Berry’s
Festive Feasts
BBC1, 7.05pmIt seems an age since Mary
Berry was judging The Great
British Bake Off, her reward for
not joining Channel 4 being a
smorgasbord of BBC cooking
shows. And getting a Christmas
special shows how much
the great woman, who is 86,
remains in Auntie Beeb’s heart.
Last year it was Mary Berry
Saves Christmas; this time it’s
a more traditional effort as she
rustles up seasonal treats and
trains three hapless cooks to
make Christmas lunch. She is
aided in her endeavours by the
smiley One Show presenter
Alex Jones and the fashion
designer Patrick Grant. BDWhat We
Were Watching:
Christmas 1991
BBC4, 8pmIs it only 30 years since
Jeremy Clarkson’s hair was
so luxuriant? The erstwhile
Top Gear titan is one of the
offerings from Christmas TV
past examined by the writer
Grace Dent. And if the past
seems like another country,
Birds of a Feather and Keeping
Up Appearances being BBC1’s
primetime offerings may make
it seem as if it were another
solar system. Just as evocative
of the era is Noel’s Christmas
Presents, in which Noel
Edmonds takes a youngster
to meet Whoopi Goldberg. BDChristmas
at Liberty
Channel 4, 9pmThis festive peek behind the
window displays at London’s
chichi department store has a
pandemic edge. Business has
not benefited from months of
lockdown, and we find the staff
led by the chief executive Adil
Mehboob-Khan trying to boost
profits with new products and
lavish decorations — all while
the building is in the middle of
its first restoration project in
100 years. There is just enough
of interest here to stop it being
a glorified advertisement for
the business, especially when
the festive season is officially
launched by the esteemed
Gay Men’s Chorus. BD9.00 The Nine 10.00 FILM Lost at
Christmas (2020) 11.35 Who Runs the
World? (r) 11.50-Midnight Tune (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 8.00 Olobobs (r) 8.05
Sigldigwt (r) 8.20 Tomos a’i Ffrindiau (r)
8.30 Twt (r) 8.45 Asra (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 Peppa (r) 10.05
Jamborî (r) 10.15 Guto Gwningen (r) 10.30
Tili a’i Ffrindiau (r) 10.40 Dathlu ’Da Dona
(r) 10.55 Ynys Broc Môr Lili (r) 11.05 Nico
Nôg (r) 11.15 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 11.30
Fferm Fach (r) 11.45 Sion y Chef (r) 12.00
News 12.05pm Bwyd Epic Chris (r) 12.30
Heno (r) 1.00 Cegin Bryn (r) 1.30 Y
Tyrchwyr gyda Iolo Williams (r) 2.00
News 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05
Dylanwad Un Nos Ola Leuad (r) 4.00 Awr
Fawr: Olobobs (r) 4.05 Jamborî (r) 4.15
Nico Nôg (r) 4.25 Fferm Fach (r) 4.40
Sigldigwt (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Dennis a
Dannedd (r) 5.10 Siwrne Ni (r) 5.15 Arthur
a Chriw y Ford Gron (r) 5.30 Sgorio 5.55
Larfa (r) 6.00 Byd o Liw: Cestyll (r) 6.30
Sain Ffagan (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00 Heno
7.30 News 8.00 Adre 8.25 Richard Holt:
Yr Academi Felys 8.55 News 9.00
Atgofion Carol yr Wyl 10.00 Sgorio (r)
10.30-11.35 Gwesty Aduniad (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except:
7.00-7.30pm Tudur’s TV Flashback (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.35pm Westlife at the Ulster Hall 11.20
FILM King of Thieves (2018) Stars
Michael Caine 1.05am Bad Education
Christmas Special (r) 1.35-6.00 BBC News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
9.30pm At Home with the Gettys (r)
10.00 I Lár an Aonaigh 10.30 Two Doors
Down: Christmas Special 11.00 NIFL
Premiership Highlights 11.30-11.50
We Wish You a Mandy Christmas
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
4.40-5.15pm Scotland’s Best Dog (r)
12.20am The Edit 12.35 Cuckoo Christmas
Special (r) 1.10 Weather for the Week
Ahead 1.15-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 6.00pm-6.30
ITV News Wales at Six 8.00-8.30 Coast &
Country. Microplastics in the sea
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm-10.45 STV
News 11.40 Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest
Airport (r) 12.00-3.00am Teleshopping
4.05-5.05 Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 2.00pm Sign Zone: Grand
Tours of Scotland’s Rivers (r) 2.30 Sign
Zone: Inside the Zoo (r) 3.30-4.30 Sign
Zone: Inside Central Station Christmas
Special (r) 7.00 Scotland’s Best Dog (r)
7.30 Landward (r) 8.00 Inside the ZooMoana (PG, 2016)
BBC1, 3.05pm
“If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you must be a
princess,” the male antagonist in Moana says — knowingly because
in Disney’s refreshing animated take on the princess genre, Moana
is a feisty chieftain’s daughter with no pink satin in sight. Moana
lives on a Polynesian island that becomes barren thanks to an
ancient curse, and her job is to take to the high seas to find the
demigod who can improve things. He turns out to be a cocky,
irritating lad the size of a small house, who needs taking down
a peg or ten. Moana grows in bravery and skill, and belts out the
occasional liberating Frozen-style showstopper written by
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man behind the hit musical Hamilton and
this year’s hit Netflix movie Tick, Tick... Boom! (115min) Kate MuirFilms of the day
My Week with Marilyn (15, 2011)
BBC2, 12.50am
This solid biopic is based on the recollections of Colin Clark,
played here by Eddie Redmayne. The year is 1956; Colin, aged
23, has just left Oxford University and is determined to shape
himself a career in the film industry. He gets a job as an assistant
on The Prince and the Showgirl, starring the recently remarried
Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams, above) and Sir Laurence Olivier
(Kenneth Branagh). Clark is a bit underpowered as a character, but
ultimately his main role is to be the lens through which we view
the tensions on set — Olivier’s impatience with his demanding
co-star and Monroe’s instability when faced with the demands of
her new husband, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), and the voracious
public. (99min) Wendy IdeTwo Doors Down
BBC2, 9.30pmAfter the neighbours went
away last Christmas (Covid
filming being the mother of
invention) we’re back on
familiar territory for this year’s
seasonal special as Michelle
and Alan invite the Scottish
misfits round for a wee
Christmas drinky. Michelle
(Joy McAvoy) has made some
German gingerbread thingies,
prompting Alan to ask if there
will also be Doritos. It’s another
sharply observed evening of
comedy, with poor Christine
feeling sad (for reasons I won’t
spoil). And while there is the
familiar spousal conflict, sexual
tension and ghastly behaviour,
it’s not the whole story. It is
Christmas after all. BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
The Serpent
BBC iPlayer
This stylish eight-part true
crime drama from the start of
2021 transports us back to the
exotic climes of the mid-1970s.
We are on the hippy trail —
Thailand, Nepal, India —
where an inscrutable gem
dealer, Charles Sobhraj
(Tahar Rahim), is luring
young European
backpackers into
his lethal web of
crime. Sobhraj is a
sociopathic conman
and and soon
becomes the chief
suspect in a seriesof murders of travellers. His
dark good looks help to beguile
his targets, and he is aided by
his equally alluring girlfriend,
Marie-Andrée Leclerc
(Jenna Coleman, below with
Rahim). But it’s not long before
someone is closing in on them:
an out-of-his-depth Dutch
diplomat (Billy Howle). He sets
off a chain of events that result
in Sobhraj becoming Interpol’s
most wanted man.
James JacksonMonday 20 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
We Wish You a Mandy Christmas
BBC2, 10pm