The Times - UK (2021-12-18)

40 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times

The Great British

Sewing Bee

BBC1, 8pm

Sewing Bee has a new host,

self-confessed clothes lover

Sara Pascoe taking over from

Joe Lycett. Her first task is to

welcome four celebrity

contestants into the Sewing

Room: the Rev Kate Bottley,

Corrie’s Antony Cotton, Kiell

Smith-Bynoe (Mike in Ghosts)

and the broadcaster Anneka

Rice. Pascoe was a contestant

on last year’s show, so knows

the pressure the celebs are

under as they make a pattern

for a Christmas jumper,

transform a charity shop

bundle into fancy dress outfits

and create dresses from

Christmas past. JC

The Hairy Bikers

Go North for

Christmas

BBC2, 8pm

Si King and Dave Myers are

travelling around the north of

England seeking inspiration for

the “most wondrous of festive

feasts”, which will bring the

King and Myers clans together

for the first time in ten years.

They start at a roadside café

in the Pennines for sausage

butties before setting off. They

visit Darlington, Sheffield and

Doncaster, and the foodie

treats include Turkey doner

kebab starters, gourmet

marshmallows, award-winning

Christmas puddings and

frangipane mince pies. JC

6.30 Tili a’i Ffrindiau (r) 6.45 Gwdihw (r)

7.00 Ynys Broc Môr Lili (r) 7.10 Abadas (r)

7.20 Caru Canu a Stori 7.30 Deian a Loli

(r) 7.45 Sion y Chef (r) 8.00 Olobobs (r)

8.05 Jen a Jim a’r Cywiadur (r) 8.20

Tomos a’i Ffrindiau (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 Peppa (r) 10.05 Jamborî (r) 10.15

Guto Gwningen (r) 10.30 Tili a’i Ffrindiau

(r) 10.45 Gwdihw (r) 11.00 Ynys Broc Môr

Lili (r) 11.10 Abadas (r) 11.20 Caru Canu a

Stori (r) 11.30 Deian a Loli (r) 11.45 Sion y

Chef (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 Gwesty Aduniad (r) 4.00

Awr Fawr: Caru Canu a Stori (r) 4.10

Timpo 4.20 Tomos a’i Ffrindiau (r) 4.30

Twt (r) 4.45 Gwdihw (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:

Rhyfeddodau Chwilengoch a Cath Ddu

5.20 Angelo am Byth (r) 5.30

Mabinogi-ogi a Mwy (r) 5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00

Gareth! (r) 6.30 Adre (r) 6.57 News S4C

7.00 Heno 7.30 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm

8.25 Sain Ffagan 8.55 News 9.00 Bwyd

Byd Epic Chris 10.00 Priodas Pum Mil (r)

11.00-11.35 Dim Byd i’w Wisgo (r)

(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except:

6.05pm-6.40 The Asian Welsh (r) 10.45

Hayley Goes (r) 11.15-11.45 Coast (r)

● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except: 7.00pm

Hope Street. Secret lovers Finn and Leila

are horrified by a face from the past

7.45-8.00 Barra’s Wild Days Out

● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:

10.00pm Westlife at the Ulster Hall (r)

10.40 The Paddy Raff Show: Christmas

Special (r) 11.10 Live at the Apollo:

Christmas Special 12.00 Cinderella: A

Comic Relief Pantomime for Christmas (r)

1.00am Motherland Christmas Special (r)

1.30-1.45 Gardening Together (r)

● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 1.45pm

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave (r)

2.15-3.05 Politics Scotland 4.40-5.15

Scotland’s Best Dog (r) 7.00-8.00

Antiques Roadshow at Christmas

● STV As ITV except: 10.30-10.45pm STV

News 4.05-5.05am Unwind with STV

● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Great Food

Guys Christmas Special (r) 7.30 Eat the

Town 8.00 Scotland’s Christmas Home of

the Year (r) 9.00 The Nine 10.00 Tw o

Doors Down: Christmas Special (r) 10.30

Sportscene 11.00 Christmas Stories

11.30-Midnight Short Stuff (r)

● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Peppa (r) 6.05

Jamborî (r) 6.15 Guto Gwningen (r)

ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (U, 1982)

ITV, 11.30am

People misremember ET. They see it as cloying and saccharine,

and defined by a cutesy alien who doles out hugs and is good at

fixing finger cuts. But the reason it persists is because it belongs to

the painful mess of family trauma. ET, famously, was an imaginary

support system dreamt up by the pre-teen Steven Spielberg to

cope with his parents’ divorce. In the film ET is a vessel for Elliott’s

pain, and the creature’s illness and ultimate death is the dying of

Elliott’s childhood innocence. It’s a movie about cruel, cold adult

life. ET’s mission to phone home and arrange a pick-up is

threatened by the faceless government men (Spielberg films at

child height, we rarely get to see their heads) who have their own

plans for the visiting alien. (115min) Kevin Maher

Films of the day

Great Expectations (12, 2012)

BBC2, 11.45pm

David Nicholls (Us, Patrick Melrose) adapted this take on the

Dickens classic, with Pip played by Jeremy Irvine. His naive, sweet

performance gives a fresh lift to the story. It is directed by the

Harry Potter series stalwart Mike Newell and has a familiar cast of

Hogwarts thespians at full throttle: Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch,

Robbie Coltrane as Mr Jaggers and Helena Bonham Carter, above,

as Miss Havisham. This is the part she was put on Earth for and she

delivers, rocking from tender to manipulative to addled, and gothic

dusty veiling becomes her. Handily for film-makers, Dickens had

the foresight to provide two endings to the book: one sentimental,

the other cold and truthful. Nicholls takes a third way, between the

two, which is sure to annoy the traditionalists. (128min) Kate Muir

Madame Tussauds:

The Full Wax

ITV, 9pm

Gawping at likenesses of

famous folk rendered in wax

should be obsolete, but as

this entertaining programme

reveals, 2.5 million visitors flock

to the 200-year-old Madame

Tussauds museum in London

every year. And for celebrities,

being immortalised in wax is

still an honour. This is filmed

over a year at Madame

Tussauds in London and

Blackpool, and we see the

creation of wax figures for the

pop group Little Mix and the

YouTuber DanTDM. We also

see Olly Murs and Craig Revel

Horwood at the studio so their

figures can have a touch-up. JC

Regional programmes

Wednesday 22 | Viewing guide

Critic’s choice

The Wonder Years

Disney+

The Wonder Years was the
whimsical 1960s-set coming
of age US comedy drama that
ran from 1988 to 1993 and
followed the nostalgia-tinged
schooldays of sensitive
teenager Kevin Arnold, as
recalled by his older, wiser
self. Disney+ is rebooting it,
but this time the protagonist
is Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ”
Williams), a boy from a black
middle-class family in
Montgomery, Alabama.
The series is narrated by a
grown-up Dean, voiced by
Don Cheadle. The year is 1968
and Dean has just turned 12 —
“the age when you turn from
a boy to a man” — but like
most kids of that age he’s just
busy trying to figure out his
place in the world. His dad, Bill
(The West Wing’s Dulé Hill), is
a music professor by day and
a funk musician by night, and
to Dean he is “the baddest
dude I knew”. Bill’s motto for
life is “be cool”, which isn’t

easy when you’re a black man

raising a family in Alabama in

the late 1960s — 1968 was the

year after the race riots and a

US presidential campaign year

(eventually won by Richard

Nixon) that was suffused with

the politics of race. Dean’s

mum, Lillian (Saycon

Sengbloh), is an accounting

executive with a master’s

degree. Completing the family

are Dean’s older siblings:

popular sister Kim (Laura

Kariuki) and sporty brother

Bruce (Spencer Moore II).

Dean views his life through

rose-tinted glasses. “Whether

we were yelling or laughing,”

he says, “if you turned your

head just right, it all sounded

like music.” The period

soundtrack is tremendous, a

feature the series shares with

its progenitor. The director

for the first three episodes is

Fred Savage, who played

Kevin in the original series.

Joe Clay

Catch

up

Mare of Easttown

Sky/Now

The HBO drama, set in a

tough Philadelphia town,

is one of the TV dramas

of the year. Although

its plot is a basic

whodunnit, Mare

of Easttown

is so much

more too.

Towering over

everything is

Mare, played

by Kate

Winslet right.

Bedraggled

of hair,

stoical of

heart and rarely without a beer

to hand, she’s a magnificent

creation from the writer Brad

Ingelsby. Winslet’s acting

masterclass enabled us to peer

into her character’s soul as she

bears the weight of her

community’s many

troubles as well as her

own assorted woes.

Even before the

action started her

son had killed

himself and her

marriage had

broken up,

and things

don’t get

much better

as she

investigates

the murder

of a local

girl.

Ben Dowell

Emily in Paris

Netflix

The divisive comedy drama is
back for a second season, with
Lily Collins returning as the
beret-clad young American
social media whiz who
immerses herself in French
culture/men while living in
Paris for work. The first series
was on the receiving end of
scathing reviews from French
critics for its cliché-ridden,
sugar-coated depiction of the
city, but it was a big hit with
viewers (58 million accounts
binged or hate-watched it
during its first 28 days on
Netflix). Season two will deal
with the messy aftermath of
Emily’s night of passion with
Gabriel and its impact on her
friendship with Camille. JC