44 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
7.40 Amser Maith Maith yn Ôl (r) 8.00 Sali
Mali (r) 8. 05 Straeon Ty Pen (r) 8.20 Ben a
Mali a’u Byd Bach O Hud (r) 8.35
Shwshaswyn (r) 8.45 Cei Bach (r) 9.00
Cymylaubychain (r) 9.10 Digbi Draig (r)
9.20 Rapsgaliwn (r) 9.35 Pablo (r) 9.45
Byd Tad-Cu (r) 10.00 Bing (r) 10.10
Halibalw (r) 10.20 Meic y Marchog (r)
10.35 Jen a Jim Pob Dim (r) 10.50
Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r) 11.00 Ta t w s
Newydd (r) 11.05 Oli Wyn (r) 11.15 Loti
Borloti (r) 11.30 Y Brodyr Coala (r) 11.40
Amser Maith Maith yn Ôl (r) 12.00 News
12.05pm Bywyd y Fet (r) 12.30 Heno (r)
1.00 Pysgod i Bawb (r) 1.30 Adre (r) 2.00
News 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05
Cefn Gwlad (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr:
Shwshaswyn (r) 4.10 Jen a Jim Pob Dim
(r) 4.25 Cymylaubychain (r) 4.35 Y Brodyr
Coala (r) 4.50 Byd Tad-Cu (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:
Y Brodyr Adrenalini (r) 5.05 Dreigiau:
Gwarchodwyr Berc (r) 5.30 Lolipop (r)
5.55 Larfa (r) 6.00 Codi Pac (r) 6.30
Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00
Heno 7.30 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm. Dani
faces an important decision 8.25 Rownd
a Rownd. The carolathon is in full swing
8.55 News 9.00 Gwesty Aduniad 10.00
Canu gyda Fy Arwr (r) 11.00-11.35
Richard Holt: Yr Academi Felys (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
9.00pm Beauty and the Beast: A
Pantomime for Comic Relief. Lily James
heads an all-star cast to retell the classic
fairy-tale romance 10.00 The Ulster
Rugby Show 10.30-10.35 Weather
Watchers with Barra Best (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 11.15am
Bargain Hunt (r) 12.00-1.00pm First
Minister’s Questions 1.45 Scotland’s
Christmas Home of the Year 2.45
Merry Madagascar (r) 3.05 FILM
Cinderella (2015) Romantic fantasy
starring Lily James and Richard Madden
4.45-5.15 Scotland’s Best Dog (r)
● STV As ITV except: 10.45-11.00pm STV
News 4.30-5.05am Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 7.30-8.00pm
Keepers of the Lough. On Strangford
Lough, brent geese are counted
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Inside Central
Station Christmas Special (r) 8.00
Scotland’s Best Dog (r) 9.00 The Nine
10.00 Scot Squad (r) 10.30 FILM Hector
(2015) Drama starring Peter Mullan
11.55-Midnight Loop
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Bing (r) 6.10 Halibalw
(r) 6.20 Meic y Marchog (r) 6.35 Jen a Jim
Pob Dim (r) 6.50 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r)
7.00 Tatws Newydd (r) 7.05 Oli Wyn (r)
7.15 Loti Borloti (r) 7.30 Y Brodyr Coala (r)Mr Saturday Night
Sky Documentaries/Now, 7pm
Robert Stigwood was the
Australian music Svengali
who managed the Bee Gees,
Cream and Eric Clapton. He
later turned theatre impresario,
bringing Hair to the London
stage. John Maggio’s
documentary chronicles
Stigwood’s stellar career, with
a focus on how he came up
with the idea for the movie
Saturday Night Fever, turning
a magazine article into a
1977 cultural touchstone. As
producer, it was Stigwood’s
idea to pack the movie full of
disco hits. The film grossed
$100 million, of which his cut
was 45 per cent, while the Bee
Gees-led soundtrack generated
another $100 million. JC
Blackburn Sings
Christmas
BBC2, 8pmThe choirmaster Gareth
Malone is heading to Blackburn
— one of the areas of the UK
hardest hit by Covid-19 — to
create a concert that celebrates
the work of NHS staff and the
community spirit of the town.
He finds a wealth of untapped
musical talent everywhere he
goes, from the Royal Blackburn
Hospital to local pubs,
businesses and homes in the
town. Those who feature in an
emotional final performance
include hospital porter
Stephen, who put his singing
career on hold in the pandemic
but kept his vocal chords warm
entertaining patients. JCHansel and Gretel:
After Ever After
Sky Max/Now, 8pmWhat happened after Hansel
and Gretel shoved the wicked
witch in the fire and escaped?
That’s the starting point for
the third helping of David
Walliams’s fitfully funny
reimaginings of fairytales. It’s
not the homecoming they were
expecting — their stepmother
(who abandoned them in the
forest, remember) has turned
their bedroom into her walk-in
wardrobe. But that’s the least
of their worries — the witch is
lightly charred, not burnt alive,
and she wants revenge. The
cast includes Sheridan Smith,
Sophie Thompson, Mark Addy
and Walliams as a troll. JCNot Going Out
Christmas Special
BBC1, 10pmAnother gag-packed festive
episode of Lee Mack’s hit
sitcom includes a touching
tribute to the late Bobby Ball
(who played Lee’s father). Lucy
(Sally Bretton) and Lee take the
children to the pantomime and
Lucy is excited because Jason
Donovan is the leading man.
Lee is less fond of panto after a
traumatic experience involving
Bernie Clifton. Cue a dream
sequence performance of
Cinderella, with Lee as Buttons,
Lucy as Cinders, Toby (Hugh
Dennis) and Anna (Abigail
Cruttenden) as the Ugly Sisters
and a raft of celebrity guests,
including Donovan. JCLast Christmas (12, 2019)
BBC2, 9pm
Paul Feig’s rom-com based around the music of George Michael
takes a Richard Curtis airbrush to London. Emilia Clarke, below, is
rather good — scatty and luminous in the finest manic-pixie dream-
girl tradition — as Kate, who arrived as a George Michael-loving
child refugee with her family, including her domineering mother,
Petra (Emma Thompson), from the former Yugoslavia. Kate is
recovering from a mystery illness and working at a Christmas-
themed gift shop in Covent Garden when she meets clean-cut love
interest Tom, played by the Malaysian-English actor Henry Golding.
Feig’s film is vehemently anti-Brexit and subtly feminist — Kate
sleeps around a bit and, gasp, rather enjoys it. It’s silly, but
satisfying as a plum pudding. (103min) Ed PottonFilms of the day
Chaplin (15, 1992)
Sky Arts/Now, 9pm
Largely based on Charlie Chaplin’s selective memoir, Richard
Attenborough’s reverential biopic still finds room for some of the
darker chapters in the London-born screen legend’s life. Robert
Downey Jr conveys Chaplin’s impish charisma while recreating the
scenes of the Tramp in those classic silent films. His life is told in
flashback from a patio in exile in Switzerland as an elderly Chaplin
recalls events for his biographer (played by Anthony Hopkins). The
best passages take place during the immaculately evoked Roaring
Twenties, scenes helped a classy support cast, including Kevin
Kline as Douglas Fairbanks and Geraldine Chaplin playing her own
grandmother. It also touches on Chaplin’s run-in with a beady-eyed
J Edgar Hoover (Kevin Dunn). (143min) James JacksonRegional programmes
Thursday 23 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Ghosts
BBC1, 8.30pm
Ghosts is one of the BBC’s
comedy success stories of
recent years, pulling in more
than five million viewers an
episode. The third series was
broadcast this year, the fourth
has been commissioned —
filming starts in January. It
was even bestowed with the
honour of a dreadful US
remake, a rite of passage for
most of the best sitcoms to
originate in Blighty. Another
sign of its success is the
recurring Christmas special,
and we are rejoining the gang
of restless spirits and human
inhabitants at Button House
for a second festive episode.
One of the great joys of Ghosts
has been the death stories of
the spectres who inhabit the
dilapidated mansion —
tugging at the heartstrings
while making you laugh out
loud. In this episode we find
out more about the life of
Lady Fanny Button (Martha
Howe-Douglas), the scorned
Edwardian lady so named for
the endless double entendres
the writing team (the brains
behind the peerless children’s
series Horrible Histories) can
extract. We already know the
circumstances of her death —
pushed out of the window of
the house by her husband
after she found him having
sex with the groundsman —
but tonight we get some more
backstory, with Jennifer
Saunders playing her mother,
Lavinia. The main plot strand
involves innocent Kitty (Lolly
Adefope) becoming
convinced that the man
camping in the grounds of
the stately home is Father
Christmas. Julian (Simon
Farnaby) is rather nimby
about the interloper, but Mike
(Kiell Smith-Bynoe) and Alison
(Charlotte Ritchie) come to
a realisation about what they
have to offer, which gives the
episode its heartwarming
Christmas message. Joe ClayCatch
up
Unforgotten
ITV Hub
The fourth and arguably best
series of Chris Lang’s classy
police procedural was
broadcast this year. It begins
with a frustrated DCI Cassie
Stuart (Nicola
Walker) desperate
to quit policing and
facing the added
pressure of the
worsening
condition of
her dementia-
stricken dad.
But to get her
payoff she has
been asked tostay on for three more months,
which is just enough time to
team up with her appropriately
named sidekick DI Sunny
Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar, below
with Walker) for one more
challenge. There are multiple
suspects in this cold case, with
our corpse belonging to a
dodgy bloke called Matthew
Walsh, found (headless) in a
freezer. Walsh also had a paper
Marathon
chocolate
wrapper in
his pocket,
suggesting
that his demise
preceded the
other crime of
renaming
the bar
Snickers.
Ben
Dowell