64 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
Royal Institution
Christmas Lectures
BBC4, 8pmIf you think that the prospect of
England’s deputy chief medical
officer, Jonathan Van-Tam,
talking about Covid might put
you off your turkey leftovers,
think again. Over the next three
nights Tam the Man will be
talking about the benefits of
public health measures taken
during the Covid crisis and
the groundbreaking science
they prompted. This includes
breakthroughs that could help
to fight other diseases, genetic
disorders and even cancer,
with data sharing and rapid
clinical trials changing
biological and epidemiological
science for ever. BDA Very British
Scandal
BBC1, 9pmWe’ve seen the infamous
“headless man” incident
restaged, and now the story
of the Duke and Duchess of
Argyll’s divorce concludes. The
dastardly duke (Paul Bettany) is
prepared to use anything he
can to destroy his estranged
spouse in a case that is playing
out in public. This has not been
the most Christmassy BBC
drama, but as a portrait of
1950s and 1960s snobbery,
spousal strife and sexism,
Sarah Phelps’s script has
succeeded. And in Claire Foy’s
performance as the duchess
we’ve witnessed a masterclass
in suffering and stoicism. BDJFK: Destiny
Betrayed
Sky Documentaries/Now, 9pmIf you think Oliver Stone’s 1991
feature film JFK presented a
conspiracy-laden interpretation
of the 1963 Dallas assassination
of the 35th US president that
has been debunked by the
certain knowledge that
Kennedy was indeed killed at
the hands of one man named
Oswald, think again. Stone is
still clearly obsessed with the
story, and rather than retreat
into the shadows after that
controversial film he has made
this four-part documentary
that paints the president as
a saint whose policies seem
to have provoked shadowy
forces to public murder. BD7.15 Loti Borloti (r) 7.30 Y Brodyr Coala (r)
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 9.20
Rapsgaliwn 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 Caru Canu (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 04 Wal Gwestai’r Byd (r) 12.30pm
Bwyd Byd Epic Chris (r) 1.30 Ffilmiau
Ddoe (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Aled Jones a Sêr
y Nadolig (r) 3.00 News 3.05 Canu gyda
Fy Arwr (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Caru Canu (r)
4.05 Meic y Marchog (r) 4.25 Anifeiliaid
Bach y Byd (r) 4.35 Pablo (r) 4.45 Amser
Maith Maith yn Ôl (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Oi!
Osgar (r) 5.10 Gwboi a Twm Twm (r) 5.25
Bwystfil (r) 5.35 Sinema’r Byd (r) 5.50
Larfa (r) 5.55 Y Dyfnfor (r) 6.15 Rownd a
Rownd (r) 6.45 Priodas Nadolig: Rhian a
Stuart (r) 7.45 News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm.
Hywel yields to Rhys’s demands 8.25
Rownd a Rownd 8.55 News 9.00
Cefn Gwlad 10.00 Rocco Schiavone
11.00-12.05am Atgofion Carol yr Wyl (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 2.20pm
FILM Evil Under the Sun (1982) Mystery
starring Peter Ustinov 4.15 FILM Death on
the Nile (1978) Agatha Christie mystery,
starring Peter Ustinov 6.30 Betty
Campbell: Statue for a Heroine (r) 7.00
Dad’s Army (r) 7.30-8.00 Tudur’s TV
Flashback. Small-screen clips (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.35pm Daniel O’Donnell: The Boy from
Donegal 11.35-1.05am Match of the Day
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
10.00pm I Lár an Aonaigh 10.30 NIFL
Premiership Highlights 11.00-11.35
Mock the Week End of Year Special
● STV As ITV except: 4.05am-5.05
Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.30
Growing Up Green (r) 8.00 Reindeer
Family & Me (r) 9.00 The Hermit of Treig.
An elderly hermit questions whether he
can live out his last years in the
wilderness (r) 10.00 Planet Hogmanay.
Comparing worldwide New Year’s Eve
celebrations with Hogmanay (r) 10.55
Comedy Resolutions (r) 11.35-Midnight
The Karen Dunbar Show (r)
● 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 Caru Canu 7.05 Oli Wyn (r)Planes, Trains and Automobiles (15, 1987)
Channel 5, 5.10pm
Mismatched buddy movies don’t get much better than John
Hughes’s exquisite symphony of annoyance. Steve Martin stars as
the uptight businessman Neal Page, who just wants to get home to
his family for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the weather has other
plans and Neal finds himself snowbound in Wichita and forced into
unseemly proximity with John Candy’s blabbermouth salesman
Del Griffith. Del sells shower curtain rings for a living and never
stops talking about this. Neal swallows his mounting frustration
with Del’s cornucopia of unsavoury behaviour and decides to
venture with him on an ill-fated road trip across the country. The
writing is sharp, but the best of the gags are physical; Martin and
Candy are on top form here. (93min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
The Meg (12, 2018)
Channel 5, 9pm
Jon Turteltaub’s blockbuster introduces “The Meg”, a 75ft prehistoric
shark terrorising an underwater research facility in the South China
Sea. Only Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a former oceanic rescue
specialist, and Suyin (Li Bingbing, above with Statham), his brilliant
single-mum-scientist love interest, stand between the shark and a
potential dinner-bell apocalypse at a nearby tourist haven. This is a
self-satirising B-movie that celebrates its inadequacies and aims to
provoke nothing more from the viewer than the appreciation that
everything on screen is unfolding within the parameters of high
kitsch. The film is based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror
by the author Steve Alten. He also wrote the sequel — Meg 2: The
Trench — coming to cinemas soon. (133min) Kevin MaherA Play in a Day
Sky Arts/Now, 9.30pmThis jolly new series gives
three teams of graduates —
pairs of actors, dancers and
musical theatre performers —
just 24 hours to devise a new
15-minute production (a dance
piece, a play and a musical). As
well as being a “love letter to
six graduates”, it’s designed to
aid a pandemic-blighted live
arts sector. The six youngsters
will be aided by an array of top
names from the arts world.
They include Sergei Polunin,
who is choreographing the
dance, and theatre man-of-
the-moment James Graham,
who is writing the play. The
composer Ruth Chan and
the writer Chris Bush are on
musical theatre detail. BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
The Underground
Railroad
Amazon Prime
Video
The Moonlight
director Barry
Jenkins’s first TV
series is an adaptation
of Colson
Whitehead’s 2017
Pulitzer
prizewinning
novel, which
follows a slave
girl’s journey as
she makes a
desperate bid for
freedom in the Deep
South. After fleeingthe plantation, Cora (Thuso
Mbedu, below) finds the
Underground Railroad — in real
life a network of hidden routes
and safe houses, but in
Whitehead’s alternative
reality a secret
network of tracks and
tunnels under the
Southern soil. All slave
owners here — and
indeed most white
people — are chilling
grotesques, rhapsodising
about the inferiority of the
black race while committing
new obscenities against
them. It works very well,
doing for the Deep
South what, say,
Steven Spielberg
did for Nazi
Germany with
Schindler’s List.
Hugo RifkindAh, Worzel. How we love thee.
Mackenzie Crook’s delightfully
bucolic reimagining of
Barbara Euphan Todd’s
scarecrow stories may have
gossamer-thin plotting, but
Crook always manages to
weave a life-affirming magic
as soft and sweet as a hay
harvest breeze. In tonight’s
offering (called Twitchers)
our loveable if mildly self-
important hero and his
“chillum” chums Susan (India
Brown) and John (Thierry
Wickens) chance upon some
choughs in the field and
wonder why they are not in
their usual coastal habitat.
Crook’s Worzel also wants the
glory of scaring them away,
something he can’t do when
an army of birdwatchers (and
a television news crew)
descend on Ten Acre Field to
report on the avian invaders.
Forced to stand stock still in
front of all those trained eyes,
can he get his scaring mojo
back? We also learn that
Steve Pemberton’s Farmer
Braithwaite was once an avid
twitcher in his youth before
he was double-crossed by an
arch-rival, Aaron Neil’s Lee
Dangerman, who is tonight’s
villain (these things are
relative). The sight of summer
fields and blue skies in the
depths of winter is one of the
many pleasures of this show,
and Crook (who directs as
well as writes) is happy to
focus his cameras on lingering
shots of caterpillars, beetles
and bees. Crook’s writing also
has a knack of being very
funny in unexpected places —
I loved the fact that
Braithwaite reads a
newspaper called The
Farmer’s Hanky. In fact, you
may need a handkerchief
yourself by the close. There is
a second Worzel adventure,
featuring guest star Bill Bailey,
tomorrow at 7.15pm.
Ben DowellTuesday 28 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Worzel Gummidge
BBC1, 7.15pm
Worzel Gummidge
and the Braithwaite
family