68 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
Hogwarts
Tournament
of Houses
Sky Max/Now, 7pm/8pmOn New Year’s Day, to mark
the 20th anniversary of the
release of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone, the cast
and crew, including Daniel
Radcliffe, Emma Watson and
Rupert Grint, are reuniting to
reminisce about the making of
the beloved film franchise.
Over the next two nights, Helen
Mirren hosts a trivia showdown
between fans of JK Rowling’s
wizarding world, with the
winner being named House
Cup Champion. Expect special
guest appearances from cast
members and celebrity fans. JCWorzel Gummidge
BBC1, 7.15pmOn our second visit to
Scatterbrook Farm the fair is
in town, and Susan and John
can’t wait to tell “old turnip
head” Worzel Gummidge
(Mackenzie Crook). He’d love
to join them “to chuck
something at something to
win something else”, but
scarecrows can’t mingle with
humans so he’ll have to miss
out. But then he tells the
children about the legend of
a fairground organ that has
the power to send humans to
sleep, allowing scarecrows to
enjoy the rides without being
seen. If only it were real...
Bill Bailey joins in the
charming fun as the fair
owner Mr Peregrine. JC7.45 Deian a Loli (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 Caru Siopa (r) 12.30pm
Sgwrs Dan y Lloer: Matthew Rhys (r) 1.30
04 Wal Gwestai’r Byd (r) 2.00 News 2.05
Trysorau Gareth Edwards (r) 3.00 News
3.05 Gwesty Aduniad (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr:
Caru Canu a Stori (r) 4.10 Timpo (r) 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 Sinema’r Byd (r) 5.45 Larfa
(r) 5.50 Mabinogi-ogi a Mwy (r) 6.15
Gareth! (r) 6.45 Noson Lawen (r) 7.45
News 8.00 Pobol y Cwm. Rhys realises
that Hywel spent the night at Jaclyn’s
house 8.25 Sain Ffagan. Gardener
Ceri is having fun cleaning the
floorboards at Kennixton Farm 8.55
News 9.00 Huw Edwards yn 60. A profile
10.00 Am Dro! (r) 11.00-12.05am Jam (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 2.20pm
A to Z of TV Gardening. Carol Kirkwood
looks at subjects beginning with the
letters X, Y and Z (r) 2.40 FILM The Great
Train Robbery (1978) Period thriller
starring Sean Connery and Donald
Sutherland 4.25 FILM Murder on the
Orient Express (1974) Agatha Christie
mystery starring Albert Finney 6.30
The Long Walk Home: Our Lives (r)
7.00 The Hairy Bikers’ Bakeation (r)
7.30-8.00 Tudur’s TV Flashback (r)
● STV As ITV except: 4.05am-5.05
Unwind with STV. Daily relaxation
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm FILM The Decoy
Bride (2011) Romantic comedy starring
Kelly Macdonald and David Tennant 8.30
The Great Food Guys Hogmanay Special.
Nick Nairn and Dougie Vipond make
venison pie (r) 9.00 The Nine 10.00 Still
Game. Jack and Victor race Winston and
Tam to a Highland retreat (r) 10.30
Sportscene. The midweek Premiership
fixtures 11.30-Midnight Breaking the
Year. A wry look back over the big
stories and events that shaped 2021
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Peppa (r) 6.05
Jamborî (r) 6.15 Guto Gwningen (r) 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 Sion y Chef (r)A Star is Born (15, 2018)
BBC1, 9pm
This is the fourth adaptation of the 1937 melodrama that told the
tale of a tentative ingenue who is nurtured on to centre stage by
a fading male icon. This one features the singer-songwriter and
red-carpet behemoth Lady Gaga as Ally, opposite The Hangover
star turned “serious, intense screen performer” Bradley Cooper,
playing a hard-drinking country rocker called Jackson Maine.
Cooper also directs, for the first time. Ally, a part-time waitress
and full-time dreamer, writes songs. She has a stunning voice.
Everyone she knows loves her. Ally has one problem, however.
She doesn’t think she’s pretty enough to be a megastar. Luckily,
she meets the walking, mumbling, millionaire booze bucket that is
Jackson Maine. (130 min) Kevin MaherFilms of the day
Shirley Valentine (15, 1989)
Channel 5, 9pm
This was the second hit collaboration between the playwright Willy
Russell and the director Lewis Gilbert; the first was Educating Rita.
Shirley (Pauline Collins) is a middle-aged Liverpudlian housewife
who chats to her kitchen wall in the absence of any meaningful
social interaction with her grumpy husband, Joe (Bernard Hill).
When her best friend (Alison Steadman) wins a holiday for two in
Greece Shirley grabs the opportunity and blossoms away from the
chafing routines of her marriage. Tom Conti is Costas, the suave
Greek islander who provides romance in a life that has hitherto
revolved around getting egg and chips on the table. It’s very
stagey — Collins constantly breaks the fourth wall and chats to
the camera — but likeable. (108min) Wendy IdeInside the Factory
BBC2, 9pmGregg Wallace and Cherry
Healey turn the volume up to
11 to visit a factory that makes
diggers, or as Wallace bellows:
“The ultimate big kid’s toy!”
Every week the specialist team
at the JCB factory in Rocester,
Staffordshire, gets through
650 tonnes of steel, 170,000
bolts, 5,000 litres of paint and
236 miles of wiring to make
about 100 diggers a day.
Wallace is on hand to observe
the process of making a
backhoe loader from scratch,
while Healy observes the
diggers in action, building
roads. Engineering geeks are
well served as the historian
Ruth Goodman explores the
history of hydraulics. JCRegional programmes
Wednesday 29 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
The Book of Boba Fett
Disney+
The Star Wars universe
continues to grow with the
latest offering from Disney+,
a spin-off of the hit series The
Mandalorian. Star Wars fans
will remember Boba Fett,
the helmet-wearing, almost
wordless bounty hunter
from the original film trilogy.
George Lucas based him on
Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti
western Man with No Name
character and imagined that
he came from a warrior race
on a planet called Mandalore,
a world expanded on in The
Mandalorian. In the movie
franchise the last sighting of
Boba Fett was in the pit of the
man-eating Sarlaac in Return
of the Jedi (1983). Presumed
dead at the time, Boba Fett
lived on in novels and comic
books, finally arriving back
on screen in The Mandalorian,
when he came after the
show’s title hero (Pedro
Pascal) in search of his
missing armour. Then and
now, Boba Fett is played by
the Maori actor Temuera
Morrison, who has previous
in the Star Wars prequels,
portraying Jango Fett, a silver-
suited bounty hunter, in
2002’s Star Wars: Episode II —
Attack of the Clones. If you’re
already lost, it’s safe to say
that Star Wars geeks will get
more satisfaction from The
Book of Boba Fett than the
casual viewer. But in case
you want to give it a go, the
action picks up after the
second-season finale of The
Mandalorian. Boba Fett and
his partner, Fennec Shand
(Ming-Na Wen), have taken
control of the slug-like
gangster Jabba the Hutt’s
outpost on Tatooine. With
Jabba’s reign over, many
nefarious intergalactic types
fancy their chances, and Boba
Fett and his allies must fend
off attacks from all sides to
keep control of the throne.
Joe ClayCatch
up
Time
BBC iPlayer
Jimmy McGovern’s
harrowing three-part
prison drama compels
you to watch to find out
the fate of the two leads:
Sean Bean’s inmate Mark
Cobden, right, a guilt-
stricken teacher
serving four
years for killing
a cyclist in a
drink-driving
incident, and
Stephen
Graham’s
prison
officer EricMcNally, whose record of 20
years’ impeccable service
comes under threat when he
is put in an impossible position.
If you have yet to watch Time,
perhaps put off by the thought
of immersing yourself in the
claustrophobic grimness of
prison life or McGovern’s
penchant for blunt
polemics, you should
give it a chance. It is
difficult to watch, but
a more thoughtful and
sensitive portrayal
of the prison
system than
you might
have been
expecting.
Joe ClayThe Times
Square Killer
Netflix
The second series of Joe
Berlinger’s Crime Scene tells
the story of Richard
Cottingham, aka the Times
Square Torso Killer, who
dismembered and decapitated
two sex workers in 1979 in
a Hells Kitchen hotel close to
Times Square. Cottingham,
who was from New Jersey, was
active between 1967 and 1980,
and records state that he killed
11 people, but he claims to have
committed between 85 and
100 murders. The three-part
series explores the social and
systemic forces that allowed his
horrific crimes to go unnoticed
for too long. JC