The Times - UK (2021-12-18)

72 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times

● S4C 6.00am Cyw 7.15 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 (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

Tatws 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

Bywyd y Fet (r) 12.30pm Cofio Mei Jones

(r) 1.30 Pysgod i Bawb (r) 2.00 News 2.05

Guinness World Records Cymru 2021 (r)

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

Sinema’r Byd (r) 5.45 Larfa (r) 5.50

Lolipop (r) 6.15 Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.45

Huw Edwards yn 60 (r) 7.45 News 8.00

Pobol y Cwm 8.25 Rownd a Rownd 8.55

News 9.00 Gwesty Aduniad 10.00 Sgwrs

Dan y Lloer: Matthew Rhys (r)

11.00-12.05am Priodas Pum Mil ’Dolig (r)

(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing

● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:

7.10pm-7.40 Tudur’s TV Flashback (r)

● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 2.00pm

FILM Shadowlands (1993) Fact-based

drama starring Anthony Hopkins and

Debra Winger 4.05 FILM The Remains

of the Day (1993) Period drama starring

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson

6.15 Flog It! (r) 6.30-7.00 The City of

Horses: Our Lives. Examining the

tradition of keeping horses in

several Swansea communities (r)

● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:

7.00pm-8.00 The Hairy Bikers Go North

for Christmas (r) 9.00 The Ulster Rugby

Show 9.30 FILM Judy (2019) 11.20-11.50

The Perfect Morecambe & Wise

Christmas Special. A selection of classic

clips from the duo’s festive specials (r)

● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:

9.00pm-10.00 Walter: A Life in Football

10.35 The Great British Sewing Bee:

Celebrity New Year Special 11.35 FILM

Ready Player One (2018) 1.45am

Weather 1.50-6.00 BBC News

● STV As ITV except: 4.05am-5.05

Unwind with STV. Daily relaxation

● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Scotland’s Best

Dog (r) 8.00 Beechgrove: Mucking In (r)

9.00 The Nine 10.00 Only an Excuse? (r)

11.00-Midnight Selling Scotland (r)

Only Connect

BBC2, 8pm

One Monday in October Only
Connect beat EastEnders in the
ratings, with 2.79 million people
tuning in. Not bad for a nerdy
quiz show that celebrates
lateral thinking. Tonight it goes
head to head with another
national institution (one
D Attenborough), but don’t
bet against the quizmaster
Victoria Coren Mitchell and the
brainiacs coming out on top
again. Tonight’s “epic” Champion
of Champions Special pits two
previous series winning teams
against each other — the 007s
and the Puzzle Hunters. “It’s
going to be an extremely
difficult game,” Coren Mitchell
warns the participants. So who
will come out on top? JC

One Night in

London Zoo

Channel 4, 9pm

Josh Widdicombe and Alex

Brooker live out many a child’s

fantasy when they are locked

in London Zoo for the night,

joined by fellow comedians

Desiree Burch and Guz Khan.

Spirits are high as the quartet

hang out with giraffes (and,

reluctantly, spiders), feed

camels and bomb around the

zoo in a golf cart, getting

a glimpse of what animals get

up to after dark and when the

public have gone. They also

face competitive challenges

that test their zookeeping

abilities, including herding

pygmy goats and weighing

mischievous monkeys. JC

Wogan: Now

You’re Talking

Channel 5, 9pm

Terry Wogan always kept to

a golden rule of broadcasting:

“Get on your toes, keep your

wits about you, say goodnight

politely when it’s over, go

home and enjoy your dinner.”

He made it sound so simple,

and his style — relaxed, warm,

witty, reassuring — endeared

him to millions. It is nearly five

years since he died, and this

documentary celebrates his

life and work — from Blankety

Blank and his chat shows to his

Eurovision commentary and

the odd gem from the archives

— in the company of old

friends, colleagues and fellow

broadcasters. JC

Walden

Sky Arts/Now, 11pm

Amy Berryman’s ecological

drama, part of the Re:Emerge

season in the West End,

imagines a world in which

mankind is planning to escape

global warming by colonising

Mars. Gemma Arterton is Stella,

a former Nasa architect who

has dropped out and

embarked on a new existence

far from the overheated cities.

The news is full of reports of

a mega tsunami in Asia, and

amid this turmoil Stella tries to

salvage her relationship with

her twin sister, Cassie, a Nasa

botanist who is in line to lead

the mission to Mars. As they

stake out their positions, it is

Lydia Wilson’s Cassie who

holds the attention. Clive Davis

Judy (15, 2019)

BBC2, 9pm

The formula is familiar. A glamorous yet emotionally fraught

Hollywood star, possibly ageing, is plonked into rain-lashed Blighty

and transformed, via lonely introspection and encounters with

eccentric locals, into a more decent, honest, stable person. Think

My Week with Marilyn, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool or Stan &

Ollie. This Judy Garland biopic follows the formula to the letter, with

a diverting supporting cast and the idea that the wells of British

culture can be an antidote to the shallowness of Hollywood. What

lifts it above the others is Renée Zellweger, below. As a frazzled,

cash-strapped, late-era Garland arriving in London in 1968 to grab

some high-paying stage gigs, Zellweger is a revelation, making this

one of the great film-star biopics. (118min) Kevin Maher

Films of the day

Ready Player One (12, 2018)

BBC1, 10.35pm

Steven Spielberg downs a bumper pack of cinematic Viagra for a

film that surges forwards improbably for the first wildly propulsive

hour before collapsing. An intense first-act car chase introduces us

to Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a plucky online gamer from the

dystopian future of 2045 who lives in an Ohio trailer park but

Oasis, a virtual 3D fantasyland. Back to the Future, Beetlejuice and

John Hughes movies are the touchstones in the Oasis, we discover,

because its creator, a soft-spoken nerd called James Halliday

(Mark Rylance), was a big fan of the 1980s. In this world Watts is

trying to find a magical key, one of three that will grant our hero

a trillion-dollar fortune and control of the Oasis. It’s Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory crossed with Tron. (139min) KM

Regional programmes

Catch

up

Lupin

Netflix

In January a five-part

French thriller about

a modern-day

gentleman thief,

Assane Diop,

quietly arrived

on Netflix and

became an

overnight

lockdown

hit. There

were five

more

episodes

before

the end

of the

year. Omar Sy, below, has real

physicality and charisma in the

role of Assane, a thief who pulls

off robberies in modern-day

Paris while wearing really nice

suits and avenging the death of

his father. Who says men can’t

multitask? The first episode

features a daring sting at the

Louvre, where our hero goes

after a necklace once owned

by Marie Antoinette. The

show is inspired by

Arsène Lupin, the

gentleman thief

created by

Maurice Leblanc

in 1905 to be a

Gallic riposte

to Sherlock

Holmes. It’s

light, pacey

entertainment.

Dominic

Maxwell

Thursday 30 | Viewing guide

Critic’s choice Attenborough

and the Mammoth Graveyard

BBC1, 8pm

Four years ago two amateur
palaeontologists walking
around a freshly dug gravel
pit just north of Swindon in
Wiltshire noticed something
unusual sticking out of the
mud: the fossilised leg bone of
a mammoth. Sally and Neville
Hollingworth had stumbled on
the discovery of a lifetime, a
mammoth graveyard in the
prehistoric riverbed of the
Thames. It is one of the oldest
sites of its kind yet discovered.
Most mammoth skeletons
date from tens of thousands
of years ago, but these were
hundreds of thousands of
years old (dating of soil
samples suggests that the site
goes back 215,000 years),
offering a rare window on life
in the Ice Age, a period we
know very little about. In this
fascinating documentary
David Attenborough joins the
biologist Ben Garrod, right,
and a team of archaeologists
and palaeontologists as they

carry out a detailed

investigation of the quarry

where the bones were found.

Attenborough has had the

fossil-hunting bug since he

was a boy and his enthusiasm

is infectious, especially during

a visit to the Hollingworths’

house, where they share some

of their treasures with him,

including a stone hand axe

made by an early human that

Sally uncovered with the

mammoth bones. “That’s the

great thrill of the whole of this

business,” Attenborough says,

handling the axe with awe.

He is equally delighted by

the fact that the couple used

it to cut their wedding cake.

Meanwhile, Attenborough and

Garrod meet experts in the

field of evolution in search

of a greater understanding

of our relationship with

mammoths and the lives of

people who lived alongside

these Ice Age giants.

Joe Clay