76 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
Cobra Kai
Netflix
“Fasten your gi, tie your belt...
welcome back to the All Valley
Karate Tournament.” If that
means nothing to you, you
didn’t watch The Karate Kid
films of the 1980s or the
three-series TV sequel, one of
Netflix’s biggest word-of-mouth
hits. Like a later Rocky movie,
it has no worry about being
cheesy as it follows the middle-
age travails of longstanding
dojo enemies Daniel LaRusso
(Ralph Macchio) and Johnny
Lawrence (William Zabka) and
the growing pains of their
equally high-kicking teenagers.
Now Daniel and Johnny have
united against that nasty old
John Kreese... Enjoy with
popcorn. JJ
MasterChef
Champion of
Champions
BBC1, 8.30pmFive former champions return
to the kitchen to cook for John
Torode and Gregg Wallace,
beaming like a maniac. Taking
the plunge are Tim Anderson
(2011), Ping Coombes (2014),
Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed
(2017), Kenny Tutt (2018) and
Irini Tzortzoglou (2019). First,
the alumni are challenged to
create a comfort dish rooted in
a memory, then they show
what else they can do, years
after their triumphs. The guest
needing to be impressed is the
music star and cookbook
author Jessie Ware. JJThe Graham
Norton Show
BBC1, 10.20pmThings start building up to
midnight with Graham Norton
and raucous chat with Claire
Foy, Peter Dinklage, Michael
Sheen and Jessica Chastain,
among others. After that it’s
The Big New Years & Years Eve
Party (11.25pm), the annual
concert thrown at a central
London venue. This year, as the
amended title suggests, it’s the
pop act Years & Years, fronted
by Olly Alexander, who was the
lead actor in the hit Channel 4
series It’s a Sin. In case they
mean nothing to you, the
band will be joined by Kylie
Minogue and Pet Shop Boys
for some classic hits. JJJools’ Annual
Hootenanny
BBC2, 11.25pmIn terms of telly, Jools Holland
and his big clock can seem like
the only way to see in the new
year. And the annual tradition
still works well, buoyed by
the Pipes and Drums of the
1st Battalion Scots Guards,
thumping away at midnight
and, of course, a strong line-up
of musical guests. Among the
mix of new pop and old soul
will be Ed Sheeran, Rag’n’Bone
Man, Ruby Turner and Gregory
Porter. More amusingly, Vic
Reeves is expected to get up
for a version of one of his
1990s hits. It’s enough to make
Lulu want to shout (yes, she’s
here too). JJNew Year’s Eve | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Stay Close
Netflix
Stay Close is the latest box-set
potboiler taken from a Harlan
Coben book and written by
Danny Brocklehurst, hot on
the heels of Safe and The
Stranger. And it has all the
hallmarks we’ve come to
expect. There are undisclosed
secrets from the past haunting
middle-class characters
(everyone in these dramas,
however winsome they seem,
has a dubious past). There are
the massive houses in some
upmarket English suburbia —
in fact, you may groan when,
in the first five minutes, the
lead character played by Cush
Jumbo arrives home to toss
her keys on to her vast kitchen
island. There is the constant
possibility of some terrible
crime being committed as
we discover how everyone
is connected, among them
here Jumbo’s mum of three,
Richard Armitage’s dissolute
photographer and James
Nesbitt’s detective, right,
investigating a missing young
man. These shows have been
big hits, and accordingly this
series is eagerly awaited. Yet
Stay Close is also a bit... odd.
The action jumps swiftly
between the ensemble —
linked by a pole-dancer
nightclub in the woods — with
the tone slipping between
angsty mystery and dark
comedy with moments that
carry an air of heightened
unreality. Most jarring is the
presence of a couple of
assassins who smile like
Mormons and like to engage
in a spot of synchronised
dancing before a kill. It’s
a series with all the depth of
a puddle and, through its
implausibilities, a lack of
tension, but if you’re looking
for an undemanding shaggy-
dog tale, look no further. Best
of all is Eddie Izzard as a
heroin-addicted lawyer with
a heart of gold.
James JacksonThe Great Escape (PG, 1963)
Channel 4, 3.15pm
This star-laden, real-life tale of teamwork and derring-do is
a trifle flabby at just under three hours, but there is no denying
that this is one of the best loved of all Second World War films. It’s
stirring stuff, particularly towards the end, when Steve McQueen
gets astride a motorbike and gives the Nazi pursuers full throttle.
The cast of this epic prisoner-of-war-camp escape movie is
a dream team: alongside McQueen are Richard Attenborough,
playing the British mastermind of the escape; Charles Bronson
as a Polish trench-digger; James Garner, playing a light-fingered
Yank; and Donald Pleasence as the master forger whose essential
contribution to the escape comes at great personal cost.
(172min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
The Aftermath (15, 2019)
BBC2, 9pm
Keira Knightley stars in this wartime romance, a film with dramatic
potential and fascinating context. The setting is bomb-blasted
Hamburg five months after VE Day, presented in beguiling aerial
shots and gritty, body-strewn street scenes. This is a hellish place
where surviving Germans resent the occupying Allied forces. It’s a
dangerous environment infiltrated by diehard Nazi fighters, the
so-called Werwolf, who launch guerrilla attacks against the British.
Into this dark and complex milieu steps Knightley’s bored British
housewife, Rachael, above, and her repressed husband, Lewis
(Jason Clarke). Lewis is busy chasing Werwolf murderers, leaving
Rachael free to have an affair with the house’s other resident, sexy
chisel-chested Stefan (Alexander Skarsgard). (104min) Kevin Maher6.30 Tili a’i Ffrindiau (r) 6.40 Gwdihw (r)
6.55 Ynys Broc Môr Lili (r) 7.05 Nico Nôg
(r) 7.15 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 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 Sbarc (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 Nico Nôg (r) 11.20 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 11.35 Deian a Loli (r) 11.50
Sion y Chef (r) 12.00 Adre (r) 12.30pm
Huw Edwards yn 60 (r) 1.30 Sain Ffagan
(r) 2.00 News 2.05 Am Dro Selebs! (r)
3.00 News 3.05 Noson Lawen (r) 4.00
Awr Fawr: Peppa (r) 4.05 Bach a Mawr (r)
4.20 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r) 4.30 Sbarc
(r) 4.45 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:
Dennis a Dannedd (r) 5.10 Bernard (r) 5.15
Cath-Od (r) 5.30 Sinema’r Byd (r) 5.45
Larfa (r) 5.50 Un Cwestiwn 6.15 Cwmni
Theatr Maldwyn yn 40 (r) 7.45 News 8.00
Pantomein y Ffermwyr Ifanc. The Wales
Federation of Young Farmers Clubs’
pantomime 8.55 News 9.00 O’r Diwedd- A satirical review of the year 10.00
Gareth! 10.30-12.10am Heno Nos Galen
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 5.35pm St
David’s Day Celebration with Bryn Terfel
(r) 6.35 Marvellous Musicals: Talking
Pictures (r) 7.05-8.30 Musicals: The
Greatest Show. Sheridan Smith presents
a celebration of musical theatre (r)
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
5.35pm The Two Ronnies at Christmas (r)
6.30 Northern Ireland Onscreen (r)
7.30-8.30 LUSH! Classical (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
10.20pm Hogmanay 2021 10.30 Scot
Squad Hogmanay Special 2021 11.00
Queen of the New Year 11.30 Hogmanay
2021 12.30am The Graham Norton Show
1.35 FILM I Give It a Year (2013) 3.05
Weather 3.10-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 9.00pm Hayman’s
Way Special (r) 10.00 Scotland Loves
High Road (r) 10.30 Alan Cumming’s Edge
of Scotland (r) 11.30-12.10am Bringing in
the Bells 5.05-5.10 Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.20
Pure Magic (r) 7.50 The Royal Edinburgh
Military Tattoo: Celebrating 70 Years (r)
9.00 Not Quite End of Year Show 9.30
Still Game (r) 10.00 Breaking the Year (r)
10.30 Scotland’s Football Jukebox (r)
11.30-12.30am Hogmanay 2021
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Peppa (r) 6.05
Jamborî (r) 6.15 Guto Gwningen (r)Regional programmes
Catch
up
Ted Lasso
Apple TV+
Both series of this good-
natured fish-out-of-water
comedy are on Apple TV+.
It follows the titular
American football
coach, played by
Jason Sudeikis, who
relocates to rainy
England to take charge
of the struggling
(fictional) Premier
League club AFC
Richmond. The first
series was
something of a
sleeper hit, with
Sudeikis, right,winning a Golden Globe.
However, after receiving 20
Emmy nominations (a record
for a debut comedy series — it
ended up winning seven), it
shot to the top of Apple TV+
viewership ranks. Sudeikis
elevates the entire enterprise
with his folksy, feelgood
performance as Ted.
Despite the travails
of his club on and
off the pitch —
series two
begins with
an
accidental
canine
fatality — Ted is
a constant beacon
of optimism, making
this as much a soft-
hearted soap as a
workplace sitcom.
James Jackson