19 December 2021 81THE BEST TV FROM STARZPLAY AND BEYOND... WEDNESDAY 29 DECEMBER
The Great British Dig —
History In Your Back
Garden (More4, 9pm)
Under the streets of Falkirk
lie the remains of one of
the Roman Empire’s most
northerly outposts: a fort
attached to the Antonine
Wall that was built on the
order of Emperor Antoninus
Pius in AD142. In this breezily
educational show, Hugh
Dennis and a team of
archaeologists descend on
the town with their trowels
and dungarees to dig for
evidence under residents’
lawns, powering through
the Victorian and medieval
layers until they find the
fragments, shards and spelt
grains that are hard evidence
of Roman settlement. What
they unearth, however, in a
twist of drama, means they
have to rip up their map and
start all over again.
Victoria SegalExtra large Gregg (BBC2, 9pm)ON DEMAND
14 Peaks (Netflix)
In its most basic form, Torquil
Jones’s 2021 documentary
follows the Nepalese
mountain climber Nirmal
Purja on a seemingly
impossible quest to reach the
top of all 14 of the world’s
8,000-metre mountains in
the space of seven months.
Along For The Ride (All 4)
The Irish comic and playwright
David O’Doherty goes out on
picturesque cycle trips with
fellow eccentric TV types
(Grayson Perry, Mel Giedroyc,
Richard Ayoade) and casually
cross-examines them about
life, nature and nonsense. It’s
mild, rambling entertainment
but delightfully captures the
giggly dopamine euphoria of a
long bike ride through nature.
Andrew MaleThe previous record was
seven years. That fact alone
makes for a thrilling tale of
endurance and death-defying
adventure. But Jones’s film
is also about prejudice and
national pride, specifically
Purja’s conflicted relationship
as a Gurhka with the British
armed forces and his desire
to highlight the contribution
that Nepalese mountaineers
have made to mountain-
climbing history.How was it for you? Frankie Boyle takes a swipe at the year just gone (BBC2, 10pm)Frankie Boyle’s New World
Order (BBC2, 10pm)
A dyspeptic roundup of the
year’s events as it shivers
to its end has become an
essential — if slightly sadistic
— rite of the holiday season.
Last year, it was Charlie
Brooker’s turn in the satirical
hot seat with his Antiviral
Wipe, but, unfortunately,
the Black Mirror maven is
absent this year. Instead,
2021 gets the comedy it
deserves with the eternally
“controversial” Frankie
Boyle, who, given the
spiralling awfulness of this
year’s news, will have plenty
of material to discuss with
his special guests. If that’s
not a surfeit of Boyle, it is
followed at 10.45pm by a
compilation of highlights and
unseen footage, featuring
Jamali Maddix, Miles Jupp
and Desiree Burch.
Victoria SegalInside The Factory XL
(BBC2, 9pm)
Gregg Wallace has tossed away
his hairnet and supersized his
factory tour show, abandoning
food processing in favour of
the manufacturing of heavy
machinery. He has loved
diggers since he was a boy,
he explains, and, as such,
a trip to the JCB plant in
Rocester, Staffordshire to see
“the ultimate big kids’ toy” is
quite the draw. Once in situ
he’s like a child, displaying a
mix of star and pester power.
“Are there different types of
steel?” he asks a long-suffering
foreman, before exclaiming
“Whoa, what’s it doing?” at
a laser that is clearly cutting
through steel. “It’s like James
Bond!” he says, prompting a
nation to cross its legs.
Helen Stewart
Worzel Gummidge
(BBC1, 7.15pm)
After battling bird-spotters,
Worzel’s next challenge is
sneaking into a travelling fair,
taking with him two fairground
attractions turned museum
exhibits — Calliope Jane
and Aunt Sally. Bill Bailey,
Nneka Okoye and Vicki
Pepperdine guest-star in a
tale chock-full of charm.Britain’s Most Expensive
Houses (C4, 9pm)
Not a league table as the title
might suggest, but a returning
series following the “Realty”
team at Sotheby’s as they
show clients properties worth
between £4m and £30m; in
this case, luxury apartments
in London, a mansion near
Windsor and a dilapidated
100-room property in Wales.Celebrity Quizness
(C4, 10pm)
The return of Tom Allen’s
quiz — general knowledge, but
with tricky rules on wording
answers — and you might have
a shrewd idea as to who will
win this charity edition when
you see the players are Jo
Brand, Siobhán McSweeney,
AJ Odudu and Rob Rinder.
John DugdaleCRITICS’ CHOICE
Down, down,
deeper and down
A Star Is Born (BBC1, 9pm)
Bradley Cooper’s version of
the often told showbusiness
story did not discover a brand
new star of its own, but it gave
Lady Gaga a kind of rebirth by
putting her acting talents on
display for the first substantial
time. In the film’s tale of a
musical couple, she plays an
unknown singer-songwriter
nurtured by Cooper’s
alcoholic country-rock legend.
Her performance makes a
big contribution to the film’s
stock-in-trade: passionate,
well-made hokum with a
dash of realism. (2018)Big Hero 6 (BBC1, 10.40am)
Disney’s animators joined
the superhero trend with this
tale of young crimefighters.
The cuddly robot who helps
the team is a sweetie, and
the story has a well-imagined
setting: the hybrid city of San
Fransokyo. A spin-off series,
Baymax!, comes to Disney+
next year. Co-dirs: Don Hall,
Chris Williams (2014)Cooper goes Gaga (BBC1, 9pm)FILM CHOICE
Bringing Up Baby
(BBC2, 8.40am)
Its speediness can’t quite be
said to have kept this romantic
comedy looking young: a good
part of the film’s appeal now
comes from period charm. Yet
there is still fantastic vigour
in the pace that builds up as
Cary Grant’s palaeontologist
clashes with Katharine
Hepburn’s wayward socialite
(who is looking after a leopard
called Baby). Howard Hawks’s
film helped establish the
romcom practice of using
frenzy as a substitute for
flirting. (1938) B/WThe First Great Train
Robbery (BBC2, 3.10pm)
A heist movie set in Victorian
England, Michael Crichton’s
film is only too happy to live
up to that backdrop by
providing a sturdy, old-
fashioned yarn. Its main
characters are rakish master
thieves (Sean Connery and
Donald Sutherland), and their
plan to steal a gold shipment
requires all sorts of bold and
colourful ploys. (1978)
Edward Porter