The Times - UK (2022-01-01)

the times | Saturday January 1 2022 saturday review 19

t v & ra di o

Best of the rest

Full seven-day listings & previews

Podcast choice

Fat Leonard

fatleonardpodcast.com

Why not ring in the new year

with Fat Leonard, a podcast

about an eccentric Malaysian

businessman (the eponymous

Leonard) at the centre of a

sex, parties and corruption

scandal sweeping through

the US navy.

James Marriott

Critic’s choice

Attenborough’s

Wonder of Song

Mon, BBC1, 6.30pm

The sound of birdsong during
lockdown renewed many
people’s appreciation of
nature, and this lovely and
poignant programme for the
bank holiday will surely do the
same. David Attenborough
explores seven bird and
mammal song recordings that
are of interest to him. As he
puts it: “Some are lovely, some
are surprising, and one almost
broke my heart.” You’ll have to
watch to find out why.
It starts with a recording of
lemurs that Attenborough
taped in Madagascar in 1960.
This affords old footage of him
on location and a charming
recollection: “There was no
money in the BBC budget for a
recordist, but I did manage to
get hold of a very rare thing
indeed: a battery-driven
portable tape recorder.”
More Attenborough comes
next Sunday (Jan 9) when his
botanical series The Green
Planet begins. There is
something reassuring in this;
and increasingly, the sight of
Attenborough presenting, in
that whisper of curiosity, is
something to cherish.
James Jackson

Radio choice

Comedy Club:

The Damien

Slash Mixtape

Tue, Radio 4 Extra, 11pm

The sketch show has all but

died out on television, but on

radio, in the hands of Damien

Slash (aka the comedian

Daniel Barker), it seems to

be in bonny health.

I’d actually say that this

repeat of the second series

of his show (which he voices

with a little help from people

such as Natasia Demetriou of

Stath Lets Flats fame) is at

times spellbindingly good. If

you don’t know him, you’re in

for a treat.

Barker’s fearlessness is

the appeal, whether he is

skewering macho car adverts

(“Serious Man Car... Man Car

4x4 edition”) or an “ordinary

guy just like you” from

Hampstead wailing about

the horrors of waking up

to the Brexit result and

that another Joe & the Juice

has replaced Hampstead’s

“last independent pottery

emporium”. What is the

world to do when a “scathing

article by Bill Nighy in the

Ham & High” doesn’t have the

desired effect?

It’s delicious stuff, but his

targets range further than

smug liberals — from idiotic

football managers spouting

a biblical deluge of clichés

to a trailer for a film where

the only character in it is Idris

Elba. There are few areas of

modern life that he isn’t

prepared to, er, slash.

Ben Dowell

The best films

David Attenborough

explores song,

including that of the

sedge warbler, top

The Tourist

Today/Sun, BBC1, 9pm

A six-part thriller that starts

off like Duel — a man (Jamie

Dornan from The Fall) on a

lonely highway terrorised by a

lorry — before settling into

a slow-burn amnesia

thriller. The outback

locations are

wonderfully

atmospheric.

Harry Potter 20th

Anniversary

Today, Sky Max, 8pm

Radcliffe, Watson and Grint

together again, 20 years on,

but no reprieve, it seems, for

the cancelled JK Rowling.

This Is Joan Collins

Today, BBC2, 9pm

Now a youthful 88, Collins,

below, is terrific value as she

looks back with casual

candour on a life conducted

in the glamour and darker

side of Hollywood fame.

Anne

Sun-Wed, ITV, 9pm

Maxine Peake puts

in a powerful turn

in a distressing

four-parter about the

Merseyside mother who

dedicated her life to

campaigning for justice after

her 15-year-old son’s death at

Hillsborough.

The Man Who Bought Cricket

Sun, Sky Documentaries, 9pm

A three-part sports-scandal

documentary about how the

billionaire Allen Stanford

conned his way to the top of

the cricketing world before

being busted as being behind

a Ponzi scheme. Aggers,

Nasser Hussein and Stuart

Broad all contribute.

Four Lives

Mon-Wed, BBC1, 9pm

Stephen Merchant takes a

left turn into grimly serious

territory in a harrowing

true-crime drama depicting

the “Grindr murders”.

Sheridan Smith also stars. JJ

Downton Abbey (PG)

Today, ITV, 8.30pm

It’s 1927 and King George

is coming to stay, but

the stakes remain

low and cosy,

upstairs and

downstairs.

Aliens (18)

Mon, ITV4, 9pm

James Cameron’s

1986 sci-fi monster

horror starring

Sigourney Weaver,

right with Carrie Henn,

is like a Vietnam war

film in space.

Genevieve (U)

Sun, Talking Pictures TV,

1.40pm

Eternally charming London-to-

Brighton car-race comedy.

Castaway (12)

Sun, Channel 5,

6.05pm

Robinson Crusoe-

like drama is part of

a day of Tom Hanks

films on Channel 5.

Rocketman (15)

Tue, Film4, 9pm

Taron Egerton is

good value as

Elton John in

the biopic. JJ