The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-06)

6 February 2022 39

THE BEST TV FROM IPLAYER AND BEYOND... TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY

The nominations for this

year’s Oscars are announced

today, and many of the

films in the running can be

watched at home. Netflix’s

chances are strong. Jane

Campion’s western The

Power Of The Dog should

win her the best-director

award, and Olivia Colman

can expect to be nominated

for The Lost Daughter.

Andrew Garfield will be a

contender for Netflix’s Tick,

Tick ... Boom!, but the best-

actor favourite is Will Smith

for King Richard (available

to rent). Being The Ricardos

(Amazon Prime Video) is

likely to earn Nicole Kidman

a nod for her portrayal of

Lucille Ball, and Disney+

has two tuneful movies

that could be winners:

the animated tale Encanto

and the documentary

Summer Of Soul.

Edward Porter

The Big Heat

(Sky Cinema Greats, 6.15pm)

Directed by the pessimistic

Fritz Lang, this story of a cop

(Glenn Ford) dealt a heinous

blow by his enemies is one

of the toughest thrillers of

its era: even modern viewers

might be struck by the extent

of its ferocity and bleakness.

Lee Marvin plays an especially

brutal thug who — in the

film’s best-known scene — is

punished by his former moll

(a splendid Gloria Grahame).

Yet out-and-out crooks are not

the hero’s only problem. His

mission highlights the near-

universal corruption of the

legal system he is expected

to serve. (1953) B/W

The Birthday Cake

(Sky Cinema Premiere,

2.15pm/1.40am)

A mob drama about a youth

(Shiloh Fernandez) delivering

a cake to his powerful uncle,

Jimmy Giannopoulos’s film is

a badly organised party with

lots of good guests, including

Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco

and Vincent Pastore. (2021)

Edward Porter

Her next door (BBC1, 9.50pm) Marvin and Ford (SCG, 6.15pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

Servant (Apple TV+)
It moves at an unsettlingly
slow pace, but if you are in
the mood for deep weirdness
and the blackest of comedy,
the three seasons of Tony
Basgallop and M Night
Shyamalan’s psychological
thriller are a must. It began
as an eerie drama about a

Wodehouse In Exile (Britbox)

The story of how the Jeeves

author was tricked by the

Gestapo into propaganda

broadcasts to the US in 1941 is

a historical footnote that writer

Nigel Williams and director Tim

Fywell turn into a melancholy

tale of naivety and trust

betrayed. Tim Pigott-Smith

plays the author, but the late

Paul Ritter, as a quisling

collaborator, steals the show.

Andrew Male

I Am Duran (Sky/Now)

Mat Hodgson’s profile of

Panama’s multi-world-title-

wining boxer Roberto Duran

is not just about sport. Along

with Sugar Ray Leonard and

Marvin Hagler’s accounts

of his pugilistic ferocity,

Hodgson shows how Duran’s

fiery temper was forged by

his country’s relationship with

America. The interview with

Panama’s dictator Emmanuel

Noriega is a weird bonus.

Unbreakable

(Amazon Prime Video)

In a move that vaguely

complements the new series

of M Night Shyamalan’s

Servant on Apple TV+,

Amazon recently made three

of the director’s films free to

Prime members: Signs, The

Village and — by far the best

of the bunch — this sly tale

of a humdrum yet oddly

resilient security guard

(Bruce Willis). (2000) EP

wealthy Philadelphia couple,

Dorothy and Sean Turner

(played by Lauren Ambrose

and Toby Kebbell), who hire a

nanny (Nell Tiger Free) to look

after a horribly lifelike doll,

but has incorporated plot-

lines involving cults,

conspiracies and the deeply

odd behaviour of Dorothy’s

brother, Julian (Rupert Grint),

to evolve into a surreal

portrait of the terrified

American upper class.

On a slow bus to New Zealand: Nikesh Patel and Rose Matafeo (BBC1, 11pm)

Starstruck (BBC1, 11pm;

Scotland, 11.45pm)

The big hit of the spring 2021

lockdown, Rose Matafeo’s

sweet comedy about a year

in the life of a millennial

who wakes up in bed with a

Hollywood star returns with

a deft subversion of romcom

tropes that demand a frantic

last-minute resolution. She

was scheduled to fly home

to New Zealand, but Jessie

(Matafeo) and Tom (Nikesh

Patel) are instead on a very

slow bus and simply go past

the Heathrow connection

stop. After that, they wander

aimlessly around, with

her feelings towards him

oscillating once again.

Presumably Jessie is a version

of Matafeo when younger,

sillier and less successful, but

could she have been made

closer to her creator’s smart

stand-up persona?

John Dugdale

Cheaters
(BBC1, from 9.50pm)
Screened in ten-minute
episodes, this delicious
four-hander stars Susan
Wokoma, Joshua McGuire,
Callie Cooke and Jack Fox as
two couples brought together
by a happy Finnish encounter.
Weedy, polite Josh (McGuire)
and pneumatic sweary travel
journalist Fola (Wokoma)
are forced to lay over when
“the wrong kind of snow”
stops planes leaving Helsinki,
and suffice it to say they
behave like they don’t expect
to see each other again.
The bad news for them,
however, is that Fola is about
to move in across the road
from Josh. Even worse, their
partners are keen for them all
to become friends.
Helen Stewart

Brit Awards (ITV, 8pm)

Time now, once again, to

celebrate the international

majesty of pop, courtesy of

those rock’n’roll renegades at

Mastercard. Highlights include

live performances from Dave,

Liam Gallagher, Holly

Humberstone, Doja Cat, Ed

Sheeran and Little Simz. Your

host for the evening is the

comedian Mo Gilligan.

New Lives In The Wild

(C5, 9pm)

Ben Fogle returns for another

benign gawp into the existence

of off-grid escapees. His hosts

tonight are Helen and Jason,

genial bohemians who enjoy a

peacefully remote Shetland

lifestyle. Helen was once a

successful head teacher:

“I just wanted to stop, and

breathe, and live.”

Unforgivable (Dave, 10pm)

Mel Giedroyc hosts this

generic panel show in which

comedians tell rehearsed

stories and trade presumably

spontaneous banter. The

participants — Jamil Maddix,

Sarah Millican and Giedroyc’s

sidekick, Lou Sanders — are

naturally funny people, but

the format is too rigid.

Paul Whitelaw

CRITICS’ CHOICE

And the winner

could be ...