10 April 2022 51THE BEST TV FROM MUBI AND BEYOND... GOOD FRIDAY 15 APRIL
Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate
episode as the Doctor is
almost upon us in Sunday’s
Legend Of The Sea Devils
(BBC1, April 17), so is it time
to take stock of where her
portrayal of the Time Lord
resides within the great sci-fi
pantheon? Conveniently, the
last 15 years are all available
on the BBC iPlayer, while the
classic series (from 1963’s
An Unearthly Child to the
ironically titled Survival in
1989) are all on Britbox.
Then, once you’ve ranked
her correctly (above McCoy,
below Tennant), brush up
on your Sea Devils lore
by watching their finest
appearances in Doctor Who
And The Silurians, The Sea
Devils and Warriors Of The
Deep (all Britbox), followed
by The Hungry Earth and
The Pandorica Opens (both
available on BBC iPlayer).
Andrew MaleLemony Snicket’s A Series
Of Unfortunate Events
(Film4, 1.05pm)
The Netflix series that
began in 2017 did a more
faithful and thorough job of
dramatising Daniel Handler’s
set of comic gothic novels for
children, but this adaptation
of the first three books is still
worth seeing. The ominous
settings that greet the central
characters — three orphaned
siblings — are fine creations,
and the script has flashes of
the novels’ morbid wit. Meryl
Streep appears, and the villain
of the piece, the theatrical
Count Olaf, is played by a
full-force Jim Carrey.
Dir: Brad Silberling (2004)Cube (Film4, 11.10pm)
The American director
Vincenzo Natali achieved cult
success with his first feature:
this tale of captives in a maze
that consists of cube-shaped,
booby-trapped rooms. In its
mix of horror, suspense and
maths, it makes good use of
a small budget by thinking
outside the box. (1997)
Edward PorterSoftly spoken: Kidman (Apple TV+) Unfortunate uncle (Film4, 1.05pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
Pachinko (Apple TV+)
This eight-part adaptation of
Min Jin Lee’s bestselling 2017
historical novel about the
life of a single Korean family,
from Japanese occupation to
the modern day, is a curious
affair, caught somewhere
between something weighty
and political and a soapy,
Resurrected (Britbox)
Beyond the sitcoms and the
period dramas, this streaming
channel is starting to post
lost gems of British cinema,
including this post-Falklands
piece of folk-horror. The first
film made by the director Paul
Greengrass, it stars a fresh-
faced David Thewlis as a
“dead” soldier who returns
home to be hailed as a hero
and then cast out as a coward.
Andrew MaleThe Crimson Rivers
(Walter Presents on All 4)
Based on the novels of Jean-
Christophe Grangé, this crime
thriller series is into its third
season and, thankfully, they
have toned down the graphic
murders and focused on the
most spellbinding element, the
relationship between Pierre
Niemans (Olivier Marchal)
and Camille Delaunay (Erika
Sainte) — the best detective
double-act in the business.Apollo 10½ (Netflix)
Richard Linklater grew up
in Houston when it was
the home of Nasa’s Apollo
programme, and his new film
gathers memories of what it
was like to be a child in that
time and place. The use of
rotoscope animation, applying
a cartoon style to live-action
images, enhances the movie’s
joyous nostalgia, as does a
fanciful quirk in the narrator’s
version of events. (2022) EPbig-budget K-drama. The
series looks wonderful and
is utterly engaging but the
constant shifting between
past and present tends to
diminish the impact of the
more significant storylines. It
was clearly made to appeal to
the same audiences who fell
for Squid Game — and it will
certainly do that — but you
can’t help feeling something
more profound may have
been lost along the way.Stand by your man: but how long will Sienna Miller hold on to Rupert Friend? (Netflix)Anatomy Of A Scandal
(Netflix)
Adapted from Sarah
Vaughan’s 2018 novel by the
Big Little Lies creator David
E Kelley, this drama will
immediately entice fans of
House of Cards, Apple Tree
Yard and The Undoing.
Rupert Friend plays the MP
James Whitehouse, a slick
politician of the Bullingdon
class who is plunged into
scandal when his affair with
aide Olivia Lytton (Naomi
Scott) hits the tabloids. His
wife, Sophie (Sienna Miller),
stands by him in traditional
style — yet worse revelations
are to come. Miller is excellent
as the elegant, brittle Sophie,
who is forced to watch her
beautifully organised house
fall out of order, the heart of
a drama that manages to feel
both aesthetically glossy and
morally gritty.
Victoria SegalRoar (Apple TV+)
Apple TV+ has recently
been winning plaudits for
WeCrashed, Pachinko and
Slow Horses, and its good run
continues with this stellar
anthology series based on
feminist stories by the Irish
writer Cecelia Ahern. Each
of the dramas is about
relationships or work, but
with a “magical realist”
element at its heart —
essentially a metaphor made
real. So, in the first three tales,
Issa Rae’s author becomes
invisible and inaudible in
Hollywood; Nicole Kidman’s
dutiful daughter eats photos
of herself as a girl; and Betty
Gilpin’s wife is put on a shelf
by her husband. Alison Brie,
Cynthia Erivo and Meera Syal
are among the other stars.
John Dugdale
Dinosaurs — The Final Day
(BBC1, 6.30pm)
With the help of cutting-edge
graphics, David Attenborough
presents an account of the
day an asteroid hit Earth and
wiped out the dinosaurs’s
150 million-year reign. Tanis,
North Dakota, is the site of a
dinosaur graveyard that is still
yielding the secrets of their
last moments alive.Pilgrimage — The Road
To The Scottish Isles
(BBC2, 9pm)
Paralympic athlete Will Bayley
arrives from Tokyo, bringing
legs so fresh that Laurence
Llewelyn-Bowen threatens to
tie his shoelaces together as
the pilgrims walk the Causeway
Coast. Later, a boat ride to
Scotland, and Shazia Mirza
recalls her Catholic education.La Voix Humaine
(BBC2, 10pm)
Any work of art that tells its
audience that a boyfriend of
Danielle de Niese would leave
her for another woman is
stretching credibility, but if
viewers can suspend disbelief,
this version of Poulenc’s
opera is a beautiful time in her
company. See feature, page 18.
Helen StewartCRITICS’ CHOICE
The Doctor will
see you now