The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-24)

24 April 2022 59

THE BEST TV FROM MUBI AND BEYOND... FRIDAY 29 APRIL

Moving On (Britbox)

Perhaps because it has

lived most of its life in an

early-afternoon slot, or

maybe because it has felt

ever-present since it first

appeared on our screens in

2009, Jimmy McGovern’s

long-running series of stand-

alone Chekhovian dramas

never seems to receive the

kudos or praise they deserve.

Sentimental, admittedly, but

also raw and hard-hitting,

they’re not the kind of shows

you’d want to watch back-

to-back, but rationed out in

between lighter fare they

work brilliantly. If you’re not

sure where to start, might we

suggest Man of Steel (season

11), in which Mark Addy plays

a former rugby league star

blackmailed by his ex-wife,

or The Signature (season

six), which stars a brilliant

Lisa Riley as a dinner lady

presented with a life-

changing moral dilemma.

Andrew Male

Cape Fear (BBC1, 10.40pm)

A remake of the 1962 film

about a family tormented by

a vengeful psychopath, this

thriller is a bit of a potboiler

by the usual standards of its

director, Martin Scorsese, but

his flair and his love of cinema

still make themselves felt. He

tries his hand at pulpy horror

and Hitchcockian suspense and

pays tribute to the original

movie by giving cameo roles

to its stars, Gregory Peck and

Robert Mitchum. This time

around, Nick Nolte is the

family’s patriarch, and the

villain is played by Scorsese’s

old ally Robert De Niro, who

gives a fierce, musclebound

performance. (1991)

Ready Or Not

(Film4, 10.45pm)

Samara Weaving’s character in

this entertaining comic horror

film receives a nasty shock

on her wedding night. Her

husband’s rich family make

her the quarry in a murderous

game of hide and seek. Co-

dirs: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin,

Tyler Gillett (2019)

Edward Porter

Gone girl: Steadman (BBC1, 8.30pm) Fearless: De Niro (BBC1, 10.40pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

The Go-Go’s (Sky/Now)
The first and only all-female
band who wrote their own
songs, played their own
instruments and had a
chart-topping album in
America, this Los Angeles
quintet, formed in 1978, were
simultaneously chaotic and
revolutionary, imbued with

Dynasties II (BBC iPlayer)

This incurious series has all

the ingredients of an award-

winning nature programme

(gorgeous camerawork and

music, David Attenborough’s

soothing tones) but little deep

knowledge. Instead we get an

ambient natural history content

with romanticised notions

of animal families that feels

closer to The Wonderful World

of Disney than Life on Earth.

Andrew Male

Old Enough (Netflix)

It’s a show that has run for

30 years on Japanese TV and

the idea couldn’t be simpler:

a toddler is sent on a simple

errand (buy some milk, pick

up lunch) while being filmed

by a hidden camera crew

to see whether or not they

succeed. It is a curious kind of

slow TV, caught between the

tense and the banal and will

be adorable or terrifying for

any watching parent.

Charli XCX — Alone Together

(Buy as stream/download)

While recording her album

How I’m Feeling Now in 2020’s

first lockdown, Charli XCX

involved her social-media

followers at every turn.

This documentary about the

project is a souvenir for those

fans, but it could also serve

other viewers as an eye-

opening picture of modern

fame. Co-dirs: Bradley Bell,

Pablo Jones-Soler (2021) EP

punk spirit and chart-bound

dazzle. It is a surprisingly

scrappy tale, one of addiction,

in-fighting and on-the-road

madness, which perhaps

explains why the director,

Alison Ellwood, tells the story

so straight, lest we don’t take

their brilliance seriously

enough. Luckily, the five

former members are having

none of it and their anarchic

spirit shines through even as

the film tries to dilute it.

All work and no play ..: time will tell if Elisabeth Moss can keep shining (Apple TV+)

Shining Girls (Apple TV+)

With multiple time frames,

glitching realities and

references to cult 1990s pop

bands, it quickly becomes

clear that this adaptation of

Lauren Beukes’s 2013 novel

is not your standard crime

drama. It is, however, utterly

compelling, a surreal,

disturbing thriller that has

the same disorientating

power as Sharp Objects or

Memento. Elisabeth Moss is

excellent as Kirby Mazrachi,

a Chicago newspaper

archivist and survivor of a

vicious assault, who unites

with hard-bitten reporter

Dan Velazquez (Wagner

Moura) to try to find a serial

killer. Bear with the initial

confusion — why do Kirby’s

pets keep changing? — and

the odd inconsistencies;

it is all part of a dark and

intriguing narrative.

Victoria Segal

Richard Hammond’s Crazy
Contraptions (C4, 8pm)
Top Gear’s “Hamster” has
always enjoyed a parallel
career as a science presenter,
as currently represented by
Brain Reaction and this new
contest for amateur engineers.
A descendant of series such
as The Great Egg Race and
Scrapheap Challenge, it asks
teams to build elaborate,
inventive chain-reaction
systems to solve a problem:
in the opener, to allow
Hammond to make his bed
without having to get out
of his bath. It badly needs
female contestants — Shini
Somara, who gives “science
lessons”, is the episode’s lone
woman — and it misses a trick
by lacking slo-mo replays, but
on this evidence is a lot of fun.
John Dugdale

Anomalia

(Walter Presents on All 4)

French viewers were forgiving

of the ropey special effects in

this supernatural drama, which

follows neurosurgeon Valerie

Rossier (Natacha Regnier) as

she returns to her childhood

home. There are shades of The

Shining and The Sixth Sense

here, with a touch of Hammer

Horror in later episodes.

Here We Go (BBC1, 8.30pm)

Tom Basden’s nervy family

sitcom is no Outnumbered,

indeed, the “media studies

project” filming is reminiscent

of The Goldbergs, but the

cast alone demands a watch.

Tonight, Alison Steadman, Jim

Howick, Katherine Parkinson

and Basden himself try to get

to a theme park before their

voucher runs out.

Expedition Rhino — The

Search For The Last Northern

White (BBC2, 11.05pm)

The wildlife film-maker Vianet

Djenguet travels to South

Sudan hoping that reports of

the extinction of the northern

white rhino are exaggerated.

Dinka women claim they have

seen the beast, and footprints

seem to confirm its existence.

Helen Stewart

CRITICS’ CHOICE

Play for today