The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-01)

1 May 2022 43

THE BEST TV FROM BRITBOX AND BEYOND... WEDNESDAY 4 MAY

Stranger Things (Netflix)

Following the news that the

streaming giant recently

lost approximately 200,000

subscribers (along with £42

billion), is it ok to ask what

Netflix is doing wrong? Might

that include a fourth season

— beginning later this month

— of this kids-save-the-world

sci-fi drama? The first two

seasons have an ET meets

The Goonies feel, but by

season three there are signs

that the formula is becoming

far darker, while the

once-cute cast are growing

up and the characters are

wearier and battle-hardened.

According to a recent Wall

Street Journal report, Netflix

spends $30 million on each

Stranger Things episode. That’s

a lot to gamble with, but maybe

it makes sense when 40.7

million viewers and the life of

your company depends on it.

Andrew Male

Once Upon A Time In

The West (Sky Cinema

Epics, 10.50am)

The new documentary Ennio

(available to buy online)

surveys the career of the

composer Ennio Morricone,

and among the works it selects

for particular attention is his

score for this Sergio Leone

western. By turns aggressive

and haunting, his music

provides heady flamboyance,

and everything else in the

film lives up to it. The director

outdoes himself as he indulges

his love of high drama and

sweaty, protracted tension,

and Henry Fonda takes a

break from his good-guy roles

to play a ruthless killer. (1968)

Magnificent Obsession

(Great! Movies

Classic, 6.45pm)

Some of Douglas Sirk’s ritzy

melodramas contain social

commentary, but his story of a

selfish playboy (Rock Hudson)

reformed by his love for a

brave woman ( Jane Wyman)

consists purely of superb

Technicolor hokum. (1954)

Edward Porter

Sporty Sara Pascoe (BBC1, 9pm) Hudson, Wyman (Great!, 6.45pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
(Britbox)
On the strength of previous
successes Murder in Provence
and Magpie Murders, it looked
like the Britbox Originals
were cornering the market in
cozy crime dramas — fluffy
confections for rainy Sundays.
This adaptation of Agatha

The Ignorant Angels

(Disney+)

Adapted by the Turkish-Italian

director Ferzan Ozpetek from

his own 2001 film His Secret

Life, this tells the story of

Antonia (Cristiana Capotondi),

who discovers her recently

deceased husband was having

an affair with a man (Eduardo

Scarpetta). The film was about

the reveal; the series focuses

on the changes in Antonia.

Andrew Male

The Long Game (Apple TV+)

When the South Sudanese-

Australian basketball player

Makur Maker refused to join

an NBA-affiliated university in

2020 and went to “historically

black” Howard University,

he was making a statement

about race, empowerment

and a broken American sports

system. Just prior to Covid,

Maker’s decision does not go

to plan but the film is about so

much more than win or lose.

Wheel Of Fortune

And Fantasy (Mubi)

Ryusuke Hamaguchi became

one of the stars of this year’s

awards season with his film

Drive My Car. If you enjoyed

that movie — or if you like the

sound of it but feel deterred

by its three-hour length —

you might want to try the

director’s other recent film:

this collection of three short

stories about nuanced, oddly

fated encounters. (2021) EP

Christie’s 1934 whodunnit,

directed by Hugh Laurie, is a

cut above that, as flirtatious

and witty as its two amateur

detectives, Bobby Jones and

Lady Frances Derwent (played

with irresistible charm by Will

Poulter and Lucy Boynton)

yet with suitably unsettling

edges. Nobody would call this

mystery Christie’s finest work,

but everything speeds by at

such a jolly pace you rarely

stop to question the plotting.

In the raw: takeaway sushi fans Conor and Natalie with Alexis Conran (C5, 7pm)

Secrets Of The Fast Food

Giants (C5, 7pm)

For reluctant chefs, the

great joy of the takeaway is

that it involves absolutely

no cooking. However, in this

breezy culinary investigation,

the 2016 Celebrity Masterchef

champion Alexis Conran

cheerily takes on the

challenge of recreating

takeaway favourites in his

test kitchen. Burgers, sushi

and curry are pulled apart

with forensic attention to

ingredients and techniques,

Conran heading to

restaurants and factories to

discover why it is so hard to

capture that un-homecooked

taste and discover what

wasabi looks like in its

natural state. He even tries

to replicate the famously

top-secret recipe for

Coca-Cola — a fool’s errand,

maybe, but a fascinating one.

Victoria Segal

The SS — A Barbaric State
(PBS America, 7.35pm)
PBS’s broadcast of these
French documentaries puts a
different lens on the Second
World War; the historians
featured are less apt to display
the puffed chests of British
academics, and there is an
urgency, a personal tone,
when they discuss Hitler’s
Praetorian Guard — still
intellectual but soaked in
family history. For those who
need such a warning from
history, there is insight as to
the manner in which even
intelligent men (17 per cent of
the SS’s 35,000 members were
PhD-educated in 1933) can
become monstrous with status
and bonds built by shared
violence administered on a
dehumanised people.
Helen Stewart

The Great British Sewing

Bee (BBC1, 9pm)

It is sports week, and the

survivors are asked to make

high-top trainers (the Bee’s

“first ever shoe”) and give

netball kits a makeover. In the

made-to-measure test, they

create “jackets” — really just

sporty tops — inspired by

heroes such as Andrew

Flintoff and Nicola Adams.

Kicking Off — The Rise

And Fall Of The Super

League (BBC2, 9.30pm)

Nowt to do with rugby, but

rather the short-lived scheme

of elite European clubs (plus

two north London teams)

to set up their own phoney

tournament. Besides the ESL’s

origins and demise, wider

issues of football’s finances

are also looked at.

Great British History

Hunters (More4, 9pm)

Two burly blokes from near

Bristol talk to British Museum

experts about their discovery

of pots stuffed with a hoard of

medieval coins. A 10-year-old

boy wins extra pocket money

for finding “ribbon gold”; and

we meet female detectorists

known as the Sassy Searchers.

John Dugdale

CRITICS’ CHOICE

Can kids save the

streaming world?