24 saturday review Saturday May 28 2022 | the times
Don’t expect any Channel 4
linen-rummaging snark — this
is a hugely positive account of
that day in June 1953 when
miserable weather failed to
deter the hordes who
thronged bomb-damaged
streets for a glimpse of magic.
As usual with such royal
documentaries, which are
coming thick and fast —
including tomorrow night’s
BBC doc Elizabeth: The Unseen
Queen — it’s the quirky details
that work, complementing
familiar tales of the religious
sanctity of the ceremony and
the revolutionary part
television played (an average
of 17 people crowded round
each set, many bought for the
occasion). We learn that the
Queen prepared for the day
by wearing her heavy crown
in private and even had it on
when kissing young Charles
goodnight. We are also told
about the preparation for the
event, with staff only given
sections of her dress at a time
to work on to preserve its
secrecy. I liked being told that
maids of honour secreted
cigarettes in their handbags,
and that after the crowning
the Queen disappeared into a
Westminster Abbey side room
for a lunch of smoked salmon
and sausage rolls (the public
were to benefit from a
temporary increase to the
butter and egg ration). There
is the usual array of talking
heads, plus pageboy Andrew
Parker Bowles and the maid of
honour Baroness Willoughby
de Eresby. “They chose the
dukes’ daughters first, then
got down to the earls’
daughters,” sniffs the
baroness. We are left
wondering what Charles’s
coronation may look like.
Shorter, we’re told, and with
other faiths probably playing
their part. It won’t be like this
one anyway.
Ben DowellBritain’s Got Talent
ITV, 8pm
The auditions are over and
it’s live semi-finals time,
with the acts who impressed
the judges returning to
compete for the £250,000
prize and an appearance in the
Royal Variety Performance.
They include those who
went through on the golden
buzzer: the singer Loren
Allred, the comedian Axel
Blake, the dancers Born to
Perform, the magician
Keiichi Iwasaki and musicians
Flintz & T4ylor. Ant and Dec
do their best to breathe life
into a format that may well
be on its last legs, with Simon
Cowell, Amanda Holden,
Alesha Dixon and David
Walliams judging. BD
Are You Being
Served?: Secrets
and Scandals
Channel 5, 9pmWho knew that the department
store comedy was the idea
of Joanna Lumley, former
wife of co-writer Jeremy Lloyd?
Or that the show only got
on air because of the 1972
Munich Olympics terrorism
attacks, which delayed the
Games and left a hole in the
BBC schedule? Still, it took
a long time for some of the
sniffy BBC boss class to get
enthusiastic, despite the
public’s love for the show
which gave the world Mrs
Slocombe’s pussy and the
catchphrase, “I’m Free!” BDBeck
BBC4, 9pmThe action begins with a
violent protest about the
Stockholm police force’s
fatal shooting of a 14-year-old
boy, which turns really nasty
when a female officer is
severely burnt by a Molotov
cocktail. If the start feels
emblematic of the greater
action in this series, this
concluding episode to the
series is actually rather sedate,
allowing questions of the
police’s societal role to be
extensively explored in
that familiarly sincere
Scandinavian way. We also
have more time to examine the
private lives of the officers,
including the future of ageing
Martin Beck himself. BD9.55 FILM I, Daniel Blake (2016) After
suffering a heart attack at work, a
carpenter must navigate his way through
an impersonal and bureaucratic benefits
system. Ken Loach’s drama starring
Dave Johns 11.35 Chris McQueer’s Hings.
Three darkly comic and surrealist short
films (r) 11.50-Midnight Tune (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Sali Mali (r) 6.05 Caru
Canu a Stori (r) 6.15 Timpo (r) 6.25
Sigldigwt (r) 6.40 Y Brodyr Coala (r) 6.50
Gwdihw (r) 7.05 Twt (r) 7.20 Byd Tad-Cu
(r) 7.30 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 7.45 Deian a
Loli (r) 8.00 Bernard (r) 8.30 Dewi a’r
Ditectifs Gwyllt (r) 9.10 Seligo (r) 9.25
Boom! (r) 9.35 Ar Goll yn Oz (r) 10.00
Prosiect Pum Mil (r) 11.00 Cwpwrdd Epic
Chris (r) 11.30 Garddio a Mwy (r) 12.00
Ffermio (r) 12.30pm Caru Siopa (r) 1.00
Codi Hwyl America (r) 1.30 Ar Werth
(r) 2.00 Live Seiclo: Giro d’Italia.
Coverage of stage 20, featuring a 168km
route from Belluno to Marmolada 4.30
Dim Byd i’w Wisgo (r) 4.55 Cymry ar
Gynfas (r) 5.20 Hen Dy Newydd (r) 6.15
Cymru, Alabama a’r Urdd (r) 7.15 News
7.30 Welsh Whisperer: Ni’n Teithio Nawr!
(r) 8.00 Aur y Noson Lawen (r) 9.00 Oci
Oci Oci 10.00 Seiclo: Giro d’Italia
10.30-11.35 Canu gyda Fy Arwr (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 5.40pm
Fight Town: Live Boxing Preview. A look
at the Welsh fight scene (r) 6.10-6.25
Hairy Bikers: Namibian BBQ. A culinary
trip along the Namibian coastline (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 9.35pm
Coast (r) 10.00 Live Fight Town: Welsh
Championship Boxing. Jason Mohammad
and Polly James present coverage of the
card at LC2 in Swansea 12.00 Later: with
Jools Holland. The host is joined by
guests Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler,
Poppy Ajudha, Warmduscher and
Confidence Man 12.45-12.50am Planet
Earth Live: An Elephant’s Tale (r)
● STV As ITV except: 1.25-4.00pm Live
STV Racing: From Haydock. Oli Bell
presents coverage of eight races from
three meetings, including the John
O’Gaunt Stakes from Haydock Park,
plus action from Beverley and Chester
3.50-5.05am Unwind with STV
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.15
The Edit 7.30 The Mart. Two farming
brothers retiring after 50 years get rid
off all their worldly goods (r) 8.00
Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich.
The Casino de Monte Carlo holds an
exclusive event (r) 9.00 Best of Chewin’
the Fat (r) 9.25 Rab C Nesbitt. Rab and
Jamesie visit Buckfast Abbey Brewery (r)The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (PG, 1965)
GREAT! Movies Classic, 9pm
First released in the UK just three weeks after Thunderball, this is
the definitive anti-Bond spy movie, and the best big-screen John le
Carré adaptation. Set in grey rainy London and even greyer Berlin,
it features Richard Burton, below, at his seething best as the
alcoholic operative Alec Leamas, who has no gadgets, no supercar
and no glamorous conquests. Leamas, however, is good at talking,
and inveigles his way into the East German high command in a
plot so gorgeously labyrinthine that it’s best summed up by Cyril
Cusack’s sublimely played Control. “We’ve been cooking with a
great many ingredients in a great many pots,” he says. Genius. The
forthcoming TV version with Aidan Gillen has a lot to live up to.
(108min) Kevin MaherFilms of the day
Ex Machina (15, 2015)
Film4, 11.20pm
A smart study of artificial intelligence and tech sex from the
director Alex Garland (his latest film, Men, is in cinemas now) that
explores a credible near-future take on the man-machine
relationship. Like Ava (Alicia Vikander), the robot who is central to
this compelling three-hander, the film is a sleek and seductive piece
of technology that reveals its inner workings but hides its cunning.
Domhnall Gleeson stars as Caleb, a programmer who wins the
company lottery to spend a week at the retreat of the reclusive
company founder, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan, it turns out, has
invited Caleb to be the human component of the Turing test,
exploring a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. From
the moment Caleb meets Ava, he is transfixed. (104min) Wendy IdeThe Real
Charlie Chaplin
Sky Documentaries, 9pm“All the adulation is not for me,
it’s for the little man,” Charlie
Chaplin once said. So it is
perhaps little wonder that few
people got close to the real
Chaplin — and when they did,
often regretted it. This
documentary blends newly
unearthed audio recordings
with dramatic reconstructions
to tell the story of his
astonishing rise from poverty
in London to the status of
Hollywood’s first great
superstar. We also learn of his
fall from grace amid
accusations of communist
sympathies, and a bitter (and
very public) divorce. BDRegional programmes
Saturday 28 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Secrets of
the Queen’s Coronation
Channel 4, 9pm
Catch
up
Derry Girls
All4
Lisa McGee obeyed British
sitcom law by ending her hit
Nineties-set comedy, which
followed the trials and
tribulations of Northern
Ireland teens against a
backdrop of the Troubles,
after three near-
perfect series. It
had the highest
ratings for a
comedy series
in Northern
Ireland and
was Channel 4’s
most successful
comedy sinceFather Ted. Its young cast —
Saoirse-Monica Jackson,
Louisa Harland, Nicola
Coughlan, Dylan Llewellyn and
Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, below —
all seem nailed on for future
success. In a sign of how big it
got, Hollywood’s Liam Neeson
had a cameo in the first
episode of series three. All
three series (as well as the
swansong — a one-off episode
giving us a glimpse into the
future of our protagonists)
are available on All4. Joe Clay