32 saturday review Saturday May 28 2022 | the times
The watchers are back
with three weeks of live
programming. Since this
will be the first spring in
two years when viewers
can move more freely about
the countryside, there is
a stronger accent on
encouraging them to interact
with the programme and
offer feedback and evidence
sightings. Tonight Chris
Packham and Michaela
Strachan are broadcasting live
from Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk,
with their cameras trained
on potential bird dramas and
perhaps even a woodpecker
sighting. Iolo Williams returns
to the Isle of Mull to delight
us with eagles, otters,
orcas, puffins, hen harriers
and adders. Packham’s
stepdaughter Megan
McCubbin, who is replacing
Gillian Burke until the autumn,
will be taking us on a spring
road trip around the northeast
of England. She will be
visiting Kielder Forest, where
she hopes to catch sight of
some pine martens and voles,
as well as Hauxley Nature
Reserve in Northumberland
and Newcastle city centre,
which is surprisingly packed
with wildlife. Later in the
week Strachan and Packham,
right with Williams, will be
investigating the science
of toads and their spring
migration. Also on the cards
are sightings of wild badgers,
romancing cuttlefish and
the greater horseshoe bat.
Every programme will also
feature the now familiar
Mindfulness Moment, a
90-second film of “pure
nature”, as the BBC calls it,
without music or voiceover,
allowing viewers to immerse
themselves in sound and
pictures, whether it is
frolicking fox cubs or
waves crashing on the
Cornish coast. Ahhh.
Ben DowellSilent Witness
BBC1, 9pm
After the excitement of
last week’s episodes, the
assassination of the health
secretary and the possibility
that DNA is being fabricated,
we’re back to normal. Well,
sort of. The Sam saga (and
Amanda Burton’s character is
still behaving very fishily) still
hasn’t been resolved, but it
takes a back seat for this
week’s tale, which opens with a
woman confessing to stabbing
her husband with a kitchen
knife. Nikki (Emilia Fox) and her
team need to discover if this
is true, but Simone (Genesis
Lynea) is rather distracted.
There’s something about the
investigating detective that
seems uneasily familiar. BD
Flight MH370 —
The Full Story
Channel 5, 9pmWhen Malaysian Airways
flight MH370 disappeared in
March 2014, leaving no sign of
wreckage, panic and anxiety
quickly turned to anger.
Relatives of the 239 people
on board wondered what was
being hidden from them. Yet
it seems the authorities were
as mystified as anyone. Had
the plane had a malfunction or
a fire on board, or had it been
plunged into the sea in an act
of suicidal desperation? This in-
depth series (which continues
on Tuesday and Wednesday)
has a lot of testimony from
those left behind as well as a
slow unpeeling of answers. BDThe Time
Traveler’s Wife
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm“No one should meet their
soulmate when they are
six years old,” says an elderly
Clare (Rose Leslie), once again
drawing our attention to a
potentially icky aspect of
Audrey Niffenegger’s story.
She has liver spots and a
creaky voice, and reminds
us that this story is about the
time traveler’s wife before
an episode that focuses on
the strangeness of living a
linear life when your husband
keeps popping into it. The
scriptwriter Steven Moffat’s
strategy of telling the story in
focused chunks continues to
be an effective one. BD● BBC Scotland 2.00pm Sign Zone: Inside
Central Station (r) 3.00 Sign Zone: The
Mart (r) 3.30-4.00 Sign Zone: Beechgrove
(r) 7.00 Beechgrove (r) 7.30 My Kind of
Town: Arbroath (r) 8.00 Scottish Vets
Down Under (r) 8.30 Great Escapes with
Colin and Justin (r) 8.55 Beechgrove
Repotted 9.00 The Nine 10.00 River City
10.30 Scot Squad (r) 11.00 Disclosure: Am
I Scott(ish)? 11.15 Growing Up Scottish
11.30-Midnight Best of Chewin’ the Fat (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 8.00 Bing (r) 8.10
Cymylaubychain (r) 8.20 Meic y Marchog
(r) 8.35 Jen a Jim a’r Cywiadur (r) 8.50
Ben a Mali a’u Byd Bach O Hud (r) 9.00
Sblij a Sbloj (r) 9.10 Y Brodyr Coala (r)
9.20 Do Re Mi Dona (r) 9.35 Sion y Chef
(r) 9.45 Byd Tad-Cu (r) 10.00 Peppa (r)
10.05 Guto Gwningen (r) 10.20 Caru
Canu a Stori (r) 10.30 Octonots (r) 10.45
Dathlu ’Da Dona (r) 11.00 Eisteddfod yr
Urdd 2022 12.00 News 12.05pm
Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 2.00 News 2.05
Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 3.00 Eisteddfod
yr Urdd 2022 3.30 Eisteddfod yr Urdd
2022 6.30 Rownd a Rownd (r) 6.57 News
S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30 News 8.00
Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 9.25 News 9.30
Pawb a’i Farn 10.30 Teulu’r Castell (r)
11.30-1.00am Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 8.00pm
X-Ray 8.30-9.00 Hot Cakes (r) 10.40
Panorama 11.10 The Airport: Back in
the Skies. Documentary 11.40-12.25am
Have I Got a Bit More News for You (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
8.00pm A Stitch Through Time (r)
8.30-9.00 The Chronicles of Strangford
10.40 Panorama 11.10 Community Life (r)
11.20 Have I Got a Bit More News for You
(r) 12.05am Question of Sport (r) 12.35
Celebrity Catchpoint (r) 1.05-6.00 News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
9.45pm Our Place in Space (r) 9.55 Our
Place in Space (r) 10.00-10.30 Croí na
Ceiste le Caoimhe. Last in the series
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
8.00pm Landward (r) 8.30-9.00
Scotland’s Home of the Year 10.40 The
Airport: Back in the Skies 11.10 Panorama
11.40 Have I Got a Bit More News for You
(r) 12.25am Question of Sport (r) 12.55
Celebrity Catchpoint (r) 1.25 Weather for
the Week Ahead 1.30-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm STV News
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 Hollington
Drive (r) 12.05am Long Lost Family:
Born Without Trace (r) 1.00-3.00
Teleshopping 3.50-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 10.45-11.45pm View
from Stormont. Political developmentsThe Art of Racing in the Rain (PG, 2019)
Film4, 6.50pm
This bonkers tearjerker rolls faithful dog, cute child, cancer tragedy
and fast cars into one emotionally manipulative package. This
is a film whose narrator is a canine with philosophical leanings
(Kevin Costner is on vocal duties) who delivers paeans to the wet-
weather driving skills of the Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna
alongside the schmaltz, and whose antagonist is a toy zebra. Milo
Ventimiglia, below, is Denny, a racing driver in Seattle who, like
Senna, has an uncanny ability to control a car in the rain. He buys
a golden retriever puppy, which he names Enzo after the founder
of Ferrari. While Ventimiglia mainly smoulders and frowns, the
canine acting seems impressively nuanced, and there’s a solid turn
from Amanda Seyfried as Denny’s wife, Eve. (109min) Ed PottonFilms of the day
1985 (15, 2018)
Film4, 1.25am
This modest, black and white, perfectly formed drama is a
Christmas tale with a difference. Set in 1985, it features Cory
Michael Smith as Adrian, a seemingly slick New York-based
advertising executive who is spending the yuletide season with
his blue-collar, rigidly Christian Texas family. They include gruff
dad Dale (Michael Chiklis), soft, smothering mom Eileen (Virginia
Madsen) and quietly resentful younger brother Andrew (Aidan
Langford). Adrian’s big city ways and his talk of Madison Avenue
already place him in conflict with Dale’s conservatism (he forbids
“sinful” pop music). Yet Adrian is about to drop a bombshell
(revealed in the opening scenes). He is gay and HIV positive,
and this might be his last Christmas. (82min) Kevin MaherRiver Hunters
Sky History/Now, 9pmThe presenter Rick Edwards
and the American river hunter
Beau Ouimette are in (yes,
not on) the River Knaik in
Scotland to look for evidence
of Roman life. The waterway
runs very close to the site of
one of the most significant
Roman remains in the world,
Ardoch Fort in Perthshire,
which was built under
Agricola around AD80. It’s
a much bigger reach back
in time for the hunters, so
the finds are thin on the
ground, but there are one
or two nice surprises
and the story of SPQR
endeavour and ingenuity
is always rather marvellous
to think about. BDRegional programmes
Monday 30 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Springwatch
BBC2, 8pm
Catch
up
The Split
BBC iPlayer
The third series of the drama
about three sisters in the legal
business and their messy love
lives — which can sometimes
make the divorce cases they
handle seem
tame by
comparison.
This is the
final run and
it’s crunch
time for
Hannah
(Nicola
Walker) and
her husband,
Nathan(Stephen Mangan, below with
Walker), since infidelity has
driven them to the divorce
courts. Oh, the irony. Matters
are complicated by a new
woman in Nathan’s life,
the formidable Kate (Lara
Pulver), who gives his tough
soon-to-be-ex-spouse a run
for her money. Abi Morgan’s
drama has its faults, but
it’s undeniably diverting
melodrama. “It’s as
fine a dramatic
meditation as you’ll
get on divorce and
the
euthanising
of a loving
marriage,”
our critic
Carol
Midgley
wrote.
Ben Dowell