36 saturday review Saturday May 28 2022 | the times
Bake Off: The
Professionals
Channel 4, 8pm
Last week Emanuele and
Mariola were the first to leave
the competition and this week
the judges Benoit Blin and
Cherish Finden continue to be
just as exacting. Savoury slices
and crêpe cakes are on this
week’s menu, a fact that allows
Stacey Solomon, Liam Charles’s
new co-presenter, to make a
joke about how the word crepe
sounds like “crap”. Well, the
comedy links have always been
the worst thing about this great
format. The hopefuls have to
make 160 choux buns to create
a Greatest Sporting Moments
themed pièce montée in five
hours. Easy peasy. BD
Lucy Worsley
Investigates
BBC2, 9pmThe historian’s hunt for
answers to Britain’s great
mysteries continues with her
take on the Black Death of
1348, the country’s most deadly
pandemic. Using the bones of
victims found in a London
plague pit, Worsley starts by
considering the bacteria
behind the outbreak that
reduced the population from
about four million to 2.5 million.
While there isn’t much that is
new here, Worsley is on better
ground when investigating the
psychological and social
impact of the disease, which
left a lingering terror but also
boosted peasant power. BDOnce Upon a Time
in Londongrad
Sky Documentaries/Now,
9pm/9.30pmThis examines 14 mysterious
deaths in the UK and one
common thread: Russia and
cash. Does the country led by
Vladimir Putin have a global
assassination programme asks
the BuzzFeed investigative
reporter Heidi Blake. The cases
of Alexander Litvinenko
(poisoned), Boris Berezovsky
(suspicious death) and Sergei
Skripal (failed assassination
attempt) are well known, but
Blake begins with the death of
the tycoon Scot Young who fell
on to railings from a London
penthouse in 2014. His ex-wife is
convinced it wasn’t suicide. BD7.55 Beechgrove Repotted. A beautiful
two-acre garden which has been lovingly
renovated on the edge of Lammermuirs
(r) 8.00 Paramedics on Scene (r) 9.00
The Nine 10.00 Scotland: The Passion of
the Play-Offs. Celebrating the Scotland
men’s football team’s play-off history (r)
11.00-Midnight Inside Central Station (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Crads Bach y Traeth
(r) 6.05 Jamborî (r) 6.15 Abadas (r) 6.30
Bach a Mawr (r) 6.45 Sbarc (r) 7.00 Caru
Canu (r) 7.05 Timpo (r) 7.15 Fferm Fach (r)
7.30 Pablo 7.45 Deian a Loli (r) 8.00
Shwshaswyn (r) 8.10 Halibalw (r) 8.20
Digbi Draig (r) 8.30 Llan-ar-goll-en (r)
8.45 Twt (r) 9.00 Nico Nôg (r) 9.10 Sam
Tân (r) 9.20 Rapsgaliwn (r) 9.35 Stiw (r)
9.45 Gwdihw (r) 10.00 Crads Bach y
Traeth (r) 10.05 Jamborî (r) 10.15 Abadas
(r) 10.30 Bach a Mawr (r) 10.45 Sbarc (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 Yn y Fan A’r
Lle (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30
News 8.00 Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 9.25
News 9.30 Joe, Jock a’r Jincs Albanaidd
(r) 10.30 Rocco Schiavone 11.30-1.00am
Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2022 (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 10.45am
Homes Under the Hammer 11.45-12.15pm
X-Ray (r) 10.40-11.40 Fight Town
Swansea: Welsh Championship Boxing
Highlights. Jason Mohammad and Polly
James present extended highlights of
Saturday’s card at LC2 in Swansea
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.40pm Spotlight 11.10 The Airport: Back
in the Skies. The airport staff prepares for
a Christmas rush, but end up facing the
Omicron variant 11.40 Who Do You Think
You Are? Sue Perkins traces her ancestry.
(r) 12.40am Bad Love: Why Did Fri Kill
Kyle? Examining the murder of Kyle
Farrell. (r) 1.40-6.00 BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
7.00-7.30pm River City. Alex promises to
accompany Karen to her 12-week scan (r)
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm STV News
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 On
Assignment 11.40 Long Lost Family:
Born Without Trace (r) 12.35-3.00am
Teleshopping 3.50-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 10.45pm Up Close
11.45-12.15am On Assignment.
Investigating dowry abuse in India
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Scottish Vets
Down Under. Mike Whiteford operates on
a critically ill mare (r) 7.30 Great Escapes
with Colin and Justin. In North America (r)Triple 9 (15, 2016)
Film4, 11.20pm
First some preconditions. Triple 9 is a violent, generic cop movie
featuring decapitations and a lower leg blown to bits. If you can
cope with that, you may just find that the film — directed by
John Hillcoat (The Road) and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey
Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Norman Reedus and Kate Winslet
— is the most compelling and gut-tighteningly intense cop drama
since Heat. Affleck is an idealistic do-gooder detective transferred
to the toughest precinct in Atlanta to clean up the streets.
Standing in his way are a lethal team of bank robbers, led by
Ejiofor as a fearsome special-forces veteran, and a vision of pure
evil in the form of Winslet’s Russian-Jewish mobster matriarch.
(115min) Kate MuirFilms of the day
Ophelia (15, 2018)
BBC2, midnight
Retelling Hamlet from Ophelia’s perspective is a curious and
ambitious central conceit. Forest-dwelling witches, deadly potions
and unwanted pregnancies are thrown into the mix to create a film
(an adaptation of a young-adult novel by Lisa Klein) that tries to
live on its own terms. Clive Owen flounders as Claudius, while
Naomi Watts is also unmoored in the double roles of Gertrude and,
ahem, her older witch sister Mechtild (don’t ask). It is, however,
Daisy Ridley’s film. She’s the title character. It’s her name, and all
the Star Wars-inspired clout that implies, that made the film. It’s
unfortunate, then, that outside her Jedi métier Ridley, above,
remains a shaky and only fitfully effective screen presence.
Ophelia does not play to her strengths. (107min) Kevin MaherQueen Elizabeth:
The Coronation
BBC4, 10pmImages and clips from the
Queen’s Coronation in 1953 are
familiar, but watching from
start to finish is recommended.
It’s easy to lose sight of the
deep spiritual nature of the
occasion; it’s not just all those
bishops in the ancient
splendour of Westminster
Abbey, but key moments from
the coronation such as the
anointing, so sacred it was
hidden from public view, show
how profound the connection
between monarch and people
this event symbolises. Plus
there’s the soaring beauty of
Handel’s Zadok the Priest to
send a tingle up your spine. BDRegional programmes
“I can’t sing,” says a man
called John Lydon. “We can’t
play,” Paul Cook replies. And
the rest, of course, is musical
history. You have to feel for
the director Danny Boyle.
Any biopic of this much
trawled over (and extremely
short) period of British
cultural history (which rather
put the dampeners on the
1977 Jubilee) was going to
attract the kind of sneers
worthy of Sid Vicious. The
pre-publicity photos haven’t
helped, making the band look
a bit like Sunday-schoolers
and not the hard-drinking (or
in Vicious’s case, allegedly
murderous) titans of rebellion.
But actually I rather enjoyed
this. It is very much the story
of guitarist Steve Jones,
beautifully played by the
handsome Toby Wallace,
whose awful home life, petty
thieving and the life-changing
moment he walked into
Sex, Vivienne Westwood
and Malcolm McLaren’s
Kings Road boutique, powers
Disney+
the tale. Lydon has reportedly
objected to this project,
although Anson Boon
captures his charisma (and
love of the word “moron”)
superbly. McLaren is a
trickier prospect, given his
pretentious pronouncements
on taping “the fury of a
forgotten generation”.
However, in the capable hands
of Thomas Brodie-Sangster
(once the cute kid in
Love Actually) he is at least a
knowingly ambitious idiot.
The flirty interactions
between Jones and Sydney
Chandler’s Chrissie Hynde
(desperate to form a band
when we meet her) drag
at times. But Boyle’s
playfulness (including clips
of Michael Caine and lots of
David Bowie) offer enjoyable
and convincing signs of
the creative force these
rascals were to become. Not
one for the punk purists,
perhaps, but a fun watch
nonetheless.
Ben DowellCatch
up
Prince of Muck
BBC iPlayer
Cindy Jansen’s
compassionate
documentary portrait of
Lawrence MacEwan,
right, the charismatic
and idealistic patriarch
of the MacEwan clan
and laird of the
Isle of Muck. The
tiny, windswept,
1,400-acre
island
in the Inner
Hebrides, off
the west coast
of Scotland, is
the smallest ofthe so-called Small Isles with a
population of 38. Lawrence is
an eccentric old cove, fond of
cows and a cold bath every
morning. He is determined to
preserve the fragile society on
the island to pass on to future
generations. His son Colin, who
runs the farm, appears
only fleetingly on
camera, but it is
evident that he
would rather run the
island without his old
man’s input. It’s a film
about a family in
transition, with
Jansen using
the island’s
stunning vistas
and stormy
skies to
frame her
subjects. Joe
ClayTuesday 31 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Pistol
Jacob Slater, Anson Boon,
Toby Wallace and Christian
Lees play the Sex Pistols