29 May 2022 47
THE BEST TV FROM IPLAYER AND BEYOND... TUESDAY 31 MAY
It’s a curious experience,
listening to David
Attenborough narrate
Prehistoric Planet (Apple
TV+), the five-part series
that uses CGI to speculate
on dinosaur life in the late
Cretaceous period (66m
years ago). The show looks
stunning and is a lot of
fun, but much of the info
is derived from something
called “phylogenetic
bracketing” (for example,
hypothesising about, a
pterosaur’s breeding habits
based on their evolutionary
line of descent). We learn
about the secernosaurus, a
duck-billed herbivore from
South America that, we are
told, could navigate rivers
using the stars — but this
is conjecture, inference
presented as fact, and
when delivered in those
trustworthy Attenborough
tones it all feels decidedly
uncomfortable.
Andrew MalePenguins Of Madagascar
(Sky Cinema Animation,
9.25am/5pm)
The gang of flightless birds
who messed about on the
sidelines of the first three
movies in the Madagascar
cartoon franchise soared to
new heights in this spin-off,
borne aloft by great slapstick
action and silly verbal jokes.
John Malkovich’s gift for
haughty enunciation is put
to good use in his voicing of
the film’s villain, a bizarre
mad scientist. The other vocal
performers include Benedict
Cumberbatch and — in a
rather surprising cameo —
Werner Herzog. Co-dirs: Eric
Darnell, Simon J Smith (2014)The Grapes Of Wrath
(TPTV, 3.25pm)
John Ford’s movie is gentler
than its source material, John
Steinbeck’s novel about an
itinerant family in the Great
Depression, but it still has
power. Its images are vivid
Americana, and Henry Fonda
excels as the clan’s militant
son, Tom Joad. (1940) B/W
Edward PorterBlack looks for Lucy (BBC2, 9pm) Henry Fonda (TPTV, 3.25pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
The Staircase (Sky/Now)
Those who watched the
similarly titled 2004
documentary series about the
American novelist Michael
Peterson, accused of killing
his wife Kathleen, will know
this story already. So why
watch an eight-part adaptation
if all the elements of surprise
Prince Of Muck (BBC iPlayer)
Another Lear-esque tale, this
time a documentary about
Lawrence MacEwen, the
quietly muttering laird of a
small Hebridean island, who
refuses to relinquish the land
to his son. Cindy Jansen’s film
is a slow, elegiac chronicle of
a dying way of life — and it
also stands as MacEwen’s own
obituary as the laird passed
away on May 16, aged 81.
Andrew MaleKing Lear (Britbox)
Laurence Olivier won an
Emmy for this 1983 portrayal
of Shakespeare’s mad king
and it is a performance that
remains both heartbreaking
and terrifying almost 40 years
on. But look at that supporting
cast: Diana Rigg, Brian Cox,
John Hurt, Leo McKern,
Robert Lindsay, Edward
Petherbridge and Colin
Blakely. If you can tear your
eyes away from Olivier.Wake Up Punk
(Buy as stream/download)
Joe Corré, the son of Malcolm
McLaren and Vivienne
Westwood, presumably has
opinions about the arrival of a
Sex Pistols series on Disney+
(see Pick of the day). In this
documentary he rails against
punk becoming a nostalgia
industry. Fair enough, but the
best bits in this patchy film
are tales from the old days.
Dir: Nigel Askew (2022) EPand revelation are removed?
The answer is partly in the
performances. It’s a revelation
to watch Colin Firth and Toni
Collette take the known details
of Michael and Kathleen and
find new layers of meaning and
drama through performance;
but, on the evidence of the
first five episodes, it also feels
like director Antonio Campos
is working towards something
new and revelatory in his
approach to the evidence.Flowers in the dustbin: the Sex Pistols bring anarchy to the silver jubilee (Disney+)
Pistol (Disney+)
As the Sex Pistols’ single God
Save the Queen sneered at
the 1977 silver jubilee, it is
apt that a drama about the
punk provocateurs arrives
amid the platinum jubilee
festivities. Directed by Danny
Boyle, the six-part series
is based on a memoir by
the guitarist Steve Jones
(Toby Wallace), which insists
that the band’s sound and
attitude were already in
place before Malcolm
McLaren (Thomas Brodie-
Sangster) rebranded them
as “revolutionaries”. The
vivid opener flags a little
when evoking Jones’s
troubled childhood, but
otherwise displays all Boyle’s
usual flair as its hero steals,
charms and sleeps rough
as the first gig approaches.
Anson Boon’s Johnny Rotten
makes his debut in part two.
John DugdaleOnce Upon A Time
In Londongrad
(Sky Docs, 9pm/9.30pm)
This excellent six-part
documentary about the 14
mysterious deaths linked to
Russian money in London
makes fascinating viewing,
especially for reality-television
fans who may note the early
focus on Scot Young, a working-
class Dundee boy “made good”
by uncertain means, who had
a role as the boyfriend of
Noelle Reno in the 2014 Bravo
TV series Ladies of London. He
later fell to his death, impaled
on railings outside his house,
an incident his former wife
insists was murder. A group of
self-congratulatory Buzzfeed
journalists take up a line
of inquiry that may lead all
the way to the Kremlin.
Helen Stewart
Who Was The Real
Neanderthal? (PBS, 8.40pm)
This stereotype-busting
film sets out to reframe the
Neanderthal’s public image,
drawing on recent research
to show the species as clever,
caring and capable of graphic
communication. It also reveals
why modern humans might
have them to thank for their
addictive personalities.Lucy Worsley Investigates:
The Black Death (BBC2, 9pm)
It’s hard to believe Lucy
Worsley is quite as clueless
about the Black Death and its
transmission as she makes
out, but this programme goes
beyond the usual buboes and
lice to show the earth-shaking
effects Britain’s deadliest
pandemic had on women, the
church, and one Suffolk family.State Of The Union
(BBC2, from 10pm)
Series two of this comedy of
marital manners locks Scott
and Ellen (Brendan Gleeson
and Patricia Clarkson) in pithy
combat as they wonder if
they should stick together.
Key questions: “Why did you
marry me in the first place?”,
and why Ellen has been in jail.
Victoria SegalCRITICS’ CHOICE
Facts or fiction?