The Sunday Times - UK (2022-06-05)

5 June 2022 43

THE BEST TV FROM BRITBOX AND BEYOND... WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE

Virgin Radio Pride UK

(Virgin Radio)

The award-winning digital

pop-up station is back for

a summer run, with music

and LGBTQ+ conversation.

Highlights include the

Stephen Sullivan Drag

Breakfast Show (weekends,

6am) — clearly you will

have to imagine the outfits

— and the My Pride Playlist

special, in which Steve

Denyer’s guests pick their

favourite Pride songs,

beginning with the musician

Skin. Christian Hewgill will

present a range of LGBTQ+

sports documentaries,

including an examination

of the World Cup in Qatar

and the growth of LGBTQ+

football fan groups. Other

documentaries cover Pride in

politics, the story of Terrence

Higgins, LGBTQ+ army life

and 50 years of Pride.

Clair Woodward

The English Patient

(Sky Cinema Greats, 1.35pm)

Anthony Minghella’s most

successful film is a romantic

epic with added value. Its love

story (with Ralph Fiennes and

Kristin Scott Thomas) has no

lack of swoony melodrama,

but it also carries out a shrewd

study of its characters. The

result is a movie in which

things are not quite what

they first seem to be — except

for the locations, which are

patently handsome. The

action takes place in Italy

and north Africa, before and

during the Second World War,

and the settings yield images

that would have done David

Lean proud. (1996)

The Hound Of The

Baskervilles (Film4, 4.55pm)

Sherlock Holmes receives

the Hammer treatment in

the studio’s version of his

best-known case. The great

detective is played by Peter

Cushing (whose gaunt face

is ideal for the role), and the

storytelling is nicely garish.

Dir: Terence Fisher (1959)

Edward Porter

Hypothetical duo (Dave, 10pm) Morell and Cushing (Film4, 4.55pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

Unreal (Amazon)
No series better captured the
American media’s conflicted
relationship with reality TV
than this erratically brilliant
comedy drama. Conceived
by Marti Noxon (Buffy, Sharp
Objects) and set behind the
scenes of a fictional reality
dating series, it played like a

Bad Education (Britbox)

With a tenth anniversary

special on the way, it is our

duty to revisit Jack Whitehall’s

state-school sitcom in which

he plays “the worst teacher

to grace the British education

system”. It already feels

incredibly dated, dealing in

broad comic stereotypes that

now feel closer to 1970s fare

like Mind Your Language than

say, Netflix’s Sex Education.

Andrew Male

Anomalia

(Walter Presents on All4)

Who remembers Lars Von

Trier’s supernatural mini-

series The Kingdom? Its mix

of the gory, the eerie and the

“what just happened?” runs

through this Swiss drama,

which stars Natacha Regnier

as a neurosurgeon who

returns to her home village to

work at a clinic that harbours

ghosts, visions and a secret

that is slow to reveal itself.

Bellissima (Mubi)

Hollywood satirised itself in

Singin’ in the Rain and Sunset

Boulevard in the early 1950s,

and that was also when

Luchino Visconti poked fun

at Italy’s film industry in this

loud comic melodrama.

The story of a working-class

woman trying to make her

daughter a star, it showcases

the wonderful Anna Magnani

and Rome’s august Cinecittà

Studios. (1951) B/W EP

super-addictive knife-edge

cross between Love Island and

The Hunger Games, with even

a meta-textual hint of The

Prisoner in the caustic

captive-jailor relationship

between warring show

producers Rachel Goldberg

(Shiri Appleby) and Quinn

King (Constance Zimmer).

Just avoid the fourth season,

which descends to the crazed

exploitative depths of the

shows it was satirising.

These three have got it covered: Novellie, Scarborough and Bottley (BBC2, 7.30pm)

Between The Covers

(BBC2, 7.30pm)

A show that would be

equally at home on radio,

this weekly book club hosted

with enthusiastic verbosity

by Sara Cox is a restful

punctuation mark in the

viewing week. “Welcome

to Between the Covers,” she

trills, “where books bind us

together, like fish paste in a

1970s sandwich,” introducing

the singer Emeli Sande, the

comedian Pierre Novellie,

Rev Kate Bottley and actor

Adrian Scarborough. The

latter is the revelation:

twinkly, confident, calm

and a natural storyteller, too

long in the tooth to tapdance

for attention. These soft

television panels are scoured

by bookers for guests to

elevate to the big audiences.

Expect to see him on Graham

Norton’s sofa soon.

Helen Stewart

How To Catch A Cat Killer

(ITV, 9pm; not STV)

“Brighton cat killer” Steven

Bouquet wasn’t just a random

attacker; he killed nine cats

and injured several others

during a 2018-9 reign of terror

in which he had radicalised

himself by watching videos

on his laptop of felines

being killed, in preparation

for doing the deed. The

tormented community came

together to track him down

and bring him to justice and,

eventually, CCTV caught him

in the act, which soon led to

his arrest. This a grim watch,

and the custody footage of a

cold and calculating Bouquet

denying any wrongdoing has

to be seen to be believed. This

may drive any animal lovers

to tape up their catflaps.

Ian Wade

Costco — Is It Really

Worth it? (C5, 8pm)

Like Channel 5’s other

lowdowns on low-cost chains,

this is illuminating, fun and

full of tips. Little-known chain

Costco differs, though, in

being both a wholesaler to the

trade (“the shops’ shop”) and

an exclusive members’ club;

and there is advice on what

you need to do to join it.

DNA Family Secrets

(BBC2, 9pm)

In tonight’s most poignant

strand, a couple test their son’s

DNA to see if (like his brother)

he has inherited the genetic

mutation for “bubble boy

disease”. The other stories

involve hunts for fathers the

searchers have never met, in

Portugal and the Caribbean.

Stacey Dooley presents.

Hypothetical (Dave, 10pm)

This week, James Acaster and

Josh Widdicombe adjudicate

as Jack Dee and Guz Khan take

on Rose Johnson and Suzi

Ruffell in a series of imaginary

challenges that include

inventing the next superstar

magician and getting a

sandwich displayed in the

British Museum.

John Dugdale

CRITICS’ CHOICE

Saying it loud and

saying it proud