5 June 2022 51THE BEST TV FROM MUBI AND BEYOND... FRIDAY 10 JUNE
TV Rerun Club By MGM
(YouTube)
For most streaming
channels, the past is a
foreign country, so it is easy
to forget there was once
another TV Golden Age,
one that didn’t include The
Sopranos. ABC TV in the
mid-1960s was part of that,
a home to former Hollywood
gag writers and Broadway
playwrights that created
sci-fi anthology series The
Outer Limits (start with
The Zanti Misfits episode),
macabre black comedy The
Addams Family (don’t miss
Morticia’s Romance) and
the groundbreaking sitcom
The Patty Duke Show
(The Cousins). Here’s hoping
the programmers add
Bewitched and The
Fugitive next. And all in
their beautifully restored
black-and-white glory.
Andrew MaleThe Equalizer (Film4, 9pm)
In between Edward Woodward
handing out vigilante justice
in the 1980s television series
and Queen Latifah taking over
the job in the show’s recent
return, Denzel Washington
starred in this movie version.
He may look a bit old to be
clobbering bad guys at will,
but he has always known how
to project an air of menace,
and part of the fantasy on
offer in the film is the idea of
a seasoned fighter teaching
young upstarts a thing or
two. Washington’s character,
who rights wrongs for others,
is brutal but not without
flair, and the same is true of
Antoine Fuqua’s movie. (2014)Le Mans (BBC2, 1pm)
Devised by Steve McQueen
to indulge his motorsports
mania, this drama about the
French 24-hour race — with
the star playing a terse driver
— is itself an endurance test
if cars aren’t your thing, but
its shots of automotive action
give petrolheads a lot to see.
Dir: Lee H Katzin. (1971)
Edward PorterMartin and Friar (BBC2, 9pm) Race is on: McQueen (BBC2, 1pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
The King Of Warsaw
(Walter Presents On All4)
One line from critics is that
this is “the Polish Peaky
Blinders”. On the surface, that
makes sense. Loosely based on
the life of the Polish socialist,
activist and gangster Lukasz
Siemiatkowski, the show takes
place in a prewar Warsaw that
RTE Archives (rte.ie/archives)
A Twitter recommendation
from Dublin-based film-maker
Paul Duane (@paulduanefilm),
RTE’s television archive is a
free time machine into a strange
past. Check its @RTEArchives
Twitter feed for the best
selections, which have
recently included everything
from a 1969 documentary on
WB Yeats to Bruce Springsteen
live at Slane Castle in 1985.
Andrew MaleTrust No One — The Hunt For
The Crypto King (Netflix)
There are two ways to approach
this documentary about the
late Canadian Ponzi scheme
huckster Gerald W Cotten.
One is that it’s a sensationalist
addition to Netflix’s obsession
with online con artists; the
other is that it is a compelling
insight into the distrustful,
paranoid, delusional world of
cryptocurrency. The second is
far more rewarding.The Sixth Sense (Disney+)
Its presence on Disney+
might introduce M Night
Shyamalan’s breakthrough
film to newcomers who have
yet to learn how it ends. Such
people are definitely in the
best position to enjoy its story
— the mysterious, clammy tale
of a boy (Haley Joel Osment)
haunted by visions of the
dead — but the film has details
that are still rewarding when
seen again. (1999) EPinhabits the same space
between the real and the
fictional, as in Peaky Blinders,
plus that same rich mix of
detailed period drama and
ugly violence. Yet this is also a
story about a lost culture, that
of the vast Jewish population
caught up in the street battles
between the fascists and the
socialists, and always it feels
like a show where far more
is at stake than mere money
and land grabs.Living in a state of denial: Romesh Ranganathan (BBC1, 9.30pm)Avoidance (BBC1, 9.30pm)
The comedian Romesh
Ranganathan and co-writer
Benjamin Green have,
according to the BBC’s
director of comedy, created a
“brilliant and contemporary
family sitcom”, a description
that belies, perhaps
purposefully, its darker
nature. Ranganathan plays
Jonathan, the conflict-phobic
father of nine-year-old
Spencer (Kieran Logendra,
delightfully unaware that he
is on a television show) and
rejected partner of Claire
( Jessica Knappett). He is the
sort of man whose dressing
gown is only removed
for formal occasions, a
traditional lazy sidekick
character positioned as the
main man. The gag rate is
low to pulseless, but the
scenes with father and son
have real charm.
Helen StewartMy Name Is Leon
(BBC2, 9pm)
Cole Martin is wonderful as
the nine-year-old hero of this
adaptation of Kit de Waal’s
affecting novel, and he is
surrounded by a remarkably
strong cast. Growing up in
early-1980s Birmingham,
mixed-race Leon and his baby
half-brother, Jake, live with
foster mums (Monica Dolan
and Olivia Williams) after their
mentally ill mother (Poppy
Lee Friar) is hospitalised. Then
Jake is adopted and separated
from Leon, shattering Leon’s
world. However, he finds an
alternative family — and a
substitute father — in a largely
black group who hang out at
nearby allotments, played by
Malachi Kirby, Christopher
Eccleston and Lenny Henry.
John DugdaleOur Lives: Darts Dreams
(BBC1, 7.30pm)
Eighteen-year-old Chloe
O’Brien from Perthshire is
hoping to hit the bullseye and
get selected for the Scottish
darts squad. After Covid
thwarts her progress, she
makes up for lost time by
throwing herself into a
gruelling calendar of events in
order to achieve her dream.From The Vaults
(Sky Arts, 8pm)
Guy Garvey looks at Britpop,
the scene that anyone who
was associated with took great
effort in distancing themselves
from. There’s obviously Pulp
(doing a sensational Babies),
an early, sleazy Suede and a
pre-Parklife Blur, but also
indie footsoldiers such as
Marion and Longpigs.British Planes That Won
The War (C5, 9pm)
The Sopwith Camel was a
single-seat biplane introduced
in 1917 that was considered
difficult to fly and was also
unhelpfully prone to crashing
on take-off. Despite this, it
went into legend as one of the
key aircraft produced during
the First World War.
Ian WadeCRITICS’ CHOICE
A journey down
memory lane