The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 saturday review 23

t v & ra di o

Best of the rest

Full seven-day listings & previews

Podcast choice

Londongrad

A brilliant new Tortoise Media

podcast about how Russian

money flowed into the UK,

funded some great parties and

corrupted the establishment.

The mental image of Salman

Rushdie, Mikhail Gorbachev

and Orlando Bloom on the

dancefloor will stay with you.

James Marriott

Critic’s choice

Sherwood

Mon/Tue, BBC1, 9pm

The long shadow of the 1984
miners’ strike is an inescapable
presence in this superior new
detective series from James
Graham (Brexit: The Uncivil
War). It turns what could be a
standard northern gloom-fest,
set in a north Nottinghamshire
town, into a series with much
to say about the wounds
that persist in red wall
communities. Families
remain divided; friendships
are for ever broken; the word
“scab” is still freighted with
raw emotion.
Resentment lingers
everywhere, like a polluting
slick of oil on the surface of
an otherwise ordinary
neighbourhood. It means it’s
less important whether or not
you care much who has
committed the murder of a
community stalwart.
David Morrissey is the
detective in charge, Robert
Glenister the Met copper up
from London (he has a past,
being one of the policemen
billeted there in 1984), while
Lesley Manville, Adeel Akhtar
and Alun Armstrong offer
high-calibre support. It’s crime
drama as social commentary,
and more rewarding for it.
James Jackson

Radio choice

Geoff Norcott:

Well Classy

Tue, Radio 4, 6.30pm

When Geoff Norcott was at

home in Cambridgeshire,

leafing through a quality

newspaper (hi, Geoff),

munching a breakfast brioche

and plunging his cafetière, he

had a terrible realisation: he

had become middle class, the

thing he hates most. It made

him want to rush out and eat

bacon “that is 92 per cent

water” and drink tea “the

colour of sadness”.

There are few comics today

who can make us squirm and

laugh as Norcott does. And

because he is politically right-

of-centre one often feels that

many of the liberals roaming

the corridors of Broadcasting

Houseb tolerate his presence

with gritted teeth. I suspect he

knows it too, given the fun he

has. When, in this enjoyable

special, he asks the audience

what their class is, he reminds

those who lay claim to being

working class that they are at

a Radio 4 recording in

Chiswick.

There’s a fair bit of similar

chippiness here, alongside

some interesting ideas, not

least that middle-class people

are now an easy target for

mockery, despite, Norcott

argues, increasingly earning

less money and having less

social caché than plumbers.

Norcott wants to remain in the

working-class tribe, he says,

but, with the breakfasts he

enjoys in his large house, that

may no longer be possible.

Ben Dowell

The best films

David Morrissey,

Lesley Manville

and Robert

Glenister

Our Falklands War: A

Frontline Story

Sun, BBC2, 9pm

To mark the 40th anniversary

of the end of the Falklands

conflict, ten veterans recall

their experiences in vivid,

unblinking detail. Some for

the first (and last) time share

their memories of Goose

Green, the Sir Galahad and

Mount Tumbledown in what is

a harrowing, essential record

for the ages.

Soccer Aid for Unicef

Sun, ITV, 6.30pm

Always an occasion, here’s the

annual charity match from

London Stadium, with Damian

Lewis and Mo Farah among

those in an England team

going up against a World XI

including Usain Bolt, Cafu and

the Scottish dynamo Martin

Compston (the actor was once

a professional footballer).

Tumbledown

Wed, BBC4, 10pm

Richard Eyre’s

drama is likely to

have lingered in the

memory of anyone

who saw it when it was

first broadcast in 1988. It

stars Colin Firth as the

Falklands veteran Robert

Lawrence, who lost 43 per

cent of his brain after

being shot (Lawrence also

contributes to Our Falklands

War, see left). Rarely

repeated, the film retains

its contentious power.

The Lazarus Project

Thu, Sky Max, 9pm

Paapa Essiedu, left, is

the bewildered hero

(although not half

bewildered enough)

who is picked to be

part of a secret elite

team that can rewind

time to prevent global

extinction events. It’s all very

high-octane, high-concept,

time-slippy stuff, but with a

youthful sense of humour. JJ

21 Bridges (15)

Today, BBC1, 10.20pm

Chadwick Boseman is a tough

police officer shutting down

the bridges of Manhattan to

hunt down a pair of cop killers

in a nocturnal noir.

Open Range (12)

Sun, Channel 5, 3.45pm

From 2003, a decent

western matinee cut

from the old cloth with

Annette Bening, right,

and Kevin Costner as

a taciturn cowpoke

forced to take up

his gun again.

The Long, Hot Summer

(PG)

Sun, Great Movies Classic,

4.10pm

Based on works by William

Faulkner, the sultry 1958

drama has Paul Newman

as a drifter in a Mississippi

town upsetting a family

headed by Orson Welles.

Sully: Miracle on the

Hudson (12)

Sun, BBC1, 10.30pm

A bit of all-American

heroism as Chesley

“Sully” Sullenberger

(Tom Hanks) lands

his Airbus in the

Hudson River. JJ