32 saturday review Saturday June 11 2022 | the times
Ah, Nottinghamshire,
beautiful countryside, home
of Robin Hood and still
spoken of in dark terms by
some union diehards because
of the many Notts miners
who refused to join the
National Union of
Mineworkers’ 1984 pit strike.
These intriguingly heady
and volatile ingredients —
local fables new and old —
form an intriguing spine to
this new six-part drama from
James Graham (Quiz, Brexit:
The Uncivil War) based on
recollections of events from
his childhood. We start with
a wedding, a scriptwriter’s
gift that allows the
protagonists to be neatly
identified, even if it remains
a struggle to immediately
work out who hates who and
why. Among the guests are
Alun Armstrong’s charismatic
Gary Jackson, a beery former
NUM stalwart for whom the
muttered word “scab” is
rarely far from his lips; his
wife, Julie (Lesley Manville),
has fallen out with her sister,
who married a strike
refusenik. When one of the
main characters is found
dead in the street (no spoilers
here on who that is), we find
that they have been
dispatched in a manner that
has associations with the
mythic Sherwood hero in the
Lincoln green tights, but that
could have been motivated
by the events of 1984. DCS Ian
St Clair (David Morrissey,
second from right with, from
left, Sean Gilder, Alun
Armstrong and Adeel Akhtar)
— first seen getting a
commendation from the
Sheriff of Nottingham, and
how brilliant that there is still
such a post — knows that
tensions with the police
remain from the days when
Arthur Scargill was active with
his megaphone. When St Clair
is forced to reunite with
Robert Glenister’s DI Kevin
Salisbury, a Met Police
detective with dark memories
of the strike, even more
secrets threaten to spill out.
Ben DowellSpringwatch
BBC2, 8pm
The third week of watching
finds Chris Packham and
Michaela Strachan looking over
the weekend’s footage from
the live nests in Norfolk and
checking in with them live on
the programme. Iolo Williams
is on a seabird detail on the
islands around Mull. And
Packham’s step-daughter
Megan McCubbin is on the final
leg of her northern road trip,
arriving tonight in Newcastle
city centre to showcase some
of its surprisingly rich array of
wildlife. The rest of the week’s
action promises to find
Williams helping to ring a
raptor chick on Mull and a
focus on the importance of
urban pollinators. BD
Extraordinary
Portraits
BBC1, 8.30pmA welcome return for the
popular series in which a
leading artist meets someone
with an extraordinary story
and paints their picture. It’s
hosted by the rapper Tinie,
who may not be a fine art
expert but has a clear passion
for creativity. The format allows
for a public service dive into
the artistic process before an
emotional reveal of the finished
work. In tonight’s episode
Stuart Pearson Wright is tasked
with capturing the essence
of charity fundraiser (and
cancer survivor) Harriet
Middleton and her love for her
Shetlander heritage. BDThe Time
Traveler’s Wife
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm“The thing about living with
time travel is it’s never your
only problem,” says Henry
(Theo James). “Like, for
instance, her friends.” The
great thing about this story,
which reaches episode five
tonight, is the way it weaves
the everyday subjects of
growing old, falling in love,
difficult relationships with your
parents, and of course snitty
friends such as Henry’s wife
Clare’s flatmate within the sci-fi
premise. Is the person we love
now the same person they
were back in the day? They
are big questions, which are
sensitively explored. BD● UTV As ITV except: 10.45pm-
11.40 View from Stormont
● BBC Scotland 2.30pm Sign Zone: Pink
Dreams: Our Lives (r) 3.00 Sign Zone: The
Mart (r) 3.30-4.00 Sign Zone: Beechgrove
(r) 7.00 Beechgrove (r) 7.30 My Kind of
Town: Ardrossan (r) 8.00 Scottish Vets
Down Under (r) 8.30 Great Escapes with
Colin and Justin (r) 8.55 Beechgrove
Repotted (r) 9.00 The Nine 10.00 Being
Mum with MND (r) 11.00 Scot Squad (r)
11.30 Growing Up Scottish 11.45pm-
Midnight Who Runs the World? (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 12.00 News 12.05pm
Cymry ar Gynfas (r) 12.30 Heno (r) 1.00
Codi Pac (r) 1.30 Sgwrs Dan y Lloer (r)
2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 News
3.05 Y Fets (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Odo (r) 4.10
Caru Canu a Stori (r) 4.20 Byd Tad-Cu (r)
4.30 Sion y Chef (r) 4.45 Cacamwnci (r)
5.00 Stwnsh: Dreigiau — Marchogion Berc
(r) 5.25 Cath-Od (r) 5.35 Cic (r) 5.55 Ffeil
6.00 Cymru, Dad a Fi (r) 6.30 Rownd a
Rownd (r) 6.57 News S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30
News 8.00 Cymry ar Gynfas (r) 8.25
Garddio a Mwy 8.55 News 9.00 Ffermio
9.30 Corau Rhys Meirion. Former soldiers
forging friendships by singing in a choir
(r) 10.30 Bethesda: Pobol y Chwarel (r)
11.00-11.35 Arfordir Cymru: Sir Benfro (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 8.00pm
X-Ray 8.30-9.00 Kiri’s TV Flashback. New
series. The comedian Kiri Pritchard-
McLean unearths iconic Welsh people,
places and things 10.40 Panorama 11.10
Extraordinary Portraits 11.40 Hungry for
It (r) 12.40am-1.10 This Is MY House (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
8.00pm A Stitch Through Time (r)
8.30-9.00 The Chronicles of Strangford
(r) 10.40 Panorama 11.10 Extraordinary
Portraits. New series. Stuart Pearson
Wright is challenged to capture Charity
Fundraiser Harriet 11.40 Hungry for It (r)
12.40am This Is MY House (r) 1.10
Have I Got a Bit More News
for You (r) 1.55-6.00 BBC News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
9.45pm The Chronicles of Erne (r)
10.00-10.30pm Ceathrar Cailíní Dhoire
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 8.00pm
Landward 8.30-9.00 Tiny Lives. New
series. A baby is born at 27 weeks 10.40
Panorama 11.10 Extraordinary Portraits
11.40 Hungry for It (r) 12.40am Have I Got
a Bit More News for You (r) 1.20 Weather
for the Week Ahead 1.25-6.00 BBC News
● STV As ITV except: 10.30pm STV News
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05 Hollington
Drive (r) 12.05am-3.00 Teleshopping
3.50-5.05 Unwind with STVSilence (15, 2016)
BBC2, 11.15pm
Some will find Martin Scorsese’s Silence a pilgrimage and others a
penance: this is a demanding film, poised on a fulcrum of belief,
which tells of the epic spiritual and physical journey of two Jesuit
priests in 17th-century Japan. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver
play the Portuguese missionaries Sebastiao Rodrigues and
Francisco Garupe. Silence, which premiered at the Vatican before
Pope Francis, was a passion project for Scorsese for 28 years,
despite script and financing difficulties. Unlike his third priest in the
drama, Cristovao Ferreira (Liam Neeson), Scorsese never lost faith,
and there is an uncompromising, ascetic steeliness to the project,
with a near three-hour running time and graphic depictions of
torture. (160min) Kate MuirFilms of the day
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (15, 2018)
Film4, 11.20pm
Three decades after playing his famous screen boozer in Withnail
and I, the teetotal Richard E Grant did it again with the role of
Jack Hock, a flamboyant dipsomaniac and self-described
renegade who lights up this true-life caper of literary forgery,
celebrity and the FBI. Grant got an Oscar nomination (his first)
for what is clearly a showcase turn. Yet he’s matched, beat for
beat, by Melissa McCarthy, above, with Grant — also Oscar-
nominated, for the second time — playing Lee Israel, a writer and
heavy-drinking misanthrope who stumbles between her filthy
downtown flat and the shadowy dive bars of early 1990s New
York. Along the way, money is made, stakes are raised and
friendships are tested. (106min) Kevin MaherReinventing the
Orchestra
Sky Arts, 9pmThe engaging conductor
Charles Hazlewood continues
in his likeably intense way to
grapple with the concept of
orchestras, how they work and
what they can teach us. In last
week’s opener the man in
white capably tussled with
Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in
G Minor. Tonight he looks at
electronic instruments and
considers why orchestras
haven’t embraced them as
much as they perhaps should
have. Helping his questing,
bold and eclectic endeavours,
once again, are various
musicians and Hazlewood’s
own Paraorchestra. BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen
BBC iPlayer
Comprising hundreds of reels
of private home video
taken by various
royals (including, it is
believed, Her
Majesty herself)
Elizabeth: The
Unseen Queen
appears at first to
break the golden
rule of royalty: don’t
lift the lid on the
magic.
However,
watching
the young
Queen,below in 1947, as a gurgling
baby, mucking around with her
sister Margaret, stroking the
many dogs that have been a
constant part of her life and
pulling silly faces is as
endearing as it is familiar to
anyone who was ever young.
They feel like any family, and
this film is exquisitely
put together. It is also
the story of a father
and his daughter. We
know George VI was
a kindly, shy man but
in private there is
something intensely
moving about his
small gestures here
too, such as the
gentle hands
on his
daughter’s
shoulder.
Ben DowellMonday 13 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Sherwood
BBC1, 9pm