The Times Saturday Review - UK (2020-11-14)

the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GR saturday review 23

The best films

t v & ra di o

Best of the rest

Full seven-day listings & previews

Podcast choice

The Lock In with

Jeremy Paxman

Apple Podcasts

The idea is that the fearsome

old journo gets to interview

people he likes. He’s not all

sweetness and smiles, but his

grumpy charm makes chats

with Richard Dawkins, Michael

Palin and more really fly.

James Marriott

Critic’s choice

The Crown

Sun, Netflix

Series four of the impeccably
evoked royal soap begins in
1979 with the fate of Lord
Mountbatten, but really this
series is all about the 1980s.
Increasingly, the biggest
challenge for the performers
is not falling into caricature.
Joining the cast as Diana is
the newcomer Emma Corrin,
whose initial flirtations with
Charles are imagined in
puckish fashion — over a
shared love of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Then there is
Gillian Anderson as Margaret
Thatcher, offering her
deepest, slowest drawl while
seething with resentment at
the entitled classes.
The second episode has the
Thatchers in the Scottish royal
residence failing “the Balmoral
tests” — various undefined
protocols and parlour games
— which is amusing and
ridiculous in equal measure.
During moments such as
these the Windsors are
presented as ultra-aristocratic,
slightly absurd creatures
entirely removed from
normality. Few come out in
a flattering light here, but
it remains an irresistibly
entertaining palatial fantasy.
James Jackson

Radio choice

Archive on Four

Sat, Radio 4, 8pm

Here’s a programme for

political losers, and there’s a

lesson in it somewhere. The

historian Steven Fielding

explores how political parties

recover from big election

defeats. It’s certainly one for

the Labour Party, which

suffered one of its biggest

general election defeats in

December 2019. What lessons

does history have to offer the

politicians as they try to claw

their way back?

Fielding looks at five famous

cases of defeat and rebirth,

starting with Winston Churchill

in 1945 — a shattering defeat

for the Tories, yet they were

back in power six years later.

In 1959 Labour lost its third

election in a row; by 1964

Harold Wilson had turned it

around for them. In 1979 the

Conservatives needed all the

help they could get — having

won only once in a decade.

Then along came Margaret

Thatcher. Michael Foot

couldn’t steer a Labour victory

in her wake, neither could Neil

Kinnock. But in 1997 Labour’s

shining knight Tony Blair put

the Tories on the back burner

after 18 years in office.

Among those Fielding talks

to is the Times columnist (and

Conservative peer) Daniel

Finkelstein, along with

pollsters and former advisers.

And, Fielding asks, what do

these stories of changes in

party leadership, organisation

and image have to offer Keir

Starmer as he tries to bring

Labour back from the brink?

Debra Craine

Josh O’Connor as the Prince

of Wales and Emma Corrin

as Princess Diana

The best films

Best of the rest

Small Axe

Sun, BBC One, 9pm

The first in Steve McQueen’s

anthology is Mangrove,

starring Shaun Parkes, below,

an account of a Notting Hill

restaurant at war with

racist Britain. It’s not

subtle, but it’s done

with class, the era

superbly captured.

I’m a Celebrity...

Get Me Out of Here!

Sun, ITV, 9pm

No tropical bugs, jungle

shorts or gratuitous waterfall-

bikini shots — this time we’re

in lockdown and this comes

from a chilly castle in Wales.

Offended by Irvine Welsh

Tues, Sky Arts, 10pm

In which the Trainspotting

author tries rewriting a page

of his savage prose to meet

today’s politically correct

standards — which turns it

into complete bilge. All

part of a thoughtful

exploration of how

the increasingly

offended nature of

our society is killing

artistic expression.

The Good Lord Bird

Wed, Sky Atlantic, 9pm

A wild new drama about

slavery in pre-Civil War

America in which Ethan

Hawke knowingly dials it up

to the max as the militant

abolitionist John Brown. This

is not a boring prestige

American history drama, but

an unhinged romp that can at

times feel, as one character

calls Brown, “as nutty as a

squirrel’s turd”.

The Blackadder Collection

BBC iPlayer

Back today on iPlayer are

all four series of the classic

comedy and, not counting

the first one, it’s hard to

know which series is the

best. Perhaps the more

cynical Rowan Atkinson

got the better. JJ

Journey’s End (12)

Sat, BBC Two, 9pm

Sam Claflin is Captain

Stanhope in a respectable film

of RC Sherriff’s play about life

in the trenches; Toby Jones

steals his scenes as the cook.

The Man Who Would

Be King (PG)

Sun, Film4, 6.10pm

The Rudyard

Kipling yarn can’t

be bettered as

tribute-viewing

to Sean

Connery

goes, with

Connery and Michael Caine,

below, a peerless double act.

Jojo Rabbit (12)

Sky Cinema

Risky comedy about a Hitler

Youth boy forced to realise

the vileness of his imaginary

friend: the Führer.

The Lighthouse (15)

Sky Cinema

Willem Dafoe

and Robert

Pattinson

go mad in

isolation —

a mystery

like no

other. JJ