THE BEST OF THE WEEK AHEAD SEVEN-DAY LISTINGS FOR NOVEMBER 14-20
Simon Reeve is best known
for navigating dangerous
geopolitical terrain in his
programmes, but in a time of
pandemic he is quite able to
turn a trip to England’s largest
national park into a real
adventure for this three-part
series. Behind the idyllic
scenery he finds a place
under attack on multiple
fronts. Wildlife and trees are
being threatened by human
encroachment but so too are
traditional ways of life as
farmers struggle to stay afloatand second-home owners
send property prices wild.
If you’re not a grey squirrel,
culled to keep their red
cousins safe, there are
positive moments of rewilding
and outreach, but Reeve
admirably ventures outside
of the picturesque, looking
at life in the wider county
of Cumbria, including the
naval shipyards of Barrow-
in-Furness. It is a beautiful
landscape but, as Reeve
shows, it can be a harsh one.
Victoria SegalTHE WEEK AHEAD
Remembrance Sunday
(Today, BBC1, 10.15am)
Dispatches
(Monday, C4, 8.30pm)
Did Brexit Work for Business?
Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s
Kitchen Disco Danceathon
(Tuesday-Wednesday,
BBC iPlayer, from 9.25am)
Cheltenham Literature
Festival Highlights
(Thursday, Sky Arts, 10.30pm)
Unreported World
(Friday, C4, 7.30pm)PICK OF
THE WEEK
THE LAKES
WITH SIMON
REEVE
Today, BBC2, 9pm
Vice
Today, BBC2, 10pm
Adam McKay, the director
of the Anchorman comedies,
brings a sardonic flippancy
to his 2018 biopic of Dick
Cheney, George W Bush’s
influential vice-president.
This weakens the heft of the
movie’s polemic, yet Christian
Bale’s portrayal of the
scheming veep remains
substantial — and not just
because the star is laden
with make-up and padding.FILM OF
THE WEEK
It Was All A Dream
Talksport Podcast
Troy Townsend presents an
exploration of the football
academy system, where only
one per cent of those who go
through them in England go
on to become a professional:
so what happens to the other
99 per cent who don’t make
it, and how do they cope with
being discarded so young?One Foot In The Grave
BBC iPlayer
As with Curb Your Enthusiasm,
Larry David’s comedy of
social embarrassment, David
Renwick’s sitcom focused on
an irascible old man whose
innate misanthropy led him
into surreally awkward social
situations. Conveniently,
it has aged perfectly, its
theatrical debts to Beckett
and Ionesco lending extra
weight to the exquisitely
engineered comedy.RADIO PICK
OF THE WEEK
DEMAND PICK
OF THE WEEK