28 November 2021 47
THE BEST TV FROM NETFLIX AND BEYOND... SUNDAY 28 NOVEMBER
The Office
(BBC2, 10pm/10.40pm)
It is more than 20 years
since the debut series of
Ricky Gervais and Stephen
Merchant’s sitcom was
first shown on the BBC. It
is fashionable now to say
you prefer the American
incarnation, but revisiting
the initial few episodes of the
original it is startling to see
how funny and inventive it
remains. Gervais’s nervous
looks to camera may now
seem dated, but only because
they became so imitated, and
his boorish, arrogant David
Brent still convinces. Better
still is Mackenzie Crook as
vindictive jobsworth Gareth
Keenan. It’s a performance
that gave us a great villain
of sitcom history, eventually
leading to the heartwarming
TV gifts of Detectorists and
Worzel Gummidge.
Andrew MaleBlue Velvet (Film4, 11.15pm)
For newcomers to the work
of David Lynch, his story of
a quiet town’s underworld
is the best starting point. Its
bizarre extremes are housed
in a roughly conventional
plot: the story of an innocent
(Kyle MacLachlan) gaining
experience from a visit to the
darker side of life. As for the
weird stuff itself, it includes
some of the director’s most
vivid inventions. Dennis
Hopper is terrifying as the
film’s psychotic villain, and
Dean Stockwell’s eerie lip-sync
rendition of Roy Orbison’s In
Dreams was one of the high
points in the actor’s long,
industrious career. (1986)Goosebumps
(Sky Cinema Family, 5.30pm)
Rob Letterman’s film is a
good option for children
who want something spooky
but are too young for the
recently released Ghostbusters
— Afterlife. Its cheerful tale
has a group of kids confront
monsters from the joky horror
stories of RL Stine. (2015)
Edward PorterRiver bound: Backshall (Dave, 8pm) In for a bumpy ride (SCF, 5.30pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
A Warning To The Curious
(BBC iPlayer)
Some TV shows spoil within a
week. Others age like fine wine.
In the 49 years since it was first
broadcast, Lawrence Gordon
Clark’s adaptation of MR
James’s cautionary 1925 ghost
story has retained its power
to terrify while its uneasy
Invisible People (YouTube)
Run by a non-profit
organisation that aims to
educate the public about
homelessness through
storytelling, this channel
makes short films profiling
people living without housing
in America. With simple
to-camera interviews, the films
can be profoundly moving,
occasionally upsetting and
sometimes funny and uplifting.
Andrew MaleThe Simpsons (Disney+)
With 32 seasons of Matt
Groening’s epic cartoon-family
saga now available to watch,
why keep revisiting the classics
(seasons 2-10) when you can
seek out more recent decent
episodes. We suggest The War
of Art from season 25, and
season 23’s Holidays of Future
Passed, which was actually
written as a series finale just
in case the cast’s salary
negotiations fell through.Annette (Mubi)
Songs by Ron and Russell
Mael (aka the group Sparks)
help Leos Carax’s pop opera
tell its story with enchanting
flamboyance and power.
In this way, the film makes
something oddly poignant
from a surreal concept. In
its tale of an ill-fated show-
business couple (Adam Driver
and Marion Cotillard), the
pair’s child is represented
by a marionette. (2021) EPatmosphere of dread has only
grown more powerful. The
film’s tubercular light and
muted sound now seem
more unsettling than ever,
while Peter Vaughan’s brilliant
central performance as
Paxton, a cursed middle-aged
archeologist, possesses both a
quiet subtlety and a tragic
Shakespearean weight, this
doomed working-class figure
cursed by the simple desire to
seek his fortuneVictim or accused? It’s verdict time for Celine Buckens (BBC1, 9pm)
Showtrial (BBC1, 9pm)
It’s time for the trial of
chatty Lady Tease and her
lover (or was he?) to reach
its climax, at least for those
diligent viewers who still
consume television the
old-fashioned way. Solicitor
Cleo Roberts (elegantly
played by a silk-clad Tracy
Ifeachor) intends to make
Talitha (Celine Buckens)
more appealing to the
jury by pressing her to
speak about the childhood
abuse she endured from
her mother’s friends.
It’s a strategy even Talitha’s
billionaire father ( James
Frain) deems risky, given
her predilection for eye-
rolling and sarcastic back-
chat. The accused herself
also disapproves, declaring:
“I can’t fake things, Cleo.”
Well, she would say that,
wouldn’t she?
Helen StewartThe Lakes With Simon
Reeve (BBC2, 9pm)
Our host rounds off his
latest series with a typically
diverse episode that includes a
coastal nature ramble, the hot
political issue of a planned new
coalmine near Whitehaven, a
peat-bog restoration project
and an interview with the
sheep farmer and author
James Rebanks, who talks
with passion about the need
to “reinvent” farming and
the countryside. Easily the
strongest section, though,
is a visit to Sellafield, west
Cumbria’s biggest private
employer and “the largest
stockpile of plutonium on the
planet”, where he discovers
that “all that’s happening is
a clean-up”, as it no longer
reprocesses nuclear fuel.
John Dugdale
Expedition (Dave, 8pm)
“Bear! Bear!” shouts Steve
Backshall as he kayaks down
the Kronotsky River in
Russia’s pristine Kamchatka
peninsula, home to the
world’s biggest brown
bear population. Wildlife,
whitewater, wilderness, a
pioneering journey — the
presenter is in his cold, wet,
dangerous element.Billy Connolly — In His Own
Words (C5, 9pm)
From stand-up to memorable
Parkinson appearances, this
show compiles archive footage
of Billy Connolly to tell the
story of the “first rock star
comedian”. The banana boots
are balanced by sadder stories
of his violent childhood. It’s
no wonder he says: “I want
my art to make me happy.”The Vasulka Effect
(BBC4, 10.15pm)
Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdottir’s
fascinating film follows video-
art pioneers Steina and Woody
Vasulka from 1960s Prague
to New York’s downtown art
scene. Andy Warhol and Patti
Smith have cameos but it’s
the Vasulkas’ creative legacy
that is front and centre.
Victoria SegalCRITICS’ CHOICE
Revisit a 20-year-
old comedy classic