28 November 2021 55
THE BEST TV FROM IPLAYER AND BEYOND... TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER
We celebrate BBC Scotland
every week in previews, but
this time it’s official. To mark
the patron saint’s day today,
there is a week of Albatastic
TV on BBC4, including Mark
Lawson Talks To Richard
Wilson (today, 9.30pm); Neil
Oliver meeting Scots In
China (today, 10.30pm) and
examining the Rise Of The
Clans (Wednesday, 10pm);
before Suzanne Packer tells
the story of the Victorian
philanthropist John Patrick
Crichton-Stuart in Bute
— The Scot Who Spent A
Welsh Fortune (Wednesday,
11pm). Finally, there is a
musical celebration with St
Andrew’s Day At The BBC
(Friday, 9pm), with the likes
of Primal Scream and Lulu,
before The Proclaimers —
This Is The Story (10pm) and
Travis With The BBC SSO
At The Barrowland (11pm).
Andrew MaleFantastic Mr Fox
(Sky Cinema Animation,
7.25am/3.30pm
Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl
movie offers children a
perfect introduction to the
film-maker’s droll, civilised
whimsy. Its characters — a fox
family and other animals — are
stop-motion models, but they
are animated with the same
sensibility as Anderson’s live-
action films. In their anxieties
and their elegant dress sense,
the Foxes could almost be
vulpine versions of the clan
in The Royal Tenenbaums.
George Clooney voices Mr
Fox, and the cast also includes
Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and
Michael Gambon. (2009)Jason Bourne (Film4, 9pm)
As it seems to admit with its
no-frills title, Matt Damon’s
fourth outing in his signature
role is a rather generic
adventure for the super-skilled
assassin. Still, the franchise’s
basic appeal is intact. With
Paul Greengrass again
directing, the action scenes
are spectacular. (2016)
Edward PorterFriends reunited? (BBC1, 11.35pm) Mr Fantastic (SCA, 3.30pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
Dopesick (Disney+)
Based on Beth Macy’s
bestseller about the rise
of America’s opioid crisis —
and the central role played
by the family business Purdue
Pharma and its “non-addictive”
painkiller OxyContin — Danny
Strong’s eight-part mini-series
is an ambitious labyrinthine
Fever Pitch (BBC iPlayer)
For fans of subtext, there are
two documentaries here. One
is a rather creepily anodyne
analysis of football’s greed-
based 1990s commercial
revolution, and the other is a
grisly depiction of everything
that’s wrong with the modern
game. The star of the show is
Eric Cantona, who destabilises
the cosy narrative in a number
of strange and arcane ways.
Andrew MaleCrime (Britbox)
Adapted by Irvine Welsh from
his 2008 novel about foul-
mouthed, self-righteous cop
DI Ray Lennox, this is crime
drama on the edge of collapse,
with Dougray Scott as Lennox,
at war with criminals, perverts
and his own demons. Erratic,
tonally weird, with occasional
flashes of brilliance, it benefits
from Joanna Vanderham,
who plays Lennox’s moral
anchor, DS Drummond.Little Women (Netflix)
Netflix gains a much-loved
modern classic with the
arrival of Greta Gerwig’s film
of the Louisa May Alcott
novel. As well as featuring
bright stars (including Saoirse
Ronan as Jo and Florence
Pugh as Amy), it gives a deft
new shape to the book’s tale
of 19th-century sisters. The
script quickens the story and
binds it more tightly to Jo’s
literary ambitions. (2019) EPundertaking structured as
an epic American tragedy,
with many subplots and
extraneous characters. It is
ultimately anchored by a
brace of subtle, nuanced
performances: Peter Sarsgaard
as the attorney who led
the US Justice Department
investigation into Purdue
Pharma; and Michael Keaton
as a doctor who is sweet-talked
into supplying the new
miracle drug to his patients.In search of adventure: Coren and Galetti go wild in Nesjavellir (BBC2, 8pm)
Amazing Hotels —
Life Beyond The Lobby
(BBC2, 8pm)
The Ion Adventure Hotel, in
a remote part of Iceland, is
where Giles Coren and Monica
Galetti begin their fourth
series about the high end of
the hospitality industry, and
it’s a highly unusual episode.
As the hotel sees itself as
primarily a base for exciting
forays, the pair, for once,
spend hardly any time
helping out behind the
scenes. Instead, they visit
a nearby “green energy”
power plant, go snorkelling to
explore rock chasms, clamber
up an active volcano and
view a receding glacier from
a giant truck — the last a
somewhat mixed experience
since, as Coren points out,
it involves burning fossil
fuels in order to see their
impact on the ice.
John DugdaleAttack On Pearl Harbor
(Tuesday-Thursday, C5, 9pm)
This series has been made to
mark the 80th anniversary of
Japan’s military strike on the
US naval base, which killed
2,403 Americans and led
President Roosevelt to declare
war on Japan the next day. It
is a blow-by-blow account,
one that reveals that a
Japanese spy on the island
reported on the lack of
defensive torpedo nets or
barrage balloons, as well as
the fact that Washington sent
a “war warning” to the chief
of the Pacific fleet a week
beforehand. His lack of
response meant that when
Japanese planes were seen
on radar, a lieutenant told
worried operators: “Don’t
worry about it.”
Helen Stewart
New Life In The Country
(C4, 8pm)
Sarah Beeny, her husband,
Graham Swift, and their four
sons have finished the outside
of their stately-home-style
country house; it’s now time
to share the interior design,
room by room. Stealing the
scene from the grand hallway,
however, is their dog, Maple,
and her imminent puppies.Who Do You Think You Are?
(BBC1, 9pm)
The Norfolk-born Ed Balls
consolidates his blooming
TV profile by taking his turn
to uncover his family’s past.
There are close brushes with
power, thanks to his three-
times-great-grandfather, a
ship’s surgeon, but there is
also unimaginable poverty
in a Kentish workhouse.Britney (BBC1, 11.35pm)
Charly Clive (from Channel 4’s
Pure) and her friend, Ellen
Robertson, are the writers and
stars of this sweet, original
comedy, based on real-life.
It’s about friendship and
ambition, but most of all it is
about the ways people deal
with challenges. In this case,
1990s pop plays a big role.
Victoria SegalCRITICS’ CHOICE
Saint Andrew’s
Day on BBC4