28 November 2021 59
THE BEST TV FROM BRITBOX AND BEYOND... WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER
Following the success of
its digital opera season,
necessitated by the Covid
pandemic, Glyndebourne
today launches a streaming
service for its shows, with a
monthly deep-dive into one
opera and interviews and
insights into the production.
Glyndebourne Encore
(Glyndebourne.com) can
be accessed on the web,
on mobiles and tablets and
on Roku and Amazon Fire
TV. Annual subscriptions
are £79.99 (£59.99 for
Glyndebourne Members),
and there will also be some
free streaming of operas to
make its work accessible to
a wider audience. Operas
available now include
Nicholas Hytner’s Cosi fan
tutte, Michael Grandage’s
Le Nozze di Figaro, and The
Rake’s Progress, designed
by David Hockney.
Clair WoodwardNowhere Special
(Sky Cinema Premiere,
10.30am/8pm)
A tasteful tearjerker set in
Northern Ireland, Uberto
Pasolini’s drama stars James
Norton as a single parent who
is terminally ill and wants to
find an adoptive family for his
only child, a doe-eyed three-
year-old (Daniel Lamont).
The dying man gently tries to
prepare his boy for what lies
ahead and the two of them
meet potential adopters and
hear a range of thoughts on
the nature of parenthood.
This narrative set-up may be a
contrivance, but the film rings
true in its understanding of
emotions. (2020)Lifeboat (TPTV, 3.05pm)
This Hitchcock drama takes
place in a lifeboat where
a Nazi is outnumbered by
Americans (including Tallulah
Bankhead and John Hodiak).
The German’s toughness —
controversial when the film
appeared — helps the director
tell a good story despite the
limited setting. (1944) B/W
Edward PorterGoshawk (Smithsonian, 8pm) Hodiak, Bankhead (TPTV, 3.05pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
The Tower (ITV Hub)
Anyone who witnessed her
visceral performance as
the child kidnapper Karen
Matthews in the 2017 drama
The Moorside will know that
Gemma Whelan is an actor of
incredible power and range.
Why, you could stick her in a
sub-par crime drama and she
Close To Me (All 4)
Amnesia is a scriptwriter’s gift:
it allows the victim to be the
detective of their own past. In
this terrifically twisty mystery
drama, Connie Nielsen plays Jo,
piecing her life back together
after a fall and wondering if
her own husband (Christopher
Eccleston) is to blame. This is
much smarter than having it
fizz with anxiety and dread
beneath its genre trappings.
Andrew MaleThis Girl’s Changed
(BBC iPlayer)
Seven years ago, Huddersfield
teenager Persephone Rizvi
rejected her party lifestyle,
cut off all ties and embraced
Islam. In this illuminating short
film she returns to her home
town to meet with old friends,
allowing for some surprisingly
honest insights about the
relationship between mental
health, faith and the body’s
need for peace, order and calm.Arsène Wenger — Invincible
(Buy as stream/download)
Arsenal fans will, of course,
be the main audience for this
documentary on the club’s
most successful manager. Still,
while its hero may not be a
zingy raconteur, the film is a
wide-ranging football story.
Wenger speaks candidly,
and the other talking heads
include Sir Alex Ferguson.
Co-dirs: Christian Jeanpierre,
Gabriel Clarke (2021) EPwould elevate it to the level
of art — which is exactly what
she does in this three-part
adaptation of Kate London’s
2015 novel Post Mortem.
Playing outcast copper DS
Sarah Collins, alongside the
equally impressive Jimmy
Akingbola as sidekick DC
Steve Bradshaw, she remains
the point of steely focus in a
show that often erred on the
didactic, the overly serious
and the convoluted.Learning together: Christine and Paddy McGuinness (BBC1, 9pm)
Paddy And Christine
McGuinness — Our Family
And Autism (BBC1, 9pm)
The TV presenter and his
wife have three children
with autism, eight-year-old
twins Leo and Penelope and
five-year-old Felicity. Here,
they share their experiences
and highlight the wider
issues — the different way
girls with autism present,
for example. Other parents
might recognise some of the
issues they discuss: the way
a hand-dryer can ruin a day
out, for example, or growing
concerns over what the
future might look like. The
film subtly shifts in direction
with the appearance of Prof
Simon Baron Cohen, who
encourages the couple to
fill out a questionnaire;
what Christine discovers
changes her understanding
of who she is.
Victoria SegalPositive
(Sky Documentaries, 9pm)
This stirring documentary
series premieres on World
Aids Day and pays testament
to the power of collective
action, to those who died
from a virus that politicians
felt free to dismiss as a “gay
cancer”, and to those who
lived on in defiance. Jonathan
Blake (memorably played with
righteous flamboyance by
Dominic West in the film
Pride) speaks of his 1982 HIV
diagnosis and the grim lack of
medical help. “That’s it,” he
thought at the time. “I’m 33
years old and my life’s over
before it’s even begun.” Not
so, and this moving film
honours those who made the
very best of their lives before
they were cut short.
Helen Stewart
Hanna
(Amazon Prime Video)
Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles)
graduates from the CIA’s
finishing school for lethal
young ladies, now allied
with her former foe, Marissa
(Mireille Enos). Her first
mission as an alumna is killing
a student firebrand in Paris.
Ray Liotta joins the cast in this
third and final season.Old House, New Home
(C4, 8pm)
George Clarke shuttles between
two properties: a 16th-century
cottage near Brighton with a
mezzanine needing a makeover,
and a Victorian terraced
house in south London,
shared by a three-generation
family, where he redesigns the
kitchen and the rooms used
by the grandmother.New Forest — The
Crown’s Hunting Ground
(Smithsonian, 8pm)
The photography is exquisite
in this portrait of a year in the
national park. It is billed as
“with Hugh Bonneville”, but he
only pops up at the start and
is upstaged by animal stars
including a foal, a goshawk
chick, foxes and deer.
John DugdaleCRITICS’ CHOICE
Bravo, encore
Glyndebourne