The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-06)

6 February 2022 47

THE BEST TV FROM SKY AND BEYOND... THURSDAY 10 FEBRUARY

The Phil Silvers Show

(YouTube)

First broadcast in 1955-59,

this series was created by

two geniuses: wisecracking

vaudeville comic Silvers and

the writer Nat Hiken. The

former plays Ernest G Bilko,

the motor-pool sergeant at

a small Kansas army base,

who spends most of his time

organising get-rich-quick

schemes. Made in that brief

window of American history

(post-Korea/pre-Cuba) when

the army could be playfully

ridiculed, it is a show of

enormous heart and dumb

joy, with a cast of loveable

buffoons and grotesques

(oh, Duane Doberman).

Voted the greatest sitcom

ever in a 2003 poll, all four

seasons are available on

YouTube’s Sgt Bilko channel.

Start with The Court Martial

(S1, E25) and thank us later.

Andrew Male

Murder On The Orient

Express (Film4, 9pm)

On the day before the cinema

release of Kenneth Branagh’s

Death on the Nile, Film4 is

offering the actor-director’s

first Agatha Christie movie —

the film in which he unveiled

his heavily moustachioed

version of Hercule Poirot. The

sleuth’s bushy whiskers are not

the only thing here that might

strike you as overdone: the

whole show is rather gaudy.

Yet this exuberance has its

own full-flavoured appeal,

not least because the train’s

passengers are a first-class

bunch: they include Penelope

Cruz, Olivia Colman, Willem

Dafoe and Judi Dench. (2017)

Bridesmaids (Sky Cinema

Comedy, 12.30pm/8pm)

The mere idea of a female

spin on farcical comedy — still

quite novel in Hollywood at

the time — was good PR for

this tale of a worried singleton

(Kristen Wiig). Paul Feig’s

movie fully earned its success,

though, with its wild and

joyful clowning. (2011)

Edward Porter

One for sorrow ... Manville (Britbox) Wiig and O’Dowd (SCC, 8pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

Oliver’s Travels (YouTube)
Written by Alan Plater, this
picaresque shaggy-dog comic
drama (from 1995) stars the
much-missed Alan Bates as a
sacked lecturer in comparative
religion investigating the
murder of a crossword compiler
with the help of a female
police constable, played with

Parkinson — Orson Welles

Interviews (BBC iPlayer)

The great director of Citizen

Kane was as much invested in

myth as truth and to watch him

in full flow in these incredible

1974 encounters is to see him

in the process of creating his

own legend. The pleasure for

the viewer is that he does it

with such humour and charm

that you stop caring whether

the stories are true or not.

Andrew Male

Atlas Of Cursed Places

(Disney+)

In which self-satisfied author/

explorer Sam Sheridan visits

the most ill-fated global

locations. In Sam’s book, that

is the Bermuda Triangle, Vlad

the Impaler’s castle and the

Louisiana bayou. There is the

spark of a great series looking

at the politics and folklore of

places, but Sam is a little too

pleased with his own voice to

let anything else get through.

Brokeback Mountain

(Netflix)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and

Heath Ledger as shepherds

who fall for each other in

Wyoming in 1963, Ang Lee’s

film makes a pretty good case

for the belief that straight

actors can be credible as gay

characters. The movie is

intended as a high-class

tearjerker, so it would not

have succeeded without fine

performances. (2005) EP

an irreverent charm by Sinead

Cusack. Witty, and wilfully

eccentric, it feels like a late

semi-sequel to Plater’s

Beiderbecke Trilogy, with the

same laconic humour and

mistrust of big corporations

but with added cryptic word-

puzzles and beautiful views of

the English landscape. It’s not

Plater at his best, but this is the

man who wrote Fortunes of

War and A Very British Coup,

so is worth tracking down.

Fear is a man’s best friend: Josh Hartnett is cracking up (Sky Atlantic, 9pm)

The Fear Index

(Sky Atlantic, 9pm)

Recent films have adapted

Robert Harris’s historical

fiction (An Officer and a Spy,

Munich), but this series

reworks his eponymous

thriller set around now:

a dark fable of a modern

Frankenstein whose

monster is his hedge fund’s

algorithm. Oddly, though,

its first part delays showing

Alex’s ( Josh Hartnett) trading

floor in Geneva, beginning

instead with a break-in at his

villa; in the wake of that he

seems to be cracking up, but

has to disguise this from

detectives, doctors and

investors. So far, The Fear

Index is handsome, well-cast

and intriguing, but whether

or not it can integrate its two

strands — psychological study

and parable about capitalism

— has yet to be seen.

John Dugdale

Magpie Murders (Britbox)
Yikes, this is excellent. From
the stylish red-and-black
opening-credit sequence to the
parade of beloved performers,
each more delight-inducing
than the one before, their
names (Lesley Manville,
Conleth Hill, Daniel Mays,
Pippa Haywood and Michael
Maloney among them) are a
guarantee of quality. And the
script? Well, it is written by
Anthony Horowitz (Foyle’s
War), adapting his own
bestselling detective novel
with the precise lightness of
touch required for a mystery
drama across two time
periods. The cast is so deftly
used as to be hilarious,
skewering old conventions
while paying tribute to them.
See feature in Culture.
Helen Stewart

Mary Beard’s Forbidden Art

(BBC2, 9pm)

As Beard concludes her

admirable thesis on the

complex negotiation between

freedom of expression and

causing offence, she tackles

religious/political propaganda,

satire, provocation and

protest. Tricky terrain — a

minefield really — but Beard

is nuanced and sure-footed.

Kate Garraway’s Life Stories

(ITV, 9pm)

Garraway’s latest guest is the

former top-flight footballer

John Barnes. Preview copies

were not available, but he

will presumably be discussing

his illustrious career while

being self-deprecating when

Garraway inevitably airs a clip

of him rapping with New

Order and Keith Allen.

Who Killed Billie-Jo?

(C5, 9pm)

Hastings teenager Billie-Jo

Jenkins was murdered at

home in 1997. Her foster

father served time for her

murder, but was eventually

acquitted after two retrials.

This surprisingly sensitive

documentary suggests we will

never know what happened.

Paul Whitelaw

CRITICS’ CHOICE

The greatest

sitcom ever?