6 February 2022 31THE BEST TV FROM NETFLIX AND BEYOND... SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
(Amazon Prime Video)
Since its debut in 2017, this
utterly gorgeous and escapist
sitcom about a young Jewish
housewife, Midge Maisel
(Rachel Brosnahan), making it
as a 1950s standup, has oozed
Manhattan style. Created by
Amy Sherman-Palladino
(Gilmore Girls, Bunheads) it’s a
show that is Jewish New York
to its bones: satire, sentiment
and camp sensibility rooted
in the Big Tapuach. Problem
is, whenever Midge leaves
NYC to advance the plot, the
show flounders. Season three’s
bombshell ending suggests
the writers know this, but it
leaves us a big question for
season four, which drops on
February 18. In order for the
show to work, surely Midge
has to fail, and never leave
the city? It’s going to be fun
to see how they tackle this.
Andrew MaleSorry We Missed You
(BBC2, 10pm)
One of Ken Loach’s more evenly
balanced mixes of drama and
didacticism, this 2019 film on
the exploitative gig economy
has convincing and likable
central characters. Kris Hitchen
and Debbie Honeywood give
great performances as Ricky
— a driver for a delivery firm
— and his wife, Abbie, a carer
working for an agency. The
story’s descent into misery
is inevitable, but the route
is varied and tells us things
worth knowing. The film is
followed on BBC2 this evening
by the 2016 documentary
Versus — The Life And Films
Of Ken Loach (11.35pm).The Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel (C5, 3.20pm)
John Madden’s comic drama
about a group of British
pensioners moving to Jaipur
includes jokes even older
than those characters, but its
cast of favourites (including
Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and
Bill Nighy) know how to give it
a warm, cheerful spirit. (2011)
Edward PorterArtful: Billy Jenkins (CBBC, 5.30pm) Sorry: Kris Hitchen (BBC2, 10pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
Munich — The Edge Of War
(Netflix)
The 1950s French New Wave
critics railed against “the
well-made film”, the solid,
respectable costume drama
in which no detail is out of
place. What they neglected
to mention is what a delight
such fare can be. Christian
Blake’s 7 (Britbox)
Pitched by its creator, Terry
Nation, as “The Dirty Dozen in
space”, this 1978-81 teatime
BBC sci-fi drama dispensed
with the monsters and quips
of Doctor Who in favour of
dystopian space fascism. Quite
what kids today will make of
its no-frills sets and effects
is debatable but its morally
complex themes and cynical
outlook have aged very well.
Andrew MaleAndy Warhol’s America
(BBC iPlayer)
Francis Whately’s three-parter
is so much more than the
standard biography, examining
the work and the impact of
the pop-art ironist from both
sides and asking: “What has
Warhol done for us?” The
journey is glorious and rich
in unseen archive footage, and
(as Andy himself might say)
when it looks this good, does
it matter what it all means?Dune
(Buy as stream/download)
Casual viewers new to Denis
Villeneuve’s sci-fi movie (the
first film in a planned two-part
adaptation of Frank Herbert’s
novel) should be warned that
the desert world it describes
is a joke-free environment.
Grand, mythic spectacle
is what’s on offer, and the
film’s hefty achievements
on that score have won it
plenty of fans. (2021) EPSchwochow’s adaptation
of Robert Harris’s 2017
novel, about an attempt to
kill Hitler at the 1938 Munich
conference, is all oak-lined
cabinet rooms, outrageous
accents and venerable
performers ( Jeremy Irons is
brilliantly uptight as Neville
Chamberlain), but it also grips
like a vice, has sensational
plot surprises and is the ideal
post-prandial thriller for a
Sunday afternoon.Identity crisis: is Chloe’s a life worth living for Erin Doherty’s Becky? (BBC1, 9pm)Chloe (BBC1, 9pm)
Among a panoply of
impressive performers in The
Crown, Erin Doherty stood
out. As Princess Anne, she
was the royal to watch,
stealing scenes from under
the stuck-up noses of her
elders and betters. Now
the actor takes her rightful
place centre stage as Becky,
a temp who lives with
her occasionally vicious,
dementia-suffering mother
and is emotionally sustained
by the curated lives of a gang
of internet influencers — until
one dies by suicide. There
are shades of both Villanelle
and Eve Harrington (Killing
Eve, All About Eve) in an
impressively devious script
written by Sex Education
director Alice Seabright,
as an obsessed Becky
determines to insert herself
into the vacated space.
Helen StewartDodger (CBBC, 5.30pm)
The young pickpocket in
Oliver Twist gets his own
spin-off series, which
surprisingly kicks off in the
north of England. Jack, the
future Dodger (Billy Jenkins),
is persecuted by a factory
boss; his escape is aided by
Charley (Aabay Ali), who is
similarly bullied on a farm,
and together they flee to
London and meet Christopher
Eccleston’s Fagin. The acting
style is wildly inconsistent,
but that scarcely matters in a
fun mix of crime caper and
comedy with lots of famous
faces in the cast — John
Thomson and David Threlfall
also appear in part one, and
Frances Barber and Tanya
Reynolds are among the stars
who will be arriving later.
John Dugdale
Winter Olympics
(BBC1, 12.15pm)
Day two concludes with
women’s moguls finals and
the men’s luge — impress your
friends by predicting German
success here. Coverage of day
three begins at 12.25am (Scot,
12.35am), when Britain’s Bruce
Mouat and Jen Dodds may
well be in with a decent shout
in the mixed doubles curling.Call The Midwife
(BBC1, 8pm)
Hippy squatters in Poplar?
It had to happen eventually.
They are reassuringly attired
in television’s standard genre
wardrobe of shaggy wigs
and love beads. Meanwhile, a
timely subplot finds Dr Turner
advocating vaccines. This is a
typically solid episode: Call
the Midwife is bulletproof.The Curse (C4, 10pm)
Tom Davis and James de
Frond, of cult Murder in
Successville fame, return with
this early-1980s-set sitcom
about small-time criminal
misfits hatching an ambitious
heist caper: Goodfellas versus
Minder. Davis steals the show
as a bizarre Bernard Bresslaw/
Honey Monster hybrid.
Paul WhitelawCRITICS’ CHOICE
Have you heard
the one about ..?