36 saturday review Saturday April 9 2022 | the times
Hard Cell
NetflixCatherine Tate makes a
welcome return to the small
screen in this prison comedy
which is pleasingly... OK. She
plays a number of roles
including various inmates, but
the principal one is HMP
Woldsley’s hapless governor
Laura Willis, a bumptious boss
very much in the David Brent
mould. Adding to the Office
vibe, proceedings are being
filmed by a fly-on-the-wall crew,
the plot of episode one
centring on a production of
West Side Story being directed
by ex-EastEnders star Cheryl
Fergison. A subplot involving
plumbing issues resolves
itself with somewhat
predictable results. BDFreeze the Fear
with Wim Hof
BBC1, 9pmA sort of I’m a Celebrity... on
ice, this new series follows
eight celebs spending six
weeks in the Italian Alps and
embarking on endurance
challenges under the tutelage
of Wim Hof, aka the Iceman.
“There is natural power in the
cold,” Hof says. “When we
embrace it is when the magic
happens.” While this opens
with a viewer warning on the
dangers of replicating what we
see, the power of the cold does
seem to work its magic on a
likeable bunch including the
former footballer Patrice Evra,
the singer Alfie Boe and the
actress Tamzin Outhwaite. BDCompulsion
Channel 5, 9pmHaving survived a train
tragedy, paramedic Jenny
(Leanne Best) struggles with
PTSD and her life spirals out of
control when she succumbs to
a gambling addiction.
Concealing her suffering from
husband Chris, best friend
Alison and daughter Rosie,
Jenny returns to work, but she
is unable to deal with her
crippling anxiety. During a
panic attack, a stranger called
Sasha (Anna Chancellor)
comes to Jenny’s aid and the
pair strike up a bond. As Jenny
reveals more to Sasha, her
good Samaritan may not be all
she pretends to be. This
enjoyably twisty thriller is on
every night until Friday. BD12.15am-3.00 Teleshopping 3.50-5.05
Unwind with STV. Daily relaxation
● UTV As ITV except: 6.25pm-6.30 Party
Election Broadcast 8.00 Rare Breed: A
Farming Year 8.30-9.00 Keepers of the
Lough (r) 11.00 Eamonn Mallie 11.30-11.55
Rare Breed: A Farming Year (r)
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Born to Be Wild
(r) 8.00 Paramedics on Scene (r) 9.00
The Nine 10.00 The Brian Cox Interview
10.30 Crime Files (r) 11.00-Midnight
Inside the Mind of Robert Burns (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 11.00 Anifeiliaid Bach
y Byd (r) 11.10 Shwshaswyn (r) 11.20 Da ’Di
Dona (r) 11.30 Pablo (r) 11.45 Awyr Iach (r)
12.00 News 12.05pm Dau Gi Bach (r)
12.30 Heno (r) 1.00 Trysor Coll y Royal
Charter (r) 1.30 Ffermio (r) 2.00 News
2.05 Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05 Iaith
ar Daith (r) 4.00 Awr Fawr: Sali Mali (r)
4.05 Shwshaswyn (r) 4.15 Sbarc (r) 4.30
Pablo (r) 4.45 Awyr Iach (r) 5.00 Stwnsh:
Gwboi a Twm Twm (r) 5.15 Mwy o Stwnsh
Sadwrn (r) 5.40 Boom! (r) 5.55 Larfa (r)
6.00 Celwydd Noeth (r) 6.30 Darllediad
Etholiadol gan Llafur Cymru (r) 6.35 Bex
6.57 News S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30 News
8.00 Pobol y Cwm 8.25 Rownd a Rownd
8.55 News 9.00 Ffit Cymru 10.00 Y
Gyflwynwraig 11.00-11.35 Y Ditectif (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 6.55pm
Party Election Broadcast 11.20 Rookie
Cops (r) 11.45-12.45am Ellie Simmonds:
A World Without Dwarfism? (r)
● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 1.45pm
Live Match of the Day Wales: Women’s
International Football — Kazakhstan v
Wales (Kick-off 2.00) 4.00 Eggheads (r)
4.30 The Best Dishes Ever 5.00-6.00
Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
10.35pm True North: Speed Kids 11.05
Growing Older: A Believer’s Guide 11.50
Ellie Simmonds: A World Without
Dwarfism? (r) 12.50am Celebrity
Mastermind (r) 1.20-6.00 BBC News
● BBC2 N Ireland As BBC2 except:
11.15pm Lights Up 2 (r) 12.45-1.10am News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
7.00pm-7.30 River City (r) 11.20 The Edit
(r) 11.35 Ellie Simmonds: A World Without
Dwarfism? (r) 12.35am Weather for the
Week Ahead 12.40-6.00 BBC News
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 6.25pm-6.30
Party Election Broadcast 8.00 Wales This
Week 8.30-9.00 Coast & Country (r)
● STV As ITV except: 6.25pm-6.30 Party
Election Broadcast 8.00 Paul O’Grady:
For the Love of Dogs 8.30-9.00 Animal
999 10.55 Scotland Tonight 11.20
Falklands War: The Forgotten Battle (r)On the Basis of Sex (12, 2018)
BBC2, 11.15pm
Felicity Jones stars in this biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and
feminist trailblazer, written by the debut screenwriter Daniel
Stiepleman, who also happens to be the subject’s nephew. That
should have been a red flag right there, and this does end up close
to PR. It charts Ginsburg’s professional flowering as she rises from
Harvard Law School to a Columbia Law School professorship to an
eventual era-defining court battle in 1971 when she defends a
middle-aged man denied tax relief on the money he spent on his
ageing mother’s care. Throughout Jones is required to repeatedly
hold the screen in close-up while bashing out on-the-nose
dialogue. (120min) Kevin MaherFilms of the day
Unfaithful (15, 2002)
Film4, 9pm
Richard Gere and Diane Lane play a New York couple with marital
difficulties in this glossy adultery thriller loosely modelled on a
1969 French film by Claude Chabrol, itself an update of Flaubert’s
Madame Bovary. The difficulties stem from the fact that Connie
(Lane) has found herself unable to resist the charms of a poetry-
reading young Frenchman (Olivier Martinez), who lends her a copy
of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the cad. As the affair
progresses, Connie becomes more reckless and her husband,
Edward (Gere, above, with Lane), begins to suspect. However, his
confrontation with the other man doesn’t go as he had planned.
The film’s main asset is Lane, who turns in a complex and
sympathetic performance. (124min) Wendy IdeDerry Girls
Channel 4, 9.15pmA pleasing double bill of
regional, female-heavy comedy
starting with the third and final
series of Lisa McGee’s hit
comedy about the Northern
Irish gang who are now
approaching adulthood.
Tonight’s action opens on the
eve of GCSE results day, with
passions running high and the
girls’ expectations running low.
After that it’s the debut of Lucy
Beaumont, Anne-Marie
O’Connor and Caroline Moran’s
Hullraisers. The deliciously
raucous caper follows the
adventures of Toni (Leah
Brotherhead), a Hull mother
and struggling actress, and her
friends including the sexually
voracious Rana (Taj Atwal). BDRegional programmes
Catch
up
Trust No One: The Hunt for
the Crypto King
Netflix
Gerry Cotten, right, was a
cryptocurrency genius and
the founder and chief
executive of QuadrigaCX,
once Canada’s largest
crypto exchange. When
he died suddenly in India
it all came crashing down.
With Cotten went the
private keys (64-
character codes) to
access
$190 million held
by QuadrigaCX.
And irate
investorssoon started to question
whether Cotten was even
dead. Had he faked his demise
and run off with all the
money? Some even requested
that Cotten’s body be
exhumed to prove his death.
The latest riveting true-crime
documentary from Netflix
tries to uncover the
truth. Did his wife,
Jennifer
Robertson, who
says she was
with her
husband when he
died, hold the key to
getting their
money back?
Joe ClaygTuesday 12 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Julia
Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
Julia Child, the pioneering TV
chef who brought French
cooking to American living
rooms, is something of a US
national treasure. She has
been played by Meryl Streep
in the 2009 film Julie & Julia
and was even sent up by Dan
Aykroyd on Saturday Night
Live. Getting a British actress
to play her may, to some
Americans, feel like heresy,
akin to getting Sandra Bullock
to star in a Delia Smith biopic;
but Sarah Lancashire, right,
is excellent (when is she
not?), ably capturing the
central character’s mischief,
wit and seductive sing-song
voice that made her such a
compelling TV presence. It all
adds up to a cosy watch, with
plenty of 1960s period detail
dollars thrown at the screen
and lovely shots of food being
chopped, flambéd and scoffed
that may well have you
drooling. Also welcome is the
presence of David Hyde
Pierce, best known as Niles
Crane in Frasier, as Child’s
adoring spouse, Paul. The first
episode has the couple living
a semi-retired existence, with
Child an accomplished but not
yet famous recipe writer who
is suddenly invited to make
her TV pitch. The subsequent
focus on the minutiae of
getting a show together isn’t
as dull as it sounds, although
there are moments where
some supporting characters
seem to behave with more
progressive inclusivity than
they may have possessed.
Child and her husband clearly
still enjoy a healthy sex life —
the f-word is lovingly
deployed in the first few
minutes — but other scenes
have Child facing up to the
menopause. The realisation
that she will be childless and
that her TV career could
become her legacy is
sensitively rendered.
Ben Dowell