44 saturday review Saturday April 9 2022 | the times
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 7.10 Shwshaswyn (r)
7.20 Oli Wyn (r) 7.30 Pablo 7.45 Deian a
Loli 8.00 Meripwsan (r) 8.05 Jen a Jim a’r
Cywiadur (r) 8.20 Wibli Sochyn y Mochyn
(r) 8.30 Dwylo’r Enfys (r) 8.45 Y Brodyr
Coala (r) 8.55 Y Crads Bach (r) 9.00 Ben a
Mali a’u Byd Bach O Hud (r) 9.15 Asra (r)
9.30 Patrôl Pawennau (r) 9.45 Sbarc (r)
10.00 Sali Mali (r) 10.05 Jamborî (r) 10.15
Twt (r) 10.30 Cei Bach (r) 10.45 Guto
Gwningen (r) 11.00 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd
(r) 11.10 Shwshaswyn (r) 11.20 Oli Wyn (r)
11.30 Pablo (r) 11.45 Deian a Loli (r) 12.00
News 12.05pm Bwyd Bach Shumana a
Catrin (r) 12.30 Heno (r) 1.00 Sain Ffagan
(r) 1.30 Welsh Whisperer: Ni’n Teithio
Nawr (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn Da
3.00 News 3.05 Am Dro! (r) 4.00 Awr
Fawr: Y Crads Bach (r) 4.05 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 4.20 Anifeiliaid Bach y
Byd (r) 4.30 Pablo (r) 4.45 Deian a Loli (r)
5.00 Stwnsh: Y Dyfnfor (r) 5.20 Dewi a’r
Ditectifs Gwyllt (r) 5.30 Potsh (r) 5.50
Dathlu! (r) 6.00 Celwydd Noeth (r) 6.30
Darllediad Etholiadol gan Plaid Cymru
(r) 6.35 Efaciwîs (r) 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
Pawb a’i Farn 10.00 Ffit Cymru (r)
11.00-11.35 Stiwdio Gefn (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except:
6.55-7.00pm Party Political Broadcast (r)
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except:
6.55pm-7.00 Party Election Broadcast
10.35 The View 11.15 Freeze the Fear
with Wim Hof (r) 12.15am Celebrity
Mastermind (r) 12.50 The Wall Versus
Celebrities (r) 1.35-6.00 BBC News
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 6.55pm
Party Election Broadcast. By the Scottish
Labour Party 7.00-7.30 River City (r)
● ITV Wales As ITV except: 6.25-6.30pm
Party Election Broadcast
● STV As ITV except: 6.25pm-6.30 Party
Election Broadcast 8.30-9.00 Scotland
Tonight 10.30 STV News 10.45 Fighting
Fat: A Cure for Obesity?: Tonight 11.10
DNA Journey (r) 12.20-3.00am
Teleshopping 3.50-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 6.20pm-6.30 Party
Election Broadcast. By the People Before
Profit Party 10.45 UTV Life 11.10 Rare
Breed: A Farming Year (r) 11.40-11.55
Simply Gardening. Double bill (r)
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm Iain Robertson
Rambles (r) 7.30 Scotland’s Best Dog (r)
8.00 Beechgrove 8.30 Landward. A
programme about Galloway 9.00 The
Nine 10.00 Raiders of the Lost Archive
10.30 Legit (r) 11.00 Des Doesn’t Do:
Dogs (r) 11.30-Midnight Mirror Mirror (r)Gerry Anderson:
A Life Uncharted
Britbox
Jamie Anderson, son of Gerry,
the man who took puppetry to
new levels of realism with TV
series such as Thunderbirds,
gets behind the wheel of his
very own “Fab 1” to find out
more about his father. The
deeply personal film draws on
more than 30 hours of unheard
interviews with Anderson Sr,
using the “deep fake”
technique to allow him to
appear on screen. Much time is
spent on Gerry’s miserable,
impoverished childhood, but
it fuelled his drive to succeed.
Fans will delight in the untold
stories concerning his exalted
body of work. JC
The Kardashians
Star/Disney+A year has passed since the
extended Kardashian family —
sisters Kim, Kourtney and
Khloé Kardashian and their
half-sisters, Kendall and Kylie
Jenner, plus parents Kris and
Caitlyn Jenner and brother
Rob — were last on our screens
(their reality show Keeping Up
with the Kardashians finished
in March 2021). But a few
months without cameras must
seem like an eternity for the
family who epitomise the
“famous for being famous” tag,
so they are back for more of
the same. “It’s dumb as dirt and
more boring than rocks,” said
one anonymous TV executive.
Geologists may well take
umbrage at that insult. JCArt That Made Us
BBC2, 9pmThe landmark series charting
the history of British creativity
continues. It’s 1348, and the
bubonic plague, aka “the
Black Death”, is sweeping
through the British Isles.
Out of the chaos came
disruptive art (“Throughout
history, insecurity has been
a major creative force,” says
the historian Jonathan
Sumption), as those who
survived tried to make sense
of it all through satire,
literature, building cathedrals
and stained glass. Works
explored include Chaucer’s
The Canterbury Tales and
breakthrough works by
women such as the pilgrim
Margery Kempe. JCTaskmaster
Channel 4, 9pmYet another cracking line-up
of funny people assemble for
the 13th series of the comedy
world’s equivalent of National
Service. Ardal O’Hanlon,
Bridget Christie, Judi Love,
Chris Ramsey and Sophie
Duker are the latest quintet to
tackle “Little” Alex Horne’s
joyously inventive/infantile
challenges, competing to raise
aloft a golden replica of the
Taskmaster Greg Davies’s giant
noggin. The tasks include a
duck hunt, making a portrait of
the Taskmaster using lipstick
on their lips (they basically
have to snog the canvas) and
devising a duel to act out with
Horne. The last task really gets
the creative juices flowing. JCThe Remains of the Day (U, 1993)
BBC4, 8pm
It sounds like a Downton Abbey subplot: a butler to a stately
home in prewar England finds his sense of duty torn when he
falls in love. However, this Merchant Ivory classic, based on the
Booker prizewinning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (now also a Nobel
prizewinner) and adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Booker, Oscar
and Bafta winner), is so much more than that. Anthony Hopkins
is magnificent as Stevens, with his blinkered code of honour, and
Emma Thompson his match as the housekeeper. Behind them
the threat of war and the shadow of Nazism lurk in Darlington
Hall’s nooks and crannies. It is followed at 10.10pm by a repeat of
Remembering and Forgetting, the 2021 edition of Imagine in
which Alan Yentob met Ishiguro. (134min) Chris BennionFilms of the day
All Is True (12, 2018)
BBC2, 11.15pm
The retirement years of William Shakespeare are the subject of this
powerful drama from the writer Ben Elton and Kenneth Branagh,
who stars and directs. Mostly set in and around the playwright’s
home in Stratford-upon-Avon, and featuring heavyweight
supporting players (Judi Dench as Anne Hathaway, above with
Branagh, and Ian McKellen as Shakespeare’s patron and alleged
homoerotic lust object, Henry Wriothesley), it dodges the pitfalls
of period camp to produce a fiercely intelligent film about family,
grief and the tyranny of genius. This is not the film version of
Upstart Crow, Elton’s Shakespeare sitcom. The movie is not funny.
Clever and amusing, yes, but Elton’s script is too loaded with
melancholy to bother with the tickling stick. (101min) Kevin MaherRegional programmes
Catch
up
Hacks
Amazon
Hacks arrives over
here laden with
awards from over
there, including the
Golden Globe for best
television series —
musical or comedy.
It is a spiky US
comedy drama
starring an
imperious
Jean Smart,
right, as
Deborah
Vance, an
ageing,
brassycomedy star in Las Vegas
(think Joan Rivers) whose act
is sliding towards irrelevance.
As a showbiz trouper, she’ll
take any booking she can to
hold on to success. Enter Ava
(Hannah Einbinder), a young
comedy writer hired to
modernise Deborah’s
material. Gradually
their fiery relationship
becomes a deep,
respectful one. Don’t
expect easy jokes —
this is a sharply
written reflection
on age and a
woman’s place
in the comedy
trade. There
is a second
series on
the way.
James
JacksonThursday 14 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Britbox
Hugh Laurie’s three-part
adaptation of Agatha
Christie’s 1934 detective novel
is a treat, and a good reason
to get yourself a Britbox
subscription (or a trial at the
very least). Set in the Welsh
seaside town of Marchbolt, it
all begins when a dying man
found at the bottom of a sheer
cliff face, limbs askew, utters
the immortal words: “Why
didn’t they ask Evans?” The
body is found by Bobby Jones
(Will Poulter), a former naval
officer who, while retrieving
a hanky from the dead man’s
pocket, finds a photograph
of a young woman. Bobby
rushes off to play the organ
at his vicar dad’s church,
leaving the body with Roger
Bassington-ffrench (Daniel
Ings), a stranger who just
happened to be passing.
Bobby is persuaded by his
childhood friend, the budding
socialite Lady Frances
“Frankie” Derwent (Lucy
Boynton, right with Poulter),
that since the dead man
uttered his enigmatic last
words to him Bobby is
duty-bound to find out what
happened to him. So the pair
turn amateur sleuths to
decipher then answer his final
question. The dead man is
Alex Pritchard, and his sister,
Amelia Cayman, is at the
inquest and is identified as the
woman in the photograph.
But something doesn’t add up,
and Bassington-ffrench is the
duo’s first suspect. And who
is the sinister bowler-hatted
man that Bobby keeps seeing
hanging around Marchbolt?
It’s exceptionally well made,
and with Laurie at the helm
(he also has a small role) the
script has a sprightly spring
in its step. There are a few
A-listers along for the ride,
with Jim Broadbent and
Emma Thompson having a
ball as Frankie’s parents, Lord
and Lady Marcham. Joe Clay