The Times - UK (2022-05-28)

the times | Saturday May 28 2022 saturday review 23

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Podcast choice

Origin Story

This fascinating new podcast

hosted by the journalists Ian

Dunt and Dorian Lynskey

explores the history of modern

political labels, from “woke” to

“centrism”. The first episode

covers the story of the term

McCarthyite — where it started

and why it’s so popular now.

James Marriott

Critic’s choice

Borgen: Power

and Glory

Thursday, Netflix

During the Scandi TV boom
in Britain in the early 2010s,
Borgen stood out for being
nothing to do with crime,
with no oddball detective or
austerely scenic landscapes.
Instead it was a close-up view
of politics and office politics
as the Danish centrist Birgitte
Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen)
ended up prime minister.
It was like a more European,
less sociopathic House of
Cards. Now, nine years since
it ended, with Nyborg passing
up the chance of a second
premiership, it is back — and
tak for that! We could do with
an honest politician back on
our screens.
This time you will need
Netflix, however, as we rejoin
our idealistic heroine, now
foreign minister in the
government of a younger
female prime minister and
struggling to toe the party line
when oil in Greenland sparks a
diplomatic crisis. The slippery
link between politics and
journalism is neatly depicted,
although, as ever, the real feat
is in making intricate Danish
politics so smoothly appealing.
James Jackson

Radio choice

A Laureate

for Elizabeth

Tuesday, Radio 4, 4pm

From John Masefield to Simon

Armitage, the roll-call of poet

laureates who have served the

present Queen has reflected

the changing character of

the nation as well as its taste

for verse.

The founder of National

Poetry Day, William Sieghart,

considers the value and

meaning of the post, which in

1984 revived the tradition of

offering each laureate a butt

(about 700 bottles) of sherry,

a custom that started with Ben

Jonson in 1630.

There’s the air of reverential

hush you get with anything

royal, but Sieghart is also a

nimble and perceptive critic,

and his programme isn’t afraid

to criticise the contributions of

some, such as Masefield, who

was peculiarly more obsessed

with writing about the

second Elizabethan age than

composing heartfelt poetry that

could stand on its own merits.

John Betjeman also got stick

for his insipid Jubilee Hymn in

1977 (denounced as “pathetic”

by the MP Nicholas Fairbairn)

and it’s amusing to hear Ted

Hughes balking, in his

beautiful Yorkshire accent, at

the very idea of writing “to

order”. Still, writing to order

is something that recent

laureates such as Carol Ann

Duffy with The Crown and

Armitage in The Song Thrush

and the Mountain Ash

managed to avoid. They are

both magnificent pieces.

Ben Dowell

The best films

Sidse Babett

Knudsen returns

in Borgen: Power

and Glory

Midsomer Murders:

25 Years of Mayhem

Sun, ITV, 7pm

Death by chocolate, by

cheese, by a roomful of

snakes: Midsomer has seen

it all, as a quarter-century

documentary explores

before the new series

starts with... death

by scarecrows.

Elizabeth: The

Unseen Queen

Sun, BBC1, 7.45pm

Never-before-broadcast

home-movie footage

distinguishes a documentary

about the Queen in the years

before she wore the crown.

Pistol

Tue, Disney+

Never mind the Jubilee, here

are the Sex Pistols — or, rather,

the actors playing them in

Danny Boyle’s propulsive

adaptation of their

guitarist’s memoir about

the band’s formation,

that sweary TV

appearance and

punk notoriety.

Once Upon a Time

in Londongrad

Tue, Sky Documentaries/

Now, 9pm

A six-part documentary diving

into a frighteningly real web

taking in London-based

oligarchs and 14 people dead

by way of the fates of

Litvinenko and Berezovsky.

The Midwich Cuckoos

Thu, Sky Max/Now, 9pm

Melancholic adaptation of the

John Wyndham fable. A sleepy

commuter-belt village wakes

from a bizarre event to find

something creepy — parasitic,

you might say — is occurring.

Keeley Hawes, left, stars.

The Crown Jewels

Fri, BBC1, 7.30pm

Clive Myrie takes a tour

through the Crown Jewels’

history. This includes some

truly immense diamonds. JJ

The Seven-Ups (12)

Today, Talking Pictures TV,

9.05pm

Less celebrated than The

French Connection but similar

is this 1973 thriller, also with

Roy Scheider as an alarmingly

brutal cop and another

lengthy car chase.

The Company You Keep (15)

Today, BBC1, 11.20pm

Robert Redford’s starry

thriller involves his

former antiwar

radical being

exposed by

Shia LaBeouf’s

reporter and forced to go on

the run.

Cast Away (12)

Sun, Channel 5, 3.55pm

Tom Hanks, below, trapped on

a desert island. Beware the

sore-tooth scene.

Yesterday (12)

Thu, BBC2, 10pm

Imagine no

Beatles — or

waking to find

you’re the only

one who knows

their songs. So

Himesh Patel finds

stardom in Danny Boyle’s

amusing comedy. JJ

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