The Sunday Times - UK (2022-06-05)

5 June 2022 39

THE BEST TV FROM IPLAYER AND BEYOND... TUESDAY 7 JUNE

Punk On TV

With Danny Boyle and Frank

Cottrell Boyce’s Sex Pistols

biopic, Pistol, currently

under scrutiny over on

Disney+, viewers might be

curious as to what punk

rock really looked like 46

(gulp!) years ago. Don Letts’s

protean The Punk Rock

Movie and Wolfgang Buld’s

1977 documentary Punk In

London (both YouTube)

capture that ugly urgency,

but also how cheap, grotty

and uncertain everything

looked. Lech Kowalski’s

1980 doc, D.O.A. — A Rite

Of Passage (YouTube) is an

American outsider’s view

of British punk in its death

throes, with footage of the

Pistols on their 1978 tour

of America. It is thrilling,

miserable, depressing and

terrifying, often all at the

same time. You might decide

you prefer Danny Boyle’s

shinier version after all.

Andrew Male

Team America —

World Police

(Sky Cinema Hits, 1.45pm)

The title of this comedy from

Matt Stone and Trey Parker,

the creators of South Park,

hints at the film’s main line

of attack. The duo come out

with all guns blazing in their

assault on gung-ho American

militarism and the action

movies that endorse it.

For good measure, though,

they also rip into pompous

Hollywood liberals. Nothing is

safe from the film’s crude and

immensely funny onslaught,

which supports its jokes

with a brilliant tactic: all the

characters are Thunderbirds-

style marionettes. (2004)

Black Rain (Film4, 9pm)

Playing a shady American cop

in Japan, Michael Douglas

adds juice to this thriller with

one of his scornful antihero

performances. Meanwhile, the

film’s director, Ridley Scott,

supplies visual flashiness,

making 1980s Osaka look

much like Blade Runner’s

imagined Los Angeles. (1989)

Edward Porter

Money for old rope (C4, 10pm) Capshaw and Douglas (Film4, 9pm)

FILM CHOICE

ON DEMAND

Borgen (Netflix)
It’s now ten years since Sidse
Babett Knudsen’s formidable
Birgitte Nyborg graced our
screens. One of the more
unlikely successes from our
Scandi-drama love affair,
Borgen worked because it
offered complex and engaging
human drama plus politicians

Smashie & Nicey —

End Of An Era (YouTube)

This spoof documentary from

1994 might be the finest and

funniest piece of sustained

film-making that Harry Enfield

and Paul Whitehouse have

worked on. An acutely

observed profile of has-been

DJs as they say farewell to the

Beeb, it is also a clever and

relevant skewering of hubris,

ignorance and power.

Andrew Male

We Feed People (Disney+)

Jose Andres was formerly a TV

chef in love with the sound of

his own voice. Now, he helms

World Central Kitchen, an

aid organisation providing

food and relief after natural

disasters. Ron Howard’s

profile is structurally and

narratively unremarkable

but, because Andres is such

a captivating subject, the

footage from disaster zones is

utterly, terrifyingly thrilling.

Chip ’n Dale — Rescue

Rangers (Disney+)

Disney does its own version

of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

with this spoofy revival of

the cartoon chipmunks who

starred in a television series

in the late 1980s. Adults might

appreciate its mockery of

recent trends in animated

movies; children don’t have

to get those jokes to be able to

enjoy the film’s merriment.

Dir: Akiva Schaffer (2022) EP

you actually cared about. Back

with a Netflix budget, Nyborg

is now foreign minister in a

coalition government run by

an insufferably self-centred

female PM. Unfortunately,

the show also falls back on

a narrative formula (the

discovery of oil, ruthless

big business) overfamiliar

to any Scandi-drama fans.

Thankfully, the cast, especially

Knudsen, are magnificent and

rise above such trifles.

The word on the street: Jon Bernthal plays a corrupt Baltimore cop (Sky Atlantic, 9pm)

We Own This City

(Sky Atlantic, 9pm)

Fourteen years after The Wire

ended, screenwriter David

Simon is back in Baltimore

and, if anything, its police

department seems even more

dysfunctional. In part one’s

strand, set in 2017, BPD task

force leader Wayne Jenkins

( Jon Bernthal) is able to

enrich himself corruptly

with impunity. Similarly, in

flashbacks to 2015, everyone

tells government attorney

Nicole Steele (Wunmi Mosaku)

that Daniel Hersl ( Josh

Charles) is the department’s

worst racist but is unsackable.

Bernthal is riveting, and

Simon is still peerless at

portraying street policing and

ghetto life. Be aware, though,

he doesn’t do exposition

scenes, so googling may

sometimes be needed to

work out what’s going on.

John Dugdale

Lucy Worsley Investigates:

Princes In The Tower

(BBC2, 9pm)

The doughty bluestocking tries

to unlock the secrets of the

1483 murder of two young

princes, observing the rituals

of television historians: up

library ladders, dragging books

from shelves and striding

through castle gates, her nose

wrinkling in delight at the

revelation of even the slimmest

500-year-old insight. Armed

with her pen and notebook,

Worsley’s own elegant

illustrations help illuminate

the human relationships of a

fraught period, but she is first

and foremost a formidable

historian, suitably cynical

when faced with relics

religious and historical, and a

splendid asset to the BBC.

Helen Stewart

Hungry For It (BBC3, 8pm)

Reswizzling the competitive

cooking format for the Insta

generation, Stacey Dooley

oversees ten aspiring rookie

cooks all wanting to “smash

it”. They aim to impress the

rapper Big Zuu and chef Kayla

Greer in their Peckham-based

studio in order to win work

experience in some of the

world’s greatest kitchens.

Heritage Rescue

(Quest, 9pm)

A sort-of DIY SOS for buildings

that need their roofs saving,

in which the enthusiastic Nick

Knowles heads to Oxburgh Hall

in Norfolk, which was first

built in 1482 for Sir Edmund

Bedingfeld. After a window

collapsed in 2016, revealing

years of neglect, it requires

a £6 million renovation.

The Bridge — Race To

A Fortune (C4, 10pm)

AJ Odudu presents as two teams

of eight contestants travel to

Ha Long Bay in Vietnam

hoping to win £200,000. The

catch? They have to build a

bridge with their bare hands

in 12 days to reach the prize,

which seems unlikely as their

nerves fray fairly quickly.

Ian Wade

CRITICS’ CHOICE

No future?