48 saturday review Saturday June 11 2022 | the times
Supergran and the
Garden of Justice
BBC1, 7.30pm
The half-hour Our Lives strand
throws up another illuminating
insight into the ways of Britain.
This one follows Dena Murphy,
a wisecracking 93-year-old
trying to help young offenders
back on to the straight and
narrow when they’ve been sent
to work on the allotments in
Manchester. She can’t always
succeed. Filmed across six
Saturdays this year, the film
follows Dena and her new
right-hand man, a 19-year-old
recruit struggling to become
more reliable. Can Dena make a
difference? Either way, she is an
inspiration. You wouldn’t get
this on Netflix. JJ
War Factories
Yesterday, 8pmFor tonight’s fifth episode of
this pleasingly specialist
documentary series, which
looks at how munitions
factories changed the course
of wars, the focus is on the GM
Opel Blitz. During the 1930s
Opel was Germany’s largest
truck producer, and by the time
the Nazis starting invading
countries the Opel Blitz had
become one of the key
machines, enabling the
German army to conduct battle
with speed and efficiency. It
seems incredible now that the
Opel war factories active in
Germany during the Second
World War were American-
owned, a case of business
being put before country. JJSanditon
ITV, 9pmFor decades before the world
expressed surprise at the
presence of sex in a period
drama with Bridgerton,
Andrew Davies was putting the
sauce into Jane Austen,
including 2019’s Sanditon,
widely publicised at the time
for nude bathing in episode
one. Here’s a repeat of the first
series ahead of the second
(which is already available for
Britbox subscribers). It can’t
really be faulted as a charming
whirl through Austen’s world of
love and money, marriage and
class, as the ingénue Charlotte
Heywood (Rose Williams)
navigates suitors and
entrepreneurs in the seaside
town. JJElvis: The Rebirth
of the King
BBC4, 10.15pmMost people think of Elvis
Presley’s Las Vegas period as
one of rhinestones and
cheeseburgers, balladeering
and bloating. Although brief,
sad clips of the singer nearing
his terminus in 1977 back that
up, the argument of this terrific
rock documentary, first shown
in 2017, is that the King
reached his peak in Vegas
during a five-year renaissance
at the start of the 1970s. How
did he do it? There are some
lesser-known stories, such as
Presley’s hairdresser recalling
how they took LSD together
at Graceland. Now there’s
an anecdote. JJCatch
up
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Disney+
Reviews have been
broadly positive for the
latest Star Wars TV series,
Disney’s biggest yet,
which has been
leaked out weekly.
It’s set ten years
after Revenge of
the Sith, and we
catch up with
the old Jedi
master
(Ewan
McGregor,
right) on
Tatooine,
wherehe is a recluse in the desert
keeping a distant eye on a ten-
year-old Luke Skywalker. He is
lost in regret, believing that he
killed his friend Anakin
Skywalker, having failed to
rescue him from the dark
side of the Force. Soon,
however, Obi-Wan finds
himself being dragged
into a rescue mission on
the planet of Daiyu even
as the Empire’s evil
“Inquisitors” search
for him high
and low. Why?
Because Anakin
is alive and
well and
consigned to
a black gas
mask: yes,
Darth Vader
is back too.
James JacksonFriday 17 | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice Brian Cox:
Seven Days on Mars
BBC2, 9pm
Is there life on Mars? It’s a
question that has been asked
a few times, but if there’s
anyone you’d want to ask, that
might be the telegenic
stargazer Professor Brian Cox.
And so to tonight’s Seven Days
on Mars, in which he fulfils a
childhood dream by spending
a week behind the scenes at
Nasa’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) mission
control for Mars 2020 — one
of the most ambitious
missions launched to the red
planet. It affords us rare
access to key mission areas
usually off limits to film crews
and, more wondrously,
glimpses of Jezero Crater,
“one of the most important
and enigmatic sites in the
solar system”. How so?
Because about 3.8 billion
years ago the crater was filled
with a lake. Searching it for
signs of life that once lived
there are Nasa’s Perseverance
rover and Ingenuity
helicopter. Could their
findings allow Cox to answer
the great question: “Are we
alone?” As usual, Cox conveys
calm excitement at this. He
recalls how in 1980 he wrote
to JPL asking for photos from
their missions to the planets,
and how their reply set him
on the path to becoming a
physicist. Now here he is with
Nasa’s scientists, watching on
as Perseverance tries to auto-
navigate around boulders that
could scupper the mission. So
do we get evidence of life
once existing on Mars? No
spoilers. But, put it this way: if
life is found similar to early
life forms on Earth, it might
suggest that a meteorite
once transferred life from
Earth to Mars, or vice versa.
More excitingly, if life is
discovered that’s very
different from life on Earth, it
would imply a different
genesis — with all that implies.
James JacksonLast Night in Soho (18, 2021)
Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.25pm
The premiere of this much talked-about film from Edgar Wright
(Shaun of the Dead), which was initially billed as a Swinging Sixties-
influenced psychological horror in the vein of Repulsion, Peeping
Tom and Vertigo. That will set expectations high, but vintage
London, at least, is lovingly recreated. Our heroine is Eloise
(Thomasin McKenzie), a Cornish fashionista prone to nervous
breakdowns and burdened by hallucinations. She moves to London
(to study fashion) and starts experiencing dreams and visions of
the grim underbelly of Sixties Soho. And anything can and does
happen here, with little logic: Eloise’s Sixties avatar is the wannabe
singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, below with Matt Smith), while
Terence Stamp pops up as an ageing soak. (116min) Kevin MaherFilms of the day
Kick-Ass (15, 2010)
BBC1, 11.40pm
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Dave, aka masked vigilante Kick-Ass,
and Chloë Grace Moretz plays Mindy, aka schoolgirl bad-ass Hit-
Girl, in this amateur-superhero movie. Dave is a comic-book nerd in
a flashy customised wetsuit with little other than higher-than-
average pain tolerance to qualify him as a superhero. Yet he has
the will and, in the indomitable Hit-Girl, a formidable wing woman.
Hit-Girl and her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), are a crime-
fighting duo with skills that are rather more honed than Dave’s
have-a-go technique. All three meet their match when the son of a
local crime boss (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) puts on his cape and
mask to become Red Mist, the evil arch-nemesis of our ad hoc
heroes. It’s boisterous fun, but really violent. (118min) Wendy Ide7.20 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r) 7.30 Patrôl
Pawennau (r) 7.45 Cacamwnci (r) 8.00
Bing (r) 8.10 Cymylaubychain (r) 8.20
Asra (r) 8.35 Jen a Jim Pob Dim (r) 8.50
Nos Da Cyw (r) 8.55 Teulu Ni (r) 9.05 Y
Brodyr Coala (r) 9.15 Ysbyty Cyw Bach (r)
9.30 Sion y Chef (r) 9.45 Amser Maith
Maith yn Ôl (r) 10.00 Peppa (r) 10.05 Guto
Gwningen (r) 10.20 Caru Canu a Stori (r)
10.30 Octonots (r) 10.45 Cei Bach (r)
11.00 Odo (r) 11.10 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido
(r) 11.20 Anifeiliaid Bach y Byd (r) 11.30
Patrôl Pawennau (r) 11.45 Cacamwnci (r)
12.00 News 12.05pm Codi Pac (r) 12.30
Heno (r) 1.00 Am Dro! (r) 2.00 News 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 News 3.05 Yr Ynys (r)
4.00 Awr Fawr: Odo (r) 4.10 Octonots (r)
4.20 Guto Gwningen (r) 4.35 Anifeiliaid
Bach y Byd (r) 4.45 Amser Maith Maith yn
Ôl (r) 5.00 Stwnsh: Y Dyfnfor (r) 5.20
Wariars (r) 5.30 Lolipop (r) 5.55 Ffeil 6.00
Codi Pac (r) 6.30 Garddio a Mwy (r) 6.57
News S4C 7.00 Heno 7.30 News 8.00
Pobol y Cwm. Dylan attempts to
negotiate a deal with Jaclyn that will free
him from prison 8.25 Pobol y
Penwythnos (r) 8.55 News 9.00 Canu
gyda Fy Arwr. Three individuals sing
with Bryn Fôn (r) 10.00 Sgwrs Dan
y Lloer (r) 10.30-11.35 Y Golau (r)
(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC1 Wales As BBC1 except: 7.30pm
Iolo’s Anglesey. Iolo Williams explores the
flora and fauna of Anglesey 8.00-8.30
Supergran and the Garden of Justice: Our
Lives. The story of a 93-year-old helping
young offenders make a fresh start
on a Manchester allotment
● BBC1 N Ireland As BBC1 except: 7.30pm
Barra’s Wild Days Out (r) 8.00-8.30
Supergran and the Garden of Justice: Our
Lives 9.00-9.30 Question of Sport
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except:
11.15am-12.15pm Homes Under the
Hammer. In London, Coventry and Kent
● STV As ITV except: 1.30pm-6.00 Live
STV Racing: Royal Ascot. Coverage of the
fourth day of the festival 10.30-10.45 STV
News 3.50am-5.05 Unwind with STV
● UTV As ITV except: 7.00pm-7.30pm
UTV Life. Stories and studio guests
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 8.00
Loggerheads (r) 8.30 The Scandals That
Shocked Scotland (r) 9.00 Amazing
Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (r) 10.00
Still Game (r) 10.30 Scot Squad (r)
11.00pm-Midnight Texas with the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw: Peppa (r) 6.05 Guto
Gwningen (r) 6.20 Caru Canu a Stori (r)
6.30 Octonots (r) 6.45 Cei Bach (r) 7.00
Odo 7.10 Blero yn Mynd i Ocido (r)Regional programmes