The Project’s promising start on TV
Let’s start with the quote of the week. The Project (TV3, Mondayfriday) was discussing ecofriendly burials – the kind where you’re carried out in a biodegradable pod, dumped in a hole in the forest and then have a tree planted over you.
About the point when the team was discussing how you attached handles to a pod that three people could carry either side without falling over each other, guest Lizzie Marvelly sprang to life.
‘‘Is there a downside?’’ she asked. ‘‘Yes,’’ I yelled at my TV screen. ‘‘You have to die first.’’
Lizzie, who has another 50 years to live, was probably imagining a podcast of the funeral ceremony, but how to be buried is a topic included in most older people’s bucket lists.
I want to be cremated and turned into an egg timer so I can keep on working.
The Project has become a most enjoyable way of receiving your news. It’s entertaining and amusing. It’s not full of conflict and grievance and, each night, welcomes guest artists on to the programme. And that’s its weakness. It’s insufficient to be a familiar face. You have to be able to express the grey matter from your upper storey.
Millions of dollars are spent in academic research, but I’d like to know how prolonged violence and mayhem on the 6pm news contributes to the mood of the nation every night.
The feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (Soho, Tuesdays) is classic. Two fading stars from celluloid city know they need each other to make the movie What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
Joan Crawford was promoting Pepsi when offered the role of Elvis’ grandmother. The only thing worse would be to play Colonel Tom Parker. Hedda Hopper, the famous Hollywood latrine, confronted Joan when she staggered out of the Golden Globes after spitting venom at Marilyn Monroe.
Joan knew she had to refloat her career and it required a big ship. Bette Davis was that cruise liner. So she swallowed her pride and had director Bob Aldrich approach Davis, her bitter enemy.
It was like Trump and Clinton on the campaign trail. But it salvaged her reputation and gave Hopper the expose for her gossip column.
Feud: Bette And Joan sounds like trivia and it is. But it’s great trivia. It’s wonderfully written and Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon delight in playing Crawford and Davis even more than we enjoy watching them. And it’s populated by fake cameos from Olivia de Havilland, Joan Blondell and Jack Warner. ‘‘This is a story of Biblical proportion,’’ confesses de Havilland and she’s right as long as she’s referring to the book of Revelation.
Now viewers, give Broadchurch (TV One, Sunday) another chance. Many of you were turned off by a disappointing second series when DI Alec Hardy (David Tennant) was so morose and bitter he probably swallowed an export order of Havelock North’s water.
He’s still capable of angry outbursts, but is working well with DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) to solve a brutal sexual attack. The opening episode gripped you from the time Trish Winterman calls the police to report she was beaten and raped at a party the previous weekend.
The episode is procedural but compelling as police explore the scene of the crime and start asking questions. Among the talent on display is Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley from Coro Street) as Trish. She gives an epic performance. I just hope Roy Cropper doesn’t appear.
Te Radar is also worth another look. In the past he’s blundered about in the Pacific making crockumentaries, but now he’s returned.
In Te Radar’s Chequered Past (TV One, Saturday), he recreates a moment in time from our history. Last week, he featured the Burgess gang who, in the 1860s, ran amok in Westland and Nelson, robbing and killing prospectors.
It may appear grim stuff, but Radar gives our heritage colour and quirk. It’s about time it received some quirk. How authentic is Radar? That’s anyone’s guess, but he produces some wonderful characters and a singing duo direct from Cat Ballou. It could be more accurate to say that his TV series is a run amok-umentary.