The perfect time for a catch-up!
...with our guide to the best box sets, movies and podcasts
SO WHAT are the best boxsets, films and podcasts to see you through the coming weeks of self-isolation? Here, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS offers his choice of free entertainment — and throws in a few films for Netflix subscribers.
ALL 4’S WALTER PRESENTS
THE Channel 4 video on demand site boasts dozens of stylish foreign dramas with the emphasis on crime. Some have been shown on British TV but many are available online only.
Curated by euro-TV fanatic Walter Iuzzolino, the channel was launched with the breathtakingly good German Cold War spy thriller, Deutschland ’86. And don’t miss Seventies-set Sicilian police drama, Maltese. If you prefer Scandi noir, there’s a dozen listed, such as the brutal Alex featuring a corrupt cop, and Stockholm requiem that follows a criminologist.
GAME OF THRONES
SIGN up for a week’s free trial of Sky’s now TV and you can binge on all eight seasons of gore and intrigue in the seven kingdoms of Westeros. That’s the best way to enjoy this saga of a wartorn continent, trapped in the Middle Ages with its ghouls, slave armies and dragons.
Don’t be misled by critics who accuse the show of glamorising violence against women — there’s violence against everyone in Game Of Thrones: man, woman or child.
POIROT & MARPLE
On the ITV Hub or catch-up site, there are 22 episodes starring David Suchet at his moustache-twirling best in Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Some feature the Belgian sleuth in full-length spectaculars, such as the two-hour Murder On The Orient express. Others are early half-hour shows from the first series from 1989.
There are also half a dozen episodes with Geraldine Mcewan as Miss Marple.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: THE EARLY YEARS
A GEM of a collection on BBC’s iPlayer, these shows feature the UK’s best-loved broadcaster in some of his first TV adventures as a naturalist. especially fascinating is his 1963 trip to the northern Territories of Australia, Quest Under Capricorn, where he spent weeks living with Aboriginal people on walkabout — talking with their elders in Pidgin english and filming their sacred ceremonies.
DOCTOR WHO
A Free 30- day trial with BritBox gives you access to more than 550 episodes of the time-travelling adventure, from the Sixties to the nineties — 129 adventures, starring the first eight Doctors from William Hartnell to Paul McGann.
For superfans there are animated episodes and documentaries too.
Watching these back to back would take 11 days. THE TEACHER’S PET
THIS 16-part true crime series, researched and presented by journalist Hedley Thomas, investigates one of Australia’s most notorious unsolved crimes.
Young mother Lynette Dawson vanished after a row with her ex-rugby star husband Chris... though he claims he has spoken to her on the phone.
After the global outcry created by this podcast, Dawson, now 71, has been arrested and charged with his wife’s murder. THIS IS LOVE
JOURNALIST Phoebe Valentine Judge, acclaimed for her podcast Criminal, offers an antidote to
Unmissable: Clockwise, from left, Poirot, Doctor Who, David Attenborough, Game Of Thrones murder and mayhem with this quirky look at romance. It is described as ‘a warm, story-based podcast to listen to when the news is too much to bear’. One episode explores love after bereavement, and how a father keeps the memory of his late wife alive. Another describes the efforts of an animal lover to comfort a young whale that has lost its mother.
ATHLETICO MINCE
BOB Mortimer might be the funniest man in Britain. He’s the most amusing regular on TV’s Would I Lie To You? and his amiable outings with Pau l Whitehouse in Gone Fishing have made national treasures of both men. But he’s at his most inventively silly and uproarious on this football podcast, inspired by his beloved Middlesbrough FC. The podcast is crammed with silly voices and running jokes —Bob pretends to be a millionaire with household slaves, lording it over co-host and old friend Andy Dawson. There are 99 episodes, and the 98th consists entirely of songs made up by Bob on the spot, with titles such as Two Large Mangos and I’d Give It Ten Minutes.
YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS
BORROWING its title from the Casablanca song, writer Karina Longworth’s podcast delves into the sometimes seamy side of Hollywood. More than 150 episodes stretch from the Twenties romance of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, to the infamous Manson murders in the Sixties.
Longworth likes to profile doomed actresses from Marilyn Monroe to natalie Wood and has an eye for the seedier details, but her fact-checking is meticulous.
OXFORD BIOGRAPHIES
THESE readings from the Oxford Dictionary of national Biography cover more than 250 famous lives.
They span the centuries — 12th century hermit St Godric is here, so is Charles II’s mistress nell Gwyn, while recent additions include footballer George Best and Body Shop founder Anita roddick. Surprisingly addictive.
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
AvAilAble until the end of the week on bbC iPlayer, this 1979 prison thriller stars Clint eastwood as armed robber Frank Morris. Sent to the most brutal and high security jail in America, he vows to break out. The script, based on real events, was rejected by just about every agent in Hollywood before director Don Siegel read it and sent it to eastwood.
STAN & OLLIE
THe acclaimed 2018 biopic stars Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly as the Hollywood comedy duo and is based on their actual visit to britain in 1953.
The story isn’t played for laughs, but you can’t help smiling at the friendship underpinning those wonderful movies. Available on Amazon Prime (free trial).
THE REPORT
MAD Men’s Jon Hamm plays a Senate staffer investigating the CiA Detention and interrogation programme in this thriller.
Again, based on a real events it is made all the more awkward by the fact that Denis McDonough — a former Chief of Staff to barack Obama — is still alive. ‘He never returned my calls,’ jokes Hamm. ‘Not a Mad Men fan.’ Amazon Prime (free trial)
THE IRISHMAN
RObeRT De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in an ageing hitman’s account of his time with the U.S. mob. The film divided critics with its computer effects, which contrived to make the stars appear decades younger. but there’s no denying the power of the slowly unfolding story.
THE TWO POPES
ANTHONY HOPKINS and Jonathan Pryce star in this philosophical/historical docu-soap based in the vatican.
This movie outing might seem a little arcane at first . . . but once the story starts to unfold it is surprisingly gripping.
THE WINDSORS
IS THE Queen watching this lighthearted send-up?
Some of the gags are near the royal knuckle, such as Meghan’s decision to move to Canada with Harry and Archie after finding the Duke of edinburgh’s big book Of Racist Slurs.
Others are just sweetly silly . . . like the flamenco contest between Kate and Pippa. Find on All4.
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
LARRY David co- created the biggest comedy hit of the Nineties, sitcom Seinfeld.
This cult hit imagines larry as a grumpy, confused has-been living in los Angeles and railing at the world that forgot him. Ten series are on NOWTV (free trial).
GAVIN & STACEY
CROWNED britain’s best-loved sitcom at Christmas, when a special became the most-watched show (excluding sport and royal weddings) on Tv for ten years.
More than 17 million people tuned in to see if the boy from billericay and the girl from barry were still together. Nobody was disappointed. Rewatching the three series is like falling in love all over again. See BBC IPLAYER.