Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
THE HOT LIST
THE BEST OF TV AND STREAMING THIS WEEK
INNER SPACE AD ASTRA Sky Cinema Premiere and major streaming platforms
BRAD PITT heads the cast in James Gray’s slow-burning sci-fi thriller which is much about inner space as outer space. Pitt plays astronaut Roy McBride who, after a nearfatal accident, is sent to find his missing father, a US hero who went missing on a mission to the furthest reaches of the Solar System decades before and whose disappearance is being linked to power surges that are threatening the stability of the universe. Ad Astra unfolds slowly as Pitt gets closer to finding his father and discovering what has happened, with long, meditative passages of the film interspersed with sudden, shocking moments of tension. Think more 2001 than Gravity.
DEATH ROW DRAMA CLEMENCY Major streaming platforms
HARD-HITTING drama starring Alfre Woodard as Bernadine Williams, a prison warden who’s feeling the strain of overseeing death row and all that it entails. As she gets ready to execute another inmate, Bernadine has to confront the emotional and psychological toil the job is taking on her, especially after the last execution went badly wrong. With increasing evidence suggesting that the man set to be executed may be innocent, Bernadine struggles with the demands of her role. A powerful film by Chinonye Chukwu with a commanding performance from Woodard.
MIRIAM IN OZ MIRIAM MARGOLYES: ALMOST AUSTRALIAN BBC Two, Friday, July 24, 9pm
CHARISMATIC, inquisitive and not shy of speaking her mind, the actress Miriam Margolyes became an Australian citizen six years ago after spending much of her life travelling between the UK and Down Under. In this three-part documentary series that takes a form of a road trip, she looks at what it means to be a modern Australian. In the first part of the series, she visits the pretty town of Bondi where rocketing house prices in the last 10 years have made it difficult for many people to afford a home.
LOST AT SEA THE LAST WAVE BBC Four, Saturday, July 25, 9pm
BBC FOUR continues its tradition of importing quality foreign dramas for Saturday nights with this French thriller set in a coastal town. A group of friends are enjoying their annual trip to catch the surf when a huge wave hits them and they disappear without a trace. A number of hours later they resurface unharmed but with no memory of what happened to them. One of them, a mother who is recently separated, has a nightmare which may point towards what happened to them. A gripping doublebill gets this series going.
PRESS BATTLE THE POST Channel 4, Saturday, July 25, 9pm
A NETWORK premiere for Steven Spielberg’s old-fashioned drama about a newspaper’s battle to uncover the truth about Vietnam War secrets. Tom Hanks plays an experienced, determined editor and Meryl Streep is the US’s first female newspaper publisher who has to fight against prejudice to expose the cover-up that spanned four American presidents in an unprecedented battle between the press and the government.