Christmas comes early to lift lockdown blues
Bumper weekend on the small screen, with a host of treats to cater for all tastes and raise viewers’ spirits
Mid-lockdown with a wet weather forecast and the nights drawing in, this weekend could have been dark and dank, dour and depressing. However, TV is here to save the day with a bumper weekend which will provide shared moments and a welcome sense of togetherness.
It’s rather like the Christmas schedules but without the rubbish and repeats. I confidently predict the best weekend’s viewing of the year. The small screen smorgasbord opens today with your weekly dose of sparkle, as Strictly Come
Dancing continues to shake its hips on BBC One. Added intrigue comes from the Covid-enforced changes. The contest’s first same-sex couple, boxer Nicola Adams and her professional partner Katya Jones, have been forced to withdraw after Jones tested positive. And judge Motsi Mabuse is self-isolating after an urgent trip to Germany. Happily, all this means Anton Du Beke will be filling in on the panel. Fans have long lobbied for him to swap his dancing shoes for scoring paddles, so consider this his audition.
If you prefer high culture to sequins, you’re also well catered for. The English National Opera’s production of Mozart’s rousing Requiem, filmed at the London Coliseum, airs on BBC Two at 7pm. Sports fans can’t complain either, with US Masters golf, rugby union’s Autumn Nations Cup, Formula One’s Turkish Grand Prix and all manner of international football.
More televisual treats follow on what’s been dubbed “Super Sunday”. Netflix subscribers can get their teeth into the feverishly anticipated fourth season of The Crown. Peter Morgan’s majestic saga, which stars Helena Bonham Carter, has now moved into the Eighties, meaning the arrival of two era-defining women: Margaret
Thatcher (icily impersonated by Gillian Anderson) and Diana, Princess of Wales (outstanding newcomer Emma Corrin). The evening’s razzledazzle begins with the Strictly results show, immediately followed by the spectacular second episode of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
There’s then a clash of exciting new series at 9pm. On BBC One, it’s the premiere of the eagerly awaited Small Axe from Turner Prize-winning artist turned Oscar-garlanded director Steve Mcqueen. An anthology of five searing, cinematic and star-studded films set in London’s Caribbean community during the Seventies and Eighties, it opens with the story of the 1970 Mangrove Nine case.
On ITV it’s launch night for a unique series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!. The survival contest is being staged in the UK for the first time. This year’s intrepid contestants include Mo Farah and Victoria Derbyshire.
The feast of fun doesn’t stop at TV. Gamers have been looking forward to their first weekend getting hands-on with the new Xbox Series X console. Broadband experts have warned the surge in internet usage from online gaming and TV streaming could cause connections to falter.
Pray your modem and service provider can withstand the surge of excitement. If not, blame the gamers. I know I will.
So snuggle up, hunker down, forget the outside world’s woes and escape into high-end home entertainment. Why, you could even bust open the Quality Street tin or uncork the port a month earlier than usual. After this annus horribilis, you’ve earned it.