The Herald - The Herald Magazine
TV preview Glastonbury is off, but all the fun of the festival is here
homes. Not just any homes, mind. These are homes into which have been poured time, money, and love, so much so that the owners want to show them off. The contest goes all around Scotland, and from three properties each week one is selected to go through to the final.
This show ought to be sponsored by the Scottish Government or the tourist board, such a fine picture does it paint of Scottish life. From what is on display here, anyone would think Scotland was chock a block with
fabulous houses decorated by residents with impeccable tastes. Scotland as a middle class, bifold door-sporting, Scandi-hued paradise. Which it is, in some parts.
Now, if you had to choose a spot to see nature in all its glory, would you plump for London’s M25? Though not.
But as Helen Macdonald shows in
there is a lot to learn from the area, not least how nature adapts to encroachment by humans.
Macdonald, a falconer and the author of the prize-winning memoir H is for Hawk, takes a slow journey round the green parts usually only glimpsed by motorists.
The trek takes her from woods to waterways, grassland to wetland, all of it packed with plant and animal life.
If you caught Macdonald’s wonderful The River: A Year in the Life of the Tay, you will know she has a distinctive presenting style that takes a little getting used to but is well worth sticking with. She flits like a butterfly from topic to topic, with the result that her film is as much a meditation on roads, architecture, and science, with a brief stop off at the works of JG Ballard, as it is a nature programme. It’s rather like a television version of Radio 4’s Something Understood: sometimes bewildering but always amazing.
While I didn’t always agree with her on what constitutes beauty (concrete underpasses anyone?) she has a lovely turn of phrase – the road gives off a “marine roar”, a stream is
“gin clear” – and her extensive knowledge is deeply impressive.
If you haven’t already gorged yourself on Talking Heads there are seven more on next week. Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) is bound to be a draw on Monday when she takes on the part of an ambitious actress, a role previously performed by Julie Walters, in Her Big Chance.
I’m also looking forward to seeing Martin Freeman step into Alan Bennett’s comfy shoes in A Chip in the Sugar on Tuesday. But highlight of the week looks like Kristen Scott Thomas as an antiques dealer with a nice line in withering put-downs in The Hand of God on Thursday. Wonder if KST has ever been to Glastonbury?
David Bowie at Glastonbury 2000, BBC2, Sunday, 9.30pm; Amy Winehouse, BBC4, Sunday, 9.30pm; Scotland’s Home of the Year, BBC Scotland, Wednesday, 8pm; The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway, BBC4, Tuesday, 9pm; Talking Heads, BBC1, Monday-Thursday.
Les Blancs (National Theatre Live/YouTube, from Thu)
The latest offering from the National Theatre’s archive is Les Blancs, a powerful tale about the hope and tragedy of revolution.
Written by Lorraine Hansberry, who is best known for A Raisin in the Sun, the play was first produced posthumously in 1970 and, according to many critics, should be regarded as the best example of her work; Hansberry herself felt it was the most important thing she had ever written. The story takes place in Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and highlights the issues caused by colonialism on the continent, as seen through the eyes of one family. This acclaimed production is from 2016 and stars Danny Sapani, Tunji Kasim and Sian Phillips.
The Great (StarzPlay, available now)
Last year, Helen Mirren played the title role in Catherine the Great, Sky Atlantic’s mini-series about the formidable 18th century Empress of Russia. Now
Elle Fanning is tackling the role, albeit from a very different angle.
Where Catherine the Great was oh-so serious, The Great is tongue in cheek, preferring to take a satirical – and fictionalised – look at the early part of her reign. If you’ve seen Sofia Coppola’s film about Marie Antoinette, which modernised some aspects of the story, you’ll have an idea of the approach taken by this 10-part series’ makers. Nicholas Hoult co-stars as Catherine’s deranged husband; much of the plot focuses on efforts to assassinate him. Sacha Dhawan, Phoebe Fox and Douglas Hodge also appear. If you don’t catch the show on Starz, Channel 4 is set to broadcast it later in the summer.
Dark (Netflix, from Sat)
There’s good news and bad news surrounding Netflix’s first original German series
– the good is that it’s returning for a third run; the bad is that it will be the thrilling sci-fi show’s last.
Set in the fictional town of Winden, it focuses on the impact of a child’s disappearance on three generations of four connected families with something to hide.
As the first two seasons were met with critical acclaim, big things are expected this time around – and fans will also be hoping that any loose ends are tied up neatly before the end credits roll on the final episode. It all begins as hero Jonas confronts his fate in a new version of Winden. Everyone else, meanwhile, remain in another world, desperately trying to break the loop that now bends time as well as space.
JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales (adult swim/All 4, from Fri)
Horror and comedy are strange bedfellows. They really shouldn’t work together.
Take the film version of What We Do in the Shadows, for instance, or Shaun of the Dead.
Thankfully, new animated series JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales is every bit as inventive as those movies, taking classic fairy tales as its inspiration and turning them on their heads.
The result is an outrageous, creepy and yet hilarious show that offers a spooky twist on the likes of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel.
Among the impressive vocal cast are Linda Blair, Sheryl Lee, Robert Englund, Warwick Davis and Peter Weller.
What’s it called?
Ricky & Tony – Pop Detectives
What’s it about?
It’s about all those pop and rock mysteries that you’ve always wanted somebody to get to the bottom of, all the unanswered questions that make up the lore and legend of the music business. Such as: did Jimi Hendrix really keep a tab of acid in his bandana? Did Jennifer Lopez really insure her bum? And what really caused the spat between Billy Bragg and Manic Street Preachers at Glastonbury, the so-called
Battle of the Portaloo? From their office above a charity shop round the corner from New Scotland Yard, our two intrepid pop detectives slip on their deerstalker hats and set about running down some answers.
Who’s in it?
Ricky is Ricky Wilson, frontman man with much-loved Yorkshire five-piece Kaiser Chiefs. Tony is – wait for it – Tony Blackburn, a man who should need no introduction, though if one really is necessary then take your pick between Radio Legend and Cheesy 1960s DJ.
What’s so good about it?
Well, not the sleuthing, which is pretty average to be honest. It mostly involves ringing somebody who might know something vaguely connected to the subject at hand. But the banter is worth a listen and the occasionally surreal side streets the amiable pair amble down are entertaining.
Fun fact
When Tony Blackburn had his prostate scraped, the surgeon doing the operation said it was the largest he had ever seen in Hertfordshire.
Where can I find it?
It’s available to download for free from iTunes.
BARRY DIDCOCK
12 YEARS A SLAVE
Monday, Film 4, 9pm
IN the wake of the Juneteenth celebrations to mark the end of slavery, and with the Black Lives Matter protests still bubbling away in the US and Beyoncé’s newly-released Black Parade single bursting with references to black activism and reparation, there couldn’t be a better time to revisit this film by Turner Prize winning artist-turned-film director Steve McQueen.
As searing an indictment of slavery as it’s possible to imagine, nobody was surprised when it won the Briton the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 2013 Oscars, the first time a film by a black director had won the coveted award.
Based on the 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a free man in New York until he was tricked into going to Washington DC where he was drugged, kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana, it has a screenplay by John Ridley (also the creator of the critically-acclaimed American Crime anthology series) and was co-produced by Brad Pitt, who has an important cameo as an itinerant Canadian opposed to slavery.
British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is brilliant as Northup, playing him as a proud, solid, dignified character who manages to appear calm and impassive amid the chaos of plantation life while letting his eyes reflect the pain he feels at the ignominy and injustice of his situation. His first “master”, a Mr Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), is about as benevolent as slave owners probably came in the Antebellum South though Northup makes an enemy of his overseer John Tibeats (Paul Dano at his creepy best) and has to be sold to another man, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).
Epps is notoriously mercurial, given to drinking and violent fits of temper, and is sexually
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
Curzon Home Cinema
Now streaming
GIVEN Armando Iannucci’s track record to date as producer, writer and director – this is the man responsible or partly responsible for In The Loop, The Thick Of It, Veep, The Day Today and Alan Partridge, to name just five – his decision to mount a big budget adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel looks rather curious, even if it does follow another (sort of) costume drama,
The Death Of Stalin. Curious or not he’s gone and done it, and in doing so created a film which brings a freshness to the story while also sticking closely to the original novel.
That novel is David Copperfield, of course, written in 1850 and the source of such Dickensian favourites as Uriah Heep, Peggotty and Mr Micawber. Great characters like that are an actor’s dream so it’s no surprise that Iannucci has enlisted a pretty stellar cast as helpmates to Dev Patel, who plays David. Tilda Swinton is the imperious Betsey Trotwood, David’s aunt, Hugh Laurie is Mr Dick, her eccentric cousin and Ben Whishaw plays the unctuous Heep, factotum at the boarding school to which David is sent.
And who else could play the mercurial Mr Micawber but Iannucci’s old mucker Peter Capaldi? There’s also room for Game Of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie as Jane Murdstone, Aneurin Barnard as David’s troubled schoolfriend James Steerforth, Nikki AmukaBird as Mrs Steerforth, and Paul Whitehouse and Daisy May Cooper as Mr and Mrs Peggotty.
The script is co-written with Simon Blackwell, Iannucci’s regular partner-in-crime, though in turning from savage political satire to an adaptation of one of the big beasts of English letters, he and Iannucci have necessarily had to rein in the gags and the swearing. Instead they pile on artful, stagey effects such you rarely see in straight-up costume dramas.
For instance the scenes involving flashbacks are projected onto the walls of whichever room David is in at the time, and there’s a speededup theatre scene which is straight out the Keystone Cops. Great stuff.
Queen of comedy Rebel Wilson is back on our screens but not in her usual Hollywood guise.
The Sydney native is host and executive producer of brand-new Amazon Original, LOL: Last One Laughing Australia; a bizarre sixepisode comedic series which sees 10 professional comedians go head to head to see who can keep a straight face while simultaneously trying to make their opponents laugh.
In this first-of-its-kind comedy social experiment, the comedians who laugh will be eliminated one-byone, until a single one remains at the end of a sixhour period. And it goes without saying that missing out on $100,000 Australian Dollars (around £55K) is no laughing matter.
The series certainly sounds like a unique format. was it everything you expected?
This is the first time it’s been done in an English language (I’m sure they’ll probably do a UK version as well), so I had no idea what to expect and jeez, people really surpassed whatever I thought they would do. It really descends in chaos and madness quite quickly; I was shocked at how quickly the tone degraded.
How did you enjoy your role as host?
I felt a lot of pressure being the referee because the comedians were all wanting to win and as part of that some of them were playing a bit passively. Which meant they weren’t going on the attack and trying to make each other laugh, which is a bit of a no-no and also makes for a boring game. So I had to come in and give them yellow cards or red cards, eventually, because we have to have one winner in the six hours.
How did the comedians handle being eliminated?
I loved it as then I could talk to them. But some of the things that happened in the series are a bit bad, some of them did have to have some psychological counselling. I’m not even joking. And there were some things that even I didn’t realise because I was watching so many screens... But we all saw each other the next day and everything was fine, but it was interesting. I liked it when we could chit chat because I’d been away from Australia and based in the US for a decade.
How long do you think you would have lasted?
It’s hard. I’d have to almost pretend I was a character as when I’m on a film set and playing a character, I’m very good at not laughing. Like, very good. So I think I would have to have that strategy and literally not be Rebel Wilson, because the real Rebel would laugh just to be friendly! Especially because some of these comedians are real crack ups, so it would have felt weird and impolite not laughing. I know in real life people come up to me and try to say something funny, and I always kind of laugh.
Do you hope the show will shine a light on Australian comics?
Yeah. I mean I don’t know if you guys in the UK rate us in comedy, but basically the main reason why I wanted to do the show is because it showcases Australian comedians; it gives them a leg up as this show goes out to over 200 countries. So people will click on their stand up special or buy tickets when they tour or come to Edinburgh, and that will help these Aussie comedians.
LOL: Last One Laughing Australia is available to stream on Amazon Prime
great estates of the Elizabethan era. She’s rolling up her sleeves to help with Britain’s oldest managed flock of Jacob sheep, and visits a working Georgian water mill that’s busier than ever, supplying the lockdown baking boom. Dwayne Fields investigates the challenges facing members of the BAME community living in the countryside, and Adam Henson is judging entrants in an online livestock show.
Lost Pyramids of the Aztecs (C4, 8pm)
Until it was destroyed by Spanish invaders, the Aztecs ruled one of the most powerful empires in history. With the aid of CG imagery, and unique access to new excavations, for than fiction in Big Eyes, a biopic of artist Margaret Keane, who famously took her husband to court in 1986 to prove he was a fraud.
The Mountain Between Us (2017) (C4, 9pm)
Photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) charters a two-person plane from avuncular pilot Walter (Beau Bridges), and offers the second seat to Dr Ben Bass (Idris Elba). During the flight, Walter suffers a stroke and the plane careens into a snow-laden peak in the High Uintas
newcomers this is an immersive investigation into the vanished world of this remarkable civilisation. In episode two, archaeologists investigate the incredible discovery of more than 100 ancient skeletons buried in a hillside outside Mexico City. Experts also attempt to decode the secrets of an ancient manuscript to reveal the secrets of Aztec ritual sacrifice, and hope to complete their ground-breaking experiment to build a replica Aztec pyramid.
The British Soap Awards Celebrate 21 Years (STV, 9pm)
What a year it’s been in soapland with you know what interrupting production. Suddenly those shows that turn out several episodes a
Wilderness. Walter perishes; Ben suffers bruises and broken ribs, and Alex’s leg is injured. When she regains consciousness, the strangers confront the reality that Walter didn’t log a flight plan so they are alone in the sub-zero wilderness.
MONDAY
Mad Max (1979) (ITV4, 10pm)
Mel Gibson first hit the big time in this superb futuristic action adventure from director George Miller. He plays an Australian cop who hands in his badge after
week were rationing their output, and the timelines turned into slow motion as the likes of Easter and VE Day were celebrated long after the event. For the past 21 years, The British Soap Awards has celebrated ongoing serials, and now Phillip Schofield reflects on the most memorable winners. There’s a look at the icons who scooped the Outstanding Achievement Award, and the issue-led storylines that swept the board; spectacular scenes, and the big laughs along the way. The This Morning host also profiles some of the double acts, such as Corrie’s Roy and Hayley Cropper, EastEnders’ Kat and Alfie Moon, and those villains we loved to hate, including Weatherfield’s ‘Norman Bates with a briefcase’ growing tired of trying to impose order in a lawless society. The death of his wife and child soon see the heroic lawman drag himself out of retirement in a bid to exact a bloody revenge on those responsible. Gibson is at his mean and moody best hell-bent on revenge, and the chase sequences and terrific stunts are as impressive as they were when the film was released
41 years ago.
Shame, (2011) (Film 4, 11.40pm)
Screening as part of a double bill of films by British artist-turneddirector Steve McQueen – the other is Oscar-winning drama 12 Years A Slave – this work re-unites McQueen with Michael Fassbender. Here Fassbender plays sex-addicted New Yorker Brandon Sullivan, whose high-flying life is spent entirely in the pursuit of thrills and, as a consequence of that, is subject to a significant amount of self-loathing which in turn propels him to more and more sexual exploits. His life is turned upside down when his sister Sissy arrives on his doorstep asking if she can stay with him for a while.
TUESDAY
Creed (2015) (5STAR, 9pm)
Michael B Jordan plays Adonis Johnson, the son of boxer Apollo Creed, who died in the ring. He plans to follow in the footsteps of the father he never knew, and goes in search of his dad’s old rival-turnedbest friend Rocky Balboa. He agrees to train the young fighter for a shot at the title - but the ageing champ faces challenges of his own.
Fatal Attraction (1987) (5STAR, 11.45pm)
Happily married Manhattan lawyer
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Richard Hillman, and Albert Square’s murderous bride Janine Butcher.
The Luminaries (BBC1, 9pm)
In 1865, Lydia is preparing to host a party at the fortune parlour, while Anna tells Crosbie that the key to the safe - which contains his gold - is missing, but he drinks from a spiked decanter and passes out before he can learn more. Alistair Lauderback arrives at the Godspeed to meet Lydia, only to find Carver, who blackmails him into handing over the ship. Period mystery based on the Eleanor Catton novel, starring Eva Green, Eve Hewson, Benedict Hardie, Ewen Leslie and Marton Csokas.