The Herald - The Herald Magazine
TV preview French crime drama Spiral? Emily in Paris ce n’est pas
is the stuff of Mary Portas’s nightmares. The manager is given some friendly advice on how to fix matters and, just as importantly, a return visit is promised.
There are no hard feelings, as we see when the manager hands over some Poundland biscuits for the trip home to England. Never let it be said that in Scotland we let a guest hit the road without a cheap snack that bears a passing resemblance to a well known brand.
We next drop in on the complaints department, where
they must be old hands by now at explaining it has been four years since the shop ended its policy of only selling things for £1. And we watch as the homewares department leads the charge upmarket with giraffe ornaments, photo frames and fancy planters. Taking on the likes of Ikea: now that is brave.
Will it work? If it doesn’t it won’t be through lack of trying.
Now, if you were in the market for a kick-ass foreign detective of the female persuasion, where would you shop?
Many might call in at The
Bridge, home to Sweden’s Saga Noren (Sofia Helin), and that would be a good choice. But for some of us, Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) of the Paris police department will forever be our Selfridges.
There are some similarities between the two ‘tecs. Saga likes leather trews, Laure grubby denim. They are both highly intelligent detectives with razor sharp instincts. And they are both, it has to be said, disasters outside of work. Total emotional train wrecks. The only difference in Laure’s case is that she is not the most out of control maverick in her squad. Have you met Gilou?
I would highly recommend making his acquaintance when the BBC starts running the first series again in advance of the eighth, and final, season coming this way in January (iPlayer, from Saturday). It’s a lot to catch up on, but it is worth it.
Spiral is set on the Paris streets the train races past on the way in from the airport. This is definitely not the French capital as depicted in Emily in Paris. Berthaud and her squad are to Paris what The Sweeney was to London and Taggart was to Glesga. Down those mean streets someone must go, and they had better be rougher and tougher than the bad guys they are after.
Usually I can’t be doing with programmes that try to explain the magic of a comedy. Nothing kills the fun faster. But certain shows can take anything thrown at them, so you should be fine to watch We Love Dad’s Army (Channel 5, Sunday, 9pm).
Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s sitcom is the show that never grows old. No matter how many times you have seen it down the years it still rings fresh and true to human nature. That exquisitely timed comedy, those characters, every one of them well-rounded and recognisable.
Dad’s Army has become an old reliable, a refuge that is always there no matter how many other brash new comedies come and go. On the high street that is television may it never close its doors.
Detention: The Series (Netflix, from Sat)
Not to be confused with a US TV show of the same name dating back to the turn of the millennium, this eight-part supernatural drama hails from Taiwan, a nation with a long tradition of horror movies - including 2019’s Detention which, like this series, was inspired by a hit video game.
The action takes place at Greenwood High School in the 1990s. New student Yunxiang Liu accidentally wanders into a forbidden area on the campus, where she comes face-to-face with the ghost of Ruixin Fang, who tells her about the institution’s hidden history.
The spirit reveals how, over the course of the past 30 years, students and teachers alike have been persecuted for their efforts to fight for freedom in an era of censorship - and how their stories continue to haunt the premises.
Power Book II: Ghost (StarzPlay, from Sun)
The first five episode in this spin-off from Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson’s hugely popular crime drama series Power proved to be the streaming platform’s most successful launch ever. Now the final five editions in the run are about to be made every Sunday evening, offering a gripping finale as earthshattering events begin to unfold.
For the uninitiated, Michael Rainey Jr stars as Tariq St Patrick, whose dream of escaping his father’s legacy via education is constantly under threat from the need to support his entire family. To keep his relatives afloat, Tariq enters into a dangerous alliance with the cut-throat Tejada family. Shane Johnson, Method Man and Mary J Blige are among the supporting cast. A second season has already been commissioned.
Rose Island (Netflix, Wed)
With the world in flux, escaping from it all on your own personal island probably sounds like rather a good idea at the moment. One man who tried that in 1967 was Giorgio Rosa, an Italian engineer - and his remarkable, mostly forgotten story, forms the basis for this engaging comedy-drama.
Elio Germano plays Rosa who, at the start of the movie, is suffering from a slump - he’s lost his job, the love of his life has left him and his parents aren’t talking to him. With seemingly nothing to lose he designs and funds the construction of a restaurant, bar, nightclub, shop and post office on a platform off the coast of Rimini. He declares himself its president and all goes well until the Italian authorities decide the new community may cause a threat to society.
The Prom (Netflix, Fri)
Super-producer Ryan Murphy’s latest project looks very promising indeed. He’s the director of this eagerly awaited movie adapted by Chad Begeulin and Bob Martin, which is based on the hit Broadway musical they co-wrote with Matthew Sklar. The plot focuses on New York stage stars Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman, whose expensive new show is a flop, a fact that seems set to kill off both their careers.
They hear about smalltown Indiana high school student Emma, who has been banned from attending her prom with her girlfriend, so decide to help her reverse the PTA’s decision, believing it will provide them with the perfect way to resurrect their public images. Meryl Streep and James Corden play Dee Dee and Barry; Nicole Kidman, Tracy Ullman and Kerry Washington co-star.
HERE’S a question for you. Does Neil Innes need to be rediscovered? Innes, who died last year, was at the heart of the history of post-war British comedy as a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a substitute Python, and a Rutle, of course. And yet, he remains a slightly shadowy figure in the story. The Innes Book of Records TV series rarely gets an airing, does it?
Putting things partly right was Neil Innes: Dip My Brain in Joy on Radio 4 on Wednesday, the first of three hour-long tributes to the comedian made up of old interviews. The result was appropriately whimsical, if a little indulgent to be honest, assuming that everyone knew why Innes mattered rather than making the case for him.
This first episode concentrated on the Bonzo years, but it was also a roundabout portrait of Innes himself, his Scottish father, his love of Dada and surrealism, his decision to make Belgium his hobby and the fact that, as presenter Diane Morgan pointed out, “he was also a really nice man.”
There was the ghost of a more interesting programme within. Innes’s obsession with the First and Second World Wars was rolled out. As he pointed out, the fact of the two World Wars proved that “clearly no one was in charge who should be in charge.”
Maybe, though, a tribute to Innes’s gifts was not the place to make that argument. Instead, this slightly baggy gather-up of clips at least made the case for Innes’s importance.
Start the
Week, Radio 4, Monday, 9am. Keeping with the theme, humour is the subject of this week’s programme. evolutionary ecologist Jonathan Silvertown, literature professor John Mullan and comedian Sindhu Vee are the guests.
Listen Out For:
TEDDY JAMIESON
LEAN ON PETE
Film 4, Monday, 11.15pm
HAILED by many critics as one of the UK’s most exciting film-makers after the success of 2011’s Weekend and 2015’s 45 Years, Andrew Haigh turned to America’s rural north-west for this 2017 coming-of-age tale, here receiving its network premiere.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin, a writer and alt-country musician from Portland, Oregon, it opens with 15-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) moving to Portland with his feckless, hard-drinking father
Ray (Travis Fimmel).
Charley hasn’t seen his mother since shortly after he was born and has become used to his father’s succession of short-term girlfriends.
His only other relative is his father’s estranged sister, Margy, last heard of working in a bar called Scottish Sam’s somewhere in Wyoming.
Yet to start school and pretty much left to his own devices, Charley keeps himself to himself, jogs around the city outskirts and frequents the nearby racetrack, where he has a chance encounter with acerbic and unscrupulous racehorse owner Del Montgomery (a grizzledlooking Steve Buscemi).
Del offers Charley money to help him change a wheel and Charley, in need of cash, offers to help Del for the entire day. And so begins an unlikely relationship as the two load Del’s horses into a trailer and head off to a low-rent, out-of-town race meet.
Charley strikes up a particular bond with one of the horses, Lean On Pete – or Pete for short.
When Ray is attacked by a jealous husband and ends up in hospital, Charley sets off on a road trip with Del, Pete and Del’s favoured jockey Bonnie (Chloe Sevigny).
But it soon becomes clear that Pete’s days in Del’s stable
Depression. Perry is tormented by spectres of wartime service in France and bears the deep emotional scars of a failed marriage.
A bungled kidnapping leads Perry into the city’s underbelly to learn the shocking truth about the crime. In the process, he encounters Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany), leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, and questions the path he is destined to follow.
The two-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets include all eight episodes and three behindthe-scenes featurettes.
The Good Doctor Season 3 (Cert 15)
Surrealism to the Sex Pistols, and will culminate in a climatic final performance with mass participation led by Marina herself.
SUNDAY
A Very Country Christmas (BBC1, 12pm)
Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison teams up with Angellica Bell, who is currently co-hosting The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV, to celebrate Christmas traditions from three distinct parts of Britain. Over the next three Sundays they will be looking at Nativities, Christmas puddings, Carol services, yule logs and mince pies, but they begin in the Highlands where they join in Advent preparations. They meet a Christmas tree farmer, a candlemaker in Houston try to find a way to bring the crew safely back to Earth.
The Workshop (2017) (BBC4, 10.10pm)
Successful novelist Olivia Dejazet (Marina Fois) agrees to host a writing workshop over the summer for teenagers living in the ailing port town of La Ciotat near Marseille. She encourages participants to draw upon their personal stories and the history of the town to create a thriller for publication. Olivia is inextricably drawn to one boy, Antoine (Matthieu Lucci),
and a woman who makes a traditional Scottish delicacy.
Eddie Eats at Christmas (Dave, 6pm & 6.30pm)
Towering 6ft 3in, 26st colossus Eddie Hall takes on eating challenges featuring traditional Christmas foods from a variety of communities based around the UK. The former World’s Strongest Man begins with a gargantuan Caribbean Christmas Combo, before heading to Yorkshire to get to grips with Latin American Christmas traditions. He also visits an awardwinning local Chilean restaurant and takes on a Brazilian barbecue bonanza. Eddie will also burn off the calories he has consumed with
December. Jamie and the children also create the ultimate yule log for their grandparents. And for the big day itself, Jamie shows us how we can make a beautiful sage, onion and apricot stuffing that that can be rolled and placed in the oven at the same time at the turkey.
Gary Barlow’s Night at the Museum (STV, 9pm)
Earlier this year, Gary received global recognition for his The Crooner Sessions series which featured the singer performing online alongside other artists. During the project, he said: “We can’t go on stages or into theatres. Maybe this is our new stage.” Now, with the nation gearing up for an unusual Christmas, ITV has commissioned this one-off music special held in the splendid setting of London’s iconic Natural History Museum. It will see the awardwinning songwriter accompanied by an orchestra and performing new music from his latest LP Music Played By Humans, as well as some of his greatest hits from his Take That and solo back catalogues. Gary will be joined by a host of special guests including Michael Buble, Sebastian Yatra, Alesha Dixon, Beverley Knight, Jack Whitehall, Alfie Boe, Rick Astley, Jason Donovan and Ronan Keating.
Small Axe: Alex Wheatle (BBC1, 9pm) Director Steve McQueen tells the remarkable life story of award-winning writer Alex Wheatle, from young boy through to his early adult years. Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finds a sense of community for the first time in Brixton, where his passion for music grows. Then, when he is thrown in prison during the Brixton riots of 1981, he confronts his past and embarks on a path to healing. Newcomer Sheyi Cole shines in the lead role, alongside Robbie Gee and Jonathan Jules and Fumilayo BrownOlateju.
MONDAY
Luxury Christmas for Less (C4, 8pm)
Many of us are being forced to tighten our belts for Christmas, having been hit hard financially by the pandemic. Thankfully, according to Helen Skelton and Sabrina Grant in this special programme, spending less doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t enjoy ourselves. The duo speak to supermarket insiders who reveal how we can use what stores know about people’s tastes and shopping habits to pick up bargains. Retail psychologists also discuss a cunning ploy that persuades customers to spend more than they need to on party food and there’s a look at cheap but equally as satisfying alternatives to champagne.
Coronation Street: 60 Unforgettable Years (STV, 8.30pm)
On December 9, 1960, a TV legend was born. That was the day on which the first episode of Coronation Street was aired, and despite originally only being commissioned for 13 episodes, it’s still going strong today. During its time on our screen, the famous cobbles have been home to hundreds of unforgettable characters, including Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner and, of course, Ken Barlow. William Roache, who appeared in the very first episode and still plays the last member of that famous trio, is among those contributing to this programme, which looks back at amazing moments in the soap’s history. Expect Roache’s own participation in the Ken-DeirdreMike Baldwin love triangle to feature, alongside many more iconic storylines.
The Vicar of Dibley in Lockdown (BBC1, 8.50pm)
Geraldine Grainger (or should that be Kennedy, seeing as she wed accountant Harry in one of the most memorable episodes, and as far as we know, they’re still together) is the gift that keeps on giving. Only two series of the sitcom were ever made, but Dawn French has returned to the role numerous times over the years, including earlier in 2020 when she popped up in a sketch on the BBC telethon The Big Night In. Now she’s back again in the first of three special Christmas-themed 10-minute sermons, which are being broadcast after classic episodes of the original show. Each one will see her offering words of wisdom with assistance from Hugo Horton (James Fleet) and local schoolchildren. “Back in the dog collar, back in Dibley and back on your telly at Christmas,” says French. “I couldn’t be happier.”
Hospital (BBC2, 9pm)
Barnet Hospital’s staff realise the second Covid19 wave is going to be just as traumatic, if not more so, than the first. However, they do have better or at least more ways to treat them this time around thanks to experimental drugs being made available as part of nationwide trials. Professor Hasan Tahir hopes steroids will help a London bus driver who’s struggling to breathe, while a mother of two with breast cancer needs a fast recovery from the virus so she can undergo the mastectomy that may saver her life. She receives a substance known as ‘convalescent plasma’, but nobody is sure whether or not it will work.
Red Penguins: Murder, Money and Ice Hockey – Storyville (BBC4, 10pm)
This documentary follows the story of a joint venture between the CSKA Moscow Red Army and Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey teams shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Eccentric marketing whiz Steve Warshaw is sent to Russia and tasked with transforming the team into the greatest show in Moscow, complete with strippers and live bears serving beer on a hockey rink. Director Gabe Polsky takes the viewer on a bizarre journey, highlighting a pivotal moment in US-Russia relations in a lawless era when oligarchs made their fortunes and multiple murders went unsolved.
TUESDAY
The Royal Variety Performance 2020 (STV, 8pm)
The annual charity fundraising hoolie took place on November 29 at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens – the first time it was been held outside London since 2011 – but it all looked rather different thanks to coronavirus restrictions. But, as ever, it attracted a stellar line-up, all keen to help boost the coffers of the Royal Variety Charity, which helps those from the world of entertainment in need of care and assistance. Among those featured in this recording of the event are Captain Sir Tom Moore, who broadcasts his performance of the chart-topping You’ll Never Walk Alone from his home, accompanied by Michael Ball and the NHS choir. Look out too for Sheridan Smith in the guise of Cilla Black, as well as Steps, Melanie C, Stephen Mulhern, Jo Caulfield and Gary Barlow. Jason Manford is the host.
Great British Christmas Menu (BBC2, 8pm)
Eight chefs – all of whom have tasted success before in the Great British Menu – try to impress with their fish and main courses. Andi Oliver looks on as they devise dishes containing the correct level of opulence, luxury and, of course,
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Clarence Conrad White for her shot at fame. Dreamgirls is a classic ragsto-riches fairy-tale.
THURSDAY
Brooklyn (2015) (BBC4, 8.00pm)
Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is a shrinking violet in 1950s Ireland. Thanks to her older sister Rose, Eilis secures a one-way ticket to a brighter future in New York. Holy man Father Flood (Jim Broadbent) places her at a boarding house for single girls run by Mrs Keogh (Julie Walters). Eilis’ homesickness
Ogden, Phyllis Pearce, Emily Bishop, Ena Sharples, Carla Connor and Annie Walker. Plus, the programme also features contributions from an array of the show’s leading ladies – past and present – including Julie Hesmondhalgh, Sally Lindsay, Helen Worth, Alison King, Sue Nicholls, Sally Dynevor and Kate Ford.
Christmas in New York: Inside the Plaza (C4, 9pm)
The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan is one of the most famous hotels in the world. Steeped in over 100 years of history and having featured in countless movies, the iconic Fifth Avenue institution has played host to a vast array of guests including celebrities, socialites and world leaders. The