The Herald - The Herald Magazine
THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
Health has understandably been top of our agendas over the past year, and we all want to know how our food affects our wellbeing. Sian Williams compares the portion sizes we eat now to those we were eating 30 years ago and the results are alarming. Meanwhile, Stefan Gates explores how what we eat and drink can drastically affect the quality of our sleep. He visits the London Sleep Centre to meet nutritionist Hayley Pedrick, and agrees to undertake an experiment to see how excessive amounts of caffeine, alcohol and takeaways alter his sleep patterns. Finally, Nisha Katona questions what is so ‘super’ about so-called superfoods and meets dietitian Hannah Whittaker, who offers some cheaper alternatives.
Cornwall and Devon Walks with Julia Bradbury (STV, 8pm)
The presenter is in South Devon taking on a section of the South West Coast Path from the affluent coastal town of Salcombe to rugged Prawle Point. As well as being famous for sailing, stunning views and some of the
The former cop roams around a post-apocalyptic wasteland, until he’s reluctantly recruited to help a petrol-producing desert community fend off vicious gangs of marauders determined to take over their oil refinery and steal their precious fuel.
WEDNESDAY
Breathe (2017) (BBC2, 9pm)
Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) is a globe-trotting adventurer who sets his sights on the lovely Diana Blacker (Claire Foy). Robin wins the fair maiden’s heart with charm and they head to Kenya, where he operates as a tea trader. Marriage beckons and as the couple prepares to welcome a child into the world, Robin contracts polio. He tearfully confronts the grim reality of spending his final days confined to a hospital bed, paralysed from the neck down.
This Sporting Life (1963) (Talking Pictures TV, 11.25pm)
Brutish miner Frank Machin (Richard Harris) can barely contain his resentment towards the local rugby team, who are treated like heroes by the residents of Wakefield. Frank’s evident ferocity impresses team owner Gerald Weaver (Alan Badel), who offers him a try-out. Sure enough, Frank impresses on the pitch and he too revels in the adulation of his friends and neighbours. However, newfound celebrity doesn’t win him many favours.
THURSDAY
Quartet (2012) (BBC4, 9pm)
Dustin Hoffman goes behind the camera to direct an impressive British cast in this comedy drama. Run with a gentle yet firm touch by on-staff medic Dr Lucy Cogan (Sheridan Smith), retirement home Beecham House
mostdesirable real estate in the country, Salcombe is also home to amazing seafood, including delicious crab. After sampling a few dishes, Julia rambles the coast in search of wildlife with naturalist Claire, and meets one of the volunteers of the National Coast watch who helps prevent shipwrecks on this dramatic and stunning stretch of coast.
The Repair Shop (BBC1, 8pm)
Robyn Griffith’s grandfather loved jazz and owned a 1960s guitar, but never learned to play his cherished instrument. Having inherited not just the broken item but a talent for playing, Robyn hands it over to the ‘Guitar Doctor’ Julyan Wallis who carefully pieces it together,
has lost none of its bite. Roy Scheider heads the cast as Brody, a police chief on New England’s Amity Island whose relatively idyllic existence is turned upside down when a great white shark starts snacking on the locals.
The mayor is reluctant to close the beaches in case it scares off the tourists, so with the aid of a wealthy expert (Richard Dreyfuss) and a salty hunter (Robert Shaw), Brody heads off to find and kill the beast. It’s a masterpiece of direction, combining genuine
own c-section when giving birth to James. Meanwhile, on the Stoer Peninsula, the pig house comes off worst when Gloucestershire Old Spot sow Miss Piggy is paired off with Butch from the neighbouring croft.
The Bay (STV, 9pm)
As the team press on with the murder investigation in Morecambe, Lisa and Med decide to dig deeper into the family. And surprise, surprise, they discover not all relationships with the victim were amicable and there were several grudges bubbling away under the surface. Eventually, with one suspect beginning to talk, a crucial piece of evidence comes through - but it just leaves Lisa with thrills with three-dimensional characters, and although the shark itself is a bit of a let-down, by the time we get a good look at it, we’re having too much fun to care. John Williams’ iconic score just adds to the tension.
FRIDAY
Footloose, Film 4, 6.40pm
Not exactly the high point of 1980s American cinema but a decent enough fellow traveller for those other teen movies of the era such as The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and Dirty Dancing. Here Kevin Bacon is Ren MacCormack, a big city kid stranded in a small-minded Hicksville town which has banned rock and roll and dancing. John Lithgow is Reverend Shaw Moore, the pious church-man who has pushed through the ban, Lori Singer is his daughter Ariel who (guess what!) falls for Ren. Chris Penn is on good form as goofy pal Willard and look out for a young Sarah Jessica Parker as Rusty. The director is choreographer-turned film-maker Herbert Ross and the famous softrock soundtrack is led by Kenny Loggins’s title song.
Shakespeare in Love (1998) (BBC1, 1.0am)
Gwyneth Paltrow is on sparkling form as Viola, a young woman who yearns to be an actor - but the conventions of the day dictate that only men are allowed on stage.
Her luck changes when she meets young Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), who is suffering from writer’s block. When Viola and Will meet, the chemistry is instant and so begins a passionate affair, with Viola disguising herself as a man to achieve her dreams and Will using their affair as the inspiration for his latest play, Romeo & Ethel: The Pirate’s Daughter.
more questions than answers. It’s not just at work where the detective is feeling the pressure, she is forced to more give time to her home life. While Andy continues to grow closer to his kids Abbie and Rob, Penny is feeling pushed out and decides to take matters into her own hands - with terrible consequences.
Grand Designs (C4, 9pm)
Kevin McCloud heads to Cornwall, where former skydivers Leigh and Richard have fallen head over heels in love with a derelict 17th-century flour mill. Empty for 60 years, full of rotten timbers, riddled with structural cracks and strewn with rusty machinery and millstones, the risk takers decide this is the