PICKS OF THE WEEK
Lauryn is Lost: A Disappeared Special Crime + Investigation, Channel 171, Friday, 20:00
This is a special episode of the Disappeared series, focusing on a case from last year. On May 1, 23-year-old Lauryn Garrett called her father from a bus stop to come and pick her up — but when he arrived, she was nowhere to be found. All her family was able to find was her duffel bag, which led to a highly publicised missing-person’s case. All the news articles and blog posts of people who got in on the action are still online, if you want to check them out.
Big Time in Hollywood Comedy Central, Channel 122, Monday, 21:00
Now that the latest season of South
Park is over, we have this less-thanadequate replacement. It’s not terrible, but it’s nowhere near as clever or daring as the crude animated show. It’s a comedy series about two self-proclaimed filmmaker brothers whose parents get sick of them and kick them out of the house so that they’ll finally get real jobs and make it on their own.
Unfortunately, brothers Jack and Ben Dolfe (Alex Anfanger and Lenny Jacobson) are not ready to give up their indulgent dependence on their parents’ finances and concoct several schemes to keep their folks forking over the cash — such as demanding “severance packages” or pretending to owe money to dangerous drug dealers.
Don’t get too attached — a second season doesn’t look likely.
Engine Addict Discovery Channel, Channel 121, Friday, 22:00
Some people have the most interesting jobs. Jimmy de Ville is one such person. He’s an “extreme engineer” apparently. He got into engineering when he was still a kid, trying to find ways to fix or improve broken toys, eventually designing and developing Action Man and Micro Machines toys for Hasbro. He was also hired to design a remotecontrolled paranormal investigation device for the Twilight Zonelike TV show Urban Gothic. This show will focus on one of his other passions — engines. Jimmy is an avid petrolhead and he’ll take us on a trip to show us the stories behind some of the most widely-used and revolutionary engines in the world. Some examples include the bestselling air-cooled VW Beetle engine, the Frank Whittle turbojet engine, and Indian Royal Enfield engine that helped independent India get mobile. We’ll also get to see some strange or rare engine types.
Mrs Biggs itv Choice, Channel 123, Monday, 21:00
Well, I certainly learnt something new here. I always thought The
Great Train Robbery was just a Michael Crichton book and film — but it was actually based on a real crime that took place in the UK in 1963. A Royal Mail train was robbed by a gang of 15 men. Among them was a career criminal named Ronnie Biggs.
I bring this up because this factbased drama series tells the story of his better half, Charmain Biggs (Sheridan Smith), the daughter of a respected school principal who had to choose between her disapproving family and the man she loved. She chose the latter, obviously, but it seems he couldn’t keep his promise to walk the straight and narrow. The aftermath of the train robbery and Biggs’s escape from prison led to a life of flight for Charmain and her children as she tries to keep the family together.
The role of Ronnie is played by Daniel Mays. He and Smith were both nominated for various awards for these roles.