The Herald - The Herald Magazine
TV preview This will make the Line of Duty wait easier to bear
it’s also about six hours long, so the bright eyed and bushy tailed one needs something more in his arsenal than a segment on Jane Goodall and her tool-wielding, history-making chimpanzees. Happily, he does.
New scientific techniques and discoveries mean we are now in a position to learn much more about the intelligence of animals, and assess how their brainpower compares to our own. Are they as intelligent as us, wonders Packham, or are we as intelligent as them?
He begins with the relatively easy stuff – a raven finding its favourite stone – before moving on to more complex tasks involving problem solving.
We meet New Caledonian Crows and see how they are more likely than a five-year-old child to retrieve a sweet from a tube. Then it is on to bottlenosed dolphins, bees, and of course chimps. It’s the law that any wildlife programme must have its quota of meerkats, and there are some very cute pups here learning from their elders about the best way to eat a scorpion (very carefully).
Matters take a turn for the even more illuminating when it comes to the “mirror test”. It was thought only a small number of species, including ourselves, could recognise themselves in a looking glass and thus be selfaware.
But what if the way the test is carried out changes to suit different animals?
Packham is an excellent host, able to take complex information and chop it up into easily digestible bites. This is backed up by interviews with scientists, some of them demonstrating their work in the field.
Fascinating. Oh, and you will finally learn the answer to the question of why you should never play poker with a parrot. Every day is a school day.
As we are reminded in
the Glasgow University graduate who would one day lead the Liberal Democrats was just 23 when he stood for election in the Highland constituency of Ross, Cromarty and Skye.
He would go on to spend more than three decades in politics, becoming a well kent face across the UK with his many appearances on panel games and talk shows.
From his opposition to the
Iraq war to the fight to save the sleeper service to Fort William, he was the veteran of many a political battle. The one fight he could not win, alas, was the one with the bottle. It is the measure of the man that he is remembered so fondly today.
Crazy About Her (Netflix, from Fri)
We’ve already had Valentine’s Day, but the streaming giant is still feeling the love. As a result, it’s launching this offbeat Spanish romance. At its heart is Adri (Alvaro Cervantes) who thinks all his Christmases have come at once when he meets the cryptic and enigmatic Carla (Susanna Abaitua).
They spend one wild and magical night together before she disappears from his life. Adri discovers that Carla is a resident at a mental institution, and the only way he will be able to see her again is if he too becomes a patient.
The lovesick chap soon discovers that convincing people he needs treatment is easy, but persuading them he’s well enough to leave is far from straightforward. Hopefully love will conquer all...
Black Sails
(StarzPlay, from Sun) There are very few original ideas out there, so when the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise became a blockbusting success, it wasn’t long before TV companies were looking for something similar to keep fans at home and hooked to the TV.
It actually took a little longer than anticipated for one to hit our screens, but Black Sails proved popular and ran for four seasons between 2014 and 2017, and it perhaps owes as much to the success of Vikings as it does Johnny Depp and co.
It’s actually a prequel to Treasure Island, charting the adventures of Captain Flint two decades before the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. Toby Stephens is the star of the show, with such familiar faces as Rupert PenryJones and Harriet Walter popping up later in the run.
Big Sky (Star, from Tue)
Star, a new adult-themed platform from Disney+, launches today with a number of exciting new series, including the sitcom Solar Opposites from Rick & Morty alumni Justin Roiland and Mike Mcmahon, and the drama Helstrom.
But perhaps the best of the lot is Big Sky, the latest hit from super-producer David E Kelley, the man behind Sky smashes Big Little Lies and The Undoing.
Based on the novel The Highway by CJ Box, this crime thriller stars Ryan Phillippe and Kylie Bunbury as Cody and Cassie, private detectives who join forces with Cody’s ex-wife Jenny, a former cop, to find two kidnapped women.
However, their investigation makes them realise it isn’t an isolated event, but instead is the work of a serial killer.
Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (Apple TV+, from Fri)
She’s still only 19, but Billie Eilish has already had three top 10 singles in the UK and US and a best-selling debut album; she’s also the youngest person to ever win all four main Grammy categories - Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year - at the same ceremony.
And then there’s that Bond theme for the stillunreleased No Time to Die to consider.
Many artists would love to achieve that in an entire career, never mind within a few months.
But how has Eilish managed to conquer the pop world so quickly? This documentary reveals all; it’s a true coming-of-age story that charts the singersongwriter’s rise to prominence from the age of 17, following her journey to stardom.
LIVING in the public eye means always being asked to say you’re sorry. At least that seemed to be the subtext of last Saturday’s Meeting Myself Coming Back (Radio 4), in which John Wilson questioned former New Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
You might think Campbell has a lot to say sorry for, of course. But it soon became clear he was not much one for regret and remorse. Were you guilty of bullying behaviour, Wilson asked him at one point.
“I sometimes lose my rag, yeah,” Campbell replied. “Did I occasionally go over the top with individuals? Maybe.”
Wilson pointed out that he had once punched the political journalist Michael White. “Oh, that was years ago,” Campbell protested. “That was when I was a journalist. He was getting on my nerves … But that is, may I say, taking something right out of context.”
The series uses archive clips to give guests the opportunity to reflect on their past. Campbell spent most of the hour playing a straight bat to Wilson’s questions, though he is still clearly angry about the claims by the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan that he “sexed up” the Iraq report about weapons of mass destruction.
Campbell listed the achievements of the Blair government, most notably the Good Friday Agreement. But as Wilson pointed out, Iraq is what it will be judged on.
As ever, Campbell was most interesting when he talked about his mental health. At 28 he suffered a breakdown while following the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock in Scotland. “I just decided to be very open about what happened. And I’ve never regretted that.”
That’s something he should be commended for, at least.
Book of the Week, Radio 4, 9.45am, Monday to Friday. Jackie Kay reads from her book about blues singer Bessie Smith.
Listen Out For:
TEDDY JAMIESON
ISLE OF DOGS
Sunday
Channel 4, 6.05pm
WES Anderson is one of the quirkiest and the most consistently inventive directors working today. Films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou are cult items, while his 2014 crowdpleaser The Grand Budapest Hotel brought deserved wins at the Oscars and the Golden Globes and his 2009 stop-motion animation Fantastic Mr Fox is nothing short of a modern masterpiece.
Anderson blends the whimsy of directors such as Whit Stillman and Hal Ashby (both big influences) with the oddball world-building of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of arthouse hits Amelie and (with Marc Caro) Delicatessen.
But on top of all that he adds something uniquely his own – a very particular world-view – and an ability to draw to his work a roster of regular collaborators which reads like a Who’s Who of everyone’s favourite actors. Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum and Tilda Swinton lead the list.
Anderson returned to stopmotion animation for 2018’s
Isle Of Dogs, which has nothing to do with the London district of that name and everything to do with an island filled with pooches.
The one in question is off the coast of fictitious Japanese city Megasaki where, at some point in the near future, an outbreak of something called canine flu has caused the authorities to round up all the dogs and isolate them – on Trash Island, so-called because it’s where previously the city’s junk was dumped.
One of the dogs which is caught and deported,
Spots Kobayashi, is the pet/ bodyguard of 12-year-old Atari, who happens to be the ward
Keitel, Greta Gerwig, F Murray Abraham and, playing a scientist called Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono. The real one.
HEREDITARY Netflix
Now streaming
TONI Collette and Gabriel Byrne star in this long and pleasingly uncompromising 2018 horror from young American director Ari Aster. If the name sounds familiar it’s because Aster followed this up a year later with critical hit Midsommar, like Hereditary a film with a strong of folk horror feel though where this film sticks close to the US – the action takes place in Utah – Midsommar dropped its stars Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor into the middle of a Swedish summer. Different country, same weird stuff happening though.
Collette is Annie Graham, an artist who specialises in creating exact miniatures of houses, people and even events.
Her real subject, though, is herself and her family, and in particular the troubled relationship she had with her mother Ellen, whose funeral opens the film. Collette delivers the most lukewarm of eulogies as husband Steve (Byrne) and teenage children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro) look on, and then they all return to a wake in the large, wooden and decidedly creepy house which the family had been sharing with Ellen until her death.
From that set-up, Aster throws in a second family tragedy (the extent to which you see it coming may determine how much you enjoy Hereditary) and then lets the story unspool slowly through a series of often dissociated scenes as the lives of the children come in and out of focus.
Annie makes a new friend in the form of Joan (Ann Dowd), who she meets at a bereaved person’s support group, and is persuaded to take part in a séance.
Strange things are already happening from that point Aster ramps it up, feinting this way and that to keep his audience guessing.
Although there is some bravura image-making – keep your eyes peeled: there are surprises in the corners of that big shadowy house – Hereditary will feel overly arty for some. But if a blend of Rosemary’s Baby, The Wicker Man and Japanese horror classic Ring is your thing, then it’s worth a couple of hours of your life – and come the end of it you couldn’t argue that Collette’s Best Actress accolade at the Fangoria Chainsaw horror awards was undeserved. She’s a great Scream Queen.
It’s A Sin (Cert 15)
Available now on All 4, available from February 22 on DVD £22.99
Russell T Davies’ emotionally raw five-part meditation on the Aids crisis, which recently completed its run on Channel 4, has been one of the television events of the year. It’s A Sin arrives swiftly on home formats to remind viewers of the exuberance and heartbreak of the gay scene of 1980s Britain.
Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Roscoe (Omari Douglas) and Colin (Callum Scott Howells) meet in London at the turn of the decade, excited by the prospect of pursuing their own destinies.
They move into a house, christened the Pink Palace, with Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) and Jill (Lydia West) and navigate a thrilling social scene that opens the lads’ eyes to sensual delights.
When newspaper headlines herald the arrival of a devastating virus, the five friends are confronted by their mortality but they vow to live and love more fiercely than ever.
Lovecraft Country - The Complete First Season (Cert 18)
Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) is determined to track down his missing father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams) in racially segregated 1950s America.
He embarks on a road trip with good friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and his uncle George (Courtney B Vance) into the beating heart of white states, where racism is the least of the group’s worries.
Atticus, Letitia and George face horrifying monsters, that could have thundered off the pages of a novel penned by HP Lovecraft. The three-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets include all 10 episodes.
The Owners (Cert 18)
TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/ TalkTalk TV Store and from March 1 on DVD £19.99 Nathan (Ian Kenny), best mate Terry (Andrew Ellis) and their pal Gaz (Jake Curran) stake out the home of Dr Richard Huggins (Sylvester McCoy) and his wife Ellen (Rita
Tushingham), who run a community practice from their ramshackle country pile. The three young men intend to break in and plunder the elderly couple’s electronic safe.
The best laid plans of three hapless thieves are derailed by the unexpected arrival of Nathan’s girlfriend Mary (Maisie Williams), who needs her car back so she can get to work.
She becomes embroiled in the bungled robbery and witnesses Nathan threatening to cut off the fingers of Mr Huggins with a Stanley knife unless her husband reveals the safe’s combination.
The medic pleads clemency for his frail and forgetful wife, who bears the deep emotional scars of losing their daughter.
Adapted from Hermann and Yves H’s graphic novel Une Nuit De Pleine Lune, The Owners is a twisted home invasion thriller, which ramps up the gore by delivering blunt force trauma to one woebegotten character in stomachchurning close-up.
Blood continues to flow freely on screen as protagonists kill with kindness in the name of survival. Fans of the diabolical 2016 horror Don’t Breathe will second-guess the script’s gnarly narrative beats, which gleefully upend polite assumptions.
The Jonathan Ross Show: Special Guests (STV, 10.40pm)
This compilation show looks back at some of the most memorable moments from recent series of the award-winning talk show. Among the highlights are Jonathan’s 2014 interview with the then London Mayor Boris Johnson, who appears to be more concerned with bantering with fellow guest James Corden and throwing in a history lesson, than pushing his campaign to become Prime Minister. There are also clips from the host’s chat with the queen of US chat shows Oprah Winfrey, as well as actors Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Dame Joan Collins, Danny Dyer, Carrie Fisher and Colin Farrell, comedians Michael McIntyre and
Russell Howard, rapper and TV presenter Big Narstie, and pop sensations One Direction.
SUNDAY
Dancing on Ice (STV, 6pm)
This current run of Dancing on Ice has been dubbed the “series of unfortunate events”. First of all, Graham Bell’s partner Yebin Mok suffered ‘a very nasty wound from an ice blade’, before Denise Van Outen quit when she fractured her shoulder in an accident. Then, Billie Faiers was absent after revealing her grandmother Wendy had tragically passed away and Rufus Hound withdrew after testing positive for Covid. The show’s producers will be hoping to avoid any more bad news this week the wings of Lawrence’s fearless performance.
TUESDAY
Shallow Grave (1994) (Film4, 9pm)
Three flatmates try to find a fourth person to share their spacious Edinburgh tenement, but their chosen new lodger dies of an overdose on his first night, leaving behind a suitcase full of cash.
They decide to keep quiet about his death and hang on to the money, but disposing of the body has a traumatic effect on one of the trio,
as the skaters take to the rink for Movie Week.
A Taste of Italy (More4, 7.25pm)
Chef and restaurateur Nisha Katona continues her exploration of Italy’s hidden foodie gems. In this episode, she travels to the sunny port town of Bari in the Puglia region, where she’s introduced to family recipes over 400 years old. Visiting Nonna Nunzia’s house, Nisha discovers orecchiette con cima di rapa – handmade orecchiette pasta with broccoli – and tries a potato and mussel dish and street food favourite scaligiozi – a fried polenta snack. And inspired by her adventures in Bari, Nisha cooks steamed mussels in white wine with potato and broccoli.