TELEVISION i
SUNDAY
0 0n Golden Pond (STV) 7.45—9.45pm
Crotchety, octogenarian professor spends his final summer at the family’s lakeside retreat in Maine and is reconciled with his daughter whilst refusing to go gently into the night. Heart-warming1981 film featuring a brilliant Oscar—winning performance from Henry Fonda.
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MONDAY 1 o Monsignor Quixote (STV) 9.30—11.45
Alec Guiness and Leo McKern star in this adaptation of the recent Graham Greene novel about a village priest and his unlikely holiday companion — the communistic ex-mayor ofthe village.
TUESDAY 17
0 Food and Drink (BBC2) 8.30—9pm Timely recommendations for festive fare; Madhur Jaffrey shares her recipe for spicy exotic turkey stuffing, Auberon Waugh selects affordable red wines and Rabbi Lionel Blue makes Jewish speicalities— potato pancakes and baked bananas.
WEDNESDAY 18
0 American Ballet Theatre at the Met (Channel 4) 9—10.50pm.
Mikhail Baryshnikov and the American Ballet Theatre perform excerpts from Les Sylphides, Sylvia,
Triad and Paquita. THURSDAY 19 0 Christmas Present (Channel 4) 9.30—10.55
Prosperous city bankers Hammonds
insist on one Yuletide tradition that a
poor family‘s Christmas is made a happy one with their financial
assistance. A new director is charged
with this task but the best laid schemes. . . 1985 Film on Four Production.
SATURDAY 21
0 That Yankee Doodle Dandy (BBC2) Documentary tribute to film star
James Cagney with excerpts from his
most celebrated work including Public Enemy and White Heat. His 1981 comeback film Ragtime will be shown on 30 December.
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SUNDAY
o A Christmas Carol (STV) 10.30—11am Animated version of the Dickens
48TheList13 Dec-9Jan
. production by Bill Bryden and will
The Nativity, The Passion and
retrospective of the work of veteran
‘. lavish and elaborate oi productions to emerge from the silent era.
Festival when Douglas Fairbanks Jr
MEDLA LIST
TUESDAY 24
o The Lady Vanishes (Channel 4) 9.35—11.25
This classic Hitchcock thriller is another example of the talents of British filmmakers Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat who are featured on Channel 4 with a dozen titles
‘ ranging from the felicitous teaming ; of Margaret Rutherford and Alastair 4 Sim in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) to the Deborah
classic with the voices ofAlastair S' . . and Michael Redgrave. lm ; Kerr—Trevor Howard thriller I See a
0 The Mysteries (Channel 4) 9. 15 Dark Stranger (1946)-
The Mystery Plays grew out of an
attempt to make the Latin services of f the Church more intelligible to the ' . The Thief 0' Baghdad (Channel 4) common hordes and gradually 4.457.40pm
evolved into a fullblown theatrical ' sec panel.
event. Now Channel 4 has adapted . Minder“ me oriem “press (STV) the recent National Theatre 7.30_9.30pm
Thames bid farewell to a nice little ‘ earner withthisfeature-length f Minder film. Arthur and Terry find
show this over three nights covering
Doomsday. . themselves at the centre ofan
underworld war when they acquire ? two tickets foratrip on the Orient 0 What’s Up Chuck? (BBC2) : 33:16: a I? Cifgaiii'th and Honor
A Christmas highlight is this ten-part . Des O’Connor Tomgm (STV)
9.30—10.4()pm
Special Christmas guests include : Joan Collins and Dudley Moore. J o Gregory’s Girl (STV)
Hollywood animator Chuck Jones responsible in his time for Bugs Bunny, Road Runner. Tom and Jerry and a host ofothers. Jones - 10.50pm_12.353m
introduces the “"0095 ; Bill Forsyth‘s fresh, witty 1980
SILENT NIGHTS
if}; , ‘ ‘5' t 36’ “’1'. ~ ( \M . o ‘ E: a. . . I.
I
Fairbanks Jr has been a veritable chip oil the old block, crossing swords with the best at them in The Corsican Brothers and Sinbad the Sailoryet he believes that silence was golden when It came to making films In the lantasy-adventure genre. ‘Fantasy was more possible in the days 01 the silent cinema. With the coming oi sound you had to become more literal, although Disney was a notable exception to that. Fantasy In Its purest sense ls hard to do unless it’s some shocker thing with monsters going boo in the dark. Pure lantasy involves the same principles of audience cooperation you Iind in Peter Pan. I'm often asked why my Iather’s work has endured and, although it may sound pompous, I don’t thlnkthere has been anybody like him. Silent movies penetrated everywhere, there were no language barriers and people like my
Dne oi the highlights ol the Iestive viewing season is a rare chance to see the 1924 Arabian Nights lantasy The Thiel oi Baghdad (Channel 4, Christmas Day). It shows swashbuckling star Douglas Fairbanks Sr at his peak and was one at the most
The lllm provided a spectacular climax to the 1984 London Film
told me, ‘I’ve always thought It was his linest artistic venture. I’m sure he thought so too. It you like, It was the best at the best. His classic period was from 1921 to 1929, alterthat he didn’t
, seem to care and really lost interest.’ In 1924 The Thiel oI Baghdad utilised
the largest sets ever built In Hollywood
! and cost 2 million dollars to make. Film
g historian Kevin Brownlow reckons that
I 30 mum," “on” be needed to make lather were seen and known by millions
1 me mm you”. across the globe.’ (Allan Hunter)
comedy starring John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan.
o Wogan — Dropping in on Denver (BBCl)
Our Tel journeys to the Carrington mansion to meet his favourite Dysentry stars and peek behind the scenes of the glossiest soap in the business.
0 Edge of the Wind (BBC2)
John Mills makes his BBC drama debut in this moving story of a wheelchair bound Major and his sardonic manservant played by Omar Sharif.
0 Citizen Kane (BBC2)
One of the greatest films of all time heralds the beginning of an Orson Welles tribute that includes The Magnificent Ambersons. Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight.
FRIDAY 27 0 Stanley Baxter’s Christmas Hamper (BBCI)
See main feature.
0 Coming Through (STV) (+1030 Alan Plater dramatisation of the scandalous love affair between Frieda Wekley and D. H. Lawrence. Helen Mirren and Kenneth Branagh star.
SUNDAY
0 Lyrics by Tim Rice (81V) 10.15—11.45pm
Barbara Dickson, Elaine Paige, Andrew Lloyd Webber and a host of others join in tribute to the talents of
T Rice. MONDAY 30
o Silas Mamer(BBC1)
Ben Kingsley and Jenny Agutter star in this version of George Eliot’s classic novel of an embittered weaver whose life gains new meaning when he is entrusted with the raising of a child.
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WEDNESDAY
o Mistral’s Daughter (STV) 8.30—10.3()
First ofthe three-part mini-series from the Judith Kranz best-seller about a young Jewish girl who runs away from home to become an artist’s model. Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Stacy Keach star.
FRIDAY 3
o Dynasty(BBCl)8.15—9pm
As a curtain-raiser to the BBC’s latest American acquisition ‘The Colbys of California‘ Charlton Heston and Barbara Stanwyck join the cast of Dynasty to familiarise audiences with their characters and hopefully get ’em watching the other series. A canny ploy.
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SATURDAY
o Munchausen (R4) 3.30pm “Narrative Drama’ euphemistically states the case for the Adventures of Baron von Munchausen, not known