MEDIA LIST
for his moderation. Robin Bailey as the Baron. 15.
SUNDAY
0 Gertrude Stein and a Companion (R3) 7.45pm Winner ofa Fringe First Award at
the Edinburgh Festival, Win Wells‘
play with the original cast. about the entertaining and outrageous
y Gertrude Stein and her affectionate companion. Alice B. Toklas. amidst a constellation of artists. Produced
by Stewart Conn in Edinburgh.
MONDAY 16
f 0 Special Anniversary Concert for the 50th Anniversary of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (R3 & R
Scotland) 7.30pm. From the newly
opened 550 Centre at Broadcasting
House. Glasgow. the programme includes the first performance of
'. John Maxwell Geddes’ ‘Voyager’
, commissioned by the BBC for this
orchestra. two concert arias by
Mozart (Isobel Buchanan sings) and f Sibelius‘ Symphony No 2 in D.
3 (Reviewed in Prospect Sun 22 Dec,
' R Scotland 2.30pm).
I SATURDAY
21
o Cinderella (R4) 11.30am
Closing the gap between fairy stories
and the news? First ofa series of - three in which presenters like Libby g Purves, John Timpson. Margaret
Howard. Brian Redhead and Nicholas Parsons fare with the fairies.
o Solstice (R4) 10.30pm
Subject not just to pagan rivalry. but also to anomalies ofthe calendar and the calculations ofan apparently not-so numerate Russian monk (who
; miscounted four years when
f introducing the Christian calendar) the timing of the celebration of
: Christmas is no coincidental affair.
- The Winter Solstice was (and is) the
2 time when the sun was dipped lowest (and the day therefore the shortest)
and the pre-Christian world
appealed for its return. The Winter
Solstice falls on 21 Dec and in an
unstable world of unreliable almanacs, it’s good to see that the
BBC, at least, gets the date right. Produced by Patrick Rayner in
5 Edinburgh.
MONDAY 23
5 o Depeche Mode in Concert (R Clyde) - 7pm
o The Musician in Scotland (R
i Scotland) 9. 15pm
. There are two of them. David Horne and Steven Osbourne from St Mary’s
School were joint prize winners in
g the piano recital class in the 1985
3 Edinburgh Competition Festival.
This broadcast was part of the prize.
24
0 Festival at Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College Chapel, Cambridge (R4 World Service). A tense period until approx 2.50pm when the chosen soloist for Once in Royal David’s City is told who it is, just before the start of the traditional evocative concert. (Repeated Christmas Day R3, 3.30pm).
TUESDAY
0 Alice in Wonderland (R4) 7.30pm Without pictures of conversations, the sounds will have to take care of themselves. in this musical version. Music by Carl Davis (sequel at 7.30pm, 25 Dec).
29
o The Barber of Seville (R3) 7 .30pm In fact. when Rossini did it. it was the opera ofthe play. Similarly. the Marriage of Figaro and the lesser known, A Mother’s Guilt. Repeat of the Figaro plays by Beaumarchais, performed as a trilogy for the first time earlier this year. Dorothy Tutin heads a specially assembled cast. (Second and third plays 1 & 5 Jan 7.30pm).
MONDAY 30
o Glasgow’s Greatest Hits (R Clyde) 7pm
Live performance of the biggest hits of 1985 as they were recorded by Radio Clyde.
0 They Think You'll Like It (R Scotland) 7.30pm
They’ll certainly do their best to make you. A ‘them and us‘ divide operates in advertising. David Young investigates the manipulators and the manipulated in promoting the image ofdrink in Scotland.
0 The Musician in Scotland (R Scotland) 9. 15pm
100 years since they were first published and losing none of their charm, this is the first performance of Ronald Stevenson’s special BBC commission to set Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses to music. Sung by pupils from St Mary’s Music School
SUNDAY
31
o Vespers tor the Festival at our Lady of Mount Carmel (R3) 2.45pm
Rarely performed and specially recorded (part of the Handel tercentenary celebration) this is a repeat of the successful concert by the EurOpean Baroque Orchestra with the Taverna Choir.
WEDNESDAY 1
0 New Year’s Day Annual Concert from the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra (R3) 10am
Live broadcast of the traditional concert from Vienna.
0 Worldwide Request (R Forth)
l lam—3pm
Resolve to speak to them next year - family requests to and from Radio Forth country listeners.
TUESDAY
THURSDAY 2
0 Music Youth Day ( R3) 10am
A day of music performed and composed by, for and about the young. It includes piano sonatas by the youthful Prokofiev (at 18), Stravinsky (at 22), the Helsinki Children’s String Orchestra and Oliver Knussen’s opera, ‘Where the Wild things Are’. The day begins with a Robert Mayer concert which includes ‘Noon Day Witch’ by Dvorak, a re-telling of the Czech fairy tale.
VIDEO
0 Commando Leopard (Anthony M. Dawson, W Germany, 1985) Lewis Collins, Klaus Kinski, Christina Donadio (Entertainment in Video) During the 19605 cinema screens were bombarded by spaghetti westerns, now the video shelves are about to groan under the weight of spaghetti Rambos. For anyone concerned over the fate of ex-Professional Lewis Collins this is the answer; Cheapskate. action-packed European fodder. He plays the leader of an élite attack force with a mission to destroy the fascist presidency in a South American country. Dire.
O Garbo Talks (Sidney Lumet. US, 1984) Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver. Carrie Fisher (Warner Home Video) Fiery Bancroft, a woman of independent mind and free spirit, is diagnosed as suffering from an inoperable brain tumour. Her dying request seems to ask the impossible — she wants to meet reclusive screen goddess Greta Garbo. Her son embarks on this quest, following leads among the ex-glitterati of New York, bankrupting himselfand finally catching some of the wilful individuality that was his mother’s trademark.
Mawkish, but oddly affecting comedy drama featuring a gutsy performance by Bancroft.
0 The Jigsaw Man (Terence Young, UK, 1983) Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Susan George, Robert Powell (Thorn-EMI) Caine is a famed defector who assumes a new identity and returns to Britain to retrieve a dossier detailing payments to KGB agents in this improbable cloak and dagger mularkey. Olivier
The late Leonard Rossiter in Water (see above)
looks frail but is in commanding form as the devious, arthritic Head of the British Secret Service. The film creaks a bit too.
O The Keep (Michael Mann, US. 1983) Scott Glenn, Alberta Watson, Ian McKellen (CIC Video) A detachment of German troops are assigned to guard the Dinu Pass in the Carpathian Alps during the Second World War. They reside at The Keep. a sinister-looking edifice that proves to be possessed by a i blood-letting, malevolent spirit. !
Dazzling special effects and a stunning visual look shore up an incomprehensible, messy story of gothic horror from the creator of Miami Vice.
0 13 at Dinner (Lou Antonio, US. 1985) Faye Dunnaway, Peter Ustinov, Diane Keen (Warner Home Video) Glitzy. fickle American actress Dunaway is desperately seeking a divorce from her aristocratic spouse who remains impervious to her many demands. When he is found murdered the
finger of suspicion points squarely in her direction. However, her newfound acquaintance Hercule Poirot is intrigued by the case and decides to investigate . . .
It’s always a pleasure to encounter Ustinov’s wily Belgian sleuth and Dunaway adds a touch of class to this Agatha Christie mystery that doesn’t place too many demands on the little grey cells.
0 Water (Dick Clement, UK, 1984) Michael Caine, Billy Connolly, Leonard Rossiter (Rank Video) Caine is the governor of a one-dog British dependency in the Caribbean whose life is a living hell complicated by economic worries, a Spitfire wife and rebel forces led by Connolly.
Despite a cast of able farceurs Water starts with a trickle of promise but soon degenerates into a torrent of overplotted, ripely overacted cliches and caricatures. Disappointing.
The List 13 Dec—9Jan 49