TELEVISION
SATURDAY 17
0 Get Fresh! (SW) 9.25-1 1.30am. Remember when it was last worth getting up for Saturday morning kids‘ tv‘.’ Normally KidJenson et al wouldn‘t warrant even a twitch in the duvet, but this morning special guests are Hipsway and The Pet Shop Boys (See Hipsway Feature). 0 The Killing of Sister George (Channel4) 1().55pm—l.25am. First ofa briefseries of films linked to
Open the Box (See Monday).
SUNDAY18
0 Same Game - Different Rules (Channel 4) 6. 15—7. 15pm. At twenty-three. Mike Nemesvary had been seen by millions in the spectacular opening sequence of the Bond film. View to a Kill. and he was
set to become the World Freestyle Ski Champion. v Then a year ago today he blacked out
during trampoline practice, fell on his neck and severed his spine. This film tells the story of his fight to regain any movement at all in his limbs.
MONDAY 19
0 Four Minutes: Sister Catherine (Channel 4) 9.55- 10pm. Ever the inventive ones, Channel 4 now present the four minute play. Alex Spencer plays a young nun who receives a mysterious valentine . . .First in a new series.
0 Open the Box (Channel 4) 10-1 1pm.
Bound to be better than the awful Television, this new documentary series aims to analyse how the medium works. The first ofsix documentaries. A Part of the Furniture describes the effect of tv in our everyday lives and includes a scene of a woman‘s uncontrollable griefat the death of Bobby Ewing.
TUESDAY 20
O F.S.D. (BBC 1) 10.55pm. Featuring tonight Eugene Reynolds (he of the Rezillos ofold) and Glasgow‘s Wet. Wet. Wet.
0 Tim (BBC 2) 9—10.35pm. The best of 02 season of films continues with this 1979 melodrama starring Mel Gibson as a mentally retarded young man befriended by a middle-aged business woman (Piper Laurie). A difficult love affair develops. Thorn Birds auth ‘Jr Colleen McCullogh is responsible for this slightly ridiculous film. which nevertheless demonstrates that Gibson is one of the best film actors around.
WEDNESDAY 21
o The Maytestlve Scotland Today
32 The List 16— 29 May
(STV 6.15—7pm) Alex Norton and Sheena McDonald look at the business of Festivals. Why do they flourish in times ofcconomic troubles?
THURSDAY 22
0 Heat and Dust (Channel 4) 9.30—1 1.30pm. First in the new season of Film on Four— movies commissioned by C4. James Ivory and Ismail Merchant‘s beautiful film starring Julie Christie and Christopher Cazenove. Made in 1982. it started the fashion for romances on the theme ofa mysterious India.
SUNDAY 25
0 Country Matters (Channel 4). Time to be announced. Craven Arms by
5.
BBC Scotland breaks new ground on Wednesday 28 when it transmits a television drama with a simultaneous stereo soundtrack on Radio Scotland forthe firsttime. ‘The Killing Time' is written and directed by Mike Barnes who says that a lot of attention was paid to the soundtrack and that the play itself might be considered ‘a bit controversial'.
Set at the time of the Falklands War, it begins with what seems a relatively straightforward missing persons case for private investigator, Alice Green (Marla MacDonell). She is sent to the village of Kllmaln to look for Matt Doyle who has been missing from the local asylum for two weeks. Once there, she discovers all is not as it should be: strange objects are being washed up on the beach, the police are keen to pass Doyle off as having drowned and the asylum — now deserted — was set up by the government for victims of ‘special missions’. Alice discovers Ilnks
M ,_ MEDIA LIST
A.E. Coppard. Award winning
wonderful and remarkable set of
plays from Granada made in 1972. Based on stories by HE. Bates and
A.E. Coppard. they sey new standards for tv and lead to later triumphs Brideshead and Jewel in the Crown. Watch them if only to confirm a sneaking feeling that tv is no longer able to to tackle tender. explicit stories of love with the same frankness.
WEDNESDAY 28
o The Killing Time (BBC 1) 10.25—11.35pm. Experimental drama—see panel.
THURSDAY 29
0 Paris Texas (Channel 4) 9.30pm. Haunting commentary on American life. The dislocating directorial style
ofdirector Wim Wenders combines
MIXED MEDIA
. \
with Sam Shepard‘s sparce vision to create a memorable landscape of arridity.
0 Open Space (BBC 2) 10.20pm. the story ofa sex-change man. Joan. and ‘his‘ wife Chris. They live together on the Isle ofSkye as a married couple. but have fought long and hard to win respect and legal recognition.
between Doyle‘s disappearance, a dead journalist and certain documents the governmentwould like to keep quiet, before finding out that she
is not the only one doing some investigating . . .
Barnes, who was responsible for the highly acclaimed play, ‘In Darkness Visible -The Story of Margaret Watkins’ broadcast last year, says that he was keen that ‘The Killing Time' should not look like any other BBC Scotland programme and in this he has certainly succeeded. With a soundtrack by fim Souster which is both haunting and innovative, ‘The Killing Time' is by turns confusing, irritating and slightly pretentious yet ultimately compelling. Shot in Glasgow and Anstruther in August last year, ‘The Killing Time’ is broadcast on Wednesday May 28 at 10.25pm on BBC 1 and on BBC Radio Scotland at the same time.
(Graham Caldwell)
l on R4. Mon 3o. S45am.
RADIOl
The BBC Monitoring Service at Caversham investigates arts { broadcasting on international radio stations (amongst them Voice of America. Radio Moscow and Deutsche Welle). Do the arts as projected by these media act as a mirror of the state'.’ Kaleidoscope Extra. Wed 21 . R4. 9.45pm. Brian Matthew. gives his opinion of the state ofthe art in four ‘live‘ broadcasts from New York - Round Midnight. Mon 1‘). R2. 1 1pm.
More reviews on arts comments in Prospect. Sun 18. R Scotland. 2.30pm; a look at the new arts magazine. ‘Review' (which did not even give Mayfest a mention in its current issue). plus comments from the editor. Bernard Barnett. Mishima the Japanese novelist and playwright. always generates most interest for his ritualistic suicide death and his passionate and compulsive life was made into a film by Paul Shradcr last year. On Fri 23. R3. 0.20pm his ‘Noh‘ play. The Damask Drum is broadcast. in which the classical and highly stylized dramatic form is used to examine post-war Japan Produced by Ned Chaillct.
Alan Blcastlalc. creator ofthe unforgettable Yosser ‘gi'uss’a job‘ Hughes in 'l'he Boys from the Blackstuff and more recently author of No Surrender (due to be released in Scotland in .lune). chooses My Top Ten as Andy l’eebles guest. Sat 17.
R l . 2pm.
Shaun MacCoughlin. author of CathyCome Home. is the writer of Virgin ofthe ClearWays'l‘ues 27. R3. 7.30pm in which male middle-aged middle class meets 17 year old streetwise female credibility. A different sort of play Where are you Wally which could nevertheless be a potent piece of theatre is on Saturday night. 17 May. R4 7pm. An unusual kinship develops over the air in late-night radio talks between the pursuer (Bill Paterson as detective) and the pursued.
Headlines, Deadlines and the inside story of Fleet Street is unravelled by Lord Cudlipp. former editor ofthe Sunday Pictorial. Alan Watkins. political columnist of the Observer David Nicholas. Chief Executive of l'l'N and Angus Mcl)ermid. former BBC Correspondent. The expose takes a series of four programmes. It begins Fri 23. R4. 8.20pm.
The Girl in his Past is the problem in a new(ieorges Simenon Book at bedtime. beginning Sun lo’. R4. 10.15pm; and as a gentle start to what is going to be an exhaustineg energetic summer ofsport. the cricket season begins; Christopher Martin Jenkins presents the programme on the Iingland v India one day international. with added comments from 'l'ony Lewis and Ray lllingworth. The much acclaimed and oft-repeated Penge Papers “the confessions ofan unwaged metropolitan househusband’ by Brian Wright. are repeated - again - II