MEDIA LIST
FRIDAY 28 " ‘ "
I Bugsy Malone (BBCI ) 7.3(l—9pm. Alan (Mississippi Burning. Midnight [zit/Hess) Parker‘s kids-as-gangsters movie. which is only really disturbing ifyou think about it too hard. Some great slapstick splurging sequences.
I Beauty, Bonny. Daisy. Violet. Grace and Geoffrey Morton (C4) 8-9pm. The fondlyuremcmbercd documentary ofone man and his shire horses. praised for the intimate way it presents the down-to-earth Yorkshire farmer. launches a season by the Canadian film-maker Frank Cvitanovich.
I The Godfather Saga (BBCZ) 9-10.3(ipm. What. again? No complaints. though. for though the two Oscar-winning movies have been split into five parts the standard is unsurpassable throughout.
‘ RDAY 29
I Great British Isles (C4) o.3ti—7pm. Virgin Soldiers author Leslie Thomas utilises planes. trains and automobiles to transport him round islands he has known and loved. First stop: Scilly.
I Beethoven: Symphony No 6 A series of Beethoven concerts starts with the ‘Pastoral‘ symphony. Roger Norrington conducts the London Classical Players.
I The Session (BBCZ) 8. 15—9pm. Not the musical jams of recent months on (‘4. but a programme on a form of therapycallcd psychodrama. which even if it didn't come from California should have. Ordinary men and women resolve their problems by acting them out. This is a documentary. I hasten to add. not the latest Cilla Black project.
I Stevie Wonder’s Birthday Celebration (BBCI) ll). iii—11.10pm. The Wembley Arena shows. taking a stroll through the master‘s prodigious output from ‘Fingertips‘ onwards. Second part next Saturday.
SUNDAY 30
I Earth Calling Basingstoke (C4) 7—8pm. An interesting and endearing-looking Equinox that zooms in on amateur astronomers in Britain — a network that the professionals are findinginvaluable. I Krameer Kramer (BBC! ) 7. 15—8.55pm. Showeer with Oscars in its time. but not a film Hoffman and Streep can be especially proud of now. I The Nature of Australia (BBCZ) 8.20—9. 15pm. Repeat showing for this series. which kicks off by explaining why the European settlers were so freaked out by the wildlife of this new world. I Tales from the Hollywood Hills (C4) 9—- lflpm. The first of six dramatisationsof short stories by literary figures like Fitzgerald. Faulkner and Wodehouse.set in the Thirties. Michelle Pfeiffcr. fresh from Dangerous Liaisons. stars in John 0'} Iara's .N'atica Jackson. I A Kind of Loving (C4) lllpm-IZ. 10am. Seminal kitchen sink drama. with all the macho overtones that implies. from 1963. written by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse. Confirmed Alan Bates as a major film actor. I Romania —A State of Fear ( BBCI) 10.10—10.5(ipm. Smuggled footage ofthe havoc President Ceausescau‘s ‘systematisation‘ is wreaking on Romania‘s cultural heritage. and the
abuses of human rights caused by his Stalinist style ofgovernment. IAlphaville(BBC2)10.55pm—ll.4tiam. This week's Moviedro/nc is Jean-Luc (iodard‘s 1965 tribute to the American gangster movie. which introduces at SF twist to the genre. Visually very engaging. I Wuthering Heights (Scottish)
ll.()5pm— lam. [.arry ()livier and Merle Oberon in the definitive screen version. A masterpiece of its time.
MONDAY 31
I Scottish Action (Scottish) (i.3(l—7pm. The dangers of Scotland's beaches.
I Wogan(BBC1) 7—7.35pm. A rare interview with Liza Minelli. who joins with The Pet Shop Boys — gasp! — fora rendition of their new single losing My Mind'.
I The Blasphemer's Banquet ( BBC!)
9.30— 1(). 10pm. Banned authors from the past are disintcrred by poet and playwright Tony Harrison in support of Salman Rushdie. Watch out for Moliere. Byron and Omar Khayyam.
I Scottish Action Special on Aids (Scottish ). With little sign of people changing their behaviour it's time for a reminder that HIV is spreading like wildfire. The first programme of four.
I Sounds of Eden (BBCZ) 1 1 . 15—1 l.55pm.
A chance to enjoy the support acts from the fiden Court Theatre. Invcrness: The Kevin McDermott Orchestra. Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and Diesel Park West. Plus highlights of the headlining bands.
I | Love Lucy ( C-l) (i—(i._‘sllpin. Channel 4 commence the massive undertakingof transmitting all I79episodesofLucille Ball‘s phenomenally popular comedy. This one will run and run. See Short list. I This Food Business (C4 ) S.3ll—‘)pm. Leading foodie Derek Cooper takes the reins in a four-part British Food and Farming Year investigation into the farming. manufacture and safety ofthe food we eat.
I Blood VowsumCl ) sthin—t 1pm. A'i‘y' movie with former child star Melissa (iilbe rt in her first adult role as a woman who discovers she's married into the Mafia.
I The Home Front ( BBCZ)‘).3(l—-lll.3()pm. In the last of the series Patrick Nuttgcns goes to Iiasterhousc to see the effect of housing policy there. and how the residents are facing the future.
I First Tuesday ( Scottish) Ill.35--l 1 .35pm. A rare chance to hear sery ing and former soldiers talk frankly about their experiences in Northern Ireland.
I The Late (C4) l3.3ll—2.4llum_ Two very contrasting giants of black musicover the last 3“ years: Curtis Mayficld andTaj Mahal.
WEDNESDAY 2
I Antenna (BBCB) s. Ill—9pm. Soviet psychiatry has been shunned since 1983. alter a hail of accusations of malpractice and abuse. Antenna brings the subject up to date.
I Everest—The Hardest Way( BBC!)
9.3M 10.30pm. The incredible tale oflohn I lawkridgc. disabled by cerebral palsy.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS
‘Heavenly' is a new series of six short films from the Edinburgh company Barony Film and TV Productions, each instalment to be shown as a segment of ‘Club X’, beginning on Wednesday 2. Taped entirely on the streets of the Capital, it’s the only Scottish contribution so far to Channel 4’s Wednesday superstore of trendy youth indulgence.
Alan Cumming, better known as Barry of Victorand Barry fame, plays a baseball-booted angel with a tendency for rhyming couplets, who falls down to earth with the mission of bringing a little wonder back into this cynical world. And in each of the six- to eight-minute instalments he muses to himself on the human condition in a way that perhaps only anotherangel could understand, nearly fainting in awe at the girl behind the make-up counter at Boots and seeing meaning in an old game of ‘Haunted House' as if it were “like opening Tutankhamun's
tomb‘. All this with Edinburgh as a backdrop — the touristy New Town, of course, a safe distance from anything unpleasant.
Only the perplexingly shaggy horror story of a murdered Brosette plunges to depths of incomprehensibility worthy of a true ‘Club X' contender, but it‘s hard to fathom exactly what point writer and director Mark Cousins is trying to get across when he devotes a head-scratching instalment to a fantastic ban on dressing gowns.
If it all sounds ‘wonderfully wacky’, it is. But a little too full of itself, seemingly unconcerned whetherany meaning at all will emerge from the swamps of trivia surrounding snagging, Bros, OscarWilde’s views on fashion and what kind of dressing gown is worn by Nicholas Witchall. The best line of the first episode is an explosion of enthusiasm over the unexpected joys of the record shelves at Woolworths: ‘No one deliberately puts Tammy Wynette, Tony Christie, Placido Domingo and Run-DMC together. It’s accident-or genius!‘ Would it be too snidey to suggest that this serendipitous method may have been followed a little too slavisth in the making of ‘Heavenly’? (Alastair Mabbott)
TUESAY 1
who took tip his sticks and made it tothe slopes of the highest mountain in the world — by a route which has killed sortie able-bodied mountaineers. A ‘must see‘ if ever there was one.
THURSDAY 3
I Xerxes (C4) (1.3(1—7pm. ls the saga of three randy Swedish school-leavers intent on sleeping with as many girls as possible going to be the threat to .\'t'ig/ihoiirs that (‘4 are claiming? Well. if Michael Barrymore and Bobby Davro can capture the popular imagination. anything's possible.
I Restless Natives (C4)9-1(i.45pm. Timely and sound advice. (ict on your Suzuki 125 and ride around Edinburgh looking for tourists to extort money from. No venue needed. no scenery. rehearsals or scripts — they'll be glad to fork it out ifit saves them from watching another rotten play.
I Loving Memory (BBCJ) l 1.15—1 1.45pm. In Naples the dead only get to rest fortwo years before being exhumed and sloshed with alcohol and talced all over with napthaline. Have you the stomach for this programme?
I From Here to EternitytScottish)
I 1.50pm 2.35am. Sinatra. Borgniiic. Lancaster and (‘Iift in the classic 1953 movie dealing with the tensions in an army camp as Pearl Harbour. unknown to them. approaches. Hollywood gem.
FRIDAY 4
I Bunny (C4) 8—9pm. The Frank Cvitanovich season continues with this moving portrait ovaitanovich's brain-dariiagcd son. who showed improvement after total sensory bombardment accelerated his brain development. btit failed to live beyond childhood.
I Survival Special (Scottish). 3-9pm. Ecologist Adam Watson takes a hike through the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands and uncovers some of the rarest creatures in the country.
SATURDY 5
IEpitaph (C4) 1 Ipm- 1.50am. Billed by the New York Times as ‘()ne of the most memorable events of the decade‘ the programme features the world premiere of the longest and largest work ever recorded by a jazz. orchestra. Maybe not riiiicli else happened in New York ov er the last ten years.
I Casually: A Wing and a Prayert BM ‘1) 9.2!) III. lllpm. ()ne episode riot shown in the last series. it features the late Roy Kiniiear ironically playing a heart attack y ictim in his last 'I‘\’ role.
SUNDAY 6
I New York! New York! ((4) ” Spin. Stat-t spreading the word . . The Big Apple's unsung heroes are the feature ol this quuinox programme. We meet the men who are responsible for the sew age that could fill the Yankee Stadium tour timesa day (responsible lor disposing ol it that is), Similar statistics abound such as the w atei mains that could stretch liallw ay round the world and the fact that New York has enough statistics to make an hour long'I'\' documentary about it?
IBodyheattSl‘y') In._‘~5pm 13.35am. William Hurt is the Florida lawyer who getsinyoly ed with a married woman. Katherine Turner. Between them they decide it‘s time to cash iii her husband's life insurance policy without consulting liirii. if you get my drift.
MONDAY 7
IWogantiiliCl ) “ Utipm. With It l'cl away on his hols. motormoiith Bert Izlton takesoy er for two weeks. interviewing himself nonstop. Actually some giicstsare scheduled to appear though it'sey en money as to w hethei‘ they can get a word in cdgeways.
The List 28July— lllAugust I989 37