MEDIA LIST
mggIA
The List guide to what's best on the box overthe next fortnight.
FRIDAY 29
I Eisenhower and Lutz (C4) 5—5 .30pm. First in a new series from MTM (HillStreet Blues and St ELsewhere) about an enterprising young lawyer who has to balance his career and personal life. With hilarious results, no doubt.
I The Benn Diaries (C4) 8—9pm. With the aid of his copious diaries, Tony Benn charts how — from the day Harold Wilson was elected in February 1974 — the Labour Party brought defeat on itself by losing touch with its traditional supporters. IDmnibus(BBC1) 10.20—11.20pm. Since the programme is entitled Butterfly: The European Myth of the Oriental Woman, it’s hardly surprising that it includes filmed sequences of the current ENO production of Madam Butterfly and David Hwang‘s M Butterfly. But that myth is just the tip of the iceberg, and Omnibus looks at the real butterflies, drawn into prostitution in the Philippines, or abused in Vietnam.
SATURDAY 30
I Dance lntemational: Giselle (BBC2) 9.05—10.40pm. A new series ofdance works from around the world begins with the Swedish Cullberg Ballet tackling the familiar 19th century ballet, and injecting it with modern relevance.
I The Fruit Machine (Scottish) 10.30pm—12.30am. Philip Saville‘s camp 1988 film was seen as the first significant movie set in Liverpool since Letter to Brezhnev, and its publicity centred around the emetic thought of Robbie Coltrane in drag, but it‘s a fun ride, followingtwo l7-year-olds away from home get their first taste of the gay subculture — and the criminal underworld.
I Look Back in Laughter (C4)
11.15pm—12. 15am. This year’s Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture is given by Bill Cotton, whose years as head of BBC TV light entertainment are seen as a benchmark in British TV comedy. Using a variety of clips, he traces the development ofTV entertainment on both sides ofthe Atlantic.
I Tribute to James Dean (Scottish)
12.30—1 .30am. Features, incredibly, the only interview filmed with the heart-throb actor. These days. he'd be on the coverof all the lifestyle mags even before his first screen test.
SUNDAY 1
I Equinox (C4) 7-8pm. In a radical shift, wheelchair-owners are ‘going private’ and demanding more of their vehicles' design. Equinox looks at the improvements that could be made on the NHS standard and the prevailing view of the handicapped.
I Romancing the Stone (Scottish) 7.45-9.45pm. Funnier companion tothe Indiana Jones series, which made a few bob for Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito in 1984.
I Young Guns: Blrdy (BBC2) 10.10pm—12.05am. Alan Parker‘s self-indulgent but none the less notable post-Vietnam movie, concerning the lives of two friends Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine) and how they are altered when one of them, in a psychiatric hospital,
believes he has turned into one ofhis beloved feathered creatures.
I The South Bank Show (Scottish) 10.35—11.50pm. An extended specialon Jimi Hendrix - long-deserved, but doubtless as lopsided and frustrating as most ‘tributes‘ to the sublime genius ofthe electric guitar.
MONDAY 2
I Behind the Beat (BBC2) 6.25—6.55pm. Def ll‘s black music programme returns. This edition: Jermaine Jackson and New York rapper Queen Latifa. Also, haircuts on the dancefloor.
I Same Difference (C4) 6.30-7pm. The fourth series of C4‘s topical programme on disability issues.
I Boon (Scottish) 9_10pm. Michael Elphick’s eve r-popular troubleshooter returns for a new series, in which he and his sidekick Harry shift their Birmingham base of operations to Nottingham.
I First Run: Rustler’s Rhapsody (BBC2)
9L 10.30pm. Another season of films starts tonight, this time of first showings on British TV. Tom Berenger, in designer stetson, leads the cast in this 1985 cowboy spoof.
I American Power (C4) 9~ 10pm. The first of six potentially fascinating programmes in which American journalist Lewis Lapham investigates the rise and fall ofhis homeland‘s influence this century.
TUESDAY 3
I What's That Noise? ( BBCZ) 4.35—5pm. The second series of one of the least prejudiced music shows around — shame it‘s in a kids‘ slot. Craig Charles piles together Mozart, Napalm Death. Zydeco and Cliff Richard. Hope you‘re doing this at home!
I Did You Used to be R.D. Laing? (C4) 11.30pm—1.15am. The most important force in psychiatry for decades, or a charlatan who put the profession into disrepute? This film was made on one of Laing’s visits to Vancouver. and is screened as a tribute to the author of books like The Divided Selfand Knots. who died at the end ofAugust.
WEDNESDAY 4
I Nice Worlr (BBC2) 9.25—10.20pm. A four-parter adapted from the David Lodge novel, in which a young English Literature lecturer (Haydn Gwynne) is assigned the job of ‘shadowing‘ the director of a heavy engineering firm.
THURSDAY 5
I Out of Order (C4) 9—10.50pm. Taking over the Film on Four slot is a series ofhalf a dozen films commissioned by The Eleventh Hour. beginning with a video feature by Birmingham Film and Video Workshop.
I Unnecessary Suffering? (BBC2) 9.30—10.20pm. An investigation into what is inflicted on animals in laboratories and, indeed. what is inflicted on the labs and on many occasions the scientists who work in them, by anti-vivisectionist groups.
FRIDAY 6
I Killing the Dragon (C4) 8—9pm. Phra Chamroon Parchand. a Buddhist abbot in Thailand, claims a 70 per cent success rate for his heroin cure. which involves. among other things. a solemn oath never totouch drugs again and public mass vomiting sessions. IDmnibus(BBC1)10.20—11.20pm. What's the attraction of boxing for movie-makers and writers. asks Art in the Ring, by documentarist Kim Evans. Those taking part include Martin Scorsese. Norman Mailer. Willem Dafoe and the Raging Bull himself, Jake Lamotta.
SATURDAY 7
I Brewster's Millions (BBCl) 9.05—10.40pm. From the leading players— Richard Pryor and John Candy — we could have expected something better from the tale of a baseball pitcher (Pryor) who has to spend $30 million in a month in orderto inherit $300 million.
I Runaway Train (Scottish)
11.20pm— 1 .25am. Rollercoaster of a movie with Jon Voight. who plays a prisoner who goes on the run through
Baldies take heart! A new series of the ever-popular ‘Nalted Video' begins on
Friday 6, with the diminutive Kate Donnelly joining the regular team of
GREED
Elaine c Smith, Andy Gray, Tony Roper, Jonathan Watson and of course Gregor Fisher in a multiplicity of roles, but most notably the inimitable (though it’s often tried — usually on a Friday night at around closing time) Rab C Nesbitt. Kate introduces the character of super-yuppie Georgina - based on ‘a woman I once met in a nightclub who greeted me with the immortal words “I fly British Midland, who do you lly?”. Actually, Georgina terrifies me, she says so many horrible things.’ The first edition, we are promised, is a Batmania special, in which the cast wreak their awful revenge on the caped crusader. Not. . . Rab as The Brown Bonle, surely?
Alaska on a train that literally can't stop. And with the Warden being winched dim n from a helicopter on top of him as well.
SUNDAY 8
I The Media Show (C4) 8—9pm. With our Mu off working on her new series Walkie Talkies. the anchor job is taken over by Emma Freud. who plans such items as MPs grooming themselves in preparation for the introduction ol‘camera to Parliament. interviews with two of the most powerful women in Hollywood and some of Britain's more offbeat video collectors
MONDAY 9
I Water Underthe Bridge (1313(‘1 ) 2.15—3.50pm. An Australian three-parter spread across Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. lt‘s Sydney in 1919. and a young actress gives tip her career to look after the young son oitwo friends who have died in that year's influenza epidemic.
I Eat the Kimono ((‘4) l lpm—lZ. 10am. A series ofJapanesc performance art starts next week. but as a foretaste. here‘sa
’ documentary on llanayagi (ienshu —
political. avant-garde performance artist -< who was sentenced to jail for stabbing the leader of Japan‘s top dance school.
TUESDAY 10
I Floyd’s American Pie (B B(‘2)s.20-9pm. The Beeb's fave gastronaut Keith Floyd begins a tour round the States. sampling the delicacies of each region on the way. Tonight: crawfish pie in New Orleans.
I Viewpoint '89 (Scottish) 1035—1 1 .35pm. Wilfred Thesigcr must be the last of the great explorers. having spent his days in some of the most remote and dangerous places on the earth. exploring them and taking photos.
WEDNESDAY 11
I Signals (C4) 9. 15— 10pm. Theme Park Britain. A country in which a new theme park of some desription opens every fortnight (from robotic Royals to historical smells — is there a difference?) merits serious investigation.
I Around the World in Eighty Days ( BB(‘l) 9.35pm. Michael l’alin attempts tofollow in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg. incorporating his sense of humour and 300 kilos of excess baggage.
I Cinema Canada: We Heard the Mermaids Singing (C4) 1(l—l 1.40pm. Patricia Rozcma‘s comedy received a standing ovation at Cannes in 1987. due in part to Sheila McCarthy's scatterbrained heroine. Polly.
THURSDAY 12
IATribute to JulieAndrews(Scottish) 9:10pm. For serious lollowe rs ofkitsch only.
I Fight Cancer(BB(‘1)
11.50pm— l 2.20am. Part of Britain‘s contribution to Iiuropean (‘ancer Week. this programme is presented by Martyn Lewis and Lynne ( lvy 'I'ilsley) l’errie. w ho challenge prevailing attitudes and explode myths surrounding the disease.
The List 29 September — 12 October 1989 67