MEDIA LIST
Maggot
The List guide to what’s best on the box over the next fortnight.
Screenplay by (‘hristopher l lampton. who won an Oscar for his adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons.
I Rhythms of the World ( BBCZ) ‘).25—l(l.20pm. A concert at Smallheath park. Birmingham. by Nusrat Fateh Ali
' MONDAY 27
I Through the Looking Glass ( BBCZ) 8.30—9pm. Sarah Dunant looks at the ways in which Sixties fashions enabled young
FRIDAY 24
ITalkof the 803 (BB(‘2)4.30—5pm: repeated 11.20—1 1.50pm. Author and academic David Lodge discusses the
SUNDAY 26
I Prisoners of Conscience (BBCZ) 805—9. 10pm. A new series begins with Ludovic Kennedy assessing the success of |
.decade's literature and the changing role of universities in public life.
I The Art of Pleasing People ((‘4) 8—8.30pm. The balance between creativity and commerce in the making ofa blockbuster is explored through the work of Barbara Taylor Bradford.
I The Travel Show Guide: The Costa Brava (BBCZ) 8.30—9pm. Where to go on the Spanish coast without having to sing Knees Up Mother Brown with a host ofpissed Cockneys.
I Silk Road (BBCI)9.3i)—1ii.3opm. Award-winning travel writer Colin Thubron leaves central China behind to journey along the 5000-mile long trade route and meet the Muslim descendantsof the original merchants who forged the road millennia ago.
SATUDAY’ ’. 5
I A Walk Up Fifth Avenue (C4) b.30--7pm. Bernard Levin begins his five-part trek of the twelve-mile long New York thoroughfare at Washington Square. home to a familiar cast of buskers. dossers and the multi-purpose madmen for which the city is famed. He meets millionaire Malcolm Forbes. takes a shooting lesson. and talks to the world's only subway correspondent. Jim Dwyer of New York Ne w '5 day .
I The Flight of the Firebird: fiimsky Korsakov and St Petersburg ( BBCZ) 8—9.05pm. Kriss Rusmanis‘ film looks at the influence of the Russian composer and his contemporaries on the music of the last century. Music by the London Symphony Orchestra. The words of Rimsky Korsakov are read by Peter L'stinov.
I Escape To Victory (BBCI )S—QSSpm. Endearingly ludicrous John l luston war film stars Michael (‘aine and Sylvester Stallone as prisoners of war whose one chance ofescape is to play an exhibition football match against the (ierman national team in occupied Paris. By watching Sportscene later the same evening. viewers will be able to decide for themselves whether today's football is really less exciting than the old days. Perhaps the worst film ()ssie Ardiles ever made.
I Miracle of Morgan's Creek ( B 13(2) 11.40pm—l .25am. The Film (‘lub's Preston Sturges season continues with this camp. fast-paced satire on American morals. Police chief's daughter Trudy Kockenlocker is not only pregnant. she also has vague recollections of having got married one evening — but she can't remember to whom. Dumb admirer Norval Jones agrees to claim paternity. but his good intentions seem to lead him furtherinto trouble. Made in 1944. starring Betty llutton and Eddie Bracken. I The Little Drummer Girl (Scottish) 11.55pm—2.15am. Diane Keaton stars as the American actress persuaded to become an lsraeli spy. Adapted from the John Le Carre novel.
the last one in highlighting the plight of political prisoners throughout the world — five of those featured have since been released. The new series proper begins on Monday 27 (7.55—8pm).
I Trial (BBCZ) 8. Ill—9.25pm. The first showing in Britain of Igor Belyaev's examination of the crimes of Stalin and his betrayal of the ideals ofthe Russian Revolution. screened at peak viewing time last year in the Soviet Union.
I The Ginger Tree (BBCI ) 9.()5—1().()5pm. New four-part drama stars Samantha Bond as a young Scotswoman whose marriage to a diplomat sees her become caught up in the Russo-Japanese warof 1904-5. where she strikes up a friendship with a Japanese military attache.
Khan. one of the world's leading exponents of ()awwali music. the aim of which is to get both performers and audience nearer to (iod by sendingthern into a trance-like state.
I Psycho ((11) 10pm—12.05 am. Still a delight after all those showings. Hitchcock‘s 1960 classic retains acapacity to shock unequalled by any other thriller. 'No. not the Bates Motel'. we shout at Janet Leigh. but does she listen'.’ Does she hell.
IEveryman(BB(‘l) 10.20—1 1pm. lnthe run-up to World AIDS Day (December 1). the first in a new series looks at the dilemma of women who want to have children and have been diagnosed as HIV-positive.
A FUNNY OLD GAME
In Pat Stanton's newly-published autobiography, ‘The Quiet Man', there is a chapter devoted to the brief tenure of the late Jock Stein as manager of Hibs. Among his many, now well-documented talents, Stein's ability to liberate players, such as Jimmy Johnstone and Willie Hamilton, from a tendency to selt-destruct, has rarely been replicated anywhere in the British game.
Recently, footballers have not been showering themselves in glory when it comes to avoiding the self-destruct button. Almost every player in the Arsenal v Norwich match of a couple of weeks ago could not resist the temptation to get involved in an ugly scene following the awarding of a penalty by the referee. Incidents outside nightclubs have involved various players, including a group from Falkirk-whose behaviour so disgusted the manager, Jim Duffy, that he resigned — and one Vinny Jones, now of Leeds United and hardly a shrinking violet. Ian Porteous, an ex-Aberdeen player now playing in Denmark, was in court recently answering charges that he hit someone with a beer glass; and another Ianpurrant of Rangers, was
famously involved in a post-kebab difference of opinions not so long ago.
Like most teams, Hibs have one or two players who could do with the firm yet fair guidance of a Jock Stein, but in the last couple of years the main locus of attention has been on their employers, Chairman David Duff and Managing DirectorJim Gray. When they won control of the club just over two years ago, for a paltry sum said to be in the region of £800,000, the duo's initial efforts at revitalising the club received widespread acclaim from most people associated with the Edinburgh outfit. Shabby administration was overhauled, commercial possibilities were developed and every once in a while, the team was improved. When it was announced that the club was about to be floated on the Stock market, going where only Tottenham Hotspur had gone before, it seemed consistent with sound business acumen.
However, certain doubts have since been raised concerning the ownership of the club, the role of a very wealthy erstwhile darling ofthe City, and the financial objectives of the Edinburgh Hibernian plc.
BBC Scotland’s ‘Focal Point’ attempts to make sense of a situation that seems to have more in common with the Borgias than with the ‘Beautiful Game'. On the terraces of Easter Road, and no doubt in many Charlotte Square offices, ‘the jury has been out’ fora long time. Hopefully, we can all be given the answers in as straightforward a manner as Jock Stein himselfwould have delivered. (Mike Wilson)
women to assert their independence from their elders.
I Cracking Up (('4) 9-» 10pm. Actress Miranda Richardson looks at the effectsof the French Revolution on Mary Wollstonecraft. Britain's first modern feminist.
I European Film Award 1989 ((4) midnight-2am. Find out if Mike Leigh‘s High Hopes or Michael ('aton-Jones‘ Scandal won the categories for which they were nominated.
TUESDAY 28
I lpso Facto ( 138(‘1 )4.35—5pm. (‘ub reporter Scott Birch looks at fashion with the (presumably limited) help ofSonia. and discovers that designer Vivienne Westwood doesn't like to draw attention to herself.
I Made In Latin America ( BBCZ) 9.30—10.30pm. Popular culture in Mexico (‘ity. the largest conurbation in Latin America. examined by such luminaries as author (‘arlos Fuentes. There. too. it seems. soap operas are a powerful weapon ofcultural control (to the extent that Nobel laureate Gabriel (iarcia Marquez now plans to script one himself).
WEDNESDAY 29
I Blackeyes (BBC2)‘).25—l0.20pm. Dennis Potter‘s new four-part drama stars Gina Bellman as the eponymous fashion model who falls victim to male exploitation. As with The Singing Detective. music of the Thirties and Forties is used to great effect in a production which disturbingly merges fantasy and reality.
I Halfway to Paradise ((4) 12. l0—l.10am. The new series continues with appearances by Edwin Starr. Wray Gun and the Rockets. and Willie .‘vlcllvanney. whose novel The Big Man is currently being filmed. The most intriguingitem. however. promises to be the homage to Scotland‘s 'blue-nose Protestant comedians'.
THURSDAY 30
I Fancy Footwork At Hibs ( BBC‘l) 8—8.3(lpm. The Focal Point team look at the financial transformation ofthe Edinburgh club wrought by chairman David Duff. See panel.
I Wet. Wet, Wet on Glasgow Green ( BBCI) 8.30—9pm. September‘s free concert. played before 70.000 fans.
I Bed. Chair, Table. Lamp (BBCZ) 8.30—9pm. Some of the most familiar objects in our lives are examined anewin this four-part series. Tonight's dauntineg entitled episode: (hair.
I Monty Python's Flying CircuS(BBC2) 9—9.30pm. The BBC would do well to take a leafout of Walt Disney‘s book and strictly ration repeats of their most popular shows — Python are currently being so over-exposed that they are in
52 The List 24 November— 7 December 1989