MEDIA LIST
House ofCommons. the first Scottish Question Time of 1990. Around fifteen questions should be asked ofMalcolm Rifkind and his Scottish Office ministers. I A View to a Kill (Scottish) 8— 10pm. This week‘s Bond premiere is from 1985. and notable for its inclusion of Grace Jones as a heavy. But nothing else. IAntenna (BBCZ) 8. Ill-9pm. An inquiry into the supposed infallibility ofgenetic fingerprinting. the opinions ofa Muslim GP that Western medical practice is seriously deficient and the effect of unprecedentedly strong solar storms on the atmosphere. I Signals 9.15—10. 15pm. Theatre critics— do they deserve to live? We‘ve got some very sweet ones here. but they weren‘t asked to join the panel that had to face an audience of theatre professionals at the Hampstead Theatre for this programme. IDED(BBC1)9.3()—l(lpm. You'llbe familiar with Bob Symes. who has his English wacko slot every week on Tomorrow '3 World. In ‘The House that Bob Built'. he demonstrates the ideas he has brought to his home to save bills and unnecessary bother. and opines that after 1992 we will be more eager to see what German and Scandinavian builders have to offer.
THURSDAY 1
I Wideworld (BBCZ) 7.30—8.2(lpm. A look at the changing lives of Eskimos in a remote settlement on the Arctic coast of Alaska.
I Notes in the Margin 1980—89(BBC2) 8.2(J—9pm. The topic under discussion this week is the drift towards a Green consciousness. and all the other paraphernalia that came with it.
I Focal Point (880 )8.3()—9pm. ‘Cowboy' security firms are giving reputable firms a bad name. it is thought. by employing untrained workers with criminal records. Focal Pointinvestigates what goes on in Scottish security firmsand examines the calls forlegislation.
I The Comic Strip (BBCZ) ‘F9.3()pm. We're promised a series of‘savagely funny‘ films in The Comic Strip‘s new series. the team having been lured to the BBC. In the first. Nigel Planer sets out to rescue the love of his life. Jennifer Saunders. from her ornithological foray in the Falkland Islands when Galtieri invades again.
I Forty Minutes (BBC2)9.30—1(). Illpm. The bizarre case of a seven year-old American girl called Hilary. whose mother. a surgeon. is preventing her former husband from seeing the child. alleging that he abused her from infancy. The father. in his turn. claims she isinsane and encouraged their daughter to make allegations against him. In November. he came to Britain in the belief that I Iilary may be hidden here.
1 I I True Stories (C4) 10—1 1.40pm. This non-fiction film laces together the story of horse farmer John Hoxsey. who claimed
to have found a cure for cancer in 1840 (and whose grandson would be arrested more than any man in medical history). and the issue of cancer cures. which has become as much a political hot potato asa medical one. Was Iloxsey another quack. or merely a practitioner ofunorthodox medicine who was clamped down on by the establishment?
I Nighl Flyte (Scottish)
1 I .(lSpm—12.()5am. Vigorous discussion on current affairs.
I Soviet Spring: The Stain ( C4) 12.20—1.45am. A debut film by a film-school graduate who used stocks intended for another production. The Stain went on to win second prize at the I987 Locarno TV Festival. A student and amateur musician bets a million cigars on the throw ofa coin and finds himselfin deep trouble with the local underworld.
FRIDAY 2
ITwoolUs(BBC2) 12.15—12.45pm. A schools programme. but one that won‘t please The National Viewers and Listeners Association. as it deals with two schoolboys coming to terms with their sexuality. Made in 1986 and first broadcast two years later. IATouchotClass(BBC1)1.50—3.35pm. Comedy of sexual manners which teeters on the edge ofsentimentality without falling in. Glenda Jackson won the Oscar. but it‘s Segal that holds it together. I The Great Moghuls (C4) 8—8.30pm. Bamber Gascoigne saddles up his camel and investigates the Great Moghul Dynasty. a family which invaded India from Afghanistan in the 16th century and for six generations held the subcontinent in its grip. I Walkie Talkie (C4) 8.30—9pm. Muriel Gray chums Bianca Jagger on a walk around Cliveden in Berkshire. home of the Astors. IArena (BBCZ) 9.30—10.3opm. Killeron the loose! It's the long-awaitede renu special on Jerry Lee Lewis. I Heartburn (BBC!) 10-] 1.50pm. The Meryl Streep season concludes with the disappointing 1986 offering based on the life of Watergate-busting journo Carl Bernstein (already immortalised in Al/the President's Men) and his wife. who wrote the book. A bringing up baby picture. basically. I Brighton Hock(BBC2) ll.5()pm—l.25am. Darling Dickie Attenborough in his classic performance as Graham Greene‘s psychopathic gang leader Pinkie. An excellent stab at a British noirthriller.
SATURDAY 3
I Grandstand ( BBC!) 12.2(J—5pm. Live coverage of the Scotland-Ireland rtigby match from Dublin.
I Orphans of Minsk (C4) 3.30—4.3(lpm. Veteran film-maker Peter I lopkinson meets a group be filmed when they were children in an orphanage 4i) y'carsago.
I Scottish Eye (C4) 6.3ll—7pm. Tonight: the crisis of confidence in the Glasgow Ilealth Board.
I Into the Great Solitude (C4 ) 8—9pm. Naturalist and author Rob Perkins braves a 7()()-mile and a 72-day solo canoe trip down Canada‘s remote Back River to the North West Territories.
I 4-Play: A Fair and Easy Passage (C4) 9—10.15pm. Yvonne Bryceland plays Ilettie. dyingof cancer. Her husband and daughter can't cope. but a nurse by the name ofCrazy Jane can.
I Brando (C4) ll). 15—1 lpm. As his new film. A Dry White Season. is released. the movie legend talks to American newscaster Connie Chung in his first TV interview for In years.
I The Andromeda Strain (Scottish) 11.35pm—2am. Robert Wise went on to show he had no affinity with the feelof Kirk and Co when he directed Star Trek — The Motion Picture. and his adaptation of Michael Crighton's novel of a plague from space similarly misses the mark. It passes as a Saturday night flick. though.
I Village at the Damned (C4)
l I .5()pm— I . 15am. Superbly eerie adaptation of John Wyndham‘s The Midwit‘h ( TIC/(005. one of the most watchable British SF flicks of the period. Followed at 1.15—2.55pm by its sequel. Children of the Damned.
SUNDAY 4
I Ecology at War (C4) 7—8pm. ‘South Africa: The Wasted Land': the environmental impact of apartheid in South Africa.
I The Media Show (C4) 8—9pm. An interview with Rupert Murdoch and a report from the set of 'l'hirtysomething.
I Soviet Spring: Wanted: Marjory and Oliver (C4)‘)—1(l.35pm. An Anglo-Georgian co-production. the first of its kind. based on the true story of Marjory Wardrop who visited Georgia with her brother at the end of last century and not only fell in love with the country but translated several important Georgian works. IScreen2(BBC2)lti.IS—11.3t)pm.A brother and sister meet after several years apart and find an unexpected mutual attraction.
I Everyman (BBCI) 10.30—1 1 .2(lpm. The programme focuses on two New Zealandcrs— one a Maori. the other from Welsh stock — and looks at their respective places in NZ society.
I The South Bank Show ( Scottish)
10.35—1 l .35pm. This year's South Bank Show lecture is given by Chinua Achebe on the subject of African literature.
I on the Page (Scottish)
1 l .35pm—12ll5am. Jenny Brown interviews Liz Lochhead. fresh from writing the current smash Jock Tumson 's Buirns.
MONDAY 5
I Same Difference (C4) 6—630an Return of the magazine programme for disabled people. Special edition from the IISSR. IExcess(BBCl) 1t). lo—lo4opm. See
Preview.
I Taking Liberties (BBCZ) 8—8.3(lpm. The listeria crisis: did the Government know more than they let on. and could more lives have been saved if they had'.’
I Joint Custody (C4) 9— Illpm. A documentary film exploring three broken couples who are joint-parenting.
I First Tuesday (Scottish) 10.35— I 1.35pm. A look at the Hillsborough disasterand the subsequent inquiry.
I Big Big Country (C4) 1 lpm—midnight. Ilank Wangford takes us on a guided tottr around his heroes. like Tammy Wynette. George Jones. Loretta Lynn and Conway 'I‘witty. '
WEDNESDAY 7
I American Religion: Ancient and Modern (C4) 2.30—3.3(lpm. Beyond the Dream. The successive waves of Catholic immigrants to the New World. and the problems they had to confront there.
I Family Matters (BBCI ) 7.35-8.05pm. The touchy matter of children with AIDS. and their schooling.
I No Job for a Lady (Scottish) 8—8.3”an Penelope Keith's new comedy. in which she stars as a Labour MP finding the House not quite to hersatisfaction. Possible team-up with Alan B'stard in the offing?
I The Hod Lucas Show (Scottish) 830—9an New series with top American ventriloquist.
I El Cid (Scottish) 9— I(lpm. A chap from the records department in Scotland Yard goes to Spain for a break. where he meets the Yard's ‘Action Main. New comedy-drama series.
I Pennies From Heaven (BBC2)9—1(). 15pm. Now that the rights have reverted to the BBC after the Steve Martin movie version. the Beeb is taking advantage of the current Dennis Potter controversy by showing one of his best series. Loads ofhis favourite Depression songs. as usual.
I Signals (C4) I). 15— lllpm. The Government's changes in its education policy could seriously affect young classical musicians. .S'ignuls tells us how.
I OED (BBCI ) 9.30— Illpm. A new twist to the American summer camp: I-‘at Camp. where overweight kids go ‘to come to terms with their problems‘.
I Soviet Spring: Little Vera (C4 ) 1(lpm—12.3()am. A tale ofcasual sex. booze and dead-end jobs. this 1988 movie was the most sexually explicit film made in the Soviet Union. It caused a storm and led to an offer of a Playboy spread forits star Natalya Negoda.
I Murphy's Law (Scottish) Ill.35pm~12.25am. Charles Bronson plays a tough LA cop. Well. there you have it: Charles Bronson plays a tough I.A cop.
THURSDAY 8
I Wideworld (BBCZ) 7.30—8.2llpm. Two films tonight: Our God the Condor is an account of the annual capture. worship and release of a condor and the celebrationssurrounding it. and the practice growing in Ghana of burying people in coffins appropriate to their trade.
I The Comic Strip ( 13m ‘3 ) 9—9.35pm. The second part of the story begun last week. The rest of the series are one-offs.
ITrue Stories (C4) ll).2(L-l 1.20pm. Michael Grigsby‘s view front within the Catholic and Protestant ghettoes ofWest Belfast.
I Night Flyte (Scottish)
11.05pm 12.05am. llosted this week by William Mcllvanney.
IAsya’s Happiness (C4)
midnight 1.50pm. Made in l‘)(i7. btit banned by the censor for 2] years. Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchaloy sky ‘s lilm is a realistic depiction of rural life and a frank discossion of the Going. front w liich oneol its characters has returned.
The List ZbJanuary — 8 February thl 59