MEDIA LIST
I The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (C4) 10pm-12. 15am. Maggie Smith is the 19305 Edinburgh schoolteacher whose aesthetics lead her to admire the Fascist regimesin Spain and Italy. Based on Muriel Spark‘s novel. this is a minor masterpiece. with Gordon Jackson and Celia Johnson providing strong support.
I Screen Two: Children Crossing ( BBC2) 10.05—11.35pm. Peter Firth and Saskia Reeves star in this saga of sexual jealousy and suspicion. Is Joe having an affair? Is Rosie paranoid? Do both these questions have an affirmative answer?
ITestimony (BBCI) 11.05-11.35pm. New series in which famous Scots look back over their lives and times in conversation with Sally Magnusson. The first guest is Rikki Fulton.
I on The Page (Scottish)
11.40pm—12. 10am. Jenny Brown interviews Allan Massie. novelist. newspaper columnist and one of Scotland‘s few right-wing thinkers of note
MONDAY 26
I Out of the Question (BBC I ) 8-8.30pm. Ilaving been grilled by young Scots on the Open To Question programme. Billy Connolly went on to ad lib about his early days in Glasgow — and the cameras kept rolling to capture this comic monologue. I Manhattan (BBC2) 9— 10.30pm. Woody Allen‘s love affair with New York continues. but Isaac Davis‘ love affair with his wife Jill is definitely over. and. worse still. she is threatening to publish an expose of their marriage. Meryl Streep plays Jill. Allen is Isaac. and the usual crew. including Diane Keaton and Mariel Hemingway. give able support.
I Chalk Against Racism (Scottish)
1035—] 1.35pm. The Scottish Education Debate series continues by examining the incorporation into the Scottish schools syllabus of anti-racist education.
TUESDAY 27
I Follow Your Nose (BBC! ) 9.30—9.45pm. Lenny Ilenry kicks off a week-long series which explains where the money raised by last year‘s Comic Relief went to. Here he tours Uganda to visit a number oflocal projects.
I Omnibus: The Story of the NovelistWho Would Be President (BBC!) 10.35—11.35pm. Mario Vargas Llosa would surely have been able to come up with a better title. but he was probably too busy campaigning in the Peruvian presidential elections. Llosa. in contrast to other Latin American writers well-known in this country. is firmly on the political right. and should he be elected to office. will have to rebuild an economy whose innate inefficiency is hardly helped by the guerrilla war which has raged for overa decade.
I Stalin (Scottish) 1035-1 1 .35pm. The biography concludes with a look at the last decade of Stalin‘s life. from the successful crushing of Nazism and the annexation of eastern Europe to the final years of unrestrained paranoia.
/ 3.3 I Union City (C4) 12.15—1 .4Sam. More
paranoia. this time starring Debbie Ilarry
as the bored housewife whose husband becomes obsessed with the fact that their milk keeps being stolen. A macabre. unpredictable combination of domestic realism. film noir and fantasy.
WEDNESDAY 28
I Boom! (C4) 5-5.30pm. Janine and Stephen bake banana bread. and that greedy old Basil Brush gets to eat it. Tom Baker makes an appearance too. but for the full multimedia experience you‘ll need Boom! magazine. which can be obtained by sending 50p to PO Box 507. Edgbaston. Birmingham BIS 3AL. Doesn‘t sound too enthralling? Well it‘s a
hell of a lot better than virtually everything else on TV tonight.
I Rough Guide To Careers (BBC2) 6.50—7.30pm. Caroline Hanson and Sheryl Hanson offer advice on how to break into the music industry.
I Who Bombed Birmingham? (Scottish) 8—10pm. The implicit sub-title to this docudrama being it wasn‘t the Birmingham Six. John Hurt stars as Chris Mullin. the MP and journalist whose researches first shed significant doubt on the convictions.
THURSDAY 29
I The Life of Emile Zola (C4)2—4. 10pm. Paul Muni stars as the French author. whose career culminated in the Dreyfus affair, in which he risked his reputation . and the wrath of respectable society. by defending a Jewish officer who had been framed.
I 40 Minutes: Tracey’s Search (BBC2) 9.30-10.10pm. The increasingly emotive debate on whether whites should be allowed to foster or adopt black or mixed-race children is fuelled by this programme. Tracey Harrison, 27. brought up by white foster parents, goes in search of her natural parents, her black father and white mother. She eventually tracks down her mother. but. as one might expect. everything is not sweetness and light.
I The Kitchen Toto (C4) 9.30—! 1.20pm. Bob Peck and Phyllis Logan star as husband and wife John and Janet Graham in a drama set during the time ofthe Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya. Events are seen partly through the eyes of young Mwangi, the toto of the title. who istaken on by the Grahams after his father is murdered. Quietly confident of its own strength, the film is a refreshing change from the usual white guilt trip to which most films about colonialism seem to fall
prey.
FRIDAY 30
I Edgar Wallace -The Man Who Made ills flame (BBC2) 4—4.50pm. James Cameron made this documentary biography of the author whose life was stranger than any of his fictions.
I Survival Special (Scottish) 9-!0pm. The giant otter is the loudest. largest (up to eight feet in length) and rarest of the species - only 1000 remain in the wild. The Survival team tracked it down in the remotest jungle regions of South America.
I Justice Game 2: The Lady From home (BBCl)9.45—10.35pm. The second of three parts sees Rossi deeper in trouble with Glaswegian robberies and Italian murders.
I King Bat (BBC2) 12.15—2.30am. George Segal and Tom Courtenay lead a strong cast in James Clavell‘s tale of life in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp as the war in the east is drawing to a close.
SATURDAY 31
I Opportunity Knocks (BBC!) 7.05—7.55pm. I‘m not saying Bob Monkhouse is hideous. but . . .even Les Dawson was considered preferable. The thought of grim old Les loosing his
Frankenstein, Channel 4.Sat24.12.053m.
withering sarcasm on Opportunity K nocks contestants has a certain inviting appeal. I Perry Mason Returns (BBC!) 7.55—9.30pm. A particularly nasty case hauls the legendary American attorney. played by Raymond Burr. out of retirement.
I The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (BBC2) 9.25pm-midnight. One ofl’owell and Pressburger‘s most celebrated moments. casting Blimp as a sympathetic figure in an idiosyncratic love story set against the background of war. Followed at midnight by the Archers“ Contraband. I Hard Shoulder (C4) Iii-11.20pm. Low-life salesman Charlie Ilenshaw drives across Ireland with a carful of misfits and fire extinguishers. Each of them. and probably the fire extinguishers as well. carries a terrible secret. Well. a secret. Pa rt of the 4- Play International series.
I Paramount City (BBC!) 1030-! 1.10pm. Music and comedy from the US and UK. from the Paramount Theatre in the West End. I think that's West End. London. by the way.
SUNDAY 1
I Horizon (BBC2) 2.05—3pm. A repeat of the I970 Horizon ‘The City That Waitsto Dic‘. about San Francisco‘s precarious position on the San Andreas fault. It‘s shown as a prelude to the updated documentary. shown on Mon 2. that was made after last year‘s tremor.
I Lawrence of Arabia (BBC!) 2.55—6.25pm. The recently-revived uncut version of David Lean‘s Oscar-sweeping classic. with Peter O‘Toole in fine form as the adventurer living with the Arabs. Spectacularly shot. ifgiving little insight into Lawrence‘s character.
I The Black Adder(BBC! )8.05-8.40pm. A long-awaited repeat for the series that kicked off Rowan Atkinson‘s gambol down the history of the Blackadder clan. Fairly poor considering the occasional brilliance of Blackadder II. but worth at least a cursory glance.
I Washer Whiter (BBC2) 8.05—8.55pm. A social history ofTV commercials begins with ‘Shc's Not a Moron. She's Your Wife'. taking us back to the time when Katie Boyle was the Oxo Mum.
I The Kremlin Farewell (BBC2)
1010-] 1.40pm. The reconstruction of a Stalinist show trial in the l930s.
MONDAY 2
I The Parliament Programme (C4) time
unconfirmed. The first of a week of morning programmes devoted to the proceedings of Select Committees and Standing Committees. twelve-and-a-half hours in total.
I Horizon (BBC2) 8. Ill—9pm. Following-up Sun l‘s I970 Horizon on San Francisco. a new film. ‘The Last Warning'. which alleges that those who should be doing their best to protect as many Californians as possible from the effects ofearthquakes have been negligent. and that the San Andreas fault‘s next shock will be the big mother ofall quakes.
I She’s Done Her Bird (C4) 9—10pm. A documentary following three women through ‘gate fever‘. the weeks leading up to their release from prison. and the struggle they face on the outside. knowing that one in three women prisoners end up back inside.
I My Film-making. My Life (C4 )
ll—l 1.30pm. A documentary on Mexican film-maker Mathilde Landeta. followed by her film Black Anguish. from
I l.30pm—l . l0am. a drama of the Mexican Revolution in which a young woman finds herself a revolutionary leader.
TUESDAY 3
I Lowdown (BBCI ) 5. 10—5.35pm. Children‘s programme. this week featuring H- and 15-year-old standup comics.
I Elvis: Good Rockin’ Tonight(C4) 6—6.30pm. Now this sounds like the kind ofexccrable American tack that we‘ll soon be claiming we watch every week — and probably will. A multi-million-dollar recreation of the Young Elvis's life in 13 parts. opening in 1954. with the Godhead himself played by Michael St Gerard. Contains original recordings. which might make it all seem ever funnier.
I Army Lives (BBC2) 7.50—8.30pm. The first ofsix programmes on army families. and how they cope when the father isaway for six month stretches.
I The Media Show (C4) 8—9pm. Jimmy Boyle is one of those whose opinions are sought on the subject of the media and prisons.
I This is Elvis (C4) 12.20—2.05am. An annoying mixture of dramatised events and real-life footage. much ofit excellent. For all its faults. a definite ‘must-see‘ for music fans.
WEDNESDAY 4
I Haggis Agus (Scottish) 6.30-7pm. The first cookery programme for the Gaelic gourmet. presented by Rhoda MacLeod. who will be joined by top chefMurdo MacSween. Transmitted with subtitles so that non-Gaelic-speaking viewers can enjoy preparing poached salmon and strawberries in orange sabayon.
I Rough Justice (BBC! )9.30— 10. 10pm. The investigative programme looks into its first rape case.
I Rue Cases Negres (C4) 10.()5pm—12.05am. Euzhan Paley directs with compassion (and in ochre tones) this story ofa boy‘s struggle to escape from the shanty towns of Martinique and better himselfthrough education. Great performance from the wonderfully-named Darling Legitimus. who helps him out.
THURSDAY 5
I Forty Minutes: How Could She? ( BBCZ) 9.30— 10. 10pm. The sensitive subject of mothers who leave theirchildren.
I Maurice (C4) 9.30pm—l2.05am. James lvory‘s I987 adaptation ofthe posthumously published E.M. Forster novel. dealing skilfully and tastefully with a gay young man's awakeningin turn-of-the-century England.
I Mistero Bullo(BBC2) 10.10-10.30pm. The first of four 20-minute programmes televising Robbie Coltrane‘s recent one-man show.
“The List 23 March - 5 April 1990