I sixthirtysomelhing (Channel 4) 6.3(J—7pm. The wacky entertainment show goes on the road with Lenny Henry. and hangs out at the premiere of YoungSoul Rebels.
I Europe Express (Channel 4) 8.3(l—9pm. More half quirky’halfserious reporting from the continental team.
I The Tracey Ullman Show ( BBCZ) 9.25—llipm. Sketches. skits and guest Kelsey (irammer (Frasier in the eminently superior Cheers ).
I Dream On (Channel 4) 10— 10.35pm. The American sitcom‘s hero Martin falls for his son's teacher. Unfortunately. so does theson.
I Packet Of Three (Channel 4) 10.30—1 1.15pm. An excuse to wheelout more of those alternative cabaret types. with the regulars includingJenny Eclair. Frank Skinner and Henry Normal. introducing guests Linda Smith and fire-juggler Paul Morocco. I Edinburgh Live! (Channel 4) l l .2lipm—12.2l)am. From the Assembly Rooms. with hosts Jack 'cheerful' Dee and Tony ‘Factory' Wilson. I Edinburgh Nights ( BBCZ) 11.15—1 1 .55pm. Tales from the jazz. book and film festivals. plus Pete McCarthy's guide to Fringe comedy.
SATURDAY 24 l
I The Big 8 (Channel 4) 6.3ll-7pm. Wheelchair basketball featuring Londoners Capital City Jazz versus Glaswegians West Of Scotland.
I The Shadow: Teachers (BBCZ) 6.50—7.2(lpm. Malcolm Hope. a French teacher in Oxfordshire visits his counterpart in Bordeaux. and finds education across the Channel 3 far more formal affair.
RADIO LUNCHES
Fringe tickets at £7 or £8 at go? Who needs it? You can see and hear all the best bits on radio and telly, neatly avoiding the queues, the drizzle and the pamphleteers.
Radio Scotland’s Queen Street Garden has gone one better than that, in fact. Forthe price of a BBC cheese roll and a fizzy drink— not even that if you’re really broke —you can sit in as the one hour show is broadcast live from their new studio in Queen Street, Edinburgh, complete with five minute gobbits of various shows and interviews with the stars.
A typical sampling in the first week of the Festival featured interviews with this year’s friendly filmstar, Cliff Robertson and with Allan Massie, as well as an extract from Massie’s play The Minstrel and The Shirra, an extract from Witchplay (reviewed in this very issue), reviews - not very good ones — of the Doug Anthony Alt-Stars, Bob Downe, Glue Wedding and A Watermelon Killed My Daughter, and a whacky five minutes with long-haired music maestros Miles and Milner. Best of all was the music from Australian group Outback—the first time I've really felt a longing to learn to play the
; didgeridoo. Throw in dashing Neville
00! W rm. SCOTLAND
Garden (who Iatertold me some extraordinary things about Jessye Norman, Debussy and his own grandmother), and you’ve got a trillic way to spend lunch and avoid the ange.
Alternatively, you can stay at home and catch Queen Street Garden’s Festival coverage on Radio Scotland MW 81 Q or FM 92—95, or listen out for reviews on Radio 4’s daily arts programme, Kaleidoscope. If you stay at home, of course, you don’t get to see all the mistakes. (Miranda France) Festival Queen Street Garden with Neville Garden will be broadcast live from Edinburgh on 22 and 2740 Aug.
I The World This Week (Channel 4) 7—8pm. Sheena McDonald and Nik Gowing present up-to-the-minute news and views from around the world.
I Texas Saturday Night ( BBCZ) 8.3(ipm—12.3(lam. Deep in the heart of Texas. go the Arena team. in a four-hour search for the reality ofthe Lone Star State. The guide is Kinky Friedman. retired Jewish country singer turned detective. Highlights include Lyle Lovett.
Richard Nixon's favourite song. armadillo
racing. the Daughters of the Texas
Republic tending the Alamo. and that rare '
recordingof Lyndon Johnson duetting with his dog.
I Atlantic City (Channel 4). The Louis 3 Malle season continues with this 1980 comedy drama starring Burt Lancaster as an elderly former gangster who becomes involved with would-be croupier Susan Sarandon and her crooked husband. Downbeat but moving.
I By Dawn‘s Early Light(BBCl)
9. l()—l().5()pm. Made last year. but somewhat anachronistic all the same. this humdrum tale of impending nuclear Armageddon leaves a lot to he desired. After an unidentified missile lands in the Soviet Union. those Russians launch a counter-strike against the US. A couple of
US 852 pilots attempt to avert Doomsday.
I Baker and Maguire at the Festival (Scottish) 10.50-1 1.50pm. Cheeky Cockney chappie Danny Baker and Susie Maguire go out and about in Festivalcity.
I As It Happens (Channel 4)
11.4(ipm—l . 10am. Andy Kershaw is offto the seaside for more video verite. Brighton to be exact.
SUNDAY 25
IThem and Us (BBC! )5. 15—5.45pm. Craig Charles continues to campaign and takes up the case oftenants in a council estate in Drumchapel. who suffered an outbreak ofdysentery caused by pipes leaking raw sewage.
I Great Expectations (Scottish) 7.45—8.45pm. The final part ofthe Dickens adaptation. Pip and Herbert attempt to smuggle Magwitch onto the ship.
I Around The World In 80 Days: ( BBC 1 ) 7.45—8.35pm. Michael Palin continues his (repeated) travels and travails. The final episode sees him reaching Los Angeles only two days behind schedule on the last leg of the circumnavigation.
I Switching Channels (BBCl )8. 35— l (lpm. Kathleen Turner. Burt Reynoldsand Christopher Reeve star in this undemanding romantic comedy set in a TV newsroom. Turner is an investigative reporter planning to leave her job and ex-husband Reynolds to marry sports goods tycoon Reeve. Reynolds hasother ideas...
I BeelerAnd The Model (Channel 4) Ill—11.45pm. An Irish comedy thriller cum film noir. Reefer (lan McElhinney) isan ex-lRA man who meets up with a pregnant and homeless prostitute (Carol Scanlon) and introduces her to his footloose mates. The relationship comes under pressure when she learns about their past exploits.
I Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (BBCZ) 10.15pm—12.25am. The psychological melodrama that relaunched tl;c careers of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford is a gleefully spiteful tale of sibling hatred. Demented former child star Baby Jane (Davis) and her invalid sister Blanche live in adecaying Hollywood mansion where the tensions and rivalry culminate in murder.
I Sex New (Scottish) 10.35—1 1.05pm. What will sex belike in the future”? Statistics and debate offer some predictions.
MONDAY 26 l l
I The Lime Grove StorleBCZ) llam—midnight. Thirteen hours ofarchive , material from the BBC studio. covering 5 everything from The Grove Family. the
first soap opera. to Muffin The Mule. the first kinky sex show.
The List 23 — 29 August 1991 87