TELEVISION LISTINGS
ten-miles-over-the-top comedy series tonight finds a physicist desperately trying to finish her time-machine so she can make amends for one afternoon when she lost her temper somewhat.
I Fllm 92(BBC1)10.10—10.40pm.'lhisis where our Bazza reveals his true colours for it‘s time to review Carry on Columbus, as well as Roman Polanski's virtually hard-core Bitter Moon.
I Dust In The Wind (Channel 4) midnight-2am. The second Hou HsiaooHsien film in as many days, this time moving the life-story on to follow a couple of young lovers travelling from their village to a life of squalor in Taipai.
TUESDAY 29
I Citizen Smith (BBC! ) 8-8.30pm. The impossibly young Robert Lindsay stars as the Tooting revolutionary.
I Two Autumns: Andy Boldsworthy (Channel 4) 9—10pm. Perennial List favourite, Andy Goldsworthy, talks about his work in Japan and Scotland.
I Clwies(BBC1)9.30—10.25pm. Those nice people, ex-squaddies, continue to find life in the real world more than a little taxing. Conforming to (stereo-)type, the Welshman (Taff Davies) gets upset by noisy neighbours and ‘decides to take the law into his own hand, with tragic results‘. I Film On Foun Paris By Night (Channel4) 10—11.55pm. After Riff-Raffand Life Is Sweet, the film season slips in a bit of a duffer. David Hare‘s critique on Thatcherism has a laughable plot (top female Tory minister involved in the untimely death of her lover) and possibly the most wooden film performance since the days of Virgil Tracey from Charlotte Rampling.
I Omnibus: The Plero Trail (BBCI) 10.25—11.30pm. The arts strand goesin search of the elusive 15th century artist Pietro della Francesca who presumably will be very pleased to see them. John Mortimer says, mysteriously, ‘He is
fig? @
Traverse Theatre - Cambridge St
10 - 16 OCTOBER 1992
Sat 10, 6.45pm Anthony Burgess
Sun 11, 7.30pm Daughters of Africa
Mon 12. 7.30pm Barry Unsworth. Hilary Mantel & Dorothy Dunnett
Tue 13, 7.30pm Ranulph Fiennes
Wed 14, 7.30pm Angela Lambert. Jenny Diski & Anne Fine
Thu 15, 7.30pm Elspeth Barker. Lucy Ellman & Lesley Glaister
Fri 16, 7.30pm John Mortimer
Tickets £2.50 (.61 .25) from: TRAVERSE THEATRE 031 228 1404 htrther Information from: EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL 031 228 5444
almost my favourite painter. '
I The Shootlst(BBC1)11.30pm—1.05am. John Wayne plays an old embittered gunslinger who learns that he is dying of cancer (mirroring the actor’s own life , of course) and wants nothing better than to die in peace. Ambitious young gunmen just won‘t let him lie, however. Adding to the poignancy, there is an opening montage of Wayne’s own film clips to show his character‘s early life. Fact and fiction in perfect harmony.
WEDNESDAY 30
I Star Trek: Mudd's Women (BBC2) 6—6.50pm. No, not mud women. Whatdo you think this show is? Tacky? This is the quite innocent story of a certain Captain Mudd and his galaxial transportation of a cargo of beautiful women. What’s wrong with that?
I Trainer (BBCl) 8—8.50pm. Traineris back. Why?
I Inspector Morse (Channel 4) 8.30—10.30pm. A motiveless murder and a Morse mulling on whether to sell hisJag. Everything'll work out in the end, you‘ll
I Screenplay: You, Me and Marley (BBC2) 9-10.25pm. Far too early, if anything.TV screening for Richard Spence‘s award-winning film. See preview.
I Inside Story: Assassin (BBCI) 9.30-10.20pm. An astonishing story, even for this series. Young Michael Townley was a small-town American boy who got a bit bored. So what do you do when you‘re from small-town America and you get bored? Go and join Pinochet‘s secret police, of course, and eliminate the Chilean dictators’ enemies.
I The Prisoner (Channel 4)
11.15pm—12. 15am. Patrick McGoohan tonight welcomes a new guest who, bizarrely, is allowed to have a name.
THURSDAY 1
I Bamesmaster (Channel 4) 6.30—7pm. Dominik Diamond and Patrick Moore return with the witty and innuendo-ridden computer show.
I As Time Goes By (BBCl ) 8—8.30pm. Repeat run for Bob Larbcy’s gentle, beautifully-acted (by Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench) comedy of late-middle-age romance.
I Taggart: The Hit Man (Scottish) 9LlOpm. Final episode of the tough three-parter dealing with Glasgow’s gangster community.
I Bottom (BBC2) 9—9.30pm. New series of the gentle, beautifully-acted comedy of early middle age. Definitely NOT. Fart jokes and electrocutions. Ha, bloody ha. I Critical Eye: Free Kuwait (Channel4) 9L10pm. The impressively polemical documentary series begins a new run looking at developments in the emirate
since the Gulf War. See preview.
I The Water Engine (Channel 4) 10—11.40pm. An absolute treat. David Mamet’s new drama (from earlier this year) is about the invention of an engine that runs solely on water. Mamet’s favourite actor, Joe Mantegna, plays the unscrupulous lawyer out to exploit William H. Macy‘s discovery.
I One Foot in the Grave (BBCl) 10.20—10.50pm. Richard Wilson in the
excellent cynical-oldies comedy series.
FRIDAY 2
I Under The Sun: Tribes Oi Europe (BBC2) 9.30-10.20pm. The third and final film features acclaimed poet/mad-old-bugger Sorley MacLean lamenting the lack of Scottish stock in the MacLean clan gathering on Mull. Some of the clan have (shock horror) American or English accents. Sounds like sub-racist claptrap masquerading as a debate on national identity to me.
I Cheers (Channel 4) 9.30-10pm. Coach is distraught to learn about the death ofan old baseball buddy — until he learns that the deceased once propositioned his wife. I Nurses (Channel 4) 10—1().30pm. The Miami hospital sitcom continues, with another doomed patient making a heroic gesture. This is beginning to rival the Cosby Show in schmaltz terms.
I Terry Wogan’s Friday Night(BBC1) 10.20—1 1pm. The old toupecd blarney merchant is back. no doubt buoyed-up by the knowledge that Eldorado gets even lower viewing figures than he used to. The ‘new‘ series promises ‘sparkling and witty conversation‘. Can‘t be the same Terry Wogan then.
I Terry And Julian (Channel 4) 10.30—11pm. Julian goes offon tour and Terry hatches a money-making scheme. I Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Tourln Budapest (BBCl) llpm—l.10am. Coverage ofthe facially-altered one churning out the overblown. bland boppers and ballads to a bemused bunch of Hungarians who have just coughed up a month‘s salary for a Pepsi.
I Birdland (BBC2) 11.15—11.45pm. Carla Bley and Steve Swallow form a trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard, while scat vocalist Cassandra Wilson teams up with former Jazz Warrior Cleveland Watkiss. I Dead Di Night (Channel 4)
11.30pm-1 .25am. One of those enjoyable portmanteau films where you get five stories for the price of one. Mervyn Johns stars as an architect caught up in a terrifying recurring nightmare. llardly surprising with Googie Withers around.
SATURDAY 3
I Casualty (BBCl) 8—8.50pm. Paper Mask time at Holby General as a bogus doctor infiltrates the casualty ward.
I Court TV: America On Trial (Channel 4) 9LlOpm. Cynthia McFadden presents highlights of current trials in the American courts.
I The Dream Team (BBC1)9.10—1 1pm. Dubious taste comedy with Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd in a story about the misadventures of a group of mentally disturbed patients who find themselves out and about on the streets of New York.
I Testament Oi Youth (BBC2) 9.10—10.05pm. A repeat ofthe landmark drama serial first broadcast in 1979. Cheryl Campbell plays Vera Brittain. who gives up her studies at Oxford to enlist as an army nurse during the Great War.
I LetThe Blood Bun Free (Channel4) 10—10.30pm. Another instalment of the anarchic Australian hospital comedy.
I Cinema! Cinemai: Lite Is A Long Ouiet River (Channel 4) 10.30pm—12. 10am. A wild comedy from Etienne Chatilliez who made his name as a director of commercials. A piqued nurse switches two babies at birth, mixing up the offspring of a prim middle-class family and a bunch of semi-criminal illiterate wasters. Frenetic stuff with a rather feeble ending.
SUNDAY 4
I Football ltalia (Channel 4) 2.45—4.55pm. More action from the world‘s best soccer league, with commentary from Peter Brackley and Gazza's Golden Goals at half-time.
I Scotsport (Scottish) 5—6pm. From the sublime to the mediocre as Jim White introduces all the goals from the Premier Division plus highlights from Europe.
I The House or Ellotl (BBCl) 7.45—8.40pm. More pen'od nonsense in the surprisingly popular 205 fashion series that manages to combine the worst elements of Gems and The Duchess 0f Duke Street.
I Screen One: Seconds Out (BBCl) 9.25—10.55pm. Another gritty slice oflife (sorta) from Lynda La Plante starring Steven Waddington as a boxer framed for rape, and seeing his only opportunity in life taken by another fighter. ln desperation he becomes drawn intothe world of unlicensed fighting. Tom Bell plays the honest trainer. Jack.
MONDAY 5
I Siandlng Room Only (BBC2) 6.50—7.25pm. The football fanzine-style show hosted by Kevin Allen, with the feeble assistance of Shelley Webb.
I The Krypton Factor (Scottish) 7—7.30pm. Gordon Burns introduces another round ofthe ‘superpcrson‘ quiz. Why do the women always get such a big head-start in the obstacle course?
I Soldier, Soldier (Scottish) 9-10pm. The gritty action series continues with the Regiment arrived for their tour ofduty in [long Kong. Look out for our very own Simon Donald.
TUESDAY 6
I Men Behaving Badly (Scottish) 8.30—9pm. The laddish sitcom continues sans Harry Enfield but none the worse for his absence.
I Without Walls: And God Created Tenors/Tattooed Jungle (Channel 4) 9—10pm. Two contrasting films open the new series of the Channel 4 arts strand. And God Created Tenors celebratesthe tenor voice, and Tony Parsons conducts an investigation into the decline ofthe working class that looks sure to enhance his reputation as one of the more objectionable media figures.
I Film On Four: Venus Peter (Channel4) 10—11.40pm.A moving. funny and sometimes surreal story ofchildhood, directed by Ian Sellar. Gordon Strachan (no relation) stars as the nine-year-old boy growing up in a small fishing village. The late Ray McAnally is excellent as the boy‘s grandfather.
WEDNESDAY 7
I Inspector Morse: Masonic Mysteries (Channel 4) 8.30-1().30pm. John Thaw and Kevin Whately find themselves embroiled with the dubious handshake boys. Morse is suspect number one when his lady friend is bumped off.
I Downtown Lagos (BBC2)9—10. 10pm. The first ofa three-part drama serial set in Nigeria. Anton Lesser plays the fastidious bachelor lawyer Mungo Dawson whose confused emotional state becomes even more traumatised when he is assigned to a fraud casein Nigeria.
I The Prisoner (Channel 4) 11.15pm-12.15am. More bafflingéOs nostalgia in the desperately overrated weirdo series.
I THURSDAY 8
I Focal Poinl(BBC1)8.30-9pm. Another investigative report on an issue of topical Scottish interest.
I Rising Damp (Channel 4) 8.30-9pm. Leonard Rossiter continues to irritate his motley crew of tenants as the sleazy Rigsby.
I Critical Eye (Channel 4) 9L10pm. A programme examining the reality behind oil comapnies‘ new-found enviromentally-friendly image, looking at the regions of Ecuador. West Africa and papua New Guinea to determine the truth of the matter.
I Scottish Books (Scottish)
1045—1 1 . 10pm. Jenny Brown introduces more chat and reviews from the Scottish literary scene.
56 The List 25 September - 8 October 1992