TELEVISION LISTINGS
I EX-S: Oanlel O’Donnell (BBC2)
lO.40—l l.lOpm. The scarin clean-cut country ’N‘ Irish singer is too bland to be included in the country charts but is phenomenally successful worldwide. Four sad fans from Hamilton. Dorothy. Elaine. Sheena and Sadie regularly get together to watch their idol‘s videos. What strange appeal does this sickly character hold over the masses?
TUESDAY 30
I Gimme Shelter: Game On DOWII And Out (Channel 4) 8—8.3()pm. At time of going to press. Channel 4 were keeping tight- lippcd about this one. although they admitted it would be controversial. It's billed as a game-show. hosted by Andrew O‘Connor. in which homeless contestants battle it out for the chance to win a home. Questions posed include which disease is most likely to kill the homeless. and the chances of being assaulted if you live on the streets. Concealed cameras follow the contestants in various situations including a bogus visit from the social services. Sick. satirical. or a pointed attack on society‘s attitude towards the homeless? You decide. although ‘controversial‘ might be a considerable understatement.
I Without Walls: .l’Accuse: Philip Larkln (Channel 4) 9—9.30pm. The Morrissey of the 60s has recently been exposed as a racist and a sexist. Terry Eagleton believes he‘s even worse than that. ‘They fuck you up. your Marxist critics‘.
I 40 Minutes: The lady Killers (BBC2) 9.50—10.3()pm. Elsie. Marjorie and Doreen are three women who surround themselves with cockroaches. rats. squirrels and fetid water. They‘re all Pest Control officers working for Manchester City Council and the subject of another relentlessy quirky 40 Minutes.
I Prick Up Your Ears (Channel 4) lOpm—12.()5am. Alan Bennett‘s gag- packed script makes the story of Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) and his tormented lover Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) into a kind of grim-down-south black comedy. Camp. explicit and exceedingly funny.
I Film 93 (BBCI) ll.l()—l l.40pm. Including a report from the previous evening‘s Oscar ceremony in Hollywood where several Brits were up for awards.
WEDNESDAY 31
I Goggle Eyes (BBCl ) 9.25—l0.05pm. Continuing the adaptation of the Anne Fine story, with twelve-year-old Kitty (Honeysuckle Weeks) telling of her loathing of her mother‘s boyfriend to friend Helly.
I The Golden Girls (Channel 4) l0—l().3()pm. Leslie Nielsen turns up in the penultimate episode of the Miami sitcom. He plays Blanche's uncle who ends up wooing Dorothy. Concluded next week in the last ever Golden Girls show. I Gimme Shelter: cathy come llome (Channel 4) lO.35pm—lZ.OSpm. Jeremy Sandford's classic influential
documentary drama caused an enormous stir when first shown in 1966. Carol White and Ray Brooks play a young couple desperately trying to make and keep a home for their family.
I Talking Loud (Scottish)
10.50—1 1.50pm. Straight outta the Cartland Bridge Hotel, Lanark. Stuart Cosgrove introduces the usual mix of chat. comedy and live music.
THURSDAY 1
I Gimme Shelter: Our Rouse (Channel 4) 8-8.3()pm. Children speak out about homelessness and how it affects them.
I French And Saunders (BBC2) 9—9.30pm. The last programme of an inventive and ambitious series finds the duo exploiting their uncanny resemblance to Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon to remake Thelma And Louise.
I llarry Enfleld's Guide To Opera (Channel 4) l0.30—l l.()5pm. Harry looks at how the great singers of the past such as Caruso have influenced today‘s singers Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo.
FRIDAY 2
I Ooctor Finlay (Scottish) 9- 10pm. More clashes of will amongst the saintly does of Tannochbrae (aka Auchtermuchty). I The Gilt-Bait Element (BBCI) 9.30—10.20pm. A new drama comedy with the traditional British obsession with class conflict looming large. Created by Debbie Horsfield of Making Out fame. I Gheers (Channel 4) 9.30— lOpm. The Boston bar regulars witness the return of a poor but happy Robin Colcourt. Rebecca suspects he‘s still rich and merely testing her love for him. I Roseanne (Channel 4) l()—10.3()pm. Roseanne begins to feel her age when her mother moves into a retirement home. Meanwhile Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) has a surprise to spring. I The Oead Zone (BBCI) l0.20pm-midnight. Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen star in David Cronenburg’s disturbing tale of a coma victim awaking to find he can see visions of the past and future. corrupted by blank spots, or ‘dead zones‘. I Dilly (Scottish) ll—l l.3()pm. Billy Connolly stars in the American sitcom. The pilot episode began with him entering carrying a plant and uttering the immortal line ‘Hi. honey I‘m home‘. Shaping up as one from the safe and bland school of sitcom. I llelmat (BBC2) ll.2()pm—l.45am. The acclaimed German drama series following life in a rural village between I919 and I982 concludes as Maria's death reunites the family in Schabbach. I Only AGame (BBCI) l l.40pm-l2.30am. William Mcllvanney narrates another trip down soccer‘s memory lane.
SATURDAY 3
I Grandstand (BBCI) l2.lS-5. 15pm. Featuring live coverage of the Grand
National from Aintree. Best bets look like Zeta‘s Lad and Jenny Pitman‘s improving Royal Athlete. although it‘s a wide-open race.
I Teenwolr (BBC l) 7—8.30pm. One of those high-school comedies with a twist in that our hero (Michael J. Fox) is afflicted with a condition rather more extreme than acne. Lycanthropy can be a major bummer when you've got a hot date lined up.
I Assignment: The Legacy Ol Martin Luther King (BBC2) 8—9pm. Shown to mark the anniversary of the death of King. this special focuses on Los Angeles. a city whose history of violent race riots makes it a pertinent backdrop for King‘s message of peaceful struggle.
I The eeiderlieclte Altair (Channel 4) 9—l0pm. A witty and original comedy thriller gets a deserved repeat. James Bolam stars as a jazz-fixated teacher. Barbara Flynn as his conservationist girlfriend. Somehow thay become embroiled in a bizarre mystery involving death threats.
I Salaam Bombay (Channel 4)
l 1.35pm—l .4()am. Mira Nair‘s award- winning film follows the life of ten-year- old Krishna as he travels to Bombay to take up a life on the streets. begging and taking menial jobs to survive.
SUNDAY 4
I The Darling Buds or May (Scottish) 7.55—8.55pm. Bucolic frolics with the Larkins. starring Pam Ferris and David Jason.
I A Year In Provence (BBCI) 8.25—8.55pm. The BBC‘s latest shocking folly continues its run. Theories abound that it is in fact a cunning John Birt tax write-off scheme. It certainly isn‘t a drama series . . .
I One Foot In The Grave (BBCI) 8.55-9.25pm. Continuing the repeat run of the BAFTA award winning sitcom with Richard Wilson.
I The Snapper (BBC2) 10.05—1 l.3()pm. The second novel in Roddy Doyle‘s trilogy. which began with The Commitments. gets a TV adaptation from Stephen Frears. Filmed entirely on location in Dublin. it follows the story of twenty-year-old Sandra (Tina Kellegher) an unexpectedly pregnant supermarket checkout girl whose family become obsessed with discovering the identity of the father.
I The South Bank Show: Goreclti (Scottish) 1 lpm—l2.()5am. Melvyn Bragg presents a profile of the reclusive composer whose Symphony No 3 sold in bucketloads (it was the first work by a living composer to top the UK classical charts) and whose string quartets have just become available.
MONDAY 5
I September Song (Scottish) 8—8.3()pm. Russ Abbot and Michael Williams star in the gentle buddy comedy tinged with more than its fair share of pathos.
I EX-S: Cuba (BBCI) l0.4()—l l.lOpm. The EX -S cameras follow Glaswegian pensioner Agnes Maclean to Havana to discover the roots of the rhumba. as well as a few other truths about one of the world‘s last outposts of communism.
I Medics (Scottish) 9—lOpm. A kind of sub-standard Casualty without the social conscience. Hasn‘t that Tom Baker aged since he was a wacky Dr Who?
TUESDAY 6
I Gimme Shelter: What Do You Expect - Paradise? (Channel 4) 9—l()pm. Producer Rex Bloomstein and his team go behind the scenes at Arlington House in London. Europe's largest hostel for homeless men. ranging in age from 20-93.
I Paris Texas (Channel 4) lOpm—l2.40am. Wim Wenders' long and lavish desert collaboration with writer Sam Shepard. Harry Dean Stanton stumbles over the Mexican border. His
brother Dean Stockwell attempts to piece together his shattered life for him. Stanton finally tracks down his wife Nastassia Kinski to a peep-show in Houston. A strange. atmospheric and powerful work. I A Cinema llear You (Scottish)
1 l.40pm—l2. 10am. Allan Campbell hosts the occasional film review show. with news and views from what passes for the Scottish film industry.
WEDNESDAY 7
I Scotsport European Special (Scottish) 7.2()—9.3()pm. Live coverage of Rangers' vital clash with French champions Marseilles. A victory guarantees a place in the final. and with the sort of luck they enjoyed in the recent Bruges game. who would bet against them?
I I Lovett (BBC2) l().()5—l().35pm. The exceedingly off-the-wall sitcom starring Norman Lovett as an eccentric whose life revolves around his daft inventions.
I Tickets For The Zoo (Channel 4) l().3()pm-l2.()5am. An award-winning feature from Edinburgh highlighting the plight of homeless teenagers. George (Tom Smith) and Carol (the excellent Alice Bree) leave their children's home full of hope but soon realise the outside world is a tougher prospect than they envisaged.
I Talking loud (Scottish) l().4()—l l.4()pm. More late-night chat. mUsic and comedy. hosted by Stuart Cosgrove.
THURSDAY 8
I Gimme Shelter: The Big issue (Channel 4) 8—8.3()pm. The story of the paper made by. for and about the homeless and sold on the streets of London and Liverpool. attempting to ‘create opportunity. not dependencei I Trial And Error (Channel 4) 9.30— l().3()pm. David Jessel presents a new series investigating miscarriages of justice. The first edition looks at the case of Mary Druhan. a vagrant convicted of setting fire to a house and causing the death of two male vagrants. The programme argues that much of the evidence against her was unreliable. I llarry Entield’s Guide To Opera (Channel 4) l().3()—l 1.05pm. The final edition of the six-part series, with the usual contributions from the Opera Ponces and the barrow-boys. I Married With Children (Scottish) l().4()—l l.lOpm. More off-colour comedy with America‘s least sickly sitcom family. the Bundys. I Gimme Shelter: Oeath or A Runaway (Channel 4) ll.35pm—12.45am. The disturbing story of Elaine Foley who was filmed by a documentary crew as she was warned by police about the dangers of life on the streets. A few months later her body was found floating in the Thames. Director Christopher Sheppard and Ian
McAuley pieced together her story.
54 The List 26 March—8 April I993