LISTINGS TELEVISION
I Nelson’s Column (BBCl) 8.30—9pm. John Gordon-Sinclair plays local newspaper journalist Gavin Nelson in the feeble sitcom.
I Chanplons: Football Crazy (Channel 4) 9-l0pm. Milldean Football Club in south London is just one of thousands of amateur clubs around the country. The film follows their progress through the season looking at the social bonds that hold the team together in times of strife. I Northern Exposure (Channel 4) lO—lO.55pm. Weirdness continues as Joel discovers he owes the State of Alaska a fifth year of service.
I Oranges Are Hot The Only Fruit (BBC!) 10.10—11.05pm. Jeanette Winterson’s novels may verge on the risible. but there’s no denying that Beeban Kidron‘s repeated TV serial about a young Lancashire girl brought up in an evangelist community is a superior slice of TV (melo)drama.
I Sotveto - A History (Channel 4)
l 1.55pm—midnight. The first in a three- part documentary series tracing the history of South Africa's largest conurbation from the beginning of the centu '.
I The late Show: India Week (BBC2) 11.15—1 1.55pm. Beginning a week of programmes from India, Nisha Pillai investigates the invasive nature of satellite television in the sub-continent.
TUESDAY 12
I Without Walls: Winds Oi Change (Channel 4) 9—lOpm. Using archive photographs from the 50s, this is a record of black life under apartheid in South Africa, showing among the images Nelson Mandela training with young boxers, and Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba performing in a back street bar. I Benny Hill Unseen (Scottish) 9.30—lOpm. The first showing of a documentary looking at the ‘humour‘ of the late comic beloved of everyone from Michael Jackson to Snoop Doggy Dogg. I Hesurrected (Channel 4) lO—l 1.40pm. David Thewlis plays a soldier who is believed killed in the Falklands War. When he returns seven weeks later apparently suffering from amnesia he is greeted as a hero in his home town, but his fellow soldiers are suspicious and hostile.
I EXS: TV Is King (BBC!) [0—10.40pm. A tie-in with the current exhibition at Edinburgh City Art Centre looking at ancient examples of the television set, beauty in Bakelite.
I The War Against The Halli (Scottish) 10.40—11.40pm. The second of the three- part documentary looking at the FBI’s onslaught against the Mafia tells the astonishing story of the murder of America’s most powerful Godfather.
WEDNESDAY 13
I The Hock ’N’ Roll Years: The 808 (BBCl) 7—7.30pm. It's 1987, Terry Waite is kidnapped, and The Mission are droning on about a ‘Wasteland’.
I Food File (Channel 4) 8.30—9pm. The consumerist food show reports on
CAMRA’s fight to save Czech Budweiser from pernicious American influences, and offers an introduction to 'new wave cheeses.’
I Screen Two: Return To Blood Hiver (BBCZ) 9—l0. 15pm. The South Africa season encompasses Douglas Livingstone’s tale of an exiled white ANC sympathiser (Kevin McNally) returning home to family conflict. Frances Barber and Warren Clarke co-star.
I OEO: The Fish Man Of Saughton Jail (BBCl) 9.30—10pm. The amazing (but true) story of prisoner Alex Torbet whose fish-breeding programme on behalf of Stirling University helped to feed thousands of people in Bangladesh. Robbie Coltrane narrates his story and tells how, due for release this year. Torbet has been refused ajob by the university.
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I Cheers (Chan 5pm. Another chance to see the final episode of the finest sitcom ever set in a friendly Boston bar. Diane (Shelley Long) returns to declare her adoration of Sam. Never mind, there’s a happy ending.
I Absolutely (Channel 4)
1125—1 l.55pm. Repeated antics from the quirky Stoneybridge crew.
I The Naked Face (Scottish) ll.40pm—l.35am. Bryan Forbes adapts Sidney Sheldon’s novel about an affluent psychiatrist’s shock over the death of his wife and daughter. Roger Moore, Rod Steiger and Elliott Gould star.
THURSDAY 14
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I Oisco Pike (Channel 4) 10—] l.45pm. The Kris Kristofferson season continues with his movie debut in Bill Norton’s hip tale of a faded rock star blackmailed into selling marijuana for corrupt cop Gene Hackman.
I SIIIUO (BBCl) ll.55pm—l.45am. Sean Connery stars in an unintentionally hilarious Western playing a cavalry ofi'icer turned cowboy who comes to the rescue of a batch of European aristocrats (including Brigitte Bardot) who have strayed into Apache territory.
I Heaven, Hell All Suburbia (Channel 4) ' 8—S.30pm Jonathan Glancey begins a new senes casting a jaundiced eye offer the
British suburbs, finding them soulless, characterless sprawls of housing with no sense of community. No kidding.
I Outside Edge (Scottish) 8.30—9pm. The suburban sitcom with the wonderful Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall.
I Black Bag Special: Stars, Tears and Swastikas (Channel 4) 9—l0pm. The first of two programmes investigating the rise of fascism in America and Russia. ln America the race war is finding outlets that range from the skinhead band Extreme Hatred to the cable TV preacher Tcm Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance. Darcus Howe hosts the programme and chairs a debate from Los Angeles.
FRIDAY 15
I Only Fools And Horses (BBCl) 8—8.50pm. A repeat of the double episode that sees the Trotter brothers out of their depth in Miami where Del is mistaken for a local Mafioso. Part two tomorrow.
I Ounroamln’ (BBCZ) 9—9.30pm. The fourth part of the Scottish homes with a difference sen'es. Edi Stark looks at some of the grander residences including a Fife castle and Lord Palmer's lO9-room house in Duns.
I Or Finlay (Scottish) 9—lOpm. More medical shenanigans with David Rintoul as Finlay. investigating a mysterious man living in a remote fannhouse.
I From A To 8: Tales Ol Modern Motoring (BBC2) 9.30—10.15pm. Nicholas Barker‘s provocative series pulls into the garage with the final episode, a look at the pleasures or otherwise of family motoring. I Roseanne (Channel 4) l0—10.30pm. DJ drives off in the family car, and Leon tries to take control of the diner.
I Younghlood (Scottish) lO.30pm-12.35am. Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and, er. Cynthia Gibb star in a rites of passage action adventure about a young ice-hockey player whose principles cause problems for his career.
I Beavis And Butthead (Channel 4) ll.35pm—l2.05am. The nerdish chums offer ‘opinions' on the likes of Madonna, Sugarcubes and House Of Pain.
SATURDAY 16
I A Hight In With David Attenborough: The Seven Faces OT BBC2 (BBC2) 7.45pm—l2. 15am. Another of BBCZ‘s special evenings, this one a tad more self- indulgent than most. With the channel approaching its 30th birthday, David Attenborough (one of BBC2’s earliest controllers) hosts an evening of classic programmes from the archives: snooker in black and white, Playschool and some specially-made new shows. including a contemporary Call My Bluff.
I IYPD Blue (Channel 4) 9-lOpm. More sleazy cop action from the downtown cop precinct.
SUNDAY 17
I Surf Potatoes (Channel 4) ll.45am—l2.15pm. Max Beesley and Dani Behr host a half-hour of zappy, post- modern TV snacking and gossip. See preview.
I Sunday Night Olive (BBCl) 9.55—10.40pm. Clive James offers another dose of lumbering wit and plenty of opportunities to laugh at the foibles of foreigners.
I Be Hire: Mean Streets (Channel 4) lOpm-12.05am. Scorsese’s ground- breaking 1973 New York story of Italian American punks on the make. De Niro is fine as the bristling, off-his-trolley Johnny Boy, but it's Harvey Keitel’s film really with his portrayal of the put-upon Charlie, desperately trying to do the right thing.
I Don’t look Om (Scottish) 10.15—10.55pm. Janice Forsyth hosts another critical appraisal of the current Scottish arts scene.
I The South Bank Show (Scottish) l0.55—l 1.55pm. A profile of Comic Strip founder member, TV comedian and recent Esquire pin-up Dawn French.
MONDAY 18
I The Hen And Stltnpy Show (BBCZ) 6.25—6.50pm. More adventures of the cool cat and crazy chihuahua in the cult American animation series.
I Scottish Passport (Scottish) 7-7.30pm. Katie Wood and Bryan Burnett host the travel guide for Scottish holiday-makers, with tips on destinations at home and abroad.
I Only When I Laugh (Channel 4) 8.30—9pm. Hospital comedy from the vaults, with James Bolam as the miserable malingerer Figgis.
I Ohantplons: Speedway (Channel 4) 9-lOpm. The documentary series bringing the Cutting Edge approach to sport takes a look at the grease and the grit of the motor-bikin’ brigade.
I Northern Exposure (Channel 4)
10—1 lpm. Cicely, Alaska plays host to more quirky adventures in check-shirt country.
TUESDAY 19
I The Bill Hall Element (BBCl) 9.30—10.20pm. Debbie Horsfield’s quirky class-war comedy/drama didn’t exactly set the ratings charts alight last year. but returns with a new series, with 'hmdish Hall still trying to accommodate the whims and habits of the plebeian Belcher clan.
I Bye Bye Baby (Channel 4) lOpm—midnight. Jack Rosenthal’s autobiographical account of his two years National Service spent on a base in Northern Germany.
WEDNESDAY 20 '
I Frasier (Channel 4) lO—l0.30pm. The first spin-off from Cheers finds neurotic psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) giving up on the lifeless Lilith and heading back to his hometown of Seattle to become a radio talk-show doc. Moving in with his father and a peculiarly English housekeeper, his life isn’t any smoother than it was back in Boston.
I Flying Blind (Channel 4) 12.10—12.40am. Corey Parker stars in the flakey sitcom about a straight kid who gets involved with a bohemian set.
THURSDAY 21
I Songwriter (Channel 4) lOpm—12.05am. The Kris Kristofferson
season continues with an easy-going comedy about two country stars (the other played by Willie Nelson) on the road, indulging in male pursuits of the drinking and womanising kind.
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I cardiac Arrest (BBCl) 10.20—10.50pm. David Hayman directs this bound-to-be controversial black comedy/drama set in an N HS hospital where a newly-qualified houseman soon finds his idealism challenged by the brutal realities of everyday, underfunded medical practice.
I In!“ Oslo (Scottish) 10.30-1 lpm. US comedy from the diner in the desert.
TheList8—2l April 199401