TV
PREVIEW The Blind Date
Scottish, starts Mon 13 Mar, 9pm.
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Not Cilla: The Blind Date
Close-cropped and bleached, Ben lvlrller from Armstrong and Ivlrller has broken out of camp comedy to take a part rn a bona frde thrrller. 'I’ve got some actrng muscles rn me somewhere,’ rnsrsts Mrller. He proves thrs to be the case, carryrng hrmself off credrbly as a polrce scene-of—crrme photographer who becomes entangled rn a serres of female murders. We know Irttle about hrs character rn the frrst half of the two-part drama and even hrs usually explrcrt sexual
PREVIEW
Scene By Scene: James Coburn
BBC2, Sat II lvlar, 10.30pm.
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Our Man Coburn: Scene By Scene
In has latest Scene By Scene presentatron, Mark Cousrns descrrbes actor James Coburn as 'the mrssrng Irnk between laconrc Gary Cooper and woifrsh Jack Nrcholson’, Certarnly, Coburn represents a past age of frlm stars, many of whom, rncludrng hrs frrend Steve McQueen, have departed thrs earth for the brg sOund stage rn the Sky, And Irke those bygone stars, Coburn rs a teller of tales: of lvlcQueen’s ego, of Sam Peckrnpah’s alcoholrsm, of how he got to play hrs fav0urrte character from Seven Samurar
102 THE lIST 2—‘r6 Mar 2000
orrentatron remarns under hetero wraps
What drew Mrller to thrs thrrller — apart from not berng stuprd enough to turn down the offer of an audrtron wrt'n Nrgel Douglas, who o'rrecteo' Thrs L/fe — was the theme of entrapment ‘V/hen the polrce try and trap someone rnto a confessron, they become very Involved rn each other’s Irves,' he says 'It’s gurte an rnterestrng srtuatron.'
Another rntrrgurng theme rs that of voyeurrsm, Lookrng through the lens and prrntrng up rmages of macabre scenes rs a perversron rn rtself. The Blind Date plays on the rmagery of death In thrs way, leavrng the vrewer confused abOut crrmrnal rdentrty The other, more obvrous plot strand, rs the datrng game as suggested rn the programme's trtle. The thrrtysomethrng srngle, career women that we’ve been seerng a lot of rn the Irkes of Real Women and Sex And The C/ty creep rnto a deadly zone of contact.
The real star of the show rs Zara Turner, seen before rn Touch And Go wrth Ivlartrn Clunes and The Wartrng T/me wth John Thaw Playtng Lucy Kennedy, an undercover cop, she drgs herself rnto a messy hole tryrng to frnd her srster's murderer But the suggestron rs that she erI break the clues rf she can read therr real mean:ng_
The B/rnd Date rs very much rn the mould of Pr/me Suspect and Inspector Morse but whether rt matches them rn terms of c'nrllrng and suspense, remarns to be seen rn the concludrng part IAlly Hardy;
rn The Magnrfrcent Seven,
Elsewhere rn the serres, COusrns's subjects — Scorsese, Schrader, Lynch have been more analytrcal But here, anecdote rs the meat of the rntervrew. Thrs :s a good and bad thrhg. When asked to explarn a humorous reference to the rape of a woman from one of hrs now badly dated 60s westerns, Coburn's reply rs vague, as are hrs vrews of women rn general, But when encOuraged to recall hrs meetrng wrth Bruce Lee, Coburn becomes anrmated, tellrng how the Irttle guy knocked hrm across the room wrth a 'one rnch punch' — the begrnnrng of a beautiful frrendshrp, And Coburn rs pleasrngly candrd about hrs personal lrfe, partrcularly a messy drvorce whrch he rnsrsts brought on the crrpplrng arthrrtrs that kept hrm out of frlm for many years. Coburn beat the condrtron and went on to make Aff/r'ctr’on for whrch he won an Oscar — and that's one of hrs storres, too,
Wrth a lrfe that began durrng the Great DepresSron and a career that's rncluded the aforementroned The l/lagnrfr‘cent Seven (Currently celebratrng rts 40th annrversaryr, The Great Escape, the James Bond spoofs that rnsprred the Austrn Powers frIms, Our Man Him and In Like Him, and some of Peckrnpah's best work, Pat Garrett And Br/ly The Krd and Cross Of Iron, Coburn's got a lot to talk abOut. Good lob then that the Scene By Scene format affords depth of rntervrew unavarlable to Jonathan Ross and Johnny Vaughn’s lrghtwerght frlm shows. IIvlrles Frelderl
PREVIEW
Close Up: Isaac Hayes BBCZ, Sat 4 Mar, 10.40pm.
Isaac Hayes ‘s The Man Hrp krds may come, strut therr stuff, dance about and even wear flash :rOusers, but Isaac7 Well, he’s been cool srnce day one and remarns ever thus, Famed rn recent years, not as one of the era's frnest composers and arrangers of mu masrc but, perhaps tragrcaIIy, as the vOrce of that chocolate salty balls guru and sexual athlete extraoromarre, South Park's Chef
More than Just merely a vOrceover artrst, Hayes won rnternatronal recognrtron fOr hrs Academy Award- wrnnrng song for the 1971 movre Shaft ‘thCh rs shown before thrs documentaryr The 70s saw hrm make a success, not rust Out of muSrc but actrng, and played a key part :r"- the human rrghts movement, somethrng whrch led to hrm berng decreed as royalty :n Ghana
In recognrtrOn of hrs undoubtedly co|0urful career, Hayes' sfe as a cuittrra and poIrtrcar frgure, from Shaft to Chef, rs examrned. 'Ivlark Robertson:
The Man for all seasonings: Isaac Hayes
PREVIEW
Dawson’s Creek
Channel 4, Tue 7 Mar, 6pm; Sun l2 Mar, noon. It has been such a majorly extended perrod of trme srnce we have been prrvrleged enough to welcome rnto Our numbre homes the over- eo'ucated, underoressed, srxteerr- gomg-on-twenty-seven resrdents of sleepy Dawson's Creek that rt rs somethrng of a shock to the system to experrence once agarn therr unrque system of communrcatron, consrstrng as at does of absurdly lengthy sentences drrpprng wrth, Irke, precocrous self-knowledge and erudrtron. Phew, Deep breath They're back
And the guestron rs, what rs Dawson Leary7 He sure as hell rsn’t a teenage bOy, because attractrve women keep clrmbrng thrOugh the wrndows of hrs hOuse to offer themselves to hrm, and rather than pausrng only to drbbre be‘ore gettrng on down, he does hrs Irttle worrred cross-eyed frownrng tlir'g 8"‘G declrnes, It arn’t natural, Perhaps he rs an alren on a sabbatrcai from Roswea Hrg't Stock up On angst, cheekbones and orrppy ballads before he returns to hrs home planet 'Hannah MCGIII)
Up the creek: Katie Holmes
REV EW Brurser BBCZ, Mon 28 Feb -
'How o'ro thrs set of Fast Show rrp-ot’fs make 't bayond the Frrnge7' rs my rnrtral response to the explorts of these ex-Cambrrdge alumnr
As the show progresses however, several characters appear promrsrng. The 'oowler’s perSOnaIrty requrres explrcrt sexual references even rf the heavy edrtrng rnterrupts hrs story, thrs, It appears, rs the pornt
There's one amusrng, albert berated set prece, e/okrng French surrealrsm, rn whrch Emu rs accused of Rod Hull’s murder, outwrttrng the JOkGS around then But for parrty's sake, a ’yOu've been tangoed" character's c." es of he 0'“ lead to a squashed baby There's a prmp who goes all grrly at the men: 07‘ of sex, and grrlres who expOund on all rts forms.
A megolomanrac TV exeCutrve wants Alan Trtchmarsn (I()tt‘.l"ci! hr; the schedules, but as the guru's emprre satrrrses rtself, thrs one-gag '«.'.()r‘tler soor‘ wanes Get the brgger prc.ture7 It’s as Subtle as fali.ng off a "c:(>‘, {)tr’. fine Beep are screenrng two eprsodes a week (Mondays and Wednesdays , oopousry <o~‘:t:e"t that Brurser wrll frnd an audrence 'Denyse Presley;
Smack my quips up: Bruiser