Jimmy Savil
DOCUMENTARY SERIES I Love 19705 BBC2, starts Sat 22 Jul, 8.55pm.
As Kylie and Robbie Jump aboard the disco bandwagon this Summer, 1970s fever is as strong as ever. If you’re still pining for Spacehoppers, Buckeroo and, heaven forbid, Brut aftershave, then tune in for an (unihealthy dose of retro. For ten weeks, some of the most luminous Stars of that decade will lead us through the fads and fashions of those hazy years, leaVing no platform boot unturned.
He was presenting Top Of The Pops at the time, so who better to launch the series than Sir James SaVile. In 1970, those jim’ll Fix It badges were Just a twmkle in hrs eye, but already other icons were being born, the Beatles had Split, but youth culture was saved by the arrival of Scooby D00 and the Raleigh Chopper,
Prepare to enter catchphrase heaven — 'You \vOUIdn't like me when I’m angry’ — and recall those evenings spent begging yOUr lvlum to let you
DRAMA MIN -SER|ES Stephen King's Storm Of The Century
Channel 4, Sat 22—Mon 24 Jul, lOpm.
Another hallmark Stephen King battle between good and evil
Seems like an obvrous thing to say, but Stephen King’s Storm Of The Century is, well, 'very Stephen King’, This three- part mini-series Opens With a gruesome, Supernatural crime contrasted With everyday life in the small New England fishing community of Little Tall Island (the home of another King creation, Dolores Claiborne),
The opening set-piece unfolds in the leisurely, detailed manner of King's books. This, however, has not often been the case. ConSider some of the other King adaptations (and pretty
2 kicks off ten (un)healthy doses of retro
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have your dinner in front of the box, when the decade's claSSic teleViSion output comes under the spotlight. Whether you dreamed of being Wonder Woman or Starsky and Hutch, it’ll all come flooding back, in glorious polyester with a soundtrack worth its weight in gold.
Of all the personalities presenting the series, perhaps the most exciting prospect is Kermit The Frog. A showbiz survivor who’s still big in the 90s, he'll be paying tribute to Hollywood's biggest hits. Among the other highlights will be Noddy Holder sharing what he can remember of the decade's muSic in /Love 7973. No doubt, he’ll be hoping his band's haircuts don't come under harsh scrutiny when /Love l978 reveals how Farrah Fawcett's flick hit the headlines long before Jennifer Aniston started uSing COl'ldlthTTeT,
/ Love 79705 promises to delve deep to disc0ver the winning formula of an era which is almost universally adored, deSpite producing some of the most truly awful fashions and fads of all time. (LOuisa Pearson;
much his every word nas reached screens both big and small): The Shining is better known as a Kubrick film, Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption gained Oscar nominations, but not for the author, The Green Mile is a Tom Hanks showcase. Then there's The Lawnmower Man, a virtual reality tale that bears no resemblance to Kings Surreal short story, That's the pomt: most King adaptations are ’not very Stephen King’.
In the past, King has attempted to naVigate this problem by involvmg himself to various degrees in adaptations of his stories. He adapted some of his own books, among them Pet Sematary and The Stand Perhaps ill-adVisedly, he directed the awful ’murderous trucks mowe' Maximum Overdrive. And did y0u know there’s another version of The Shining? This one’s a TV mini-series, more faithful to the book, overseen by King (though not necessarily better than Kubrick’s I979 horrOr classiCi.
Storm Of The Century, however, is King's first original screenplay (for purists his second if you cOunt the SOs horror comics homage Creepshow); it’s not adapted from one of his books, thOugh the script has been published in the US. The story of the arrival of a creepy stranger amid Little Tall Island's preparations to deal with a fast- approaching storm signals one of King’s hallmark battles between good and €Vll. Storm Of The Century is the essence of King; suspense, supernatural and soap. (Miles Fielder)
TV
DOCUMENTARY
Man In Black Channel 4, Tue 25 Jul, lOpm.
Dentists, traffic wardens, Jehovahs. Add to that unholy trinity the football referee and you have the most feared and loathed indiViduals in British society. They say you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper. So, what can someone’s sanity threshhold be for them to choose a career which reguires them haVing a whistle in their mouth and abuse ringing in their ears?
As any number of sporting blooper Shows will indicate, refs in the Far East enjoy reacting to dissent with ultra- Violence, Imagine the mayhem that wOuld ensue were Hugh Dalias to thump Henrik Larsson? The man from Bonkle (seriouslyi is und0ubtedly Scotland's most infamous man in black, One particularly hectic Old Firm clash saw him being struck by a com, haying his windows broken and later being psychoanalysed when Celtic officials deemed his performance to be somewhat slanted. Clearly a man with a deathwish, Dallas caused a Storm in Euro 2000 by awarding Italy a soft penalty against Turkey
In Man /n Black, Scottish dOCumentary-maker Ross Wilson looks at English official DaVid Elleray, a man who has been accused of bias by Alex Ferguson while SimultaneOusly being branded as pro-lvlan U. Whatever you think of refs, you have to admit that they Just can’t win. (Brian Donaldson)
DOCUMENTARY SERIES Secrets Of The Dead:
Murder At Stonehenge Channel 4, Mon 17 Jul s Vii «2 vi—
Archaeology courses are bursting to capaCity across the cOuntry and ex- cOmedy and pop stars are affiliating themselves with pagan runes reVivalism. Have we entered the early stages of post-millennium tenSion where the only way forward is to go back or COuld it iust be that archaeology is the new, erm, rock 'n’ roll.
This dOCUmentary from Channel 4’s excellent Secrets Of The Dead series follows archaeologist Mike Pztts on his quest to find out the true story behind the beheaded Stonehenge man iknown as 4.10.4; found buried Within the shadows of the stones. Though starting out a little dry, this soon develops into a fascinating historical whodunnit with the usual suspects of Neolithic and scientific experts being wheeled out to give their penneth worth.
Combining old-fashioned detective work With hi-tech analySis, Pitts rejects a lot of his original beliefs in fav0ur of more radical ideas that show Stonehenge to be more than Just a pagan burial ground. What really impresses about this documentary however is some full-bloodied recreations of 4 10 4'5 execution shown from a different perspective every time a new discovery is ir‘ade Ciritty historical reViSionism. (Paul Dalei
COMEDY SERIES
Operation Good Guys BBCZ, Starts Thu 27 Jul, lOpm.
The ’alternative' Beeb channel has done rather well with its comedy output of late. Well OK, Hippies and C0up/ing may have been major let- downs but you can’t argue with the magnificent Success of The Roy/e Family's Sitting comedy and the dark recesses of the psyche as plundered by The League Of Gent/emen.
Then there is the peculiar case of Operation Good Guys, The marketing budget for this spoof fly-on-the-wall dOCumentary is undoubtedly far less than the finances thrown at The League's make-up department. Yet, the creators o‘ 066 — Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis and Hugo Blick — have guietly burrowed away and made a Cult faVOurite into a lvlontreux TV aiivard-winner
In the first episode of series three, the undercover cops have had enough of being under the camera’s glare at work and so set out to get their own one-hour Christmas Special. What enSues iS a dramatic teleVisecl drugs raid, Supers in suspenders, a panto midget and the struggle between good and evil Or more aCCUrately, trying to choose between hiring Val Doonican or Denise Van Oiiten for a musical number on the proposed Show Sounds daft And it IS.
(Brian Donaldson)
This man has a high sanity threshhold
1373‘, "' '~ “$33th 5» . 1, ’. S , it 9 Old-fashioned detective work mixed
with hi-tech analysis
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This cult fave has crept along to success
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