Review
ARENA: REMEMBER THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL?
8804, Thu 9 Dec, 9pm 0.
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The Turner Prize 2004 Channe/ 4. Mon 6 Dec. 8pm. The tabloids prepare to get tooled up for another onslaught of outrage alter tonight's live extravaganza from Tate Britain.
Tumshie McFadgen’s Bid for Ultimate Bliss BBC], Tue 7 Dec, 70.35pm. This wee Tartan Short stars Clive Russell and Derek Riddell and it's about a chap who wants to experience all five sense at the same time. Fair dos.
Can’t Buy Me Love Scottish. Mon 73 Dec. 9pm. Ex-- 'Enders Martin Kemp and Michelle Collins co-star in this cuteSy drama about a cad who hes to a lady about his lottery win in order to gain her love.
Aggie and Kim Clean Up America Channel 4, Tue 74 Dec. 8pm. Watch out USA. A&K are about to solve all your filthy habits.
Imagine . . . Brando BBCI, Thu 76 Dec. 70.35pm. Alan Yentob pays sombre tribute to the dead legend.
for l l.",' Aid and (/illfl’, Relief. for .‘.’lll’ h it should be either praised or damned.
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lhis rather sell lll‘lilillillll. sanctiinonioiis and thoroughly patchy docuirientary manages to rrrake a lot of comedians rCIeese. Saunders. Atkinson. Henry. f'Sayle etc; seen: very boring as they talk about the charity shows and their impact ‘i’ylhat's more it iuinps around \‘iildly, some serioust amateur editing leaving the ‘.’lt:l.‘/(}l confused as to the purpose of it all. Plus Sting is in It. In the face of all the ‘.'./oithinr;-ss it takes Ruby Wax to admit it was all about ego massage. rtareerism and tree exposure for those involved. Personally. I'd rather forget all about it. il)oug Johnstone)
l ll M or )(LUMI NlAltY X-RATED: THE FILMS THAT SHOCKED BRITAIN
Five, Thu 9 Dec, 11.10pm oooo
It all changed on one Saturday night that became a Sunday morning Who xix/ould haxe thought that Alan Sillitoe. a working class lad from Nottingham, ‘.'.'ou|d ibj. pr‘oxyi start a celluloid l(}‘\.'()ltlil()ll’:‘ Still. if it hadn't been him it would naxe been someone else. for by the early weds it was clear that the gap DUIWCOH the pertra\.al of the sexual mores of a generation and the reality were growing so far apart that something had to give. The kids no longer wanted to go on
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’thlMl [ill/tM/s AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
Scottish, Sun 12 Dec, 9pm 00.
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‘lvlore star's than there are in the sky' was how they used to market l-lollywood. 'lhe same phrase could have been appropriated to entice Viewers to this new adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library. x-xhose (:ast list reads like a roll call of the great and not so good of British acting. In they all troop in their stylish -1()s garb as the action centralises at a smart seaside hotel: Joanna Lumley. Simon Callox'i. Ian Richardson. Jamie Theakston. for heaven's sake.
Any current portrayal of Christie's spinster sleuth would suffer unfair comparison to
oan Hickson‘s .‘.’él8l)l8ll. watchful c'narzicterisation from the 89s but Geraldine MCE'.'.'an‘s Marple is a garrre. hands-on heroine. McEsiar‘. 2s hampered, :ike the rest of the cast iéit‘fl l‘fitty adaptations of Agatha Christie's work. b, the
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WHAT WE STILL DON’T KNOW Channel 4, Sun 5 Dec, 8pm 0000
This is the stuff. Amongst the humdrum banality of everyday life, none of us devotes enough time to thinking about the big questions. What’s the meaning of life? Is there life elsewhere out there? How do we know we really exist? This three-part series tackles just such topics and does so with a dextrous and intellectual panache that is both invigorating and thought-provoking. Future episodes will tackle ‘Why are we here?‘ and 'Are we real?’ but this first show poses the ‘are we alone?’ conundrum.
Hosted by none other than the astronomer royal Sir Martin Rees, the show rattles through the likelihood of life on other planets, what that life might look and act like and finally, if there is life out there, why haven't we heard from them? Of course, only 20 years ago this stuff was the sole realm of science fiction but advances in modern cosmology, physics, chemistry, technology, maths and astrobiology (whatever that is) mean that we can now lend considerable insight into such a topic.
The programme is the usual mix of talking boffins and weird visuals to accompany abstract concepts, but it's done with such a sure hand that it never seems clumsy or thin. The scientists are all eminently understandable and the theories are spelt out concisely to make a programme that is as intriguing as it is entertaining. Indeed so good is it that it makes you wish they'd spread the topics out over a damn sight more than three shows. Sterling work. (Doug Johnstone)
over-em;ihasis on nostalgic period recreation over brooding menace, .‘iith the characters reduced to camp grotesgues.
iAllan Radcliffei
DRAMA [JOCl lMfiN lAll‘r IF . . . CLONING COULD CURE US BBCZ, Thu 16 Dec, 9pm .00
have to declare a vested disinterest in this programme from the outset. For me the docu-drama or drama» doc thell. let's call the \.-.rhole thing offf. is a bit of a pointless phenorrenon. the .-.e<r,-d'y orarr‘atisat on often ser.’ing to ut‘idern‘ine serious
issues. rather than
engaging its audience. This returning prograrnrre .‘J‘nich offers imagined hypothetical situations based on current ethical dilemmas. is a case in point. the first instalment dealing .‘Jlih the cor‘itentious hot potato that is human embryo Cloning.
len years lll the future, a maverick researcher attempts to regenerate a paralysed young climber"; spinal chord, using illegal l’) day old cloned embryos. it you ignore the cheesy script and acting and unnecessary digressions into the characters' personal li/es, the situation does raise some genuinely tough ethical as well as emotional conundra. Again, though, the most engaging aspects are the straight contributions from smentis S and ethicists such as Tom Shakespeare and antr abortion Campaigner Josephine Otiintivalle. iAllan Radcliffe)
' “1 Dec 290-". THE LIST 1 1 1