Reviews
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THE CONTENDER Scottish, Fri 18 Mar. 11.30pm O.
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The Games: Live Channe/ 4, Fri 25 Mar. 9.30pm After a week of intense training. the likes of Craig Charles. Kirsty Gallacher and Chesney Hawkes get seriously athletic tonight.
Fingersmith BBC1, Sun 27 Mar; 9pm After Tipping the Velvet. the Beeb goes Sarah Waters-crazy again With this adaptation starring Imelda Staunton and Charles Dance.
Mr Harvey Lights a Candle BBC l, Mon 28 Mar. 9pm The great Timothy Spall plays a teacher coming to terms with his past while on a school trip. Best place for it, really. Hustle BBC I, Tue 29 Mar, 9pm A welcome second series for the slick bunch of con artists including Robert Vaughn and Adrian Lester.
John Travolta: The Inside Story Five. Wed 30 Mar. 8pm Everything you ever wanted to know about the big fella. Five-style.
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l’()l IlIfLAl DRAMA ARCHANGEL BBC1, Sat 19 Mar, 9.10pm; Sun 20 Mar, 9pm 00.
Based on a blockbuster novel by Robert Harris. this twopart BBC drarria is a surprisingly unrlerwhelniing and rather slow affair. although there is enough about the performances and production to just about save rt and rriake it worth watching. Daniel Craig stars as young Oxford historian Fluke Kelso. who specialises in the Stalinist days of the Sovret Union. Getting drawn into the murky world of the Russian underground on a Visit to Moscow. he meets a former member of the secret police who claims to know the whereabouts of the dead dictator's diary.
The plot. as you might expect. is well structured. rt a little predictable. but considering the amount of shooting and chasing going on, the pace of Archange/ is remarkany sedate. a problem down to some rather lazy direction. The whole production is glossy and easy to watch. but the o\erall impression is of a drama rather lacking in oomph. lDoug Johnstonei
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BBC1, Sun 20 Mar, 5.55pm 000.
One of Scottiin literature"; obsessions rs the life of arguabl. the couritr‘,”s rnost lélll‘llllfi writer ever, Hebert l ours Stevenson. and .Vitri good reason. because his life w; s sorriething out of the ()ltlllléil‘,. Despite lierng plagued by IS in adulthood and dying at the age of .1-1 in Sarrioa. Stevenson managed to sguee/e plenty of adventures into a time which rriirrored. at least in part. some of his classic books such as Kidnapped and lrei'rsi/re rs/and.
This Sunday teatime docu drama doesn't particularly aim for any new insight into the man or his work. but it does a grand job of telling the facts. Ewen Breniner puts in guite a turn as RLS hirriself. and the film is inter'cut wrth the usual talking heads and book and movre extracts. 'l he production is modern wrthout being irritatineg cutting edge. and the whole thing runs very slickly indeed. being inforrriative and entertaining in equal measure.
(Doug .Johnstonel
HISTORY DOCUMEN IAHY
RUSS A REVOLUTION IN COLOUR
Five, Tue 22 Mar, 8pm COO
In recent trrries. historical documentaries have shown an almost desperate desire to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. often ending up rather patronising their Viewers. Thankfully. this series on the Russian rexolution escherxrs the Current trend for underlining exen, line of iarration wrth a clurns, ‘.iSLial aid. in fa‘.0ur of
POl |ll()/’\l [)OCU DRAMA
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR Channel 4, Thu 17 Mar, 9pm .0000
It’s rare to be driven to boiling, angry tears by a telly programme. But by the end of this gut-wrenching factual drama about the events leading to the apparent suicide of government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, one’s rancour about the injustices surrounding the war on Iraq is all-
consuming.
Factual dramas’ dark challenge is their need to recreate conversations and situations that the programme makers couldn’t possibly know about in order to build up a human picture we can relate to. But as with predicaments such as those of Anne Frank or even the Tories’ pre-election tool, Margaret ‘shoulder’ Dixon, telling the story of the individual is a powerful way of engaging the wider public and exposing a broader issue. Mark Rylance portrays Dr Kelly as a quiet little man who does his job as best he can and with a clear moral direction. As the pressure builds and he comes to understand he’s being thrown to the wolves in the fatal battle between Downing Street and the BBC, his already diminutive frame begins to shrink and it’s heartbreaking.
It doesn’t really matter that the depictions of the other characters are so subjective in this Peter Kosminsky project. Andrew Gilligan is shown as being disorganised and a bit dishonest, Alastair Campbell is a brute and Tony Blair a fool. What matters is the bringing to life of the processes involved: the second, ‘dodgy' dossier, the 45-minute sham, Gilligan's broadcast and, ultimately, the whitewash that was the Hutton Enquiry. This should be compulsory viewing. (Ashley Davies)
splicing archive footage from the period wrth filmed recreation of the events of 1917 and their aftermath.
No prizes wrll be bestowed on the programmemakers for narrative Subtlety: "PeOple queued fOr hours Just for a loaf of bread. and they were fed up .vith rt.‘ runs one earl, line. Still. this is a fairly CC".‘1)f(-:li(3ll8"./€, if bare-boned. rattle through the events that followed the popular
revolution ithe abdication of the Tsar. the rise of Lenin and the Boisheviks and the establishment of the proletariati for those
whose prior knowledge of Ruffiiar‘r l/lllllfn'l history sterr”, frcrr ‘.'/at(,l:irig Doctor [fill/(NF).
'Allat‘. Radcliffe
' '.'.;:' If." THE LIST 101