Reviews
ROMAN TIC DRAMA PERFECT DAY Five, Sun 11 Dec, 9pm .0.
Does the world need another drama about a middle-class British wedding that goes a bit wrong? Big fat nope. I'd say. But this. from the people behind This Life and Attachments. is probably w0rth watching because it's that rare creature. a home-grown drama from Five. A group of thirtysomething friends gets together for a wedding. but the bride's ex (he‘s a charming but
Space Cadets Channel 4, Wed 7 Dec, 9pm Johnny Vaughn puts his name to one of the sickest shows ever made as a bunch of easily-leds are told they are part of a space programme and will be orbiting around the Earth via Russia. Except they're on a studio- built set somewhere in the UK. Pity the fools.
Coleen’s Secrets Five, Sun 71 Dec, 8pm The multi- talented Ms McLoughlin has appeared on the cover of Vogue and has a workout DVD due for Christmas. And now she gets her soul bared on Five. Amazing.
You Are What You Eat: Michelle McManus - Eight Stone Later Channel 4, Mon 73 Dec Will our agony never end? Magnificent 7 BBCi, Tue 73 Dec. 9pm Helena Bonham Carter stars in a new ‘truth-based' drama about a mum with seven kids. four of whom are autistic and one has ADHD. Stroll in the park by the sounds of it.
flawed Irishman with twinkly eyes: imagine that) tries to win her back.
The production values are slick and the acting is top notch. particularly from the lead Claire Goose who's supported by loads of recognisable comedy faces. but the script and length of the thing (a whopping two hours) weaken the effect. Best tape it and watch in two sittings. bearing in mind that the second half is way better than the first. (Ashley Davies)
THRILLER DRAMA SECRET SMILE Scottish, Mon 12 & Tue 13 Dec, 9pm .0.
The opening scene of a grey. rain-soaked funeral sets the tone for this two-pan drama. Something really nasty is going to happen. We're quickly spirited back to a brighter. happier occasion one year earlier. when architect Miranda (Shaun of the Dead's Kate Ashfield) meets David Tennant's grinning charmer Brendan Block at an ice-rink and is. quite literally. bowled over. Their whirlwind romance lasts a mere ten days. however. Kate consigning Brendon to the relationship dustbin when he goes all stalkerish on her. reading her teenage diary and getting a key Cut for her flat.
Weeks later, Miranda's sister Kerry introduces her new boyfriend: the very same Brendan Block. You know the rest: the happy couple get engaged and the entire family IS ensnared by the iovral Brendan. while only the increasingly deranged Miranda sees his psychotic side. Viewers will arrive at the conclusion before the characters do. but it's fun watching Tennant's attractive pSyChO get worse and worse and worse. (Allan Radcliffe) MUSICAL
DOCUMENTARY SONGBIRDS Channel 4, Thu 15 Dec, 10pm 000
By way of a sequel to the all-singing convict documentary that was Fe/tham Sings. here we share the experiences of the female inmates of Surrey's Downview prison through song. Challenging bull-dyke preconceptions. this film offers an intimate portrait of the lives that led these women to their incarceration and what their futures now promise.
I n ‘i, I I ‘~
I- I r
Granted. no A&R guys are likely to come knocking on the prison gates but the pop. hip hop and folksy ditties act as introduction to the likes of the wholly institutionalised ‘Scary Mary' and the quiet. middle-class mother Tess whose tragic stOry provides the narrative thread for the programme. Furthermore. they have apparently aided in the procurement of the candid interviews that prove the real metal of the piece. The Outcome is a valid documentary that touches on iSSLies of self-harm. sex and drugs in a women's prison and ultimately humanises their life behind bars.
(Mark Edmundson)
CRIME DOCUMENTARY I KILLED JOHN LENNON
Channel 4, Thu 8 Dec, 10pm 00.
For those of you who w0uld love to imagine a world that never had John Lennon in it. brace yourselves: the media onslaught is about to begin. And 25 years on from his slaying outside New York's Dakota Building. what better way to trigger it all than with the taped confession of Mark Chapman.
A decade after he was put away for life. Chapman decided to tell all to the only journalist
SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY RUSSIAN GODFATHERS 8802, Thu 8 Dec, 9pm .00.
Of all the bad things President Boris Yeltsin did in his eight years in office, surely one of the worst was his empowerment of the oligarchs. Throughout the 19905 Yeltsin broke down parts of Russia’s industrial base such as the steel works, coal mines and motor business, handing them to those he perceived to be his friends and allies: the legions of entrepreneurs in waiting who had bided their time throughout the dying days of Gorbachev’s
USSR.
Yeltsin hoisted one of these individuals on such a high pedestal that he became known as ‘the Kingmaker’ and ‘the most powerful man in Russia'. His name was Boris Berezovsky. A decade on and Berezovsky lives in frustrated guarded security in a Surry country mansion, planning his revenge on Vladimir Putin, the vicious KGB officer who brought his golden age to an end in the first few months of his presidential career.
In this, the first episode of what is shaping up to be a very intriguing series, Patrick Forbes (The National Trust) delves deep into a world of scandal, secret police, summary imprisonment and extreme wealth to reveal who really rules modern Russia. Forbes is granted almost unlimited access to this likeably cantankerous, chain-smoking millionaire who uses the harsh imprisonment of Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to further his campaign against Putin. This is fascinating stuff which points up some truths that are rarely if ever reported in the West. (Paul Dale)
he could confide in. Jack Jones who, to me. looks like a guy you wouldn't trust with your last copy of Catcher in the Rye. After a perfectly calm childhood. the only real clue suggested here is that he was so
traumatised by someone rifling through his wallet on a day out at the beach that it drove him on to the inevitable path of celebrity destruction. My money‘s still on CIA brainwashing.
(Brian Donaldson)
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1—15') Dec 200:") THE LIST 97