www.|ist.co.uk/tv
DOCUMENTARY
BABY BIBLE BASHERS
Channel 4, Thu 14 Feb. 9pm; repeated Tue 19 Feb. 11.05pm 000
It never fails to chill the blood to see people who claim to be working on behalf of the little baby Jesus with banners denouncing everyone from liars to homosexuals and adulterers to money lovers. Whatever happened to ‘love the sinner, forgive the sin'? Whatever happened to ‘get a life’? Yet, how much more repellent can it be when it’s a seven-year-old boy called Samuel drawling in an incomprehensible Mississippi accent about abortionists and gamblers needing to repent.
Where are the parents, you might ask. Well, they’re very much in the thick of it, placards and opinions thrust in the faces of evil delinquents who are set to be toasted for eternity. Still, there’s always time for him to receive a good old-fashioned southern style thrashing should he
REMOTE CONTROL ‘
Brian Donaldson finds human oddities and bad hair days running amok in the schedules
The internet is a wonderful, wonderful place. Where else can you tap a few buttons and see men lip-synching to Romanian hit songs or Witness dogs intertering wrth cats or watch a yardtul of hardnut prisoners do the ‘Thriller‘ dance or gasp in amazement as a bulky Scottish barmaid falls down a trapdoor? None of which is to even mention the lad whose moment of Jedi contemplation was scoffed at by millions or the oddball who wailed at the media's taunting of Britney Spears Simply for our voyeuristic entertainment. Rude Tube (Channel 4, Fri 75 Feb. me 0.. l. which we don't think is named after its host. features foppish presenter Alex Zane
running down the top 50 Viral sensations with sweaty-painted relish. He even includes a woman gOing absoluter ape about a disastrous viSit to the hairdresser.
I'd be amazed if Lakshmi Tatma hasn't appeared somewhere on the web. This two-year-old is the Subject of The Girl with 8 Limbs: A Bodyshock Special (Channe/ 4, Tue 79 Feb, 9pm 00. essentially a mortal battle in rural India between the twrn towers of religion and soence. And guess what. SCience Wins! Get it right up ye!! For those that believed little Lakshmi is the reincarnation of the eight-limbed goddess who even had the same name and everything. there are doctors on hand to say no. she is in fact a coniomed twm whose partner has gone and lost its head. Some quite astonishing footage
step out of line with a spot of boyish disobedience. If you thought that was crazy enough, we also meet Florida firebrand Terry who may be nine. but has the local congregation in his palm when he whips them up into an evangelical frenzy. This otherwise painfully shy mite holds the distinction of having been the world's youngest ever ordained minister at the tender age of six. The triptych of pint-sized preachers is completed by Ana Carolina Dias who has been saving souls since she was three and is now a national superstar in Brazil. Whether she can rescue the hardened drug dealers and killers in the shanty areas of Rio is another matter. But what comes across with all three cases is a sense that the parents are revelling a little too much in the newfound celebrity of their offspring and failing to shield them from the horrors of modern life. Yet, who is going to save them from their parents? (Brian Donaldson)
accompanies this tragic private hell of parents dragged into an almighty struggle between their own faith and dorng what's right for the baby.
The struggle which accompanies Viewmg Skins (Channel 4, Thu 74 Feb, 70.35pm O. ) is between gently pushing the off button or
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smashing a fist through yOur LCD screen. The overblown gloss of the season two trailer brought to mind the misleading farce of the initial ad campaign for Lost and for sheer who gives a tossabiiity7', the pair are on a level footing. Nicholas Hoult's spindiy eyebrows remain the most fascmating things about this show as is the brief moment when Bill Bailey and Harh/ Enfield sguare up at a tab:e all
Pacino. De Niro Heat-like. Matching the Skins thinning veneer is The Last Enemy 680, Sun 77 Feb, 9pm 00 l. a fast-paced conspiracy
Reviews TV
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McGovernl is more than a lllitft? (,Illlltfl for his Cynical worIdView While lead Hal/Con Just wanted to be a British Curb Your Hithusiaani. this; goes i iii! On a limb lsorry. Lakshmi: to make obscure references to Vincent Gallo mowes and has the spertacular loin Hollander as a ll()-ll()llf$‘fllf$ft agent Curiously, the worst sounding show of the fortnight ltor 'fortnight' read ‘decade'i is actually the best new thing on the box. Ready"? OK. a thin vampire, hairy werewolf and fragile ghost share a flat. No. it':, not a Flu/(1 documentary. but a /I{)l)‘/ new drama entitled Being Human BBC/1’3, Mon 78 Feb, 9pm 0... which stars three new rising British talents. including Andrea Riseborough whri will soon play Margaret Thatcher iii a BBC4 drama iwhat if; it With Andrea and mythical beasts’h. It also has the added DOnu‘s‘ Of the exer rnar/elloiis Adrian Lester as the leader ot the blood8uckers who is slightly {Timed that his protege is hanging out Nilll a pesky lycanthrope and srrir;l!/ ghoul. lt's Witty. it's Spirited and par ctiy in the right places, has some Nice special effects that don't detract from the tale's heart and shows last year's Jeky/i a thing or two about abpl/lflq a proper twist to the modern gothic.
14-28 Feb 200': THE LIST 93