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SITCOM RAB C NESBITT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL BBC2, Tue 23 Dec, 9pm ●●●●●
With his dishevelled demeanour and manky string vest, Rab C Nesbitt may look exactly the same as he did when we last eyeballed him staggering from our screens in the summer of 1999, but the wise old nutter fae Govan is a changed man. Not only attending AA meetings but apparently leading them, the headband headbanger has also found God and discovered how to switch the cooker on, ensuring that Mary Doll’s tea is on the table when she knocks off from her cleaning job. But how long will the all-new Rab last and can he fend off a potential threat to his marriage from Gary Lewis’ hotshot TV exec? Much has happened in the world since Rab’s last ale-fuelled rant and
some vague attempt at nutshelling the sign of the times occurs when two fully burka-clad Muslim women appear, albeit down Rab’s boozer singing karaoke. Capturing the zeitgeist has always been part of Ian Pattison’s motivation for Rab, but simply feeding off the irrational mindset of a caustic alcoholic has often been enough to give the show its knee-jerk humour. It’s quite possible we could wait another decade for Gregor Fisher to don the ripped jacket, but should he never be coaxed back, this is a decent epitaph for Rab. (Brian Donaldson)
REMOTE CONTROL Brian Donaldson finds some spooky dramas and heart- warming animations doing the Yuletide rounds
locked room within a sprawling ghostly mansion called Metropolis. The twists and resolutions were, to this watcher at least, as well hidden as Davies’ ears underneath that shaggy bonce. There are more supernatural goings-on in Affinity (ITV1, Sun 28 Dec, 9pm ●●●●●), a decent adaptation of Sarah Waters’ chiller about a posh woman taking a fancy to an imprisoned medium whose link to a mysterious spirit named Peter Quick isn’t all that it seems. With Crooked House (BBC4, Mon 22–Wed 24 Dec, 10.30pm ●●●●●), Mark Gatiss has concocted a
Christmas is a time when TV goes mad for the long-awaited comeback. Alongside Rab C, Vic ‘n’ Bob and Stanley Baxter in making a welcome return is Alan Davies’ duffle-coated sleuth with Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (BBC1, Thu 1 Jan, 9pm ●●●●●). And surprisingly splendid festive fare it is too, in this seemingly familiar case of things going horribly wrong down the ages in a
three-part ghost story about another sinister country house and betrays his love of the Amicus portmanteau horrors of the 60s and 70s. Quality-wise, two out of three isn’t bad. Not spooky but no less affecting a
story is The Diary of Anne Frank (BBC1, Mon 5 Jan, 7pm ●●●●●) which runs over five consecutive evenings and does the traditional festive job of making people feel simultaneously guilty about over- indulging and relieved to be free enough to continue stuffing themselves.
Not so lucky were the Franks, who holed themselves up in an Amsterdam attic for two years while the Nazis rounded up European Jews and dragged them off to an awful fate. Newcomer Ellie Kendrick plays the iconic diary-dabbler as a rather niggly and unsympathetic (thus utterly human) young girl whose fraught relationship with her mum (Tamsin Greig) was in direct contrast to that with her father Otto (Iain Glen), the only of the hiders to survive the concentration camps, eventually dying in 1980. And just because you know the ending doesn’t make their eventual capture any less traumatic in its reconstruction.
In terms of finales, The 39 Steps (BBC1, Sun 28 Dec, 8pm ●●●●●) has had its fair share, whether involving a
memory man on stage about to reveal a dark secret before being shot or Robert Powell swinging from Big Ben to prevent a bomb going off when it strikes 11.45am. In this thrilling TV version, Rupert Penry-Jones plays Richard Hannay as he seeks to flee from the goodies and baddies who are both after him and the suffragette he has inadvertently enlisted while on the run.
But it’s not all scary monsters and super creeps, as cuddly old Jim Broadbent does the narrative duties on Lost and Found (Channel 4, Wed 24 Dec, 2.30pm ●●●●●), a heart- embracing animated tale of a young lad whose day is interrupted by a penguin on his doorstep, having seemingly taken a wrong turning out of Antarctica. By now a standard feature of the Christmas Day fun, Aardman’s best-
ReviewsTV TV OF THE YEAR
Dexter The Miami serial killer with a heart wins Best New US Drama category with Mad Men, Damages and John Adams just behind. The Fallen An unbearably moving three-hour documentary about the British lives lost fighting the War on Terror, told by those left to mourn.
Dead Set Charlie Brooker gave us bloody zombie mayhem in this surprisingly bleak horror set in the Big Brother house. The American Future: A History Simon Schama helped build up the excitement of the US elections with this series about how America got to this point in time.
Fonejacker Daft prank calls: what’s so funny about that? Everything.
Criminal Justice A stirring five- part drama with Ben Whishaw in the role of a chap who may or may not have murdered a woman in his sleep. The Inbetweeners In a fairly dismal year from new British comedy, this school-set affair stood head and shoulders above the ‘competition’.
known dog/man semi-dynamic duo return with their latest punsome half- hour Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (BBC1, Thu 25 Dec, 8.30pm ●●●●●). In this one, Wallace takes a step back from his cheese obsession to run the Top Bun bakery, when it comes to Gromit’s attention (naturally his owner is about eight steps behind) that someone is bumping off the area’s bread merchants with prime suspect Piella Bakewell suddenly becoming very friendly with Wallace.
As ever, the devil is right there in the detail with visual and verbal puns flying around like dog hairs at a Crufts aftershow party, adults and kids alike laughing at the same jokes for very different reasons. At a time of year when many people kick back and do next to nothing, it’s gratifying to know that Aardman Animations are still putting the effort in. 11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009 THE LIST 101