MEDIA LIST
tv output — Peter McKay (Editor of Sunday Today), Gus Macdonald (Scottish Television’s Director of Programmes) and Muriel Gray of The Tube).
0 The Waltons (C4) 11.30am—12.3()pm. From this weekend, Channel Four opens up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings — highlight for many will be the reruns of the classic hokum from the USA, The Waltons complete with John Boy et al.
MONDAY 20
0 Executive Stress (Scottish) 8—8.30pm. Latest sitcom to star Penelope Keith also stars the rather less objectionable Geoffrey Palmer. The plot sounds pretty dated — wife and mother finally has children off her hands and wants to return to her career in publishing. Husband thinks part-time job in the florist's more approriate. Written by George Layton.
o Viewpoint 86: The Acid Test (Scottish) 10.30-11.30pm. Central Television‘s ecology unit look at the damage Britain is doing to the forests of Europe by not taking action to prevent atmospheric pollution and acid rain.
0 City Lights (BBC l)8—8.3(lpm. See panel
WEDNESDAY 22
0 Dallas (BBC l)7.3()—9pm. This feature length explanation is followed by a party political broadcast by the Conservatives. And I for one won‘t believe Bobby‘s really alive, even if Mrs Thatcher saysso.
0 Cry Hungary (BBC 1) 9.35-lt).5()pm. Memories ofthe Hungarian Revolution thirty years on.
o The Booker Prize (C4)9—1()pm.
g Melvyn Bragg. who generally does a . 2 good job at this sort ofthing. teams Q up again with Hermione Lee to talk
to the nominated authors and to comment on the winning announcement.
o The Birds (Scottish) l().35pm—12.5()am Based on the Daphne Du Maurier story and made in 1963. Hitchcock‘s simple. almost plotless thriller could have been plain daft. As it is. it‘s genuinely exciting and not a little disturbing.
THURSDAY 23
o The National Mod: Tartan Past— Chequered Future (Scottish)
10.35—1 1 .35pm. Silly title for a serious treatment ofthe Gaelic language. This year‘s Mod is being held in Edinburgh and this documentary looks at the event through the eyes ofcompetitors from the Isle of Lewis.
FRIDAY 24
0 Lost Empires (Scottish) 8.30—10.30pm. Granada Television‘s prestige dramatisation ofJ.B. Priestley's novel about the music hall. lncludes a cameo from Olivier in this ‘feature length‘ opening
episode. Colin Firth is Richard Herncastle, whose account this is.
o Omnibus(BBC 1) 1055—! 1.50pm. Profile ofthe Australian novelist. Peter Carev.
SATURDAY 25
o Strangers Abroad (C4) 7.30pm. The
story of the first anthropologists to live amongst the people they studied
with this account of the life and work
of William Rivers who brought the first truly scientific approach to the
subject with his study ofa hill tribe in
Southern India.
SUNDAY 26
o Rothmans Snooker Grand Prix (BBC
1/2) The Final at last.
MDNDA 27
o Chance in a Million (C4) All situation comedy relies on absurd coincidences. This comedy takes that theory to its absurd conclusion.
Simon Callow stars in the third series
of this very much above average comedy.
TUESDAY 28 .
O Soap (C4) Still more absurd than the real soaps. but Dallas is catching up.
O No Small Altair (Jerry Schatzberg. US. 1984) Demi'Moore. Jon (‘ryer (RCA/Columbia) Teen photographer Cryer becomes infatuated with a girl in his pictures: 23 year-old Moore. a beautiful and seemingly remote rock singer. he lays seige to her heart and. despite the difference in ages. they embark on a brief. amorous fling that serves as his rite of passage.
Slight but touching romantic comedy which can boast San Francicso locations. deft performances and a decent script with a modicum of dry wit. (98 mins) 0 Poison Ivy (US. 1984) Michacll. Fox (RCA/Columbia) A pre-Bac‘k to the Future embarrassment for Fox as a counsellor at a single-sex summer camp. A dire. clod-hopping. pro-pubescent version of Meatballs that makes Carry on Camping look like the height ofsophistication. (92 mins)
0 Quicksilver (Tom Donnelly. US. 1985) Kevin Bacon. Jami Gertz. Paul Rodriquez (R(.‘A/Columbia) Financial whizz-kid Bacon bankrupts himselfand his family in an afternoon‘s stockbroking that adds up to a personal Wall Street Crash. Licking his wounds he becomes a hard-pedalling bicycle messenger. however his former skills are soon required by ethnic workmates battling with bankers. loan sharks and the financial jungle.
Glossy. improbable drama. reminiscent in parts of Flasltdwzce. Trading Places and other recent box-office hits. The personable Bacon. a derivative plotline and a Roger Daltrey title song are not
9.4 . . 5M. at “in “‘3’ i The Waltons a e back as part of Channel 4's new Sunday morning schedule. The award-winning series from the 1970s enough to produce another hit movie. (105 mins) 0 The Legend of Billie Jean (Matthew Robbins. 1985) Helen Slater. Keith (iordon. Dean Stockwell. (RCA/ Columbia) .S'upergirl-Slater returns as a more down-to-earth quasi folk-hero. She is Billie Jean. a typical 'l'exas teenager who dreams of travelling to Vermont. Enraged by an act of injustice and unwittingly involved in an accidental shooting she evades capture by the authorities and takes to the highways of America. achieving instant celebrity and inspiring a devoted following. Serio-comic fantasy-drama from the co-scripwriter of the not dissimilar Spielberg feature The Su garland [ix/Mess. ( 95 mins)
RADIO
‘1 only took two years because I was in a hurry.‘ recalls Len Murray ofthe time he spent at Oxford gaining a degree. He rushed on to become General Secretary of the 'l‘LJf‘ and Lord Murray of Tipping. and talks to Peter Haigh in Seven AgeS.Wed 29 ()ct. R3. 10.30pm.
()ther interviewees coming up include Billy Joel. interviewed by Simon Bates every morning fora week. beginning Mon 27 ()ct. R1. 9.30am and Larry (J . R.) Hagman in The Real Dallas. 811125 Oct. R4. 4pm. Next week it‘s. wait for it . . .The Real Dynasty.
For comedy — and also for new writing— try You Start. I'll Join In. Sat 18 ()ct. 1 1.30pm. one of five winners from the Radio Times comedy
returns to Channel 4 on Sun 19 Oct. 11.30am.
scriptwriting competition (all five have been made and this one will snowball into a full series)'l‘he story
; centres on a world-weary pianist and 3 an idealistic young drummer. For ' family disarray. try A.J. (rooms
The Spanish Gardener. Sun 26 ()ct. R4. 2.30pm. in which a disillusioned
: diplomat goes off to re—start a new
I consular life in Spain. only to find his i son makes off with a lively young ~ Spanish gardener and his troubles
increase. In the Dragon Bone Man by .lulia Stoneham. 'l'ues ZS ()ct. R4. 3pm. there is more family tension. this time in India in 1919. suffered by a tea-planter and his wife.
()t' the classics. there is La Peste by Albert Camus. Tues 28 ()ct. R3. 7.30pm. with a fine cast which includes Ronald Pickup. Brian (ilover and John Shrapnel. dramatised by ( iuy Meredith and produced by ('herry ('ookson and Shakespeare‘s All‘s Well that Ends Well. Fri 24 ( )ct. R3. 7.30pm. The two Monday plays this fortnight are far apart in theme: the first. The Crossing Keeper‘s House. Mon 20. R4. S. 15pm. is an enforced encounter of the she-gets- snowbound-and-stuck-in- his-cottage kind. in which Jennie Stoller and Richard l’ascoshould make a good cast. 'l'he second. Blood Rains. Mon 27 ()ct. R4. S. 15pm. is a stranger story. set in Malaya in 1960 as the war against Communist insurgents comes to an end.
Hoax is one of those new panel games at 13.27pm on R4. beginning on Fri 24 ()ct. devised by Ian Messiter and a sort of ( ’all-My-Bluff of the can this unbelievable story actually be true sort. and Janice Long and John Peel reflect on Japan. from Japan on Mon 20 ()ct. R 1. 7.30pm.
The List 17— so October—23