MEDIA LIST
TELEVISION
SATURDAY 2
o mum and the Daleks(BBC1) 11.05am—12.30pm Even this limp reworking ofthe original Daleks tale with Peter Cushing as the Doctor has more going for it than the last series. 0 The Last Wave ( C4) 12.50-2.5()am Another really late film in C4 Nighttime series. this is Peter Weir‘s 1977 Australian drama starring Richard Chamberlain as a Sydney Lawyer hired to defend a group of aborigines accused of murdering a friend during a drunken brawl. Weir who directed Picnic at Hanging Rock again steers the action in to the realms of the supernatural.
SUNDAY 3
0 Network 7 (C4) Noon-2pm. New current affairs show aimed at 16-26 year olds and described as television's first electronic tabloid. Janet Street-Porter is one ofthe producers and she has a surer hand than most at this sort of thing so the programme‘s first reports on Julie Walters. Steven Berkoff and Bananarama could well be worth a look.
0 Fields of Fire (Scottish) 9-1 1pm This could easily be the highlight of the holiday weekend. From Zenith (Central Television‘s film drama production company) a tale of passion. rivalry and hard won loyalties set against a pre-war Australian backdrop ofcane cutting gangs. A sad background to the making ofthe film however— before even completing the adaptation the writer Miranda Downes was killed in a brutal ‘sex attack‘ when on holiday in Queensland. The murder trial (with the help ofevidence found by Australia‘s investigative television programme Sixty Minutes) is due to reach a conclusion as the programme is broadcast. Part Two is shown tomorrow.
MONDAY 4
o A Guide to Mayfest (Scottish) 6.10-6. 15pm Who better to be your guide to Mayfest than Victor and Barry those well known amateur dramatic stars from rather nice Kelvinside. On every weekday night this fortnight at this time.
o The Corner House (C4) 9.30-10pm Remember the fringe cabaret act The Joeys‘.’ l-lalfof them turn up in this new comedy series set in an old fashioned corner cafe. Christopher Eymard is the bereaved gay proprieter and Robert Llewellyn his over enthusiastic assistant.
0 Verdi's A Masked Ball (BBC2)
7.45-10. 15pm Second in the season of Verdi‘s operas with Pavarotti singing the role of Gustav. (Next week Otcllo.)
TUESDAY 5
0 Hold The Dream (C4) 9-10.55pm Sequel to the highly successful compulsive drama A Woman of Substance first shown on Channel 4 in January 1985. That ended with the death of Emma Harte and the revelation that she had passed over her rather unpleasant offspring to leave her fortune to her grandchildren. Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr again star in Barbara Taylor Bradford‘s two part series.
0 Alter Image (C4) 11.20-11.45pm The alternative arts programme returns with a programme which includes a report on the radical big band. The Happy End. which when she is not singing with the Communards or in Mayfest‘s Sleep. is home to Sarah Jane Morris. See Feature in Mayfest Section.
0 The Trial of Klaus Barbie (BBCZ) 1025-1 1 . 15pm Has Barbie. about to go on trial for war crimes. a defence? This documentary examines the complicated emotions and history that this trial is likely to expose.
WEDNESDAY 6
0 Painting with Light (BBC2) 8.15-9pm Portraits ofsix contemorary giants of the art world. Number One: David Hockney.
Stratford Johns is Brand.
THURSDAY 7
0 Film on Four: Letter to Brezhnev (C4) 9-10.50pm Margi Clarke and Alexandra Pigg scored a suprise cinema hit with their portrayal of Liverpuddlian girls living it up on the town. The film is at its best their showing crude vivacious lifestyle and contrasting it with Alexandra Pigg‘s fairy tale romance with a Russian sailor. The attempt to resolve romance with reality which ultimately leads to Pigg disobeying foreign office advice and taking a flight to Russia. is somewhat less than convincing. Made in 1985.
FRIDAY 8
0 Natural Selection (BBCZ) 8-8.30pm Has ex-political correspondant of The Scotsman. James Naughtie (now ofThe Guardian) given up on the current generation ofpolitical leaders? Looks likely. as he turns his attention to the future wielders of power in the Britain ofthe 1990s. starting with David Blunkett. leader of Sheffield City Council.
0 Omnibus (BBC!)
10.45pm- 12.20am Omnibus returns with a dramatized account of the life ofGerman Weimar Republic satirical cartoonist. George Grosz.
SATURDAY 9
o The Eurovision Song Contest (BBCl) Can Rikki Win? l abbabet she can‘t and I know you don‘t care.
SUNDAY 10 '-
0 When Reason Sleeps (C4) 9.10-10.10pm First offour psychological mystery thrillers inspired by a series of Goya etchings and made in association with RTE in Ireland. Fear of the Dark stars Hugh O‘Conor and Owen O‘Gorman.
0 Escape From Sohibor (Scottish)
9- 10pm Painstaking drama based on
the true story of a mass escape from a Nazi death camp starring Alan Arkin as a polish prisoner who helps mastermind the escape. Richard Ranshke spent a year and a half researching what he describes as ta story of resistance. hope against all odds. a scream for human dignity and revenge. Made by Central‘s Zenith it also stars Jack Shepherd and Emil Wolk (who was seen on stage in Glasgow last month as one of the baddies in the RSC’s Kiss Me Kate).
TUESDAY 12
0 Film 0n Four: Caravaggio (C4) 10pm Last Film on Four of the season and a typically provocative one at that. Derek Jarman's account of the artist‘s life is dominated by its visual impact - A product of a rich painterly sensibility we said at the time of its cinema release.
WEDNESDAY 13
0 Brond(C4)9.10-11pm Stratford Johns (he ofSoftly. Softly fame) gives an impressive performance as the mysterious Brond in Frederic Lindsay‘s politcal thriller filmed and set in Glasgow. First ofthree episodes - full report next week.
THURSDAY 14
O The Cells (BBCI) Written and presented by Frank Delaney. six 55 minute documentaries made in collaboration with Celtic tv folk from Scotland. Wales. Northern Ireland. Brittany and Austria. on the history ofeverything Celtic and their influence on today‘s world.
RADIO
The common eel has much more going for it than a slippery metaphor and a jellied concoction would suggest. It feeds on one side of the Atlantic and spawns on the other. as happy in fresh water as it is in salt. Sometime tiny leaf-like larva. sometime glass elver. it also changes colour from yellow through to silver and lives fora while with another couple ofdozen metre-long eels in a tight ball. And all this for reasons best known to itself. for nobody else knows why. The Long Dark Journey Back ofthe title also refers to its 5.000 km swim back to the place where it was born in the Sargasso Sea: R4. Tues 5. 8.30pm.
The common eel isn’t alone in its idiosyncracies on this week‘s radio which also features Sark. a feudal fiefdom. which bans both cars and helicopters and disallows divorces in order to protect ancient inheritance laws. Michael Beaumont. aerospace engineer from Bristol is also Seigneur ofSark. a distinction which affords him the sole right on the island to keep either pigeons or a bitch. A thirteenth part ofthe purchase price whenever property changes hands is also due to him. He is the subject of Michael Beaumont‘s feature The Dame oi Sarlr R4. Sat 2. 10.15pm.
The List l— 14 May 55