MEDIA LIST
TELEVISION
FRIDAY 27
I The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross (C4) 10.30—11.20pm. JR with guest Paul McCartney. Well, they could discuss the problems of becoming passe.
IAssert Yoursell (C4) 11.20pm-12.05am. Go easy on the streets tomorrow. lest you encounter one of the new breed of C4 trained asserters. This four parter takes lessons from the like of John Cleese on how to say ‘no‘. deal with difficult bosses and express anger.
SATURDAY 28
IThe Leopard (BBCZ) 10.05pm—12.50am. Marvellous, absorbing Visconti epic with a memorable performance from Burt Lancaster as the head of an aristocratic family attempting to hang on to old values at the time of the Garibaldi uprisings. A 1963 Palme d‘Or winner at Cannes. The film is introduced by Mike Radford, director of 1984.
I Right to Reply Special (C4) 6—7pm. A hour long programme which asks if the treatment of old people on television and by television is all that it might be.
I Late night with David Letterman (C4)
1 l—l 1.50pm. Although Mr Ross turned out to be something else again, it is no secret that of all the American chat shows, Letterman‘s was the one that the last resort drew on. The multiple Emmy award winner talks to the hugely talented Robin Williams (Mork of Mark and Mindy) in the first of fifteen programmes.
SUNDAY 29
I Ski Sunday (BBC2) 5.40—6.30pm. The glamour ski show celebrates its return and its 100th show. See Guest List.
I The Great Philosophers: llietsche (BBC2) 7.50—8.35pm. Means nothing to me.
MONDAY 30
I Scottish Writer of the Year (BBCI) Kirsty Wark introduces coverage of the award ceremony for the first McVitie prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. This award— worth £5000 — is different from other literary prizes in that it‘s awarded not to a book but a writer: hence John Byrne (for Tutti Frutti) and Peter McDougall (Shoot for the Sun) join James Kelman, Frank Kuppner and David Thompson on the short list. I The Kenny Everett Television Show (BBCl ) 8—8.30pm. New series. Everett has a lot to do if he is to improve on his current image - a Thatcherite comedian with all the sexism but none of the witof Benny Hill. I Scottish Action (Scottish) 6.30—7pm. Scottish Television's controversial attempt to reduce the number of accidents caused by drunk drivers. But can it really be right to publish the names and addresses of offenders on national television in times when protection of individual privacy is not merely a matter of convenience, but a matter of sleeping safely in bed at nights? I Scottish Assembly (Scottish) 9&10pm. Scottish Assembly continues its grillings of the Govemment‘s ministers. Tonight the biggie - Malcolm Rifkind.
MEDIA
I Mod for Rockers (Scottish) 10.35—11.35pm Forgive the punningtitle, this is Run Rig recorded live at the National Mod in Stirling — shown tonight as a Scottish Television style salute to St Andrew‘s Day.
TUESDAY 1
I First Tuesday (Scottish) 10.30—11.45pm. In the first film in this months edition of Yorkshire‘s excellent current affairs show, the First Tuesday team travel to the American south to see if , in small town Alabama. Martin Luther‘s civil rights dream has come true — that one day, down in Alabama, black children and white will able to walk hand in hand.
The second story seems depressineg familiar. The film tells the story of the Divis estate in Belfast which has been called the worst slum in Western Europe. I Belore the Sun (C4) 6—7pm. Timely co-production involving six European television companies examining the way we produce ‘energy‘, and whether, ecologically, we can afford to carry on in the same way. IJustlorLaughs(C4)11.15—11.45.Thc second year running that Channel Four have compiled highlights from the Montreal annual comedy festival. Amongst tonights comics, ex-Python Graham Chapman. Karen Haber quintessential New York Jewish comedienne and Phil Nee — a Chinese stand up comic.
WEDNESDAY 2
I Dallas (BBCl) 8—8.50pm. Return ofthe super-soap with Pam near to death after her car accident (alternatively she‘s on the brink of plastic surgery and we know what that means). Meanwhile, sans Ewing Oil, J.R. is starting out from scratch.
I Mavis on 4 (C4) 4—4.30pm. Mavis Nicholson‘s ‘chat show‘ is one of the remaining few that ask intelligent questions. Her guest, in a rare interview, this afternoon is Sir Alec Guinness, who has just finished an epic six hour film adaptation of Dickens‘ Little Dorrit.
I Two Men in a Marsh (C4) ll.20—12.20pm. Unpromising sounding title for a programme that is bound to be worth watching since it features a now rare television appearace, of eighty five year old Malcolm Muggeridge. Here he talks to poet Sydney Carter about life and Christianity as they walk Kent‘s Romney Marsh, taking in as they pass its beautiful churches.
THURSDAY 3
I Yes. Prime Minister (BBCI ) 9—9.30pm. Return of the popular comedy — too smug to be satire but funny anyway.
I Court Report: ‘The Birmingham 6’ (C4) 10.45pm— 12. 15am. Following the Clive Pontin official secrets case and the trial of Peter Wright‘s Spycatcher, the same team bring another enactment of court cases with the proceedings read by tv newsreaders. The case in question is the appeal against conviction of the six men alleged to have planted two massive [RA bombs.
FRIDAY 4
IThe Marksman (BBC1)9.30-10.30pm. Promising sounding new Liverpool set
thriller from the producer responsible for The Life and Loves of it She Devil. James Ellis plays the grandfather of a boy apparently pointlessly murdered on a piece of wasteland. He sends for the boy‘s father (played by David Threlfall), a professional criminal living in Spain who becomes obsessed with the search for a reason for the boy‘s death.
I Famous for 15 Minutes: The Thieves (C4) 6.15—6.30pm. Tonight the turn ofGlasgow band The Thieves to be famous for fifteen minutes.
SATURDAY 5
IThe Trireme duest(BBC2)9.10—10pm. The story of Professor John Morrison whose dream to build the ancient Greeks‘ battle ship, the Trireme, comes true. i wonder if he done it on the enterprise allowance.
I The Film Club (BBC2) 10—1 1.45pm Derek Malcolm introduces Louis Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire and Paul Cox's Australian made film Man of Flowers
SUNDAY 6
I What on Earth is Going On (C4)
7.15—8. 15pm. Third edition of the monthly enviromental issues programme: reports of the hole in the ozone layer, overfishing and a film made by Michael Palin on behalf of the pressure group Transport 2000.
I E.P. Sculptor (C4) 8.45—9.55pm. Documentary on the Leith bOrn sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi — see panel.
THURSDAY 10
I 40 Minutes: The Case of Sherlock Holmes (BBCZ) 9.30—10.40pm. Tim ngott-Smith
— E.P. SCULPTOR
Barbara and Murray Grigor, independent producers based in Scotland, lilmed their documentary (Channel 4, 6 Dec) on Eduardo Paolozzi partly at the Edinbugh Festival in 1984, partly in London and partly in Munich in order to assemble a potrait of one ol Scotland’s intematlonally most successful artists.
Divided into live themes, surrealism, the classical tradition, ethnography, the ecology ol waste and the shapes ol time, the programme reflects the huge range ol Paoloal’s work. Close friend and colleagues- including the author J.G. Ballard and the art historian Christopher Frayling - give their assessment ol the man whose new outdoor exhibition “Sculptures From A Garden’ will be seen in Glasgow next year.
celebratesthe 100th anniversary of Sherlock Holmes‘ first appearance with an investigation into the continuing popularity of Conan Doyle‘s great detective.
RADIO
What is it about baths and washing that seems to attract playwrights so successfully at the moment. First there was The Steamie. Wildcat's runaway success, then Le Lavoir, the French play about a local village washhouse which the Traverse brought to the Edinburgh Festival this year. Now there‘s a play called Baths on Radio 4. I mean, I‘m very happy with my Hotpoint but I wouldn‘t write a play about it. What they all have in common ofcourse is a strong sense of the communal and Radio 4's play, which is set in a public swimming bath, presumably pools. as the others do. a wide diversity ofcharacters to give a rich slice oflife. Baths. R4, 1 Dec. 3pm.
Perfect timing for Radio Scotland this week who begin a new series ofA Book at Bedtime on R4. Monday 23, 10.15pm with five short stories by Muriel Spark. They are taken from her book The Stories of Muriel Spark which has just won the I987 Royal Bank of Scotland/Saltire Society Book of the Year Award. The first, Miss Pinkerton ‘s Apocalypse is especially absorbing, deliciously read by Phyllida Hewat. but all are delightfully quirky and full of tiny, telling details. They leave you hungry for more.
With the Spy Catcher affair dragging on and on it‘s not difficult to produce a timely piece about security but who could resist Breaking the Code, R4‘s documentary about how codes are written and cracked. Sun 29, R4, 5.45pm. More seriously, while the government would have intelligent officers taking their secrets with them ‘to the grave‘, Radio 4 begins a three part series on Friday 4 which give the services themselves something of a grilling. My Country Right or Wrong, R4. Friday 4, 11am. Before that Kaleidoscope chips in with what all this will do to spy fiction in Playing the Great Game, R4, 27 Nov, 9.45pm.
The excellent Radio Active moves wavebands and goes to Radio 2 for its series repeat beginning 10 December, 10pm.
There is a cruel story of one particularly large soprano singing Tosca who, at its tragic climax when she jumps to her death, fell onto the trampoline strategically placed to cushion her fall and repeatedly bounced back into view. No such danger in radio however. Eva Martan is the stormy, jealous and passionate Tosca and Ingvar Wixell is Searpia in R3‘s live relay from Covent Garden. Tosca, R3, Sat 5, 8pm. More opera tragedy but with a very different flavour is on 27 November Scottish Opera’s new production of Berg‘s Lulu, with Beverly Morgan in the title role, is broadcast live from the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Lulu R3, Fri 27,
7pm.
38 The List 27 Nov — 10 Dec 1987