MEDIA LIST
FRIDAY 24
I Fun House ((4) 4.45» 5. lllpm. Network game show for kids made hy Scottish ‘I'eleyision. complete with the most expensis e set eyer for a British children's programme All part ofScottish "lieleyision strategy tosury iye the deregulated Nineties.
I Next Left ((11) S‘- ‘lpni. (‘ontinuingthe analysis of the prohlems hesetting the moyements of the political left in Iiurope. Part two of the four-part series asks whether. in our market economics. the state still has a role in tackling issueslike unemployment.
IAOuiet Conspiracy(Seorrislnt). lllpm. Starting tonight. .loss .-\ck|and and Marmut Becker in a four-part spy drama. I A Tribute To Cassavetes ( 1313(1)
‘)..‘s(l~ ltlfillpm. Repeat of an ()mnrhus programme deyoted to the making ofthe film Husbands. shown again as a trihute tr the actor and director \shodied earlierthi‘ month. The film. which follows the
MEDIA
TELEVISION
fortunes of four disillusioned husbands who on impulse. after the funeral of another friend. take a flight to London. is sreened immediately after the trihute. Ben (iazzara and Peter Falk star with (‘assayetes in this 1970 comedy which he also wrote and directed.
I The Film Club: Gertrude and The Masterot the HousetBB(‘2) ltl.t)5pm——l.5t)am. ltltl years on from the birth of Danish director (‘arl Theodor Dreyer. a chance to see his last work (ahout a woman. near death. looking hack on her life and lovers) made in l‘)(35. and an earlier ( 1925) work.a comedy ahout a family tyrant forced to realise how much he needs his wife.
I Street KidS(BB(‘l) 10.er 1 .zopm. One and half thousand homeless children find temporary shelter (maximum stay 15 days) in London‘s (‘entrepoint hostel. Louise Panton's documentary follows some of them and discovers the dangersof the street to which many fall victim.
SATURDAY 25
I The World This Week ( (‘4) 7—8pm. New series. new format and new time slot for the ('hannel I-‘our current affairs programme which takes an international
perspective on the news. The Lrsr‘sown Sheena MacDonald joins the programme as co-presenter alongside Michael Nicholson. (The programme will now receive a repeat showing in its old ltlam Sunday slot.)
I Film on Four International: Colonel Bedl (C4) 9-! l .Stlpm. (‘omplementing ('4‘s home grown series of moyie premieres. Jerzy Kaszuhowski's acclaimed follow-up to .IIep/rrslr). again starring Klaus Maria Brandauer. gets its first TV show ing. (in/(me! Rt’d/ follows the rise of(‘zech soldier. Brandauer. in the Prague Secret Police. Made in 1984.
I Tyson v Bruno ( BB( ‘1)
ll.55pm— 12.35am. Not much time left to huy one of Murdoch‘s dishes if you want to catch this live. Meanwhile preyiewsand postmortem on B B('. 3—3.45am and 1045—1 1.3am (Sun).
SUNDAY 26
I Movie Mahal ((11) 9.2% lllam. Return of the magazine show devoted to Indian cinema.
I Aly Bain and Friends ((11) 3—2.45pm. The talented fiddler is joined hy (iaelic hand (.‘apercaillie. Bain can also he seen talking to Billy Kay on Kay's Originals on Friday this week.
I Noel Edmond's Concorde Special ( BB(‘l) 3.50— 4.ll5pm. Iidmonds hitches a ride with the supersonic aircraft which is celehrating twenty years" flying.
I The Modern World: Ten GreafWriters
((31) 3.45—3.55pm. The innoyatiye series devoted to landmark works ofltlth century literature and their authors reaches Virginia Woolf and Mrs Dal/omit in its repeat showing. Ray Bradhury's
I companion hook to the series has just heen
published by Penguin.
I Big World Cafe ((4) 3.55—4.55pm. The new dance-orientated pop show features the Manchester hand New Order. See panel.
I Forever Green (Scottish) 7.45—8.45pm. Latest in a new genre ofdrama: the ecologically sound serial. Ilushand and wife learn. John Alderton and Pauline Collins. appear together on T\' for the first time in ten years as the parents in a story ahout a family that moye to a dilapidated farmhouse. liach episode. we are promised ‘raises serious and controyersial eny ironmental issues'.
I The Media Show ((4)9. l5--- ln.3npm. Special edition of the programme to coincide with the release of Scandal. which re-examines‘ the events ofthe Profumo Affair.
IThe Firm ( BBCZ) Ill. 10— l l.|5pm. (iary ()ldman (Sirlanrf Nancy. l’rrck ( 'p Your liars ) plays a yuppie foothall hooligan. Apparently. many foothall hooligans have good johs‘ and a secure family life hut still go wild when they go near a turnstile. IfasII-jrrrle. 's. (‘asualty and The Bil/script writer. Al Hunter. wrote the screenplay. so there must he something to it!
I The South Bank Show (Scottish)
lll.3ll~-l 1.30pm. Dvorak In Low: 'I‘ony Palmer‘s latest study of a composer. This programme intereuts the filming of a new recordingof Dyorak's ('ello (‘oncertohy- the (‘zech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague. with the fascinating and hitherto .inknown story of I)yorak's unrequited loye for his wife's sister. which Palmer tzncoyered in a mass of unpuhlished letters.
I Scottish Books (Scottish)
1 1.30— midnight. [)irector ofthe
WINNERS AND LOSERS
The magical mystery bus tour to a secret location began with coffee and croissants at Scottish Television, Cowcaddens. The wolves were already circling, scenting blood and slavering at the mouth. Three hard men of tabloid journalism had rushed up from London to get exclusive with Dirty Den.
Leslie Grantham, having denied the press access for two years, would now, because of his lead role in a new mini drama series called Winners and Losers and because his contract insisted upon it, grant an audience to the Fleet Street gossip-mongers. A healthy contingent of Scottish hacks was in evidence too, but in comparison with the London boys, they were paragons ofcharm.
Dirty Den had done his worst. That very day, the Daily Mirror ran an exclusive with Grantham. The London heavies had the Scottish Television press officers up against the wall: Den had better give ’em something new afterall theirefforts orelse. Perhaps their aggressive, scalp-seeking indignation was somewhat hammed up forthe BBC Open Air cameras which were trailing along, nearly missing all the action, in pursuit of a programme about Press Conferences and the Promotion of Stars.
Meanwhile, downstairs, the stills photographers were flexing their lenses in readiness for the big shoot, and discussing angles. The drama series tells the story of Eddie, leisure empire tycoon, who decides to make a young Glasgow boxer a megastar. Thus itwas that one photographer schemed and dreamt: ‘l‘d like to get them ’aving
a mock-spar. It'd be really great, though, if Grantham actually got knocked out. That’d be great.’
And so it came to pass that we hacks eventually found ourselves treading carefully through jaw-bones and skin, avoiding socket-less eyes in peeled heads and trying not to glare at the bloody-aproned butchers who stood around Dennistoun meatmarket. We tiptoed, queasy and off steaks for life, up to a room which, although it looked like a men’s urinal, with wall-to-wall white and turquoise tiling, was in fact a boxing gym. There Dirty Den was under siege. ‘Dver 'ere, Leslie. Give us a nice one. 'Ere, Leslie, over 'ere mate. This way, Leslie.’ And all this from men he'd never seen before in his life. Grantham, with the patience of Job and the anticipation of high TV ratings, stood, squatted, hung overthe boxing ring ropes and looked paternally upon his co-star, real-life boxer Steve
or
i. :_ J’
Williams (who sat on a bucket) for an houL
At last the Press Conference proper began. The London contingency sat quiet at last, not firing a single question. They were saving their salvo for later. As well as banning all News International journalists, Grantham had stipulated that no questions be asked about his past, his private life or EastEnders. His new solo career was the topic on the table. Even so, he was asked what he would miss most about EastEnders. ‘Roley' came the answer. Grantham’s droll witwas somehow surprising. He explained his career change: ‘I wanted to move out into the market place. Winners and Losers was a job that came along that interested me. It was a change of direction. Instead of playing a rather insipid seedy character, I play a rather crass seedy character.’
I asked whether he got tired of being
cast as a hard man — if he had inside him a romantic hero waiting to get out. ‘No’ he said, ‘unfortunately I have a face that doesn't much fit in with the quiet aspects of life. I’m too old to be a romantic hero.‘ Whereupon Winners and Losers director, Roger Tucker, chipped in with some director-speak: ‘We do actually come to a point where Leslie’s character does reach a point of vulnerability.’ To which Grantham replied: ‘I must have missed that bit'. Later I asked how he felt about the Fleet Street rat-pack (who had by now had their private audience and were licking fheirchops). ‘I hate it. This is the first press conference I've ever done. ldon't obviously have a lot of time forthe press. It’s with great reluctance that I‘ve done this, but it says in my contract that l have to.‘ He went on to explain how the London hard boys usually hound him. ‘Normally they’re sitting outside my house trying to get a story. I'm used to it by now, but it's very difficult for my wife and children. I have very clear ideas of what I won‘ttalk about, but unfortunately everyone else insists on discussing those subjects and even writing books aboutthem.‘ (Oblique reference to the completely unauthorised biography The Leslie Grantham Story, published last month. At the buffet lunch afterwards. I took the opportunity to ask Roger Taverner of the Daily Express why What Den Does Next was so important and why Grantham‘s every move had to be manically pursued. ‘I don't know really,‘ he said. Winners and Losers, a three-part drama, begins on Scottish Television on Monday 6 March at 9pm.
4 The List 24 February — 9 March 47