common people triumph against oppression‘. I Ben Elton — The Man from Auntie (BBC!) 9.30-10pm. Having now accepted Elton as an acceptable stand-in for Wogan, the Beeb give him his own show. wherein he discusses such urgent topics as swing-top bins. alongside the topical stuff. Now get Dave Allen on Wogan - urgent! I 40 Minutes: SA Blues (BBC2) 9.30—10. 10pm. The stories of various South African musicians who have left their country in the last 30 years and settled in Britain. I Wish You Were Here (C4)9.30—1 l . 15pm. Writer and Director David Leland pinched a few incidents from the early life of Cynthia Payne for this tale ofan obstreperous teenager rebelling against her stifling upbringing in a 1950s seaside town. Hailed as one ofthe best British films of recent years. it receives itsTV premiere tonight. I N8 (Scottish) 10.35-11.05pm. Bryan Burnett. Alan Campbell andJanice Forsyth reveal the highlights ofthe week‘s entertainment in Central Scotland. I Night Flyte (Scottish) 1 1.05pm—12.05am. More vigorous late-night discussion conducted by Brian Meek.
FRIDAY 16
I The Built Environment (BBC2) 9.45—10.05am. Muriel Gray looks at the best and worst architecture in Edinburgh and Glasgow. in a film for pupils studying Art and Design.
I Public Eye: The Nuclear Obsession (BBC2) 8—8.30pm. Assessing the billions of pounds that has been pumped into the nuclear industry. even though it‘s always been a minor producer of Britain‘s power. and the trend for cleaner. renewable sources of energy. the programme asks, ’ls it too late for a clean start?‘.
I Whicker's World (BBCl)8.10—9pm. Alan Whicker returns to Hong Kong 30 years after his first visit. to find apeople tense about the future. ‘Thingswill happen within the next 12 months.‘ says one journalist. ‘People are making bombs at home.‘
I Walkie Talkie (C4) 8.30—9pm. The rambler this week is James Lovelock, a scientist who has proved his rationality many times over in his career. but has become a guru for the Greens with his theories on Gaia — a view of the Earth asa self-regulating. almost intelligent. entity. I The Charmer (Scottish) 9—10pm. For this series. Nigel Havers taxed his dramatic talents to the limits by accepting a typical Nigel Havers role. Now you can see the repeats.
I Arena: The Other Graham Greene (BBC2) 9.30—10.30pm. A repeat showing of a documentary filmed in Arena‘s idiosyncratic style. perhaps taking their brief a little too literally. about a search for the real Graham Greene.
I Up Pompeii (BBC2) 11.20pm-12.50am. Ooooh. don‘t titter! The guru of the Viz generation in fulHength mode.
I Suburbia (C4) 11.30-1 . 15am. Anyone who watched in amazement at New Year as The Decline of Western Civilisation Part Two: The Metal Years unfolded on their screens will know that Penelope Spheeris is a director to be reckoned with. This 1983 movie was her first shot at fiction and focused on a bunch of kids in the LA punk scene. Hard~hitting. with violent undercurrents, it‘s not a film that takes an optimistic view of family life, either. Interestingly, for a highlight in a season celebrating women‘s contribution to the cinema, it was produced for Roger (thanks for the mammary) Corman.
SATU RDAY 17
I Steal (Scottish) 6. 10—6.40pm. A new memory-testing game Show. in which contestants are helped to steal money and win points by an electronic cat burglar.
MEDIA LIST
DEMl-WAVE
Following Clyde’s lead, Radio Forth have split their wavelengths, giving listeners on AM and FM trequencles a choice oi listening. One new ieature on 97.3 FM is Allan Campbell’s show, which will be broadcast between 7-10pm on Sundays. Campbell, already noted lor his involvement in the music scene in various capacities- even a recording artist on occasion - has become a lace well known to the public since he began presenting ‘llB’ on Scottish Television. The show will, he promises, be a little dllierent lrom the average radio programmer’s dream. ‘11 it’s at all possible, we’d like to break a law rules - like the one that
it's impossible to like tour or live dllierent kinds 01 music at the same time.’
The musical policy will embrace rap, rock, house, reggae imports, interviews, a club spot, and journalist Alastair McKay doing a regular country segment. Continues Campbell: “We're out to prove the marketing men wrong — that people do have broad, catholic taste and are interested in occasionally listening to the unusual or unconventional.’
As to the more tundamental matter (for ilFM) oi whether the wavelengths can sustain large enough audiences to keep them going, Clyde insist that, despite rumours to the contrary, their split system is doing very nicely.
‘I don’t know where you heard that lrom,’ responds Paul Cooney, Clyde’s Pil man, ‘but I can assure you that it is unequivocally not the case. We’re conducting ln-house research - and hope to conduct more scientific statistical research in the spring - and the indication is that we’re increasing our audience.’
Good news for Campbell and the cause oi broad, catholic taste it RPM is similarly received. (Alastair Mabbott)
I Passage out oi Paradise (C4) 8-—9pm. Setting off in a six-week lull in the weather around Bali. 20 young sailors from half as many countries travel as the Austronesian adventurers did 1000 years ago, in traditional outrigger canoes. two to a boat.
I thirtysomething (C4) 9—10pm. Adult yuppie cult show moves to a Saturday night slot.
I Missionaries (BBC2) lO—lO.SOpm. The missionary is not extinct, as we find out by looking at the works of various denominations.
I Border Warfare (C4) lO—l 1pm. Part two. See Sat 10.
I Eraserhead (C4) 1 l.50pm—1.30am. Blue Velvet may be the film he‘ll be best remembered for, but David Lynch had late-night audiences choking on their popcorn with this genuinely disturbing, surreal black-and-white flick, which bypasses the normal horror routes by going straight for the darker regions of the subconscious. A total original.
I While Zombie (C4) 1.30-2.50am. A very unconventional horror flick for 1932, despite the presence of Lugosi, voodoo and zombies. lts dream-like atmosphere makes it a good companion to Eraserhead.
SUNDAY 18
I Fragile Earth: Ganesh - Elephant God (C4) 7-8pm. This film was made in and around the greatest elephant market in lndia. at Sonepur. as a celebration of the largest animal to walk the earth, and one with no natural predators besides man. I Don't Wait Up (BBC1)7. 15—7.45pm. The irrepressibly zany Nigel Havers teams up with Tony Britton again for six more slices of mild and predictable situation comedy.
I Soviet Debate (C4) 9—10. 15pm. Politicians. academics and other experts brawl over the Soviet Union‘s future asa conclusion to the Soviet Spring season.
I Everyman: Nothing Will Stop Us (BBC!) 1010—] 1pm. The main newspaper in Colombia spoke out against the drug-running and corruption going on all around it and had its editor murdered and its building bombed. But still the presses
roll.
I He's Asking For Me (BBC2) 10.10-11.20pm. Maggie O‘Neill. from a sheltered upbringing. moves to London and starts to get obscene phone calls. She suspects it‘s a man she works with. played by David Threlfall, but the problem is that she‘s already fallen for him.
I on the Page (Scottish) 11.35pm—12.05am. Jenny Brown talks to Sir Fitzroy McLean about. among other things. Russia.
I The War Lover (Scottish) 12.35—2.35am. Steve McQueen, Shirley Anne Field and Robert Wagner in a none-too-special 1962 adaptation of a John Hersey novel.
MONDAY 19
I The BPI Awards 90 (BBCl) 7.30—9pm. In an attempt to obliterate all memory of last year‘s Brits fiasco, this is being recorded in advance , under the control of Jonathan King, and hosted by an old pro, Cathy McGowan. The older kids might remember her from Ready Steady Go: often hailed as the greatest pop show of all time.
I The Young Musician Masterclass (BBC2) 7.30—8pm. No further information about this, but the title will persuade you whether or not you want to see it.
I Horizon (BBC2) 8. 10-9pm. The controversial subject of embryo research gets another airing.
I Just Some Stories lot Eleanor (C4) 9—10pm. Stephen Pegg developed motor neurone disease in 1987 and, realising he would not see his daughter Eleanor grow up. began to write stories and poems for her with a pointer attached to his forehead. His wife Ros also talks about her life as a full-time carer.
I Excess (BBCl) 10. 10—10.40pm. Current and forthcoming arts events in Scotland. I Nicaragua - Peace Under Fire (C4) 11.05pm-12.15am. Recorded for its historic value after years of fighting which the country could not afford. this programme shows the first steps towards a peaceful solution in Nicaragua. Features interviews with President Daniel Ortega. former Contra leader Edgar Chamorro and opposition Presidential candidate
Violeta Chamorro.
TUESDAY 20
I EastEnders (BBC 1) 7.30—8pm. Some of us can hardly remember a time without it. Some watched it for a while and then decided it was crap. except for Dot and Ethel. Eastenders is five years old this week. and lan and Cindy hold hands and reminisce. I Open Space (BBC2) 8—8.30pm. Patients from a psychiatric hospital in Tooting made this film themselves to express their rarely-heard views about life in care and in the community. Their hospital is threatened with closure in the next five years. I impotence - One in Ten Men (C4) 9L10pm. As the title suggests. one inten men suffers an extended period of impotence at some time in his life. The lndependent's Oliver Gillie looks at methods oftreatmcnt in Britain andthe USA. including attending a penile implant operation at St Peter‘s Hospital,Covent Garden. which promises to be Bad Sight of the Decade So Far. I Almost Grown (BBC2)9.50—10.30pm. The first of five programmes examining the phenomenon of the teenager by taking a different aspect ofteenage life each week: money. angst. subculture. politics. I Rock Steady (C4) 10.30—11.30pm. Described as ‘a rock music show for grown-ups‘. the new show hosted by Nicky Horne and Dave Fanning seems to be aiming for the most conservative late-night radio listeners they can find. judging from the staid acts already announced: Eric Clapton, Bryan Adams, Dave Edmunds. Bonnie Raitt. Suzanne Vega, etc. Advance publicity suggests it will make Wired look like The Great Rock 'n 'Roll Swindle.
WEDNESDAY 21
I Get Smart (C4) 6.30—7pm. More kitsch nostalgia. as the spy comedy from the 605 joins the C4 Comedy Strand.
I Scottish Action (Scottish) 6.30—7pm. Tackling racism in Scotland.
I Signals: Cleopatra: Dreams and Distortions (C4) 9. 15—10pm. The enduring myth of the legendary power and sexual allure of Egypt‘s famous ruler.
I OED: The Love Laboratory (BBCl) 9.30-10pm. More wacky American stuff . in this case couples who volunteer as guinea pigs for compatibility experiments and are watched through two-way mirrors. What — all the time?
I Smithereens (C4) 10.05-11.50pm. Another in the Call the Shots season . this is a 1982 picture made by Susan Seidelman. who went on to direct Desperately Seeking Susan. The story of a young female punk lost in the big city is stylishly told.
I The Golden Break Advertising Awards (Scottish) 10.35-11.35pm. Annual ceremony for the best in commercials. Telecom‘s Maureen Lipman ads are doing good business at the bookie‘s.
THURSDAY 22
I 40 Minutes BBC2) 9.30— 10. 10pm. Women speak for (Eartha Kitt) and against (Baroness Thyssen) the fur trade. I The Dead (C4) 930—] lpm. John Huston‘s final film was a magnificent note to bow out on, being a near-faultless reading of the James Joyce novella. Snow, dinner. reconciliation.
I Small Objects ot Desire (BBC2) 10.10—10.30pm. A short series about little things that may seem insignificant that we can‘t — apparently — do without. like the hamburger or the condom. Tonight: deodorant.
I NB (Scottish) 10.35—1 1.05pm. The week‘s local entertainment previewed.
I Nile Flyte (Scottish) 11.05pm-12.05am. Discussion programme presented this week by Willie Mcllvanney.
70 The List 9 - 22 February 1990