MEDIA LIST
FRIDAY 20
I Short Stories (C4) 8—8.30pm. The first of a series of documentaries. eight ofwhich are set in Britain (the other two look at a premature baby unit in Amsterdam and the slaughter of wild horses and kangaroos in the Australian outback). Tonight‘s film follows one of the few remaining rag-and-bone men.
I Hard News (C4) 8.30—9pm. The excellent newspaper watchdog. which has actually caused some papers to change their working practices for fear of exposure. returns for its third series. hosted once more by Raymond Snoddy. I Rory Bremner (BBCZ) 9-9.30pm. The former Fringe star in a new series. which he promises will be ‘darker‘ and ‘more robust‘ than we‘ve seen him before.
I The Chief (Scottish) 9-10pm. A six-part police drama starts here. Tim Piggot-Smith (see Theatre Preview) finds a crisis on his hands when he takes over as ChiefConstable of Eastland. and has to turn to the Home Office and his own demoralised force to solve it.
I Bangkok Hilton (BBC1)9.3()—1 1 .05pm. A sure-fire winner. or so the Beeb must have decided. They‘re probably right. A disgraced family steeped in military tradition. exotic locations. passionate affairs. an illegitimate child‘s quest for the truth. Thai jails - all epic Australian-made stuff. and. despite Denholm Elliot‘s presence. probably as awful as it sounds. I Blood Beach (BBCI) 12.()5—1.30am. When this cheapo post-Jaws flick was released in 1982. it came with the slogan ‘Just when you thought it was safe togo back in the water — you can‘t get across the goddam beach!‘ Can you miss this?
IJau 625 (BBCZ) 12.20—1 .05am. This week‘s archive session is of Big Joe Turner. the hugely influential blues shouter.
SATURDAY 21
I Gallery (C4) 6.30—7pm. George Melly tests the brains of Scots Steven Campbell and Adrian Wiszniewski (as well as architect Roderick Gradidge and cartoonist Michael Heath) as they try to identify works of art on display in galleries. museums and stately homes ‘in England‘ (do they mean Britain?) Future contestants include Jeffrey Bernard and The Stranglers‘ Hugh Cornwell.
I Video Diaries (BBCZ) 8.30—9.20pm. For this series the Beeb have taken the ‘fly on the wall‘ approach one step further and given video cameras to people to go off and record their lives. Young novelist Robert Wilson. totally inexperienced behind a camera. travelled home to Belfast to explore the feelings that bound him to the city.
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I Mapantsula (C4) 10—1 1.55pm. After kicking offwith Salaam Bombay last week. Film on Four International continues with this highly-praised South African film. made in 1988 and banned in that country for its depiction of black life under apartheid. Scripted by Thomas Mogotlane. who stars as the streetwise wide-boy ofthe title.
I The Beast with Five Fingers (C4) 12.55—2.35pm. Peter Lorre is pursued by a severed hand which. despite its condition. can still hammer off a few bars ofBach when the occasion demands. Classic.
SUNDAY 22
I A Personal View (Scottish) noon—12.30pm. Harry Ashmall talks to Helen Liddell. Director of Personnel and Public Affairs for Robert Maxwell‘s Daily Record and Sunday Mail.
I Beid about Scotland (Scottish) 6—6.30pm. In a new series. Jimmy Reid ponders what makes Scotland Scottish.
I The Greening of Thailand (C4) 7-8pm. Deforestation caused the deadly floods that swept through Thailand in 1988. and as a result logging was banned nationwide. The Fragile Earth returns a year after the ban to examine the results and the impact of the reforestation programme.
I Perfect Scoundrels (Scottish) 7.45—8.45pm. The first of six comedy dramas. Two scoundrels meet at the funeral of a master confidence trickster and strike a deal that could net them halfa million pounds.
I The Media Show (C4) 8—9pm. Back after the Easter break. the show looks at the staging of last week‘s Mandela concert for different TV channels around the world. and goes on location for the filming ofa documentary based on Stephen Hawking‘sA Brieinstory of Time. ‘Ooh. me Emma Freuds!‘
I Jeeves and Wooster (Scottish) 8.45—9.45pm. See Preview.
I The Manageress (C4) 9—]0pm. I don‘t suppose I was the only one cringing at several scenes in the first series ofthis drama about a woman taking over a struggling English second division football club. but it‘s proved popular enough (attracting praise from the likes ofGary Lineker and Alex Ferguson) to warrant a second series.
I Single Voices (BBCI) 10—10.30pm. Six dramatic monologues commence with David Jason as ‘The Chemist‘. a small town pharmacist who has been plying his trade for 15 years. until one day he breaks with routine by installing a video camera at the back of the dispensary.
I The Killing Fields (BBCZ)
10pm—12. 15am. Roland Joffe‘s powerful and affecting 1984 film based on the true story of American journalist Sydney Schanberg and his Cambodian interpreter Dith Pran. who were rounded up when the Khmer Rouge moved in.
I The South Bank Show (Scottish) 10.35—11.35pm. A special on MASHand Me and Mrs McCabe director Robert Altman. currently working in Holland on Vincentand Theo. which will be both a feature film and a four-part series to be screened by Scottish later in the year. See Film preview.
I Women Mean Business (BBCI)
11.10—1 1 .35pm. Glenda Jackson presents the first of six programmes looking at the issues facing women returning to paid employment.
MONDAY 23
I Families (Scottish) 3.30—4pm. The start of a twice-weekly soap centring on two families set in England and. . . yes. Australia.
I Listening Eye (C4) 6-6.30pm. The fifth series of the programme which celebrates the lives and achievements ofdeafpeople in Britain coincides with the centenary of the British Deaf Association. The series intends to present the most in-depth portrait ever of deaf people in this country.
I Horizon (BBCZ) 8. ill—9pm. James Gould from Princeton University investigates the highly-developed social lives of ants and bees. which have existed for more than 50 million years.
I Brass (C4) 8.30—9pm. The incomparable Timothy West returns in a new series of the popular C4 comedy. This edition opens in September 1939. and since Bradley Hardacre calls himself‘the greatest arms-maker of the age‘. you know what that means.
I Against My Nature (C4) 9—10pm. This film monitors the progress ofMichael Brooks. a sufferer of Tourette Syndrome. which compels him to destroy the things he values most. After a life of compulsive-obsessive behaviour. he seeks medical help. and. because Tourette Syndrome is a neurological rather than psychological disorder. agrees to undergo brain surgery.
. . I I Five 60 Mad in Dorset (C4) t()—1().40pm. Repeats of vintage Comic Strip films start here. with the crew at their best (though I‘m rather partial to The Supergrass and Strike myself). Essential. I Spinster (C4) 1040—] 1.40pm. Women from the ages of 26 to 86 describe the pressures on them to get married. The director. Jessica York. found that very few of the women she spoke to saw their single status as a positive choice — rather that they too had accepted the stereotype that a woman cannot be complete without a husband or children. I Burglar((‘4)11.4(ipm—1.15am.A glimpse of the emerging punk/heavy metal culture in the USSR. Senka. atcenager whose father has turned to drink afterthe mother‘s death. and whose brother has rejected family life in favour of singing in a
rock band. steals a synthesiser from the local community centre which he was afraidhis brother would steal himself.
TUESDAY 24
I BrielEncounter(BB(‘1)6—7.25pm. (‘elia Johnson and Trevor Howard star in David Lean‘s adaptation of the Noel Coward play of a couple whose chance meeting in a railway station leads to a love affair.
I Flight of the Navigator (Sky Movies) 6—7.40pm. Disney SF fantasy. A young boy disappears for eight years. and. when he returns. doctors come to believe he has been kidnapped by aliens. Somehow, the boy escapes from government scientists in a silver ship with the voice of Pee Wee Herman as its computer. i think I‘d have preferred the government scientists.
I Twenty-tour Hours in Deepest Dulwich (C4) 8—8.30pm. A 40-foot square garden in Dulwich. actually. where researchers found jumping spiders. water measurers. screech owls and a fungus that looks like animated scrambled egg. Yum!
I Mr Bean (Scottish) 8.30—9pm. A repeat of the comedy. previously seen on 1 Jan. which has been chosen as lTV‘s entry for the Golden Rose of Montreux. Starring Rowan Atkinson and Richard Briers.
I Read Dreams (C4) 11.30pm—midnight. Elliot Bristow spent 14 years and 500.000 miles on the road in the United States. filming everywhere he went on silent Super 8 film. The 75 hours of film have been edited into six half-hour programmes. which start with Bristow‘s arrival in New York the day after Martin Luther King’s assassination.
I Redlegs—The Poor Whites olBartrados (C4) midnight—lam. lt‘sa little-known fact that the slaves for the growing agricultural industry of Barbados were British whites. whose descendants inhabit the lowest social rung on the island. This film traces their history. and shows how they live today.
WEDNESDAY 25
I Words Apart (BBCZ) 6.50-7.30pm. A new debate and discussion programme in the Def/l slot. hosted by Kirsty Wark. I Antenna (BBC‘Z) 8.05—9pm. Exiled Romanian film-maker (.‘hris Thau returns to his homeland to report on the collapse of medicine and science under the Ceaucescu regime.
I The Prince's Volunteers ( Scottish) 9—10pm. Prince Charles explains to Michael Aspel his new initiative aimed at giving all people between the ages of lo and 25 the opportunity to do voluntary work in the community.
I Rear Window (C4) 9. lSlllpm. Belly dancing originally had nothing to do with eroticism. and was performed in the home at weddings and other celebrations. Very few women are left who perform the true ‘Raqs Sharqi‘. but Rear Window tracked one down.
I Inside Story (BBCl ) 9.30—1().20pm. Prostitution is big business in Moscow. with 100 US dollars a time working out at seven times the national salary for one hour‘s work. Inside Story secretly filmed the daughters of two pillars of Moscow‘s community picking up clients in hotels. I The New Statesman (C4) 10— 10.35pm. Repeats of the second series. with Rik Mayall as Alan B'Stard. the Tory MP with the biggest majority in the house.
I Wim Wenders: Motion and Emotion (C4) l0.35pm—12.20am. As a prelude to a (‘4 season of the world-famous German director's films. this ‘first-rate documentary" ( The Observer) interviews Wenders and his major collaboratorsto present a thematic treatment of his work.
THURSDAY 26
I NB (Scottish) o.30—7pm. Back altcra short break. Janice Forsyth. Allan (.‘ampbell and Bryan Burnett take a look at the arts and events in central Scotland this week.
I Forty Minutes ( BB(‘2)9.3o- to. [0pm. Karl sells and restores pianos in London. but times are tough and he has fallen into debt. He has been told an organ-broker Will pay {30.000 for one of his kidneys. and feels this could be the only way out of his financial troubles. An investigation of the international trade in organs.
I Conquest ol the South Pole ( t ‘4)
9.30—1 1.20pm. In his first feature film. Giles MacKinnon adapted Manfred Karge‘s stage play about five young men who rc-create .-\mundsen‘s journey to the South Pole. They acquire all the equipment. and set off . withoutey er leaving the port of Leith.
I Vote 90 — The Regions Decide (Scottish ) 10.40-11.40pm. l'i'tiiiii‘ilt'House. (ilenrothcs With a week togouritil Regional iilections. local electors come face to face with the politicians seeking election or re-eleetion. and gel quined on the issues that decide where the .\' goes. The first of four programmes.
The List 20 April 73 May‘ two 71