TELEVISION
Propaganda War. which features footage of [RA hunger-striker Bobby Sands. were all banned when first produced but will now be shown unedited. (Except for the now familiar. but no less ridiculous. practice ol dubbing an actor's voice over that of a terrorist to comply with the 1988 Broadcasting Standards Bill.)
While the inclusion ofthe politically sensitive films. and the presence ofprogrammes discussing censorship from the extreme cases of l\azi Germany and pre-glasnost Eastern Europe to present day America give the season a wide-ranging agenda, it is almost certain to be the sexual content ofa minority of films which will provoke the greatest reaction. Whatever the BSC and Mary Whitehouse have to say. though. John Willis will be unrepentent.
‘We still can‘t show an edition of Sex in Our Time which was a sex education programme from the mid-19705. We still can‘t show stills of female genitalia from that programme even though it’s no worse than something you might see in a biology textbook. I find that absolutely amazing.‘
‘In the last few years we‘ve been
. forced to jump through more and , more regulatory hoops before we ' can get programmes onto the screen.
There's been a definite response to the political climate ofthe 1980s. a change for the worse. Due impartiality. the BSC and the new Broadcasting Complaints Commission are all broadening the scope of the censors. This series is necessary because we need to know
how far we can go.‘ (Philip Parr)
Banned begins on Channel 4 on Monday 8 April. Check listings for highlights and times.
Captain cook
The drinking man’s TV cook, Keith . Floyd, has been carrying his mixture oi gastronomic expertise and intimidating enthusiasm to various corners oi the globe since conquering the UK. Having bemused the French,
the last series saw him taking the US by
storm, and now he is preparing to
regale us with his culinary experiences '
Down Under in Floyd On 02, a new series on BBC2.
Australia might seem an unusual subject tor a cookery show, and indeed, until a yearorso ago, all that
Floyd knew about the country’s cuisine ’ was the legendary ‘pie iioater’, a meat j
pie of dubious content floating iess-than-aesthetically on a sea at mushy peas. The original Brits who colonised the country lived on pickled meats brought out from the mother country, despite the wealth of local produce available.
Floyd samples the pie iloater at the famous Harry’s Caie De Wheels, and decides he can knock up something rather superior with the plentiful seafood available. His lish chowder earns the plaudit ’iair dinkum’ from the choosy Sidneyites, which is apparently quite an achievement. Floyd’s tree and easy style has won him a loyal lollowing in previous series, and Australia looks an ideal venue for his blend of unpretentious authority and good-humoured bonhomie. His shows go beyond the cookery, to give us an
Keith Floyd heads down under
insight into the different aspects at a huge country, with a very disparate population.
Floyd dons singlet and ilip-ilops to coverthe whole nation, throwing shrimps on the ‘barbie’ one minute, and cooking up kangaroo tail tor a bunch of hungry sheep-shearers the next. Downtrodden director Clive is sadly absent (‘he's still getting his head together aiter the American
series’ explains Floyd), but as tradition
requires, there’s plenty of alcoholic Iibation at hand. ‘I didn’ttake Australian wines seriously at lirst,’ admits Floyd shameiacedly. ’I think it was the labels I thought iunny. You know, things like Muddy Creek and Dingo’s Bottom and the rest. But after tasting them, i realise how brilliant they are: generous and full of iruit.’ No doubt plenty of bottles will be sunk in the course at the eight—part series. (Tom Lappin)
Floyd On 02 BBC2 Thursday 11 April 8pm.
V RADIO
Across the waves
Next week (Sat B—Fri 12) is European Radio Week. Accordingly a flurry oi programmes has been scheduled to
: celebrate those twin pleasures oi
listening to the radio and being a member at the EC. Commissioned to come up with something ‘whlch would deal with certain European themes’, Anthony Burgess obliged with ‘A Meeting At Valladolid’ (Radio 3, Wed 10, 9pm), which, translated into seven languages- including Hebrew and Czech-will be simultaneously transmitted across Europe, doubtless to cries oi Molto benel Encore! and Das ist gut!
Set in 1606, the play centres on the ’perpetual peace treaty’ being negotiated between Spain and Britain. As a gesture of good will, the king sends his finest actors, along with Shakespeare and Burbage- actor and builder oi the Globe Theatre -to meet
5 theirSpanish counterparts.
Shakespeare makes a very poor
‘ impression, especially on Cervantes, creator of “Don Quixote’, who
condemns our Bard as a vulgar heretlc
and deplores his ’silly stage plays . indulging in blood and cannibalism’.
There’s plenty oi chauvlnlsm on both sides and the moral is that we
: Europeans should make love, not war.
Speaking of ‘Don Quixote’, you can hear an updated version of Cervantes’
Bob Hoskins in Don Quixote on Radio3
classic on Radio 3, starring Paul Scoiield as the deluded knight who reads too many romantic novels and Bob Hoskins as his iarting, belching side-kick Sancho Panza. Well it Bob Hoskins isn’t earthy I don’t know who Is. (Sun 7, 7.30pm). And there’s more Community joie de vivre on Radio 1 with committed DJs hosting 25 hours (not all at once) of live programmes from Strasbourg, Home, Berlin and Paris. The piece de resistance is Steve Wright, live irom the European Commission, on how there’s nothing boring about Brussels.
Lastly— and this ain’t exactly continental — Radio 5’s new series called ‘Scraplron’ stars Henry Cooper and Nick Berry (Wicksy in Eastenders) in a drama about, well, East End boxers, really. Gary (Berry) is a young boxer about to face his first light and plunge into his first love aiiair. His friend, Steven, is coping with the news that his mother has left home and his lather might be involved In a major crime. It’s tough, guys, but c’est la vie. (Thurs 11, 9.30pm) (Miranda France)
i i
I Silverado (PO) A modern-day Western with everything bar the kitchen sink thrown in. lt‘s cliched stuff. but gets away with it by being blissfully aware of the fact. I-‘our heroes
ride into town. where they
encounter the stock ingredientsofshoot-outs. fist-fights. slick gamblers. cattlcirustlers and saloon bar queens. It's diverting enough. with enjoyable performances from Kevin Cline. Brian Dennehy and Kevin Costner. with the added bonus ol‘John (‘Icesc as a very Iinglish sheriff. (RCA (‘olumbia £7.99)
A V",
I Young Guns Ii: Blaze Of Glory ( 15) The boys are back in town. as'I‘hin Lizzy used to say. The film opens in the 1950s with an old-timer claiming to be Billy The Kid. The story of how he escaped the gallows and rival gunslingers is told in flashback with lots of shootin' and miss thievin' and similar mischievous cowboy things. It‘s a punchy enough Western with the likes oflimilio Estcvez (as Billy) and Kiefer Sutherland loving the chance to be mean and moody. although not quite up to the standard of the original. ((‘BS Fox Rental) I Betsy’s Wedding( 15) Molly Ringwald is the eponymous Betsy. daughter ofAlan Alda (who also directs) in a slightly lightweight satire. Needless to say the wedding encounters several obstacles. and causes a social war between the two families. that offers plenty of opportunity for smart one-liners and sharper digs at New York attitudes. Punches are pulled towards the end. however. and it gets just a little too cosy. (Buena Vista Rental) I Bobocopz ( 18) Less story. more action is the aim in this bigger budget sequel to Paul Verhoeven‘s gory original. ()ld Robo gets involved in the drug wars and ruthless ()mni Consumer Products (more unscrupulous even than Reeves and Mortimer Products it seems) build theirown robot to take him on. With plentiful suppliesof blood. guts and gratuitou use ofnasty gadgets. ‘Ghost' it ain't. (MCEG Virgin Vision Rental)
The List 5— 18 April 199171