LISTINGS TELEVISION
TELEVISION
LISTINGS
A selection of television highlights, listed by day, in chronological order. Television listings compiled by Jonathan Trew.
FRIDAY 28
I Future Fantastic 7.30—8pm. Computers have doubled in power every two years since the 1940s. and may now be accelerating beyond that. Scientists believe that in the not too distant. although still unspecified. future. robots could be more intelligent than mankind. I is It legal? (Scottish) 8.30—9pm. Comedy series by Simon Nye. writer of Men Behaving Badly. set in the shambolic offices of solicitors Lotus. Spackman and Phelps. Colin. the wayward son of an ex- senior partner. joins the firm and throws the office into chaos when he accidentally kills an aged benefactor with a paper- knife.
I Blackadder Goes Forth (BBC 2) 9-9.30pm. Captain Edmund Blackadder is being primed for the big push and goes over the top in the morning. Needless to say, he has other ideas and has little wish to be in such close proximity to ‘Harry Hun’.
I Savannah (Scottish) 9—I0pm. Steamy drama series set in the Deep South. More interesting is the fact that this episode is entitled ‘Sex. Pies And Videotape'. surely a horrendous combination for all but the most ardent of fetishists.
I Friends (Channel 4) 9.30—l0.30pm. The apartment-dwelling twentysornethings return with a new series of comic ruminations on the nature of friendship. To mark the occasion there is a double dose of the programme with two half-hour episodes being shown back to back.
I The Friday lllght Armistice (BBC 2) iO—l0.30pm. Armando lannucci. Peter Baynham and David Schneider larnpoon the newsworthy. Viewers are advised to watch out for the Old Woman.
I Jack And Jeremy’s lleal lives (Channel 4) l0.30—l 1.05pm. Jack Dee and Jeremy Hardy take on the mantle of consumer watchdogs in the name of comedy.
I Baadasss TV (Channel 4)
1105-1 l.35pm. Ice T and Andrea Oliver continue to dredge up the more extreme and tacky sides of black culture.
SATURDAY 29
I calcutta Chronicles (Channel 4) noon-12.30pm. Tim Piggot-Smith looks at the Calcutta police force and the problems they face. from defunct traffic lights to a l20. OOO-strong crowd heading for the Eden Gardens cricket ground for the India v West indies match.
I Pets Win Prizes (BBC 1) 7.10-7.50pm. The great British public’s love affair with all things furry continues with a new series of this inane game show. Dale Winton presents in his own inimitable style.
I Beyond The Pale (Channel 4)
7. lO—8pm. New topical discussion programme which puts the man in the street in charge. The same group of people. drawn from all sections of the community. meet up in a converted Leeds pub to discuss the big issues of the day. Every week a different public figure with strong opinions will be challenged to join the debate and make the audience discussion move beyond the pale of metropolitan convention.
I Nannies (Channel 4) 8-iOpm. The nannying business is on the increase and demand is outstripping supply. But how do you find the right person to look after
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I Sister Wendy, the nun with the serious art habit, is back with a new series in
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which she gives the low down on high culture alter several exploits around the world. ouring filming she was stranded in Iona by a Force 8 gale. Attempts to hustle the locals at pool in the harbour bar were hampered only by her inability to hold a snooker cue. Meanwhile her insights into art history include an explanation of the Mona lisa’s smile, which apparently relates to her amusement at leonardo da Vincl’s homosexuality, and the rather sell-evident assertion that lieubens suitered from ‘tat lady syndrome’. Andy Warhol, meanwhile, gets the thumbs up as ‘awesome’ from this righteous lady. llot, perhaps, the view of your average convent dweller.
Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting starts on Sunday 30 June at 4. 15pm on 8861.
your children and what are nannies looking for in their employers?
I Dancing In The Street (BBC 2) 9—lOpm. Bob Dylan and The Beatles come under the microscope in this documentary and the effects of their cross fertilisation are examined.
I Eli (Channel 4) 9—l0pm. The medical drama series gets a complete re-run from the first episode which should ease all the ERjunkies‘ cold turkey a bit.
I lolita (Channel 4) l0pm—i2.50am. The Kubrick season continues with his interpretation of Nabokov‘s best-selling novel starring James Mason as a middle- aged professor who becomes infatuated with a twelve-year-old ‘nymphet’. Sterling rformances all round.
I Satur ay Live (Scottish)
IO. 10—] l.lOpm. Lee Hurst hosts a comedy series featuring the best in stand- up and live music. This week's guests are Harry Hill and Alan Parker Urban Warrior, while Belinda Carlisle and Sleeper provide the music.
I The X Files (BBC 2) ll—i 1.45pm. A religious sect member capable of changing gender is the prime suspect for Mulder and Scully.
I llotel Babylon (Scottish) 2.35—3. l5am. Dani Behr meets ltalian superrnodei Carla Bruni and talks about some. not just one mind you. of her boyfriends. Meanwhile. Antonio Fargas. aka Huggy Bear. shoots some pool.
SUNDAY 30
I Sister Wendy’s Story or Painting (BBC 1) 4. iS—4.45pm. The gentle nun continues her exploration of the world’s art starting with the earliest surviving art in the world.
I some - The Final (Scottish)
5.45—9. ISpm. Live coverage of the final match in the tournament from Wembley and after that there’ll be no more bloody football for weeks. Hurrah!
I llello oolly (Channel 4) 6.50—9.30pm. Musical starring Barbra Streisand as a widowed matchmaker in l880s New York who sets her sights firmly on tight-fisted Yonkers merchant Walter Matthau as a prospective husband.
I .letlrey Bernard: Reach For The Ground (Channel 4) 9.30—iOpm. Soho habitué and hopeless dipso Bernard recounts his life. his loves (alcohol) and his amputation which has kept him flatbound. At the age
of 63, the thought of death is concentrating Bemard’s thoughts tremendously.
I Full Metal Jacket (Channel 4) lOpm—12.lOam. Continuing the Kubrick season. this is the British network premiere of his Vietnam war drama which centres on the brutal training of a disparate bunch of raw recruits and their susequent combat experiences.
I Educating liita (BBC 1) 10.15pm—12.05am. Julie Walters and Michael Caine star in Willy Russell‘s screen adaptation of his award-winning stage play.
I Westway (Channel 4) l.30—i .55am. Documentary following the life of Billy The Skid. a joyrider whose only release from his grim existence is in the thrill of the car chase.
MONDAY 1
I NB (Scottish) 7—7.30pm. Sally Gray and Angus Coull present the Scottish arts and listings programme.
I Jaws In The Mod (Channel 4) 8-9pm. Just in time for the summer hols Channel 4. purely in the interests of health and safety of course. broadcasts this documentary about the 45 difi'erent species of shark which inhabit the Mediterranean. Naturally it pays particular attention to the Great White and details the 40 shark attacks which have occured in the Med this century of which eighteen were fatal.
I 0h lloctor Beechlngl (BBC 1) New comedy series starring Paul Shane and Su Pollard. among others. about a sleepy little railway station which is about to be disrupted by the arrival of a new super efficient Station Master.
I Buttan Girls (Channel 4) 9-l0.50pm. First of a two-part all-star series which. over ten years and two continents. follows the adventures of Calamity Jane and her best friend and brothelkeeper. Dora DuFran.
I The X Files (BBC 2) 9.40—lO.30pm. Yet more spooky goings on. This one. lazarus. has a horrendously complicated plot.
ITinaTurner: What’slove-llve (Channel 4) 1050-] 1.50pm. Relive last night’s concert at Murrayfield with this Californian concert which includes ‘Steamy Windows, Private Dancer' and ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero'.
TUESDAY 2
I The Good Food Show (BBC 1) 7—7.30pm. Pete McCarthy celebrates National Pub week and takes a look at what grub is on offer to complement the pints. The days of pie. chips and beans are drawing to a close; the great pickled egg wars have been fought and the eggs banished. and the new age of decent pub food is dawning.
I lleman Jungle (Channel 4) 8—8.30pm. Modern city life demands conformity on a scale which our ancestors could never comprehend. Paradoxically. the individual freedom that urban living allows is only made possible when we all adhere to a set of unspoken rules such as queuing at the supermarket.
I Bottan Girls (Channel 4) 9-lO.50pm. Concluding part of this drama about the final days of the Wild West.
I law Women (BBC 1) 9.30-l0.20pm. Women in the law are in the minority. This series of three programmes follows three women: a detective. a top defence lawyer and the Deputy Governor of Maidstone Prison. Stacey Tasker. Tonight Detective inspector Sue Hill runs a team of over thirty CID officers. investigates two rape cases and runs a family life.
I Situation Vacant: The lioyal Marines orticer (BBC 2) 9.45—l0.30pm. Every year 600 hopefuls turn up for the Potential Officers Course at the Royal Commando Training Centre in Devon. There are 34 places and two thirds of applicants fail within one hour of arrival.
I Alan Bleasdale Presents: Blood On The Dole l0.50pm—12.35am. The moving story of four Merseyside school-leavers. focusing on their fight to find their identities in a difficult world.
I Strange Ilays (BBC 2) l I.15—l 1.50pm. Catherine Bennet looks at one of the modem world’s most inviolable sacred cows. psychotherapy. According to Bennett ‘Freud said that his aim was to turn hysterical misery into common unhappiness. It is the achievement of his followers that therapy can do the opposite. transforming common unhappiness into misery.‘
WEDNESDAY 3
I Sun Power USA (Channel 4)9—10pm. This two-part series asks if America’s love affair with the right to'bear arms has turned sour. Forty thousand people were killed by firearms last year in America and the National Rifle Association is pushing to make carrying a concealed weapon legal.
I Bad Boys: From llussia With love (BBC 1) 9.30-lO.20pm. Things are looking bleak for Fraser. Voted off the board of the Glasgow Business Brotherhood. and losing customers to Mulherron. he comes home to find a pregnancy kit lurking in the bathroom cabinet, leading him to suspect that
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The List 28 Jun-ll Jul 1996 77