PREVIEW
Bo 2 Unlimited Charrynel 4, Fri 5 Feb, 9.30pm. Come in Save, yOur trme :s up. There are some new k'ds on the biock who ‘.'.II have teenage grrls plasterzng over therr Boy/one posters with p'ctur‘es of the»r new IOOIS and cause parents to say ‘what's tnat? rt's got a good heat, The“ name rs Boy? Un.mrteo’ Thrs funky fo:.r-precie are the subject of a new s.x- part fly-on-the-wall series fol-ovrrrng their progress in the pop world Meet Scott, the one \.~.:th the chee.-<bones, Jason, the hard Scottish lad, Nicky, the blond-haired, blue-eyed hear'toreaker who got rns headmistress pr'egr‘ant ano, of course, Gareth, the fat one ‘\.‘.I‘-() v. rites the songs
Except Boy/ Un-rmrtecr aren't rea: They and therr unscrupulous mar‘ager Nrge Gacey are the chief characters ill a new comedy series ‘n.r."'tter"- by R.cnaru Osman, brother of Screde’s pass payer ltlat, '~.vl‘..ch takes the Sotnal Tap bltreprht and appires to boy bands, \‘rrth autherttrc narratrOn by Jo \./“/h;lev,
Soapbox
Resurrections, Spandau Ballet, Thelma And Louise . . .
This rs always a slow trrne of year In Soaplancl, but some shouts have come up with new ways to spark our sluggish interest Coronation Street has rediscovered a few old characters, but nothrng so obvrous as havrng Bet Lynch return to the Rovers Instead, tha's one trme foster daughter, Sharon, who you mrght drme recall as the 70s Street's one attempt to ,rump On the yoof i)dli(l\.‘.'d(}()li, has popped up after two decades There's also some woman called Eunrce Gee, who even Soapbox can’t remember
Such resurrectrons are supposed to lure back former fans, but are actually gurte realrstrc people do reappear like that But not perhaps with such gusto that they immediately move in with Sally Webster, who's rn need of new pals who drdn't wrtness erther' her total stuprdrty over Greg Kelly or her bad harrstyle years Perhaps Sharon and Sarly wrlr become the Street’s answer to Thelma and Louise
Over in Family Affairs they've made sure that the Hart famrly can never pop pack Ill twenty years except perhaps rn a Bobby E‘rvrng shower scenarro by blowrng them up rn the most clramatrc moment the soap's seen yet More secrets were sprllecl and brtter truths revealed in the last frve mrnutes of therr‘ lrves than rn the entrre last year But the explosron rtself was something of a damp sgurb, wrth a flash of lrght rn the clrstance and a bouquet thrown handily
Pop kids: Boyz Unlimited
As with all satire, recognrtron rs everythrng If you thrnk Srve rs a mrsprrnt, E17 rs a postcode and 911 rs the US emergency code, you may not get the Irokes, whrcth appear to come from an rn-depth understandrng of the subject matter
’I can honestly say | drdn't do a srngle prec e of research,’ says Osman, who has prevrously wrrtten for Have / Got News For You, Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the TVA/TE Ithrs last one when he was frfteem. 'l've lrstened to pop musrc for years, I read maga/rnes, I Irve rn that krnd of world and rt gets rn by osmosrs So I drdn't hang out backstage with 911, educational though that would have been.’
However, Osman does explort hrs srbirng connectrons Eagle-eyed vrewers mrght be able to spot the occasronal Suede reference
With. a second series of Boy/ Un/rrnrtec/ already cornrnrssroned, we could be lookrng at a Monkees for the millennrum -'Frona Shepherdr
Bet Lynch: Rovers return?
clear for bereaved brrdegroom Roy to grasp
In EastEnders the scr'rptwrrters have radically rediscovered humour after alr the drawn out trauma of Trff's death, funeral and rnguest Terry and Ir‘ene's typically hopeless tuxeddrng was the funnrest thrng rn the show for ages and a welcome relief The Sguar'e's other new grmmrck rs the castrng of Spandau Ballet chap lvlartrn Kemp, who Jorns the increasing numbers of resrclents who make rt hard to suspend clrsbelref as you automatrcally thrnk of them in therr former pop, cornrc or Carry On gurses IAndrea Ivlullaneyr
TV
PREVIEW Days Like These Scottish, Fri 12 Feb, 8.30pm.
We gave them One Foot In The Grave and Men Behavrng Bad/y Now the successful Amerrcan srtcorrt That 70s Show has been remade wrth a British cast as Days Like These
In America, the show caught the wave of 70s nostalgra rnsprr'ed by Boogie Nights, spawnrng Websites, 70s-stvled merchandise and even rts own drrnkrng game The tr‘ansrtron to Brrtarn involves the rnevrtable glamour compromrse After all, for therr Buffy The Vamp/re Slayer and Party Of Five, we get Grange Hill or Hol/yoaks and faces famrlrar from adverts rnsteacl of nascent rnovre stars there it's Ann Bryson, one of the Phrlaclelphra cheese grrls‘r.
Still, Days Like These has attractrve young stars attrred rn surtably unpleasant per‘rod costume, and a healthy dose of sex and drugs to counter rts famrlrar clomestrc settrngs It could even reverse the current 80s retro trend and per‘scrade us all back rnto our platforms rHannah McGth
PREVIEW
Escape To River Cottage Channel 4, Sun 14 Feb, 7pm.
The celebrrty chef who made heacllrnes eatrng such delrcacres as sgurrrel flesh and human placenta rn A Cook On The Wr/d S/de and TV Dinners rs set to offend agarn In the frr‘st helprng of Escape To River Cottage, Hugh Fearnley-Whrttrngstall makes a swrne of hrmself and buys two pigs as potentral rashers
'Is rt really sensrble for me to take a prg home, fatten rt up and slaughter rt7' the hrrsute foocly asks a dubious lookrng farmer. 'Is that something anyone can do if they’ve got the space7’
The frrst programme also sees h:m har‘poonrng frsh and turnrng a r‘rfle on some rnnocent lookrng doves Babe- Ic vrng Brrtarn wrll have to get used to Fearnley-Whrttrngstall's double- barrelled antics as hrs offbeat cookery shou'u runs for' srx weeks The chef's spec rar challenge rs to survrve :n rural Dorset, lI‘./:ll(} off hrs wrts and the fat of the land Tufty had better keep hrs head down rPeter Rossr
REVIEW Ex-S: Framed BBCI, Wed 3 Feb
Scottish snapper Davrcl Eustace’s rise to photographrc fame rs probably a remarkable story Unfortunately, the usually reliable Ex-S farled to tell rt Those wth a passrng knowledge of hrs portraiture work can hardly have been devastated by the knowledge that Eustace was rn Bar'lrnnre Ias a prison officer» and of hrs adeptness at puttrng subjects at ease Except Robbre Coltrane who loomed over Eustace with the words, ‘l'm bor'ecl now '
Instead of genurne rnsrght rnto the man or his art, Framed was a casual knockabout documentary wrth largely irrelevant declarations of love for Glasgow and rts people from Eustace Still, there were hrs wonderfully atrnospherrc images, rncludrng The lrst cover shot of Jack Davenport, and portrarts of Eve Arnold, Ewan McGregor and Bobby Bluebell
Future Ex-S productions rnciude a look at theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, 70s fashron desrgner Brll Gibb and a compare and contrast sessron between the archrtecture of Glasgov. and Chrcago IBr‘ran Donaldson»
\4“ Bad hare day: Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall
I saw screw: David Eustace
.2 ’8 E'e‘e 7999 THE lIST105