Gas Attack’s message seeps through
migrant. Her series is intelligent and compelling. packed full of insight into the vastly under-explored flipside of British imperialism. (Allan Radcliffe)
DRAMA
GAS ATTACK Channel 4, Mon 8 Oct, 9pm om
When this made-for- television film about a terrorist attack on Kurdish asylum seekers in a run-down Glasgow estate premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival just days after a Kurdish man living in Sighthill was murdered. the city council considered a ban while the Edinburgh screening drew outraged protesters. But this scarifying film dramatises the plight of the asylum seekers. through the experiences of a father and daughter. That its fiction became horrifying fact underscores the shameful state of the UK government's immigration policy.
And the fact that Gas Attack was made on a tiny budget using non- professional actors effectively adds to its terrible sense of urgency. Production values are minimal. but the film's message is maximised. This should be required viewing. not just for the public but for figures of authority. Gas Attack deservedly won
The Broom go partying
the Film Festival's Michael Powell Award for Best New British Film. (Miles Fielder)
DRAMA
TINSEI. TOWN BBC Choice, Mon 8 Oct, 10.30pm m
Universally ignored on its first outing. Tinsel Town's cocktail of drug- fuelled nightclubbing, gratuitous sex and choppy editing failed to stir the passions of either viewer or critic. Having bizarrely been granted a stay of execution and a second series. the Raindog- produced drama has also undergone a complete makeover in the hope of igniting cult appeal
Gone are the club setting and many of the original characters. including the gay policeman. drunken granny and drug-dealing hardmen. The soapy issue-of—the-week storylines have also been replaced. by a series of comic episodes and Broons- style misunderstandings. There's still the endless. endless partying. drug- taking and sex. augmented by annoying trainee-MTV wobbly. blurry, nervy camerawork which can scarcely disguise the lack of a budget.
On the positive side. there are some splendid
particularly from Mandy Mathews and Paul Thomas Hickey as the permanently inebriated Sandra and Jack. But the lack of a plot makes the whole thing seem very inconsequential. (Allan Radcliffe)
DRAMA
THE PRACTICE 8801, Mon 8 Oct, 11.35pm o.
American television seems unreservedly obsessed with all things Criminal, producing cop shows and courtroom dramas at a rate which must surely reach meltdown some time in the near future. Into the already crowded schedules. then. comes The Practice. brought to you by the good people responsible for Ally McBeal.
In a pretty straightfonivard legal setting, The Practice centres on a struggling defence attorney’s firm, and the results are at best familiar and at worst nauseatineg self- righteous and schmaltzy. There's the usual array of characters: the world- weary. heart of gold. chisel-chinned attorney: the young. eager and foxy intern; the big. blustery black lawyer. All of whom get thrown into all the usual moral dilemmas and melodramatic scenarios that real lawyers never. ever come into contact with.
The Practice is slick yet almost completely unoriginal. Still. at least there are no imaginary dancing babies.
(Doug Johnstone)
DRAMA BABYFATHER BBCZ, Wed 10 Oct, 9pm om
That moment of accepting or denying your responsibilities is at the root of this promising series. With a strong cast of black Brits. it may be hard to get away from the feeling that this aims to be a coruscating drama about race relations in the UK. But when you look back on the first episode. the dilemmas and situations which arise could be happening to anyone. anywhere.
Beres is too obsessed with himself to recognise that his home life is
The Babyfathers take a breather cardsharps get together
; tatters: Johnny has been spreading his love a little 3 too widely and currently
has two women eight- months pregnant: Linvall is a budding
E photographer led astray by any woman he
meets: and Gus is
running the family L jewellery business and 3 maybe thinking that it's
time to settle down. The quartet at the heart of the story are
watchable in the extreme and with the injection of a little more
humour (from the current Holland (BBCQ, Fri 72
. Oct, 77.30pm) PJ.
i Harvey. Dr John. Kelis
F and Spiritualized kick off . the new season in style.
zero). this could end up being one of the BBC's autumn must-sees. (Brian Donaldson)
; ALSO ON An Audience With
Kylie Minogue (Scottish, Sat 6 Oct. 9pm) The minuscule Aussie songstress
DRAMA BAND OF BROTHERS
8802, Fri 5 Oct, 8.30pm COO
Another boys own adventure
TV
meets her famous public and performs some not numbers to them. Power To The Pixel
(Channel 4, Tue 9 Oct,
7 7.55pm) We look at the
stOry of Dogme filmmaking and ponder
whether it can seriously challenge Hollywood's
domination.
Late Night Poker
2 (Channel 4. Thu 77 Oct,
72.35am) Heaven for sharks as a bunch of
. to try and topple last season's champ. Phil
Hellmuth Jr. Later With Jools
The Tutankhamun Conspiracy (Channel 5.
Tue 76 Oct, 8pm) Did
Carter and Carnarvon discover the tomb of the boy-king or rob it?
! A sentimental Regular Joe view of the US Army's experience of European invasion camouflaged with a gritty. dynamic semi-documentary style. Band Of Brothers covers pretty much the same ground as Saving Private Ryan. Executive produced by Ryan‘s director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks. this ten-
? episode series follows the boys of newly-formed parachute core Easy Company from boot camp training to D-Day landing and beyond into the final year of World War II.
Each episode opens with the reminiscences of real World War II veterans. a tactic the film adopted. albeit using a fictional vet. to lend the following action credibility and pathos. What swiftly became apparent with Spielberg's film ~- following the brutally realistic opening Omaha Beach massacre (there‘s a similar but airborne one in Band Of Brothers) - was that Saving Private Ryan succeeded in being a boys own adventure and not at all the credible war film it set itself up to be. It's possible Band Of Brothers will swing this way; the cold-blooded murder of German POWs by an American Gl in episode two is overshadowed by Easy Company's heroic. action—packed liberation of an enemy bunker.
Episode one (co-written by Hanks) focuses on the months of training leading up to D-Day. Friends‘ David Schwimmer makes a cameo as a sadistic officer who turns out to be as wet as Ross. Relations are sketched in between the various members of Easy Company. but like ER, NYPD Blue and other television 9 shows about ordinary folks doing extraordinary jobs. it may take a few episodes ' for real character definition to emerge. (Miles Fielder)
4-18 Oct 2001 THE LIST 113