Reviews
TIME TRAVEL DRAMA LIFE ON MARS 8801, Mon 9 Jan, 9pm 0000
This has got to be the most challenging role of John Simm's career and, good God, does he shine. He plays a senior detective who. after getting hit by a car. is thrown back 33 years and finds himself working in the same Manchester police station in the early 1970s.
It sounds bloody daft. I know, but the mighty Sirnm — who could inspire tears and applause simply by reading out a shopping list — pulls it off with utter truth. Not only does he
Hyperdrive BBC2. Wed 71 Jan, 70pm The first major British sci-fi sitcom since Red Dwarf stars Kevin Eldon. Miranda Hart and Nick Frost.
Bones Sky One, Thu 72 Jan, 70pm Yet more quality Americana with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel playing the Mulder and Scully of forensic anthropology.
The Afternoon Play BBCI, Mon 16—Fri 20 Jan, 2.35pm Five mini-dramas starring the likes of James Bolam, Georgia Taylor and Ruth Gemmell.
Autopsy: Life and Death Channel 4, Mon 76—Thu 79 Jan, 1 7.05pm Professor Gunther Von Hagens dips his gloved hands deep into some old corpses to learn more about the dying game.
Desperate Housewives Channel 4, Wed 78 Jan, 10pm More wonky wanderings down Wisteria Lane. See Hate. page 12.
simply not believe (why the hell would he?) what has happened to him in his Kafkaesque time lurch. but he has to deal with the realities of police work from a long gone era: no mobile phones, computers or DNA but plenty of on- the—iob smoking. drinking, violence and sexism. All this plus a rousing Bowie-led soundtrack makes it an absolute bloomin' joy. (Ashley Davies)
RELIGION DOCUMENTARY
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? Channel 4, Mon 9 Jan, 8pm 00
Evolutionary biologist and arch Darwniist Professor Richard Dawkins isn't a fan of religion. At times in The Roof of All Evl/?, he describes it as ‘the elephant in the room' and ‘the abuse of reason', and characterises faith as ‘a process of non- thinking‘. To develop his argument he visits evangelical tub—thumper Ted Haggard in Colorado Springs. speaks With a Jew- turned-Muslim in Jerusalem. and watches the Catholic pilgrims ‘wallow' in the waters at Lourdes.
Where Dawkins fails is in his own implacability. and in the choice of such well-trodden ground walked both by believers and non- believers. He doesn't acknowledge that he is wedded to his own discipline (science) as though it's a religion. and this only allows him to confront those equally entrenched in an opposite position. Whether you believe that faith is a dangerous fallacy or not. a more thorough investigation of the nature of belief itself is required. (Robin Lee)
SOCIAL DRAMA FRIENDS AND CROCODILES 8801, Sun 15 Jan, 9pm .00
As the possible end of a political era rises in the middle distance. a drama that tackles the dangers of hateful Champagne Charlies supping on venture capitalism's dribbles should act as enough of a warning from history. New Cameron. New Calamity? In this new Stephen Poliakoff project (completed soon by Gideon's Daughter), Damian Lewis plays a maverick 80s entrepreneur whose chaotic approach to business is matched only by his innovation in garden parties. A wandering Girl Friday (Jodhi May) arrives to son his affairs out but while his nonsense drives her away. like a ginger ghost (With varying lengths of carrot topness) he never leaves her.
Poliakoff's characters are never quite stereotypes. never particularly realistic. floating somewhere in between with ominous dialogue delivered as flatly as possible: think Anna Friel in The Tr/be and Matthew MacFadyen in Perfect Strangers. Perhaps once we've seen the next part going deep into Blair's Britain, the vapid void will be filled. (Brian Donaldson)
WAR DRAMA
OVER THERE Sky One, Tue 17 Jan, 10pm 00
The purveyor of such seminal series as NYPD Blue and Murder One. Steven Bochco is a safe pair of hands when it comes to teleVision drama. Little wonder that 20th Century Fox commissioned the veteran producer to dream up an ensemble drama about soldiers serving in Iraq.
AMERICAN SIT COM
MY NAME IS EARL Channel 4, Fri 6 Jan, 10pm O...
By his own admission Earl Hickey is a bad man, the kind of shifty, sneaky looking guy you’d cross the street to avoid. Earl’s life is also, by his own admission, bad. A chance encounter with MTV’s Carson Daly, a lottery ticket and a pensioner driving a car brings Earl enlightenment: he discovers karma. In realising that in some kind of global spiritual equilibrium what goes around comes around, Earl decrees to make amends for all the bad he has done in his life, one thing at a time, no matter how long it takes to make a better life for himself.
Now this is a pretty cute premise for a sitcom. When trying to deal with issues of good vs evil and the search for redemption, however, there is an imperative to ensure this doesn’t end up like something you’d accidentally come across on GOD TV or some other ‘spiritually focused’ cable channel. Creator Greg Garcia has struck a considered balance with Earl as a loveable doofus in the Homer Simpson/George Costanza/Frasier Crane kind of way and Jason Lee - most often spotted in the work of Kevin
Clerks Smith - is just tremendous.
While the trailer trash cliches flow furiously through the script, they don’t bog things down, instead creating an otherworldly environment for Earl to carry out his unlikely quest. My Name is Earl is what Scrubs has always aspired to be but never fully delivered: a comedy with heart and soul about human frailty that is very, very funny. (Mark Robertson)
A drama based around the most controversial armed conflict in recent history was never going to bOiince onto the small screen without ruffling a few feathers. It's therefore surprising how insipid this pilot actually is. the young recruits being almost uniformly clean-cut and suspiciously unpotty— mouthed. In its determination to be neither pro nor anti-war. the action sequences amount to a series of grisly set pieces without context, thus rendering the speCIficity of the
setting pOintIess. An attempt at hard-hitting 'realism‘ has been made with the use of shaky camera, close-ups and rapid-fire cutting but
there's nothing here that's anywhere near as shocking as the images we're becoming used to from teleVIsion news. (Allan Radcliffe)
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