This article was originally published in The Courier on 21st December 2019.
NEXT WEEK’S TV
WORZEL GUMMIDGE
Boxing
Day and Friday, BBC One, 6:20pm and 7pm
A
labour of love for writer/director/star Mackenzie Crook, this adaptation of the
evergreen children’s books is every bit as charming and funny as you’d expect
from the man behind Detectorists.
Early press photographs of Crook as the root vegetable-headed scarecrow made
him look infinitely more unsettling than Jon Pertwee’s iteration, which is
quite an achievement, but thankfully he’s turnip-sweet when you see him in
action. Crook makes several wise decisions, such as not doing a Pertwee
impersonation, making minimal concessions to the modern world, and basking, a
la Detectorists, in gorgeous bucolic
scenery scored to haunting English folk music. He’s also assembled a cast
including Michael Palin, Steve Pemberton and Zoe Wannamaker. It all works.
HUGH GRANT: A LIFE ON
SCREEN
Monday,
BBC Two, 9pm
The
global success of Four Weddings and a
Funeral transformed Hugh Grant, at that point just a young jobbing actor
with a background in Edinburgh Fringe comedy, into an overnight sensation. It
also typecast him as a bumbling English charmer, which, as he readily admits in
this enjoyable profile, was partly his own fault. In more recent years,
however, he’s successfully severed ties with that image via critically-acclaimed
roles such as Jeremy Thorpe in A Very
English Scandal. He is, in fact, a fine character actor. Grant has a
reputation for being quite irascible, but he’s on good form here as he rakes
over the highs and lows of his career with, quelle surprise, lashings of wry
self-deprecation.
DOLLY PARTON: HERE I
AM
Christmas
Day, BBC Two, 8:30pm
When
Dolly Parton settled upon her image as a pulchritudinous backwoods Barbie, she
created a sly form of self-parody that’s always been controlled on her own
terms. This sturdy 90-minute documentary ventures beyond that façade to
highlight her considerable gifts as a singer-songwriter. Parton is a funny
woman who takes her craft seriously. With characteristic wit and wisdom, she
looks back over her storeyed career, which began in the 1960s when, as a
determined young woman in a male-dominated industry, she smuggled feminism into
the conservative Country charts. Superstardom beckoned. This saga of
uncompromising self-realisation features insight from musicologists,
collaborators and famous friends such as Jane Fonda. It also boasts a stunning
array of wigs.
PADDINGTON: THE MAN
BEHIND THE BEAR
Boxing
Day, BBC Two, 9pm
Michael
Bond was an unassuming genius whose stories about a hapless little Peruvian
bear have brought pleasure to millions. Hosted by Hugh Bonneville, this
cockle-warming documentary reveals how Paddington came to be. While serving
during WWII, Bond was haunted by the sight of starving Jewish refugees packed
into a boat. Meanwhile, back in England, his parents welcomed Jewish children
into their home. Bond later resided in Notting Hill, where he witnessed
first-hand the racism endured by the Windrush generation. It’s not much of a
stretch to view Paddington as an embodiment of Bond’s compassion for displaced
immigrants. Contributors include Bernard Cribbins, Stephen Fry and that beacon of tolerance Jeremy
Clarkson, whose parents manufactured a successful range of Paddington toys in
the 1970s.
LAST WEEK’S TV
ROD STEWART: REEL
STORIES
Saturday
14th, BBC Two
During
this informal interview with Rod, Dermot O’Leary cued up various archive clips
of the once-great artist in action. As he raked over his past, Rod’s natural ebullience
was tinged with a pang of wistfulness he doesn’t usually reveal in public. He
was clearly quite moved at times. Rod would never admit this himself, but I do
think he knows that he squandered his talent.
A MERRY TUDOR
CHRISTMAS WITH LUCY WORSLEY
Friday
20th, BBC Two
In
which the chummy historian cleaved to her tried and tested formula of whisking
us back in time while dressing up in period garb. Her mission on this occasion
was to recapture the broiling stew of sights, tastes and smells of a
traditional Christmas during the Tudor era. The tone was even more
light-hearted than usual, but given the time of year that’s to be forgiven.
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