It’s all singers, Sellers and spooks this weekend, kicking off with the grand final of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (BBC1, Saturday 6:45pm and 9:15pm). And it promises to be a tense one, with David Ian’s lust object Siobhan and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s perennial favourite from the bottom two, Helena, up against possibly the show’s most technically accomplished finalist, Connie. As for us at TV Today towers, we can’t help but agree with Mountview themselves (see photo, right) on the back page of this week’s Stage.
For the winner, the West End beckons. For the runners-up, there’s always the recruitment ads…
Hopping over to ITV1 straight after, and there’s a new series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (7.45pm) to savour. Yes, it’s your typical L.E. show — pretty much Noel’s House Party with trademark ITV neon sets and mercifully Edmonds and Blobby-free — but, as the now-defunct Story of Light Entertainment showed us over the last eight weeks, variety done well is always entertaining. And right now, nobody does it better than two pint-sized Geordies.
A swift change of pace straight after, though, as Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln return in Afterlife (ITV1, Saturday 9pm). Stephen “Ghostwatch” Volk’s paranormal thriller series ended more strongly than it started in its first run last year. This second series sees a slight shift in format, with Lincoln’s psychologist, Robert, now a believer — but with a lot of questions left to answer.
Twenty-four hours later, and we move from ghosts and ghoulies to Spooks (BBC1, Sunday 9pm), which returns for its fifth series. The last series ended with Adam (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Harry (Peter Firth) caught in the crosshairs of a deranged sniper. While that story’s not completely over, this opening two-parter deals with a group of influential businessmen and politicians intent on staging a very British coup… Hermione Norris joins the team this year; as our departing guest blogger James pointed out, she’d better make sure she’s up-to-date on her life insurance premiums…
The second part of this double-header is showing on Monday night. But, for those who absolutely, positively can’t wait until then, it’s also showing on BBC3 straight after episode 1. I’m all for digital channels premiering new episodes a week ahead of time if they want, but to do so when there’s just a day in between episodes? That’s a bit much, isn’t it? Only the very desperate would feel they had to watch the second episode straight away… (guess what I’ll be doing at 10pm Sunday.)
Finally, just a quick nod back to Saturday night, and we make another of our occasional film recommendations. But The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (BBC2, Saturday 9.50pm) is well worth it, with a superb performance by Geoffrey Rush in the title role. It’s followed by Sellers himself in his best non-Strangelove film, Being There (BBC2 Saturday 11.50pm), where he stars as a man whose whole outlook on life has been formed from watching TV.
I don’t know where he got his characters from, I really don’t.
