July 2010 Archives

The Saturday Play: Writing on Wigan Pier Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Adrian Scarborough plays George Orwell in David Pownall’s account of the author’s 1936 visit to Wigan that formed the basis of his classic work The Road to Wigan Pier. Karl Davies, bernard Cribbins and Thelma Barlow also star.

Death at the Desert Inn Radio 7, Saturday 5am & 5pm
One of Marcy Kahan’s great comedy thrillers that recasts Noel Coward as a sleuth who solves murder mysteries in between cabaret performances. Malcolm Sinclair (the new Equity president) plays Coward, with able support from Eleanor Bron as his long-suffering secretary. This week’s mystery includes Judy Garland, showgirls, Broadway agents and a US congressman.

BBC Proms: Sondheim at 80 Radio 3, Saturday 7.30pm
The radio transmission of this celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s work is going out live on radio, as opposed to BBC2’s delayed transmission which doesn’t start until 9pm. A number of celebrated musical theatre performers contribute renditions of the master’s works.

Classic Serial: The Wings of the Dove Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
Linda Marshall Griffiths adapts Henry James’ novel over three weeks. Lyndsey Marshal stars as Kate Croy, who yearns to marry her sweetheart Merton Densher (Blake Ritson) despite neither family having much money. The arrival of American socialite Milly Theale (Anna Maxwell Martin) gives Kate an opportunity to manipulate events in her favour, but as is the way with such things, complications ensue.

Yodel-Ay-Ee-Ooo: Arthur Smith and the Global Yodel Radio 2, Tuesday 10pm
Stage contributor and occasional comedian Arthur Smith explores the art of yodelling, from Switzerland to Korea and Africa.

Afternoon Play: Tetherdown Radio 4, Friday 2.15pm
Based on a real life murder in 1896, Scott Cherry and Gregory Evans have scripted a tale about the gruesome killing of a 79-year-old man in Muswell Hill. Murdered in the belief that he lived with a stash of money, the police start to track down the killer — but the new technique of fingerprint detection, which could help secure a conviction, is not recognised by politicians or judges.

The IT Crowd Channel 4, Friday 10pm
Douglas is reunited with his wife, who previously went missing in a mysterious car-washing incident — and promptly decides he wants to divorce her. Unfortunately, he finds there’s more to breaking up with someone than just changing his Facebook relationship status to “it’s complicated”… The final episode of what has been the strongest series yet of Graham Linehan’s consistently hilarious sitcom.

BBC Proms: Stephen Sondheim BBC2, Saturday 9pm
After last year’s MGM Prom, the BBC are expanding the role of musicals in the Proms season. There’ll be a celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein later, but this weekend sees a whole concert dedicated to the genius stylings of Stephen Sondheim in yet another event celebrating his 80th birthday year. Bryn Terfel, Maria Friedman, Simon Russell Beale, Jenna Russell, Daniel Evans, Julian Ovendon and Dame Judi Dench will all contribute vocal performances.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Five, Sunday 5.20pm
One of Alan Menken’s more underrated musicals for Disney, with Tom Hulce, Demi Moore and Kevin Kline on voice duties. Hellfire, sung by Minister of Justice of Frollo, is one of my favourite of all Menken’s compositions.

Sherlock BBC1, Sunday 8.30pm
Last week’s opener was a critical and audience success, so the bar has been set pretty high for the next episode. Hopefully, now that the setup of Holmes and Watson sharing 221b and collaborating on detection work has been established, the actual crime plot will be a little more to the fore than last week’s.

Patrick Kielty Radio 2, Saturday 10am
Wossy has left the building, but his official replacement, Graham Norton, won’t take up the Saturday morning slot until October. In the meantime, Kielty fills in, with today’s guests including Don’t Stop Believing judge Anastasia and Andy Nyman, who co-wrote West End play Ghost Stories with Jeremy Dyson.

BBC Proms: The Doctor Who Prom Radio 3, Saturday 7.30pm
Including some of Murray Gold’s work from Doctor Who, appearances from current TARDIS residents Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as well as pieces by John Adams, William Walton, Carl Orff and Richard Wagner, this is surely going to be one of the more accessible of Proms events and a definite highlight for all fans of the Doctor.

Composer of the Week: Stephen Sondheim Radio 3, Monday-Friday 12pm
A welcome repeat of the week long season celebrating Sondheim’s 80th birthday. The series also contains a quite grumpy, but revealing, interview with the man himself.

Afternoon Play: A Bridge to the Stars Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
John Retallack adapts a short story by Henning Mankell, Swedish creator of the Wallander detective novels. 12 year old Joel (Ryan Watson) ventures out into the cold Swedish night to search for a dog he has seen through his bedroom window.

All Round Bob Monkhouse Radio 2, Tuesday 10pm
Dave Allen: Goodnight and May Your God Go With You Radio 2, Wednesday 10pm
Comedian Barry Cryer presents an hour-long tribute to one of the hardest working comedians that Britain has ever produced, Bob Monkhouse, while a day later Ed Byrne takes a similar look at fellow Irishman Dave Allen’s oeuvre.

Magic People and Places Radio 4, Thursday 11.30am
John Sugar explores the world of the professional conjuror, with contributions from Paul Daniels and the late Ali Bongo.

The Radio 2 Kiri Prize: Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 8pm
The first of five semi-finals to find a new opera star. Each week, three singers will perform to be judged by singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Anne Howells, conductor Robin Stapleton and renowned director John Cox. The overall winner will perform at the BBC Proms in the Park with Te Kanawa in September.

Casualty BBC1, Saturday 9pm
If you missed last week’s episode, it ended with Charlie Fairhead recognising the frail woman who had been brought in by ambulance as his former colleague Megan Roach. Since leaving the series in 1990 (twenty years ago! That makes me feel old), Brenda Fricker has previously popped back twice, in 1998 and 2007. This time is likely to be her last, as Megan’s cancer is terminal.

John Bishop’s Britain BBC1, Saturday 9.50pm
Scouse comedian John Bishop fronts a combination of stand-up, sketches and contributions from the public on a different theme each week. To kick off the series, the theme is love and marriage. Caution: this programme contains James Corden.

Oliver! Five, Sunday 4.05pm
Celebrating its fiftieth birthday this year, Lionel Bart’s musical is a classic and so this 1968 movie adaptation will be a welcome addition to the Sunday afternoon schedule.

Orchestra United Channel 4, Sunday 7pm
Young people with no musical experience: check. Youthful, telegenic, impassioned mentor: check. Setbacks on the road to ultimately life-affirming live performance: check. Yes, it’s Channel 4’s attempt to capitalise on the Gareth Malone style of feelgood documentary.

Sherlock BBC1, Sunday 9pm
I love the idea of this. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat take Sherlock Holmes back to what he was when written by Arthur Conan Doyle — a brilliant, slightly insane, contemporary crime solving genius. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the sociopath with a passion for problem solving, while Martin Freeman is his new friend, a doctor who has just returned from a war in Afghanistan.

The Silence BBC1, Monday-Thursday 9pm
A deaf 18-year-old witnesses the murder of a policewoman. So naturally, her detective uncle, who happens to be heading up the murder inquiry, withholds her as a formal witness in order to protect her. Er, sorry, what? The frankly ludicrous premise spoils what could otherwise be an intriguing combination of family drama and police thriller.

Identity ITV1, Monday 9pm
Shall we give last week’s episode the benefit of the doubt? The one where none of the regular characters transcended crudely drawn stereotypes and chose to tell each other how they do the jobs they’ve presumably been doing for quite a while? If so, tonight will be the night we see if ITV1’s new cop drama actually holds water. Joanne Froggatt is this week’s principal guest star.

Rev BBC2, Monday 10pm
Adam takes a moral stance against proposals for a local strip club — but his “research” into the area of adult entertainment couldn’t possibly go without incident, could it?

That Mitchell and Webb Look BBC2, Tuesday 9pm
A fourth series of Mitchell & Webb’s sketch show. As a sketch in a previous series pointed out, you can’t help but suggest a sketch show may be “patchy”, but generally their hit rate is high enough to tolerate any misfires.

Shooting Stars BBC2, Tuesday 9.30pm
Vic and Bob return, as do Ulrika Johnson and Jack Dee. No Matt Lucas, though — George Dawes’ role as scorekeeper is taken by Angelos Epithemiou.

Living with Brucie Channel 4, Wednesday 9pm
He’s been an entertainer all his life, and not an honour’s list goes by without somebody grumbling that Bruce Forsyth hasn’t received an honour. And so Channel 4’s Cutting Edge strand decides to go all docusoap on us, with an hour devoted to the 82-year-old’s home life.

It’s a shame that the broadcaster’s big documentary strand has to go down the personality route. Still, at least it beats ITV2’s Katie Price antics, which are on at the same time…

Every time a TV soap announces a change of producers, there are frequent rumours in the tabloid press that there will be a cull of existing characters. Recently, with a number of the UK’s top soaps are all undergoing a change of management, the soap rumour mills have been running overtime.

Sometimes such rumours turn out to be true. Former Doctor Who producer Phil Collinson, who is taking over the reins at Coronation Street, has gone on record saying that the forthcoming viaduct collapse and resulting tram crash (the visuals of which are being masterminded by DW CGI experts The Mill) will dispatch several long-running characters.

Similarly, Paul Marquess’s appointment to run Hollyoaks resulted in stories that claimed he was instigating a “mass cull” of characters, including a couple of families such as the Valentines and the Ashworths. From the latter, incidentally, Emma Rigby (Hannah) opened in her first theatre role in new musical Wolfboy last night, and for my money she’s far, far better on stage than she was in the ‘Oaks. But I digress.

In this week’s issue of The Stage, broadcasting correspondent Matthew Hemley got the actor’s perspective on such tumultuous times by talking to Melissa Walton, who played Loretta in Hollyoaks. Her character formally leaves on July 27, but her days were numbered ever since the character’s intended storyline, which would have revealed that she had killed as a child and had been given a new identity, was changed at the last minute after complaints by the family of James Bulger.

Walton explains that the decision stems from the fact Marquess felt he had nowhere to take the character, after one of her major storylines - in which viewers were supposed to learn Loretta had killed as a child and been given a new identity - had to be pulled, following complaints from Jamie Bulger’s mother.

“If I am honest, I would have liked to stay longer,” Walton says. “Because of everything that happened with my storyline, I felt like I wanted another opportunity to prove myself, as none of that went on screen.”

She adds: “My character was redundant and there was nothing he [Marquess] could have done to turn that around. A new producer wants to come in and put his own stamp on a show and do his own thing. He does not want to be sorting out previous problems.”

Walton could easily be bitter about Marquess’ decision, but she seems to understand entirely why he made the choice he did.

And she says no actor should feel safe, whatever their job.

The full interview is now online and is well worth a read for soap fans and actors alike.

My Family BBC1, Friday 9pm
Ben Harper is incorrectly classified as being disabled, and so takes money from the council fraudulently. My Family is incorrectly classified as a comedy, and so takes licence fee money from… oh, you get the idea. The mystifyingly recommissioned sitcom returns for a tenth - tenth! - series.

The Old Guys BBC1, Friday 9.30pm
It may be Pensioners Behaving Badly, but I found the first series of this comedy from the writers behind Peep Show (predominantly Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, with this first episode written by Simon Blackwell) more enjoyable than the concept would indicate. Roger Lloyd Pack and Clive Swift bicker about everything, not least their mutual attraction to neighbour Sally (Jane Asher).

Dive: Robert’s Story BBC2, Friday 9pm
In the follow-up to yesterday’s episode, the focus switches from Olympic hopeful Lindsey to her boyfriend, Robert (Jack O’Connell).

101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow BBC1, Saturday 6.30pm
Get an answer wrong in this new quiz-based show, and you’re dropped off a tower, catapulted into a swimming pool or subjected to 99 other forms of humiliation. And to think that it wasn’t so many years ago that Clive James and Chris Tarrant built careers out of lampooning shows like this from Japan…

Placido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra BBC3, Saturday 7.30pm
Forever known as one of the Three Tenors, 69-year-old Domingo makes his debut as a baritone in Verdi’s opera set in Renaissance-era Genoa, recorded at the Royal Opera House.

Pete and Dud: The Lost Sketches BBC2, Sunday 10pm
Back in the black and white days of the BBC, the idea of keeping a copy of every programme the Corporation put out seemed ridiculous. Some programmes were kept around to fuel the nascent overseas sales market, but otherwise storage was so expensive that it just didn’t happen. One of the series to have huge gaping holes in its archive is Not Only… But Also, the long running comedy sketch series by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. This one-off programme takes some of the sketches that have been wiped, and gives the scripts to modern day comedians. Which will either work brilliantly, or be 2010’s biggest television fail…

Identity ITV1, Monday 9pm
You can tell we’re coming up to the end of the World Cup, as the channels are risking putting out some original drama they actually have some faith in — unlike the BBC pilot Reunited, say. Anyway, ITV’s big new drama hope stars Keely Hawes, Aidan Gillen, Holly Aird, Shaun Parkes and Elyes Gabel as a specialist police unit investigating crimes of identity theft. Naturally, this being glossy telly, simply skimming your credit card isn’t going to get a criminal featured here — the identity thefts here lead to all sorts of nefarious activity, including murder.

Playhouse: Live Sky Arts 2, Wednesday 9pm
The final play of Sky Arts’ season of newly commissioned plays by accomplished playwrights is written be Eve Ensler, who wrote The Vagina Monologues. Francesca Annis and Matthew Marsh star as a middle-aged couple whose quiet night in is distrubed when a similar looking couple (Fiona Glascott and Tom Brooke) walk in, apparently believing that they’ve arrived home.

Dive BBC2, Thursday 9pm
Dominic Savage and Simon Stephens craft this two-part story about a teenage girl (Aisling Loftus) who is training to be part of the GB diving team in the 2012 Olympics. When she meets bad boy Robert (Skins’ Jack O’Connell), she starts to rebel against her rigorous training schedule. The concluding episode, which airs on Friday, concentrates on events from Robert’s perspective.

Saturday Play: Avoid London - Area Closed - Turn On Radio Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
To mark the fifth anniversary of the July 7 bombings, Radio 4 repeats Mike Walker’s drama, first broadcast on the second anniversary in 2007, about how the events of that day affect a typical, fictional, family. David Calder, Margot Leicester and Elizabeth Spriggs star.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
Fittingly for July 4, EP’s show celebrates all things American this week. Unfortunately, we may still be subjected to the excruciating “Break a Leg” phone calls…

Classic Serial: Summer Lightning Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
Charles Dance and Patricia Hodge lead an all-star cast in this adaptation of the classic PG Wodehouse comedy.

The Song House Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am (omnibus, Friday 9pm)
Trezza Azzopardi’s novel, here adapted in five parts by Elizabeth Burke, received short shrift from Rose Tremain in her review for The Guardian. Maggie moves in with a pensioner aristocrat in order to help him catalogue his extensive music collection, but she has other motives in taking the job.

Afternoon Play: Badfellas Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
Ricky Tomlinson and Johnny Vegas star as two brothers who get into trouble with the Mafia while on a trip to Las Vegas, in Andy Lynch’s comedy drama.

Afternoon Play: Betsy Coleman Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
She’s such a familiar face from her TV and stage work that Maxine Peake’s wonderful radio work often gets overlooked. HEre, she plays the eponymous Betsy, who takes part in a memory research trial and finds herself re-evaluating her relationship with her parents. Benedict Wong also stars.

Afternoon Play: Gerontius Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm
There’s a real surfeit of interesting APs this week. Here, Derek Jacobi stars as Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th Century Catholic priest who is expected to be elevated to sainthood when the Pope visits the UK later this year. Newman shared a house with Father Ambrose St John and, upon his death, insisted that he be buried in the same grave as his longtime friend. Stephen Wyatt’s play examines their relationship, and draws upon the themes in Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius which went on to inspire Elgar’s oratorio of the same name.