July 2011 Archives

Leonardo CBBC, Monday 5.15pm

As I write this, it’s still not clear whether the BBC has commissioned a second series of this, its finest children’s drama serial for many a year. Mind you, given the trailer for this episode it’s not clear how much of Florence would be left if they did. Piero de’Medici’s plans are developing apace. Armies are assembling and he has a master weapon at his disposal — a mechanical man constructed from one of the designs in Leonardo’s sketchbook.

Full credit must go to the four principal cast members, Jonathan Bailey, Colin Ryan, Akemnji Ndifornyen and Flora Spencer-Longhurst for producing some consitently good performances.

New Tricks BBC1, Monday 9pm

From one end of the acting age range to the other, as the old geezers of UCOS (and Amand Redman) gear up for an eighth series of the cop show that never takes itself too seriously. James Bolam, Alun Armstrong and Dennis Waterman investigate a ten-year-old death, initially deemed to have been accidental by a possibly incompetent pathologist — played by the late Trevor Bannister, who died earlier this year.

Lead Balloon BBC2, Tuesday 10pm

The last show of the series, and would anyone mind too much if it were the last ever? I love the series and characters, but at times in this run it has felt as if there’s nowhere else for it to go. Mind you, last week’s prison hostage episode was a welcome upturn, both in the series’ entertainment value and in Rick Spleen’s (Jack Dee) celebrity status. He now has the fame he’s been craving for four series, so his (inevitable) fall will be all the sweeter to watch…

The Killing Channel 4, Thursday 9pm

The US remake of the Danish crime thriller Forbrydelsen sees the murder and political intrigue relocated from Copenhagen to Seattle. For the benefit of those who didn’t catch the original on its recent BBC4 run (in which case, invest in the DVD box set now), the series follows the investigation into the murder of a teenage girl. As the threads of investigation are followed, a number of local city politicians seem to be involved, and all the while the girl’s parents are left struggling to cope with their grief.

The start of this series clings very closely to the Danish original, but we’re promised enough divergence as the investigation progresses to retain the interest of anybody who saw the whole Danish series. Even if it was exactly the same, though, I’d still recommend it for the sole reason of Michelle Forbes playing the deceased girl’s mother.

View a trailer below:

The Saturday Play: White Nights Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm

Anne Cleeves’ novel about a Shetland community shaken up by the apparent murder of a stranger is adapted by Iain Finlay MacLeod, starring Steven Robertson, Finlay Walsh and Anne Lacey.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm

Once again, The Stage’s Matt Hemley will be on hand to discuss the latest theatre news with EP.

The Winslow Boy Radio 4 Extra, 1.30pm

Continuing BBC Radio’s celebration of Terrence Rattigan’s centenary, Radio 4 Extra repeats this 1981 adaptation starring Michael Redgrave. Based on a real life incident, the play concerns the attempt by a father to clear his son’s name after the boy is expelled from naval college for stealing a postal order.

Also on Radio 4 Extra this week, Clive Merrison reads extracts from Michael Darlow’s Rattigan biography in Terence Rattigan: The Man and His Work (Monday-Friday 10.45am).

Drama on 3: Widowers’ Houses Radio 3, Sunday 8pm

Ian McKellen, Charles Dance, Tim Pigott-Smith and Dan Stevens star in an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s first play, a socially aware satire about how the love of money and exploitation of the Victorian working class went hand in hand.

Barbara Windsor’s Funny Girls Radio 2, Tuesday 10pm

A three-part series about iconic female comedic actresses starts with Hylda Baker, who progressed from the music hall to television, film and radio. Often performing monologues to a silent stooge, Cynthia (usually a man in drag, with the last performer to take the role being Lend Me a Tenor’s Matthew Kelly), Baker’s northern, catchphrase-based comedy influenced many a performer.

Afternoon Play: Life Begins at Crawley Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm

In Roy Apps’ comedy, Penelope Keith plays the wife on an MP who has to try and make ends meet when her husband is imprisoned for fiddling his expenses — and finds herself turning to crime…

Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 8pm

The BBC Concert Orchestra performs with musical theatre students from the Brit School of the Performing Arts. As part of the FNIMN film season, the programme includes some of the best known songs from movies.

The Radio 2 Arts Show Radio 2, Friday 10pm

With Penny Smith sitting in for Caludia Winkleman, the guests include the cast of the Arts Theatre’s Park Avenue Cat, while Hollywood scriptwriter Bruce Joel Rubin talks about adapting his screenplay of Ghost for musical theatre.

The Most Incredible Thing BBC4, Friday 8pm

As part of BBC4’s dance season, which includes a whole slew of (mainly archive/repeat) programmes on Saturday and Sunday, a television presentation of this piece, choreographed by Javier de Frutos and with music by Pet Shop Boys. The production was reviewed back in March 2011 by The Stage’s Sarah Frater, who said:

The ballet, which is aimed at a broad audience including children, re-tells the story by Hans Christian Andersen of the humble clockmaker (Aaron Sillis) who creates a watch - the most incredible thing of the title. However, his rival Karl (Ivan Putrov) destroys the watch, and that becomes the most incredible thing, and he takes the prize which is half the kingdom and the king’s daughter (Clemmie Sveaas) in marriage.

At two and a half hours, the ballet is a bit long for families (the great Fille Mal Gardee, the family ballet gold standard isn’t as long), and it often loses its way. De Frutos includes some strong choreography and many funny spoofs of both our celebrity culture and dance itself, but the result is more like a revue than a smoothly flowing narrative ballet.

Secrets of the Pop Song BBC2, Saturday 9.45pm

A three-part examination of how the modern pop song works begins with looking at the ballad. Various talking popheads crop up, including Neil Tennant and Sting, but the meat is eavesdropping on songwriters Guy Chambers and Rufus Wainwright, who approach the genre from very different directions, as they collaborate for the first time.

Mildred Pierce Sky Atlantic, Saturday 9pm

After last week’s sombre, slow-paced opening, things liven up a bit as Kate Winslet’s Mildred meets the dashing, debonair Monty Beragon (Guy Pearce). But her awful daughter Veda threatens to sour everything, and further tragedy awaits.

Stolen BBC1, Sunday 9pm

Damian Lewis plays a detective inspector in a Human Trafficking Unit, tracking down people who import children into the UK in appalling conditions and force them to work, unpaid and unseen. This one-off, affecting drama is written by Stephen Butchard (House of Saddam, Five Daughters).

One of the sadder duties of working at The Stage is occasionally having to report on the death of an actor whose work you have loved. But when it’s someone who evidently was adored, not just as a character, but as a person by just about everybody who ever met them, the loss can be immeasurable.

If we devoted as much space to the recently departed, their legacy and a commemoration of the lives they touched as those people deserved, we wouldn’t have the time or space to devote to anything else. So I think it’s only right that we should commend another publication for producing a marvellous tribute to a man who, as actor, Equity councillor, husband, drinking partner or friend, has left a profound hole in the acting profession by leaving us: Nicholas Courtney.

This month’s Doctor Who Magazine devotes most of its 100 pages to remembering the man whose portrayal of Brigadier Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart came to define him in the eyes of the public, and who ensured him a fanbase that would continue to adore him offscreen as well as on. But it also shows that there was far more to Nicholas Courtney than just a uniform, a stuck-on moustache and a line in dry wit.