Channel Hopping » Pick of the Week

Pick Of The Week: Monday 1st June

OntheBox — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:46:52 +0000

Dispatches: Orphan’s of Burma’s Cyclone, Monday 1st June, Channel 4, 8.00pm Alert Me

As Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is about to be put on trial by the country’s military government, this timely and remarkable film follows the lives of 8 Burmese orphans as they struggle to survive the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The official intransigence of one of the world’s most brutal, secretive regimes is exposed.

Monkey Mums, Tuesday 2nd June, Channel 4, 10.00pm Alert Me

There are around 15,000 monkeys living in people’s homes in America. For some owners, the human-like qualities of monkeys turns them into more than just household pets. This film looks at couples who raise monkeys. These animals are spoilt rotten: they have their own bedrooms; the latest toys and games; a seat at the dinner table, and in the car; wardrobes full of designer clothes; and even make-up.

River Cottage, Wednesday 3rd June, Channel 4, 8.00pm Alert Me

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall returns to River Cottage HQ for a series that explores and celebrates the very best food that spring and summer have to offer. In this first episode of the new series, Hugh tried to turn the tide of opinion on a politically contentious meat – veal. He visits a local farm that produces welfare-friendly animals to explore the reasons why the British public often feel uneasy about eating veal.

Kate Adie Returns To Tiananmen Square, Wednesday 3rd June,BBC2, 9.00pm Alert Me

Kate Adie returns to the scene of one of her most memorable assignments: reporting the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Beijing on the 3rd and 4th of June, 1989. She was one of the few Western reporters out on the streets then, and witnessed the killings at close quarters. She has to travel undercover to meet other eyewitnesses and victims’ families to hear their moving and shocking testimonies.

Big Brother 10, Thursday 4th June, Channel 4, 9.00pm Alert Me

Davina McCall presents from the `Big Brother’ studios as a new group of housemates enter the `Big Brother’ house for the very first time. Viewers see the new housemates as they share their very first moments together and settle in for what could be the most unpredictable few weeks of their lives.

My Life In Verse – Robert Webb, Friday 5th June, BBC2, 9.00pm Alert Me

Robert Webb goes on a journey to find out more about the poem `The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ and the poet that captured his imagination at such a young age, TS Eliot. He returns to the Lincolnshire classroom where he first heard Prufrock and visits the school hall where he made his first forays into comedy, as well as making the journey to Paris.

Pick Of The Week: Monday 18th May

OntheBox — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:41:28 +0000

Tears, Lies and Videotape, Monday 18th May, ITV1, 9pm Alert Me

Looking at the behaviour of some notorious criminal liars, including Shannon Matthews’ mother Karen, Gordon Wardell, Tracie Andrews, Ian Huntley and Fadi Nasri. Some appeared distraught at press conferences to appeal for help, and fooled the nation. Psychologists Professor David Canter and Professor Paul Ekman examine the footage, and investigate whether it was possible to tell that these people were lying.

1066: The Battle of Middle Earth, Monday 18th May, Ch4, 9pm Alert Me

What was it like for the people caught up in its catastrophic events of 1066? The story of this decisive year is told through the eyes of the ordinary men who fought. In this first part, newlywed Tofi and his friend Leofric are wrenched from their Sussex village by the English warrior Ordgar who is recruiting forces to defend the southern English coast from invasion.

Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, Tuesday 19th May, BBC3, 9pm Alert Me

Six young British food consumers go to live and work alongside the millions of people in south east Asia’s food production industries. They tackle Indonesia’s tuna industry in Bitung on the island of Sulawesi. The Brits live with tuna workers in basic communities, endure the heat in the canneries and struggle with the harsh realities of life on a traditional tuna boat.

Why Poetry Matters, Wednesday 20th May, BBC2, 9pm Alert Me

Griff Rhys Jones explores how verse has the power to enlighten, entertain, stimulate and seduce. Griff dissects Keats with Simon Armitage, views a line-up of poetic dandies with Andrew Motion and encounters an experimental poem made from a dozen beach balls.

Traffic Cops: Camera’s Don’t Lie, Thursday 21st May, BBC1, 9pm Alert Me

The cops are called to an extraordinary hit-and-run incident in Cardiff. It was caught on camera, and when they see the video they cannot believe their eyes. Also, on a quiet Sunday morning in Swansea, another pedestrian is shockingly run over and left for dead. The episode was also captured on CCTV but the footage doesn’t answer the vital question: who was the driver?

My Weapon is a Dog, Thursday 21st May, BBC3, 9pm Alert Me

Rickie Haywood-Williams meets the young men who take dangerous dogs onto the streets and asks whether dogs have become the new weapon of choice. He discovers that some owners deliberately train and abuse their animals to make them vicious attack dogs, and learns that the most iconic and feared dog of all, the pit bull, is back on our streets.

Pick Of The Week – Monday 11th May

OntheBox — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:45:38 +0000

Whale Wars, Monday 11th May, Discovery Channel, 9.00pm ALERT ME
Ben and Giles, two Sea Shepherd volunteers, are still being held captive aboard the Japanese whaling ship. Paul involves the press in order to draw attention to the situation.

Ideal, Monday 11th May, BBC3, 10.30pm ALERT ME
Sitcom revolving around the strange world of small-time dope dealer and slacker Moz. Moz decides to turn over a new leaf and stop dealing. His girlfriend Jenny is in a coma and seems to the see the world as one big song and dance routine. Moz receives a series of visitors, all of whom believe they can snap her out of it.

Flight of the Conchords, Tuesday 12th May, BBC4, 10.30pm ALERT ME
Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in New York. Since his success managing the Crazy Doggs, Murray is in a big office downtown and doesn’t have enough time to devote to the Conchords, so Bret and Jemaine fire him. However, when they get a job doing the advertising jingle for Femident toothpaste, they realise there were things Murray did behind the scenes.

How Violent Are You?, Tuesday 12th May, BBC2, 9.00pm ALERT ME
What makes ordinary people commit extreme acts of violence? Michael Portillo investigates the darker side of human nature, being driven to the edge of violence in an extreme sleep deprivation study. He meets men for whom violence has become an addiction and watches a replication of one of the most controversial studies in history, the Milgram study.

Extraordinary People, Wednesday 13th May, Channel 5, 9.00pm ALERT ME
Juliana is missing 30-40 percent of the bones in her face. This condition, known as Treacher Collins Syndrome, was so severe, Juliana was not expected to survive. This film tells the amazing story of her parents’s determination to give Juliana the best life they possible could.

The Homecoming, Thursday 14th May, Channel 4, 9.00pm ALERT ME
At the age of four, Rachel Roberts was placed in a Doncaster children’s home. Now, 30 years later, armed with nothing more than a solitary photo from the 70s and some distant memories, Rachel is going in search of some of the other children from the home to find out where their lives have taken them. There are surprises around every corner as she unearths some astonishing stories.

Pick Of The Week – Monday 4th May

OntheBox — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:51:51 +0000

Fix My Fat Head, Tuesday 5th May, BBC1, 10.35pm Alert Me
Following journalist Hannah Jones as she embarks on a six-month journey to discover why she, and millions like her, is unable to lose weight. At 21 stone, Hannah is officially clinically obese, and has tried everything from the egg diet to the Atkins diet in order to bring this weight down. Is her dysfunctional relationship with food a psychological, rather than a physical, problem?

Claire Richards My Big Fat Wedding, Tuesday 5th May, BBC3, 9.00pm Alert Me
Documentary following ex-pop star Claire Richards’ efforts to go from overweight couch potato to her dream size 12 in time for her wedding. She tries to shed the pounds whilst battling her insatiable love of food, look after her baby and kick start her pop career. Along the way she attends a brutal bridal boot camp, faces the dreaded paparazzi on the red carpet and meets fellow weight-loss brides.

Wheeler Dealers, Tuesday 5th May, Discovery Real Time, 9.00pm Alert Me
Wheeler Dealers is a television show on the Discovery network, fronted by Mike Brewer and mechanic Edd China. The show’s premise is that Brewer and China are on a mission to save repairable enthusiast vehicles, by repairing or otherwise improving an example of a particular make and model to a budget, then selling it to a new owner. The team takes on the challenge of renovating a Triumph Spitfire.

Extreme Male Beauty, Thursday 7th May, Channel 4, 10.00pm Alert Me
Series which follows one man each week as he is re-branded and transformed from slovenly slob to perfect Adonis. Every part of his physique is scrutinised and sculpted in an attempt to create the perfect body. In episode one, Tim begins his quest to transform himself from `superslob’ to Superman in just eight weeks, by firstly focusing on his chest as he tries to turn his man boobs into pecs you see on poster boys.

Cutting Edge – Madeleine Was Here, Thursday 7th May, Channel 4, 9.00pm Alert Me
Two years after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, what is life like for her parents Kate and Gerry? How do they deal with the pain of not knowing what has happened to their daughter, and how do they try to create a normal life for the sake of Madeleine’s brother and sister, four year-old twins Sean and Amelie? The programme follows the family, and the investigation team working for them, as they try to find answers.

Pick Of The Week: Monday 27th April

OntheBox — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:08:01 +0000

Biggest Loser UK, Monday 27th April, ITV1, 4.00pm Alert Me
The contestants must try to avoid elimination from the show, and all will be hoping to scoop the £10,000 prize money. An emotional time is in store for everyone today as they face the scales for the first time.

Born To Be Different: Turning Eight, Tuesday 28th April, Channel 4, 9.00pm Alert Me
Since they were born nine years ago, Channel 4 has been following the lives of six children. This fourth series follows them over the last two years as they turn eight and nine. Now, some of the children are starting to tell their own stories, using their own words to reflect upon their growing awareness of their own disability.

Cutting Edge – My Wall Street, Thursday 30th April, Channel 4, 9.00pm Alert Me
There are 23 Wall Streets in the UK. This film explores of the impact of recession on ordinary Britons by following the fortunes of people who live on Britain’s Wall Streets. The only thing that the Wolverhampton, Ripley, Ebbw Vale, Oldham, Grimsby and Islington streets have in common with the their American namesake is recession.

Boy Meets Girl, Friday 1st May, ITV1, 9.00pm Alert Me
Struggling DIY man Danny Reed wakes up one day to find himself in the body of fashion journalist Veronica Burton. There is no trace of his own body, and he is desperate to find out what has happened but first he must negotiate life as a glamorous thirty-something woman. Can he fend off Veronica’s boyfriend? And is anyone missing the real Danny?

Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Play The Whites? Friday 1st May, BBC4, 9.00pm Alert Me
The story of what happened to blues music on its journey from southern USA to the heart of British pop and rock culture. Structured in three parts, it focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s, then charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s and ends with the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s.

Genius, Friday 1st May, BBC2, 10.00pm Alert Me
Dave Gorman asks Stewart Lee to select the public’s best loopy idea, like a CD player/microwave oven combo.

Pick Of The Week – Monday 20th April

OntheBox — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:23:33 +0000

The Omid Djalili Show, Monday 20th April, BBC1, 10.35PM Alert Me
Omid talks about what it is to be British, and why Gordon Brown is playing the Lottery. Sketches include Look Eastwards, a new Middle Eastern TV network, a unique take on Henry VIII, and Credit Crunch: The Opera.

Ashes to Ashes, Monday 20th April, BBC1, 9.00PM Alert Me
When a man is found dead in a Soho strip club, it looks like a sex game has gone wrong. So when the deceased is discovered to be a police officer, Gene and Alex are ordered to keep the case under wraps. However, when the pathologist uncovers signs that the officer was murdered, the team must venture into dangerous territory, and Alex finds herself kidnapped by a man whose words threaten her whole perspective on this world.

The Hospital, Tuesday 21st April, Channel 4, 9.00PM Alert Me
At Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, younger and younger patients are being referred for help in tackling their weight and, increasingly, they are asking for a gastric band. While doctors and dieticians see the £6,000 operation as a last resort, some patients seek them as an easy solution to their weight problem. However, the NHS weight management clinics can only help those who help themselves.

Cutting Edge – Kimberley: Young Mum Ten Years On Alert Me
In 1999, Kimberley was a teenager with big dreams, who was in love for the first time and keen to avoid getting pregnant young like her Mum and sister had done. Almost ten years later and Kimberley is now a 24-year-old mum of two, and Daisy has reintroduced the camera into her life. Kimberley lives on a South London council estate in a one bedroom flat on a budget of £110 a week.

Reggie Perrin, Friday 24th April, BBC1, 9.30PM Alert Me
Reggie Perrin is feeling frustrated and alienated after ten years working at Groomtech. With his wife Nicola too busy for him, he becomes besotted with new colleague Jasmine.

Pick Of The Week – Monday 6th April

OntheBox — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:30:57 +0000

Henry VIII: Mind Of A Tyrant
Channel 4, Mon 6th April, 9.00PM Alert Me
Dr David Starkey presents a vivid biography which goes inside the mind of Henry. To open the series, David Starkey follows the dramatic events of Henry’s childhood, events that shaped his personality and his attitude to kingship. In 1485, on the field at Bosworth, Henry’s father, Henry Tudor, seized the crown from the defeated Yorkist king Richard III. To us, this event marks the end of the Wars of the Roses.

Willie’s Chocolate Revolution
Channel 4, Tues 7th April, 8.00PM Alert Me
Willie Harcourt-Cooze attempts to create the finest, purest chocolate bar in the world, and teach a nation of chocoholics how wonderful real chocolate can be. We may spend more per head on chocolate than any other nation in Europe, but few Brits eat truly authentic chocolate; and Willie wants to re-educate the public about how chocolate should really taste.

The Speaker
BBC2, Weds 8th April, 8.00PM Alert Me
The search to find Britain’s best young speaker continues in Manchester and Cardiff. Thousands of determined teenagers aged 14 to 18 applied to take part. One hundred and sixty were invited to regional auditions, but only the top 20 will make it through to the next round. Judges Jo Brand, motivational speaker John Amaechi and performance expert Jeremy Stockwell hear youngsters speak out about a wide range of topics.

Around The World In 80 Trades
Channel 4, Thursday 9th April, 10.00PM Alert Me
Economist Conor Woodman left his job as a high-flying City market analyst to travel across four continents and 16 countries trading in all kinds of products: animal, mineral and vegetable; with the aim of doubling his money. In this first episode, Conor starts the first leg of his journey in Sudan where he hopes to buy camels and take them up one of the world’s oldest trade routes along the Nile to Egypt.

Chelsea Pensioners: Girls Allowed
BBC2, Friday 10th April, 8.00PM Alert Me
Documentary charting the arrival of the first female veterans to join the ranks of the Chelsea Pensioners, which has been an all-male institution for over three centuries. 85 year old anti-aircraft gunner Dorothy Hughes and 82 year old warrant officer Winifred Phillips are the newcomers, but are the 320 old boys ready for such a dramatic change?

Pick of The Week – Monday 30th March

OntheBox — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:09:53 +0000

The Sex Education Show vs Pornography
Channel 4, Mon 30th March,8.00pm Alert Me
Anna Richardson and a team of sexual health experts travel to schools across the country to give students ground-breaking lessons in sex education. First up, students from a secondary school in Norfolk get live interactive lessons in anatomy. Using live models they find out everything they need to know about the female body. Anna learns how easy access to internet pornography affects young people.

The Wire
BB2, Mon 30th March,10.20pm Alert Me
When the Baltimore PD comes under pressure for their failings in combating a drugs-related homicide, a new detail is set up to placate the politicians; their impossible task is bringing the elusive Avon Barksdale to justice.

Horizon – Alan and Marcus Go Forth and Multiply
BB2, Tues 31st March, 8.00pm Alert Me
Ever since he was at school, comedian Alan Davies has hated maths. Like many people, he is not much good at it either. However, with the help of top mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy, Alan is going to embark on a maths odyssey. Together they visit the fourth dimension, cross the universe and explore the concept of infinity. Will Alan be able to master the most complex maths concept around?

Queens Of British Pop
BB1, Weds 1st April, 9.45pm Alert Me
Two-part series celebrating 12 female singers and icons who have influenced British pop music from the sixties to the present day. The series features new interviews with iconic stars including Sandie Shaw, Suzi Quatro, Siouxsie Sioux, Annie Lennox and Leona Lewis

Cutting Edge – Would You Save A Stranger?
Channel 4, Thurs 2nd April, 8.00pm Alert Me
A 12-year-old is beaten and stamped on by a crowd of teenagers on a crowded bus. A man is punched to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the head in an almost deserted London street. Gun-wielding robbers threaten a cashier in a petrol station. Confronted with a vicious attack on a complete stranger, witnesses in 5 separate incidents are forced to decide: intervene and risk their own safety, or turn away.

Unreported World – Sierra Leone: Insanity of War
Channel 4, Friday 3rd April, 6.35pm Alert Me
In Sierra Leone, thousands have been left traumatised after one of the most brutal conflicts in history. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director George Waldrum find a population that has witnessed rape, torture and public executions. The country’s only psychiatrist tells Rhodes that 80 per cent of people needing help believe that mental illness is caused by evil spirits, so they turn to the church and traditional healers.

Pick of The Week – Monday 24th March

OntheBox — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:38:41 +0000

The Great Sperm Race
Channel 4, Mon 23rd March, 9.00pm Alert Me
The story of human conception as it’s never been told before, as helicopter-mounted cameras, world-renowned scientists, computer imagery and dramatic reconstruction bring to life the extraordinary journey of sperm – from ejaculation to egg – scaled up to human size and with the sperm played by real people.

Heston’s Roman Feast
Channel 4, Tue 24th March, 9.00pm Alert Me
Ancient Roman cuisine meant theatrical, devious and orgasmic food. The Romans had few boundaries and unusual appetites, eating everything from flamingos to parrot tongues and jellyfish. Heston creates a Roman feast for a group of celebrity diners including comedians Alexander Armstrong and Danny Wallace, actress Greta Scacchi, the Marquess of Bath, TV presenter Lisa Butcher and food critic Matthew Fort.

Clough
ITV1, Wed 25th March, 22.35pm Alert Me
Documentary looking at the life and legacy of Brian Clough, following his career from Derby to Leeds and Nottingham Forest, and examining the continuing interest in one of the most charismatic football managers of all time. With contributions from Clough’s family, friends and colleagues, including his wife Barbara, Martin O’Neill and Geoffrey Boycott. Austin Mitchell hosts.

The Apprentice
BBC1, Wed 25th March, 21.00pm Alert Me
Sir Alan Sugar sets gruelling tasks for business hopefuls. As the fresh-faced candidates enter the boardroom for the first time, Sir Alan leaves them under no illusions about how tough the next 12 weeks will be, and they are immediately given their first task: Make as much money as possible by starting up a cleaning company.

The Truth about Super Skinny Pregnancies
ITV1, Thurs 26th March, 21.00pm Alert Me
Expectant mother Louise Redknapp looks at the current fashion to stay thin during pregnancy and the pressure on women to get back into shape as soon as possible after childbirth. Are they jeopardising the birth of their baby and their own health? Louise explores the reasons why ordinary women take drastic measures to stay slim during pregnancy and lose the extra pounds afterwards.

Rob Pearson’s Film Picks of the Week

OntheBox — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:50:58 +0000

Police Academy – Saturday, 10pm, ITV2
The six (count ‘em!) sequels may be uniformly rubbish, but this first one is at least vaguely entertaining. In a brainless way, of course. Who said we had to have brains, anyway? That guy makes noises with his voice! Oh, man! You’d gladly commission six sequels off the back of quality like that, wouldn’t you?

Young Frankenstein – Saturday, 12.15am, BBC2

After Airplane! last week, we’re served up with more spoof excellence, this time from coming from genre godfather Mel Brooks. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the reluctant grandson to everyone’s favourite mad scientist: ‘it’s pronounced Fron-ken-steen!’

After inheriting the family estate, he scoots over to Transylvania, discovers his grandpa’s lost journals, and resumes the god-playing experiments. The monster is created and later dances a gigglesome version of Putting On The Ritz. It’s all a highly astute spoof of 30s horror films, complete with grainy black and white photography, pitchfork-waving angry townsfolk and ominous foggy graveyards. Very silly, enduringly funny.

Gattaca – Sunday, 5pm, Five US

Slow to begin with, this film is a slight discussion of genetic determinism (yes – bring on the popcorn). In the future, genetic tampering and DNA testing have led to two kinds of people – valids (people with little predisposition to health problems) and invalids (everyone else).

Ethan Hawke plays Vincent, an invalid who will die at the age of 30.2, and who has S-Club 7 style dreams of reaching the stars. He gets a cleaning job at a space centre – but thanks to his genetic frailties, will never be allowed to amount to anything, let alone become an astronaut. Sure enough, he’s involved in a dodgy deal to assume the perfect identity – Jerome Morrow’s (Jude Law). Morrow is paralysed, so his genes are ripe for exploitation. Stowing away illicit bodily fluids (pouches of piss, vials of blood) Vincent passes his ‘interview’ (a urine sample) with flying colours, and can set to work on becoming an astronaut. When his boss is murdered, however, and his invalid DNA is found at the scene, the manhunt is on.

It all sounded like typical smartypants sci-fi, worried about genetic determinism, fate, free will, and other weighty topics. But then comes that murder, and the film turns in to a (well staged) detective story, albeit one clad in a few shiny sci-fi clothes. Unlike Blade Runner, however, there are no great profundities to be pondered about here. It’s triumph of the human spirit stuff, a story that might have been more at home in Nazi Germany than this functional-yet-nostalgic vision of the future.

Falling into a traditional sci-fi trap, the film often feels as sanitised as the world it takes place in, characters are left feeling humourless, staid and stilted (Uma Thurman is particularly cold as the obligatory love interest) – there’s little emotional connection to be had. Law fares much the best, a real splash of colour in a bland film. The point is clear (people can do anything! people rule, dude!), and the ideas are intelligent, well considered – but the effect is a film of resounding indifference, rather than an intriguing discussion of humanity.

Grizzly Man – Tuesday, 10pm, More4

A documentary about a man who, after living among them and filming them for thirteen summers, was eaten by a grizzly bear.

Timothy Treadwell, a floppy haired, surfer-dude looking chap, might well have been the textbook example of an environmentalist, from the outside at least. On the inside lay a tortured soul – either that or a bit of a nutter, depending on your point of view. Up in Alaska, for thirteen summers, he spent time filming brown grizzly bears, slowly crossing the boundary between man and beast.

Treadwell’s naïve enthusiasm for grizzlies is infectious, and he has followers to this day (grizzlypeople.com). He taught at schools, at home with the children’s innocent mindset. He constantly talked about his love for the bears, his love for the foxes, his love for everything wild! But he’s not the warrior environmentalist he wanted to be, even though he harboured feelings of ‘protecting’ these, erm, already protected animals (they live on a nature reserve). It soon becomes clear that the Grizzly Man wanted to be a bear, and was receding from the human world. Thirteen summers among bears, never with a gun. He got closer to them than anyone had been before, and his footage is occasionally stunning.

He shot hundreds of hours of grizzly videos – and tellingly, videos of himself. In take after take, he fiddles with his hair, worries about his bandanna, and cultivates his action man persona. The real tragedy is that Treadwell didn’t die alone. His girlfriend was with him. She is seen only fleetingly – Treadwell constantly insisted to camera that he was ‘all alone’ in the wilderness, nurturing his heroic image.

His footage often feels like a strange confessional, Steve Irwin doing a soap opera video diary. There is a highly disturbed core to Treadwell, and once the facts of the case are put aside (including scenes with an unforgettable coroner) the film starts to profile the protagonist’s mind. He grew up as the All-American kid in Florida, before finding drink, drugs, and heading out to LA to become an actor. Bizarrely, what may have tipped him over the edge was, well… Cheers. Yes, that Cheers. Treadwell was supposedly second choice to Woody Harrelson, and the show’s subsequent success got to him.

The film is directed – aptly – by Werner Herzog, himself seen as a slightly unhinged filmmaker (who legendarily once threatened to shoot his lead actor – seriously). Herzog is a good fit for documentaries, he knows that nature has its own beauty, and so is a good ‘watcher’. He is at once one of the film’s highlights and also its weakest point – he narrates, and isn’t exactly an invisible guiding hand. The tradition of documentary-making values truth over opinion, but Herzog gives insights that only he could give – about the plight of the director, about frustrations of film shoots, and about the daring, transcendental nature of Treadwell’s filmmaking. Friends say this is what he would have wanted, it’s how he would have liked to die. Rarely has bear food been so strange, so fascinating.

The Deer Hunter – Thursday, 11.05pm, ITV4

Like an uncompromising, long, serious version of Rambo: First Blood, The Deer Hunter won Best Picture back in 1978, and quality pulses through the film. A story of 6 Russian-American steelworkers (De Niro and Walken among them), who sign up to fight in ‘Nam, only to have their lives torn apart by the conflict. This is important stuff, yes, but is essentially punishing to watch, and certainly isn’t helped by being shown on commercial TV, where a 3 hour film becomes 3 hours 40.

If you stick it out, though, you’ll be rewarded by a film of tremendous depth and texture, possibly the best dissection of the Vietnam vet, and the country that welcomed them home. Or, rather, didn’t. The Vietnam scenes are absolutely indelible, the American scenes less compelling, but absolutely necessary: the film’s front end is an hour of character development. And as for the Russian roulette (recently parodied by that awesome Revels advert), well… Best. Scenes. Ever?

Dog Day Afternoon – Friday, 10pm, ITV3

While you may hear the title and expect a film starring a labrador, a poodle and Owen Wilson, Dog Day Afternoon is actually one of the best films of the 70s, and centres around a bank robbery. Not a loveable pooch in sight. The predictably superb Al Pacino delivers yet another acting masterclass (yeesh, give it a rest, Al) in this great film from 1975. Sonny Wortzik (Pacino) and his friend Sal (John Cazale, aka. Fredo from The Godfather, who’s also in The Deer Hunter this week) hold up a bank in Brooklyn.

There’s no money there, though. Whoops. So a hostage siege starts instead, as does a media circus, and the wonderful drama of putting interesting people in enclosed spaces. And Sonny is interesting. He’s robbing the bank to raise money for his transsexual wife’s gender reassignment surgery, for one thing. The police have them surrounded, and the only way out is seemingly an elaborate escape plan – a deal to get them onto a plane and out of the country. Exciting, dramatic, engaging – you know, all the good stuff.

Rob Pearson