Pick of the Week: Monday 6th October
BBC 1, SUNSHINE, Tuesday 7th October,9pm
Steve Coogan (I’m Alan Partridge, Saxondale), Bernard Hill (Lord Of The Rings) and Lisa Millett (Drop Dead Gorgeous, Blackpool), star in Sunshine, a new, three-part drama co-written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, the team behind the BBC’s hit comedy Early Doors and co-writers of the Bafta award-winning The Royle Family – Queen Of Sheba. Sunshine is a bittersweet story of three generations of the Crosby family. Bob (Bing) Crosby grew up to be one of the most likeable people around, and his natural wit and optimism were infectious to those around him. The only negative trait in Bing’s life was his inability to resist gambling a few quid on the occasional bet.
BBC 3, JACK: A SOLDIER’S STORY, Tuesday 7th October, 9pm
When award-winning reporter Ben Anderson spent two months with a unit of Grenadier Guards in the Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan in 2007, he met some extraordinary men. One of them was Lance Corporal Jack Mizon, a brave 24-year-old who has seen and experienced more than most men of his age. On his journey, Ben accompanies Jack as he faces an eight-hour battle with the Taliban. This one-off documentary also follows Jack as he returns to the UK.
ITV 4, SANCTUARY, Wednesday 8th October, 9pm
Forensic psychiatrist Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) investigates a disturbing case in which two officers from his precinct are killed. Although they have a suspect in custody and the case is considered closed, something doesn’t add up for Zimmerman who takes it upon himself to investigate further and follow his keen instinct.While at the crime scene, he sees a young boy leaving the building in a rather unusual way. Will follows him through an alley, but his pursuit is abruptly halted when he is struck by a car, landing him in the hospital with an aching body and more questions than answers.
Film Four: AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, Thursday 9th October 9pm
Richard Gere plays Zack Mayo, a would-be navy pilot whose uptight attitude at training camp makes him the butt of drill sergeant Emil Foley’s (Oscar-winner Lou Gossett Jr) attentions. Similarly, Mayo’s relationship with Paula Pokrifi (Debra Winger) is equally compromised because of his indifference, until the unexpected and tragic suicide of his best friend Sid Worsley (David Keith) becomes the catalyst for both his professional and personal maturity.
Programme Information
BBC 2, THE AMERICAN FUTURE – A HISTORY: AMERICAN PLENTY, Friday 10th October, 9pm
Shot against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, Simon Schama travels through America to dig deep into the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now. In the first episode, American Plenty, Simon explores how American optimism about the infinite possibilities of its land and resources is in danger of coming to a grinding halt. Nowhere is this more evident than the American West, which has always been a symbol of opportunity and freedom. Oil at $4 a gallon may be dominating the headlines, but here it’s the lack of water that’s an even bigger threat to the American future. The West is in the grip of a nine-year drought.
Pick of the Week: Monday 29th September
FILM: THE ICE STORM
Film Four, Monday 29th September, 9pm Alert Me
Ang Lee’s BAFTA and Cannes-winning drama follows the stories of two families, Ben and Elena Hood (Kevin Kline and Joan Allen) and Jim and Janey Carver (Jamey Sheridan and Sigourney Weaver) and their adolescent children, including Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood. Set in Connecticut in the early ’70s, it follows their casual affairs, breakdowns, juvenile sexual experimentation and bad parenting, all of which leads to a dramatic climax of dysfunction during an ice storm that blankets the area with a frozen glaze. Read Review…
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
BBC 2, Thursday 2nd October, 9:30pm Alert Me
Olivia Colman, Meera Syal, Aidan McArdle, Layton Williams, Samuel Burnett and Luke Ward-Wilkinson star in Beautiful People, a comic memoir based on the story of Simon Doonan, who was born in Reading but is now creative director of the swankiest store in New York, Barneys. Each week, the narrative moves between New York City, “now”, and Reading, “then”. In this first episode, Simon is creating a window in the New York store when his assistant, Sacha, knocks over a vase. Memories come flooding back of how he got the vase; of how his mum, Debbie, drank too much of his dad’s homemade wine; of how his sister, Ashlene, was desperate to “hang with the crew in the hood”; of how his mum’s blind best friend, Hayley, betrayed a trust; and of how he came to be wearing a dress that belonged to his best friend, Kylie’s, mum.
DAWN PORTER: FREE LOVER
Channel 4, Tuesday 30th September, 10pm Alert Me
Dawn Porter is 29, gorgeous and single. She’s had plenty of boyfriends, but no one she can imagine settling down with. Dawn is keen to look at the different ways it can be done. From polygamy and polyamory to mail order brides and geisha, in this new four-part series Dawn travels the world to look at the most extreme ways women find love, and live, with men. In this first episode, Dawn immerses herself in the world of polyamory, or free love. Her investigation takes in a free love school in California, and a polyamorous utopian commune in Germany.
HEROES- THE SECOND COMING: VOLUME 3
BBC 2, Wednesday 1st October, 9pm Alert Me
The hit American drama returns with revelations that redefine familiar characters and shake the series to its core. The first chapter of Volume 3 kicks off moments after shots ring out, as the shocking identity of Nathan’s assassin and the reasons why the Texas press conference had to be cut short are revealed. Peter and Matt are immediately thrown into unexpected and uncharted territory. With his powers partially restored, Sylar decides that a visit to Claire could give him a boost. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Hiro and Ando are charged with safeguarding a family secret that could split the planet apart. They discover that the path to a grim future starts with shady speedster Daphne. In New York City, thanks to Maya, Suresh makes a startling breakthrough that could change the world – or just destroy his. And who is Tracy Strauss?
NATURAL BORN SELLERS
ITV 1, Thursday 2nd October, 9pm Alert Me
They are pushy, they are ambitious and they think they can sell anything to anyone – whatever it takes, and whatever the cost. Eight salespeople have put their careers on hold, their reputations on the line, and are risking it all over six weeks for the ultimate buzz - to close the biggest deal of their lives. The harder each salesperson works, the more they earn, the more they earn, the greater the prize. Each week, for one of the bottom two performers it will be the end of the road, as their fate lies solely in the hands of that week’s highest grossing salesman. By the final week, three salespeople will be left but only one will be able to be ‘top dog’.
Pick of The Week: Monday 22nd September
THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE CHANGED MY LIFE
Channel 4, Tuesday 23rd September, 10pm Alert Me
Over three award-winning series, 19 of Britain’s richest people have taken on an extraordinary challenge: leaving behind their luxurious lives to live and work undercover in some of the most deprived parts of the country; each on a personal mission to give something back. Now a special one-off programme sees six of the millionaires return to find out the difference made by their donations. The programme is preceded by the last in the current series of The Secret Millionaire.
SUPERNANNY
Channel 4, Wednesday 24th September, 8pm Alert Me!
Naughty children beware! Supernanny is back! Her first port of call is Liverpool, home to the Hancox Smith family. Parents Jenny and Simon are fighting a losing battle with all three of their children. The baby of the family, Madison (3), still demands breast milk on tap, morning, noon and night. Cameron (8) and Flynn (5) have declared a state of constant war. They’ve been kicking, punching and swearing their way into mum and dad’s bad books for years. Sleepless and worn down, this family are at breaking point. Enter Jo Frost. Supernanny: Beyond the Naughty Step follows on E4.
LOST IN AUSTEN
Wednesday, 24th September 2008, 9pm Alert Me!
Darcy (Elliot Cowan) announces his engagement to Caroline Bingley (Christina Cole), leaving Amanda (Jemima Rooper) feeling utterly bereft. This is coupled with the news that Bingley (Tom Mison) has run off with Lydia (Perdita Weeks). This is all wrong - in the book Lydia runs away with Wickham.
The party rush to London where Bingley and Lydia are found staying at an inn in Hammersmith. In an attempt to defend the honour of his daughter, Mr Bennet (Hugh Bonneville) charges Bingley to a duel and is left critically injured.
As panic breaks out with the need to find Mr Bennet a doctor, Amanda rushes through a door and finds herself back in modern day London.
ANN WIDDECOMBE VERSUS THE DIET INDUSTRY
Thursday, 25th September 2008, 9pm Alert Me!
Britons spend billions of pounds a year on trying to slim but studies have shown that more than four out of five people who start a diet end up piling the weight back on – and some put on even more besides.
Ann Widdecombe is no stranger to trying to lose weight, but she is adamant the best way to shift the pounds and stay slim is to eat less and move more.
She tells the programme: “At London fashion week…the girls with bodies to diet for are everywhere. But let’s face it – 99 per cent of us have no chance of looking like this.
“So why do we spend billions of pounds a year trying to achieve it? Why do we put our health, happiness and sense of well being at risk?
“And why – when it all fails – do we try it all over again?
“Never before has the nation been so obsessed by slimming. It’s the one subject guaranteed to keep tills ringing, and the sales of glossy magazines soaring.
“The message is loud and clear - to fit in, we must be thin.”
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
Film Four, Friday 26th September, 9pm, Alert Me!
Trey Parker’s film (co-written with Matt Stone) moves on from the animation of South Park to marionette puppets playing characters who save the world. Team America: World Police, led by Spottswoode (voiced by Daran Norris), recruit actor Gary Johnston (Trey Parker) to join their team and use his thespian skills to infiltrate a terrorist group led by North Korean leader Kim Jong II. Can TAWP save the world without destroying national monuments, killing innocent bystanders and getting distracted by the chance of kinky sex?
Pick of the Week: Monday 15th September
AMAZON
BBC 2 Mon 15th Sept 9pm Alert Me
Bruce Parry (Tribe) returns for his most ambitious series yet as he journeys from the source of the mighty Amazon river to its mouth in Amazon. His epic journey takes him along the world’s greatest river, starting high up on the Peruvian mountain Nevado Mismi. He travels through the world’s largest forest – the most bio-diverse habitat on the planet, and home to some of the last uncontacted tribes left on Earth – and finally to the port of Belem, where the tiny trickle that started as glacial melt water finally meets the Atlantic Ocean.
THE FAMILY
Channel 4, Wed 17th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
A British family opens its doors to viewers in a major new eight-part observational series, documenting universal themes of family life. For nearly four months the Hughes family was filmed around the clock: dad Simon, 44; mum Jane, about to turn 40, and their four children: Jessica, 22, who lives nearby with her fianc? Pat and 10 month-old baby Ruby; Emily, 19; Charlotte, 17; and the youngest, 14-year-old Tom. In this week’s episode, Jane’s 40th birthday is approaching and the tension is building in the Hughes household.
NO HEROICS
ITV 2, Thurs 18th Sept, 10:30PM Alert Me
This six-part series is brand new for 2008 and sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day to day life, which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal – as they just can’t be arsed. Instead this group of b-listers would rather get drunk in their local superheroes-only pub The Fortress and commiserate at their lack of superiority.
RICKY GERVAIS FAME
Channel 4, Fri 19th Sept, 10pm Alert Me
Ricky Gervais’s stand-up show tackles the weird world of fame, blurring the line between the acceptable and the outrageous, with a balancing act that had audiences across the country in stitches in what was the fastest-selling live comedy tour in UK history.
ALIEN
Film Four, Sat 20th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
One of cinema’s all-time sci-fi horror classics, Ridley Scott’s film stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt and Ian Holm as the crew of the Nostromo, a deep-space tow-craft that intercepts a distress call from a deserted planet. On landing, they find a crashed spaceship and some strange eggs. And then John Hurt leans over one… Spellbinding, edge-of-seat horror follows as the alien begins to hunt down the crew until there’s just one survivor (and a cat) left to face its terrible appetite.
Pick of the Week: Monday 8th September
A NUMBER
BBC 2 Wed 10th Sept 9PM Alert Me
Tom Wilkinson and Rhys Ifans star in the screen adaptation of British playwright Caryl Churchill’s stage play from 2002, A Number. It is a fascinating study of family relationships, human identity and nature versus nurture. The potential of erasing the past and starting anew is an appealing one – but at what price? Salter is confronted by his son, Bernard, demanding answers about his existence only to discover a disturbing secret. He is not his father’s son but a clone, and he is not alone. He is one of “a number” – perhaps more than 20 people – who were copied from his father’s first son, whom Salter claims was killed in a car crash.
THE 9/11 FAKER
Channel 4 Thurs 11th Sept 9pm Alert Me
The flagship documentary series, Cutting Edge , returns with a new run of distinctive and compelling films offering a snapshot of life in Britain and beyond. In the years following the 9/11 attacks, many stories emerged of triumph, tragedy and heroism. But one story stood out: Tania Head, one of only 19 people at or above the point of impact to survive, who also lost her fianc? in the attacks. She became President of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network. But Tania wasn’t who she said she was. On the day of the attacks she wasn’t even in New York; she was in Spain.
ENTOURAGE
ITV 2 Thurs 11th Sept 11pm Alert Me
When Entourage concluded season four earlier this year, the boys had little hope or money after a disastrous screening of Vince’s movie, Medellin, at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, Vince must find a way to rejuvenate his career. His best friend and manager Eric is determined to get Vince back to the top, while struggling with his expanding management company. Agent Ari Gold, who is having a few career conflicts of his own, struggles to deliver for Vince, given the current state of things. Drama, meanwhile, continues his successful television career while experiencing problems in his love life, and Turtle is forced to reexamine his contribution to it all.
WIRE IN THE BLOOD
ITV 1 Fri 12th Sept 9pm Alert Me
When a young woman’s remains are found on a wasteland site, it seems as though the death might be an honour killing. But when the site yields up more remains, of very different victims, the deaths tell a different story. Tony wonders why the bodies are incomplete. And why has the killer tied his victims in such a complex manner. Is the killer a fetishist? Perhaps so, since the investigative trail leads the team to a shocking S&M scene. But with such extreme injuries and with victims ranging from a female alcoholic drifter to a teenage boy, it seems unlikely that this is only about consensual violence.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Film Four Sat 13th Sept 9pm Alert Me
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two young cowboys paired up for a job tending sheep on a Wyoming mountain. As the days go by, their relationship grows until, after a heavy night drinking whisky, they make passionate love. Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning drama is a bold, emotional story of a passion that cannot be denied but must be hidden from a world that can only condemn it.
Pick of the Week: Monday 1st September
DISPATCHES: UNDERCOVER MOSQUE- THE RETURN
Channel 4 Mon 1st Sept 8pm Alert Me
A year and a half after the critically-acclaimed film Undercover Mosque was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions. The film also investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hardline, fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK: the very ideology the Government claims to be tackling.
RISKY BUSINESS
Five Mon 1st Sept 11:05pm Alert Me
(1983)Tom Cruise stars in this anarchic comedy about a normally well-behaved teenager who goes wild while his parents are out of town. Left in charge of the family home – and his father’s Porsche – the 17-year-old embarks upon an unorthodox business venture when a good-looking prostitute appears at his door. After crashing the car and finding himself in need of a fast buck, he takes the hooker in and turns his own home into a brothel.
LOST IN AUSTEN
ITV Wed 3rd Sept 9pm Alert Me
Lost In Austen is an ingenious reinvention of the classic novel Pride and Prejudice in which Jane Austen’s story is thrown off track by a very modern heroine, Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper). Amanda swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) and takes centre stage in the celebrated love story.
UGLY BETTY
Channel 4 Fri 5th Sept 9pm Alert Me
The hugely popular, award-winning comedy returns for a new run of brand-new episodes in the concluding half of season two. Upset by the influence size-zero models have on Justin’s classmates when they are on a school trip to Mode , Betty tries to convince Daniel to use a wider variety of models during Fashion Week. Amanda is convinced she has to kiss Betty after a psychic gives her a cryptic message to help find her father. And Wilhelmina has to find a surrogate to carry her baby… just when Christina needs money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment.
JOANNA LUMLEY - IN THE LAND OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
BBC 1 Sun 7th September 9pm
Joanna Lumley pursues a life-long dream to track down the elusive and beautiful Northern Lights in this amazing journey in Norway’s Far North. Yet with no guarantees that this incredible natural phenomena will appear, it’s in the balance as to whether her journey will be in vain or if she will finally fulfil her lifetime ambition and see the Northern Lights herself.
Pick of the Week: Monday 18th August
THE GENIUS OF CHARLES DARWIN
Channel 4 Monday 18th Aug 8pm
As the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s masterpiece On the Origin of Species approaches, Professor Richard Dawkins presents the ultimate guide to Darwin and his revolutionary Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection , which Dawkins considers the most important idea ever to occur to a human mind. In this powerful three-part polemical series, Dawkins explains who Charles Darwin was, how he developed his theory, what it is, and why it matters. In this final episode, as he meets creationists, scientists and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dawkins examines why, despite a “mountain of evidence”, Darwin’s theory remains one of the most controversial ideas in history.
BLOOD AND GUTS - A HISTORY OF SURGERY
BBC FOUR Wednesday 20th Aug 9pm
Today, surgery saves hundreds of thousands of lives a year. But getting to this position has not been a simple story of selfless men working tirelessly in the pursuit of medical advancement. It is also a bloodstained tale of blunders, arrogance, mishaps and mistakes. The road to surgical advance has been paved by heroes. However, it has also been littered with lobotomised patients, grave-robbing and neo-Nazis.
Blood And Guts – A History Of Surgery explores how brilliant surgical breakthroughs, sometimes humorous, often tragic, shaped the evolution of modern medicine.
Final Episode: HARLEY STREET
ITV 1 Thursday 21 Aug 2008 9
Simon Burgess (Tim Dutton) turns up unexpectedly at the clinic after falling over in the street. He was a lecturer at Robert (Paul NIcholls) and Martha’s (Suranne Jones) medical school and as Annie (Kim Medcalf) cleans up his wound we learn he’s come to see Martha on the pretence of discussing a lecture he’s giving. She and Simon haven’t seen each other for 12 years and it’s clear they were once lovers. Martha’s shocked when Simon reveals he could have Huntington’s Disease (a debilitating and ultimately fatal disease) and asks her to test his blood, claiming she’s the only person he can trust. The news hits Martha hard especially when she realises he could be the father of her daughter, Tess, since they had a three week affair 12 years ago. If Simon has the disease there’s a chance he could have passed the genetic condition onto Tess.
Meanwhile, Robert’s sister, Kate (Polly Maberly), calls worried about Mal (Philip Jackson) who’s having difficulty breathing. Robert tells her to take him straight to A&E where he’s diagnosed with pneumonia. His kidney condition means he has a low immune system and a simple cough has escalated. Robert’s initially angry with his father for not telling him about his condition and as they discuss their troubled relationship, Robert explains he’s never been able to forgive him for hiding the truth about his mother’s illness when she was dying. We see a new side to their relationship as they resolve their differences and Mal is instrumental in making Robert realise his feelings for Martha.
INTERVENTION
Fiver Thursday 21st Aug 10pm
Brand new to FIVER comes this emotional,revealing and occasionally graphic documentary series from the US. Offering a remarkable insight into the world of addiction, Intervention tells the story of a different sufferer each week through candid, intimate footage, before showing us what happens when their loved ones plead with them to seek professional help.
First up is Alyson, a bright 27-year-old who was once a prize-winning student with a scholarship to a prestigious university. Having also worked at the White House on several occasions as an intern, her family had every reason to think she was in the process of building a happy and successful life for herself. However everything went wrong when, while still at college, she met and fell in love with a boy named Richie.
WATCH ME DISAPPEAR
Channel 4 Friday 22nd Aug 7:35pm
As part of Channel 4’s Generation Next season, documentary new talent strand First Cut continues with Lucy Cohen’s extraordinary directorial debut. Each year in Britain around 2,500 people are buried alone. No one claims them, and no one attends their funerals. Others have lain dead and undiscovered for weeks, or even years, before they are found, and relatives traced. Driven by a desire to find out more about these lonely individuals from the people who knew and loved them, Lucy Cohen’s bitter-sweet first film pieces together two peoples’ lives, and asks how - in crowded, hectic, connected, modern Britain - it is possible for anyone to simply slip through the cracks and disappear. Using coroner’s reports, reconstruction and good old-fashioned detective work, Cohen painstakingly puts together the stories of two people who died on the same case files of the same coroner in Manchester and who are buried in the same graveyard. As she tracks down relatives and friends, touching stories emerge: the hard-working student dreaming of setting up his own business, and the fashion-conscious girl who stood up to school bullies and played on the street. Celebrating these lost lives, Cohen finds warmth and humour far removed from the bleakness of a lonely death. And taking us back to their gravesides, Cohen pays her respects to those who died unnoticed, but who lived like the rest of us. “By 2010, 16 million of us will be living alone,” says Cohen, “will we die that way too?”
Pick of the Week: Monday 11th August
KEVIN MCCLOUD AND THE BIG TOWN PLAN
Channel 4 Monday 11th Aug 9pm Alert Me
In a new four-part series Kevin McCloud follows an innovative community-led regeneration scheme in the former mining town of Castleford in Yorkshire. He wants to find out if good design can help to kick-start regeneration and improve the quality of life of a town, and to see if the involvement of residents can add to the project’s chances of success. The series follows the triumphs and tribulations of the process, looks at the reality of regeneration and finds out what residents and experts make of the experience.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Film Four Tuesday 12th August 9pm Alert Me
Uplifting and life-affirming drama starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as Andy Dufresne and Ellis Boyd Redding, prisoners serving long sentences in the vicious Shawshank jail. The two come to terms with their imprisonment while surviving the sadistic acts of prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), and for both, a different sort of redemption awaits. Directed by Frank Darabont, and based on Stephen King’s short story, Channel 4 viewers voted The Shawshank Redemption the third best film of all time.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
BBC 1 Wednesday 13 August 9pm Alert Me
Holby City star Patsy Kensit is the first of eight celebrities to embark on an emotional personal journey to investigate her family history, as Who Do You Think You Are? returns to BBC One for a new series. Patsy’s investigation begins with the colourful life of her late father, Jimmy Kensit, who was deeply involved with London’s most notorious gangsters of the Sixties: the Krays and the Richardsons. Wanting to understand the roots of his criminality and to discover how far back the “family trade” goes, Patsy meets a criminologist who has unearthed a copy of her father’s criminal record – which reveals the full extent of his activities. She is then shocked to find documents in the National Archives that show her grandfather was also a prolific criminal. As Patsy’s journey continues, she comes across a truly remarkable vicar who shines a new light on her family history and provides her with a fresh insight into her own faith and values.
THE X FACTOR
ITV 1 Saturday 16 August 2008 7:30pm Alert Me
This year, Judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue are joined by new X Factor judge Cheryl Cole from one of the most successful pop groups of the decade, Girls Aloud. In this first episode the X Factor auditions 2008 kick off in Manchester before moving to London and Cardiff. Cheryl faces up to her first day as an X Factor judge in Manchester with a huge dilemma as she’s called on to judge a friend from her past. In London, the judges audition a 26-year-old mother of 5 with not only some shocking real life experience but an amazing talent and having found one of the best ever boybands in London, the judges travel to Cardiff to be confronted by one of the all time worst.
THE PERFECT VAGINA
Channel 4 Sunday 17th Aug 10pm Alert Me
The G- Spot, a female-led documentary strand of intelligent and provocative films investigating a range of topical issues that impact on how women live now, continues with The Perfect Vagina . Vaginal cosmetic surgery on the NHS has doubled in the UK over the past five years and in the private sector there has been an estimated 300% increase in labiaplasties. In this honest, witty and compassionate film, Lisa Rogers tries to find out why more and more women are considering vaginal surgery for either aesthetic or cultural reasons.
Pick of the Week: Monday 4th August
ARENA: THE UNDERGROUND
BBC 4 Monday 4th August 10:20pm Alert Me!
The extraordinary subterranean world of the Tube is the subject of the final part of Arena’s London Transport Trilogy. The London Underground is the world’s oldest underground railway system and is used by a staggering 3m passengers every day. Arena – Underground travels through 150 years of tube history, using literature, music and film inspired by it. The film tells the story of a mother and child through 150 years of ordinary underground journeys, beginning with a public hanging in 1863. The reconstruction and archive is interwoven with the stories of passengers and train drivers, from Margaret, who sheltered at Hampstead Station during the war, to Ted from the Lost Property Office. Psychologist Peter Collett provides comment on the unique and peculiarly British behaviour to be found on the Tube.
FILM: THE PLAYER
Film Four Tuesday 5th August 11:10pm Alert Me!
In the Films to See Before You Die strand, Paul Kaye introduces Robert Altman’s satire on Hollywood mores. Tim Robbins stars as Griffin Mill, a studio exec who commits the ultimate sin and forgets to call a writer back. Suddenly, threatening faxes and mail start arriving just as his job is under threat from slimy Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) and girlfriend Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson) is showing just a tad too much intelligence for the trophy wife he planned. This is a classic satire with a wonderful performance from Robbins.
NEW SERIES: FASHIONISTA DIARIES
Fiver Wednesday 6th August 8pm Alert Me!
If you think the fashion industry is all about glitz, glamour and celebrity-packed parties, you would be 100% correct. But it’s not all haute couture, schmoozing with the stars and partying till the early hours for the men and women who are trying to make it in this cut throat business. Fashionista Diaries follows six young hopefuls as they are given the opportunity to work in different aspects of the fashion world. Can they handle the sky high rent, long hours and hectic social life that blurs the lines between work and play? Working towards the fashion industry’s biggest event, New York Fashion Week, the interns compete for the ultimate prize – who will be given a full-time job?
NEW SERIES: SPOOKS- CODE 9
BBC3 Sunday 10th August 9pm Alert Me!
Spooks – Code 9 is a new six-part drama for BBC Three, allowing viewers to see the future of Spooks and to get even closer to the world of conspiracy and espionage.
The year is 2013. Thames House is gone and regional MI5 Field Offices have sprung up in its place. London has been evacuated following a nuclear bomb and the country’s power base has shifted north Are six young new recruits tough, moral and clever enough to protect Britain’s future?
As the team prepare to move in on a dangerous Assassin who is after the Prime Minister, they realise the signs just don’t add up. Realisation hits that the PM may not be the target – and that one member of Field Office 19 is walking straight into a trap.
BONES
Thursday 7 August 2008 at 21:00 Alert Me!
The body of a man dressed as Santa is discovered, kicking of this Christmas special of Bones. The case becomes stranger when Booth and Brennan discover thousands of dollars stashed in a dresser at the victim’s house. Brennan tries to organise Christmas with her father and brother in prison, and Brennan agrees to kiss Booth under the mistletoe.
Pick of the week: Monday 28th July
Monday 28th July- Sunday 3rd August
FILM: THE SEVENTH SEAL
Film 4 Tuesday 29th July 10:45pm Alert Me!
On the first anniversary of his death, Film4 presents a short season of films by Ingmar Bergman. One of cinema’s seminal films, Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece passes the test of time. A knight and his squire (Max Von Sydow and Gunnar Bjornstrand), returning home from the Crusades through a plague-ridden land, meet Death (Bengt Ekerot) who engages the knight in a chess game as the pair debate the mysteries of life, faith and death itself.
HOUSE OF SADDAM
BBC TWO Wednesdaay 30th July 9pm Alert Me!
Igal Naor plays the ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein in a gripping, new, four-part drama series that charts the rise and fall of one of the most significant political figures in recent history.
As war wages, Saddam faces troubles at home; the death of his domineering mother; the youthful nonchalance of his son and heir, Uday; and the deterioration of alliances with Barzan Ibrahim, his half-brother and former deputy. Saddam finds solace in the beautiful, married, Samira Shahbandar, who becomes his mistress much to the chagrin of his glamorous wife – Sajida.
FILM: CLUELESS
Thursday 31st July 9pm Alert Me!
Amy Heckerling, who directed the superb Fast Times at Ridgemont High , scores again with this high-school take on Jane Austen’s Emma . Alicia Silverstone plays Cher Horowitz who, thanks to her rich lawyer daddy, has it all. She and her school friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) decide to take new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) under their wing and make sure she finds a date. They succeed, only to find they’ve created a monster…
DANGEROUS JOBS FOR GIRLS
Channel 4 Wednesday 30th July 10pm Alert Me!
What happens when high-flying career women, who think there’s nothing they can’t do, meet men who think women aren’t up to the job? In the flood plains of Brazil, the forests of north-west Canada, the grasslands of South Africa, and the Southern oceans of Australia, there are jobs so dangerous that they’ve been done by men alone for generations - until now. In a new documentary adventure series, four teams of high-achieving British women travel to four far-flung corners of the world to take on tough, physical jobs. Can the women beat the boys at their own game? In tonight’s opening episode three women head to Brazil to work as cowboys.
MY STRANGE BRAIN
Channel 5 Thursday 31st July 11pm Alert Me!
This brand-new documentary series explores unusual neurological conditions. The first instalment profiles four people with different disorders that affect their memories and sleeping patterns. One woman was struck down by a virus that has erased all her recollections of the last 20 years, while another woman is unable to record new memories. The film also meets a man who loses his muscle tone every time he experiences heightened emotions.
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