April 7, 2024

The

Angel
Norfolk
of

Culture

The sculptor Antony Gormley
unveils his stately home takeover
— and talks about the pain and
privilege of success

My Picks
of the
Week
Kirsty Lang
l Stephen Graham is one of my favourite

Twitter/X @timesculture @TheTimesBooks Instagram @timesculture

Arts
4 Cover story Antony Gormley
tells Kirsty Lang about taking
over the stately home Houghton
Hall with 100 of his sculptures
6 Television Separating fact
from fiction in Scoop, Netflix’s
Prince Andrew Newsnight
interview drama

Fifty years
of Stephen
King novels
Books p20

8 Books The bestselling author
Marian Keyes on how avoiding
news inspired her latest novel

actors, which is why I started watching the
Netflix series Bodies. It’s a time-travel drama
about four detectives in four different
periods trying to solve the same murder.
Concentration is required but it feels
different and experimental and I’m enjoying
the noir comic book aesthetic.
l I was lucky enough to see Dominic West
in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge in
Bath. He’s brilliant as Eddie Carbone, the
Brooklyn dockworker obsessed by his niece.
Lindsay Posner’s production transfers to the
West End in May; book your tickets now.
l I’m reading Vienna: How the City of Ideas
Created the Modern World, in which the
historian Richard Cockett argues that Vienna
“lit the spark for most of western intellectual
and cultural life in the 20th century”.
l Quiz fans should tune in for the latest
season of Round Britain Quiz on BBC Radio 4.
It’s a panel game with fiendishly difficult
questions that was first broadcast in 1947. I’m
very proud to be the first woman to host it.
Thankfully I’m not answering the questions.

Cover Antony Gormley’s Time Horizon at Houghton
Hall, Norfolk. Photograph by Theo Christelis

15 Theatre Dominic Maxwell
gives his verdict on a jukebox
musical based on the life of
Michael Jackson
16 Art Waldemar Januszczak
on an eye-opening show about
mothers and children, told
from a woman’s perspective

Books
23 History How hypochondria
went from 14th-century mania
to late-night googling habit
24 Book of the week
Percival Everett has taken
on Huckleberry Finn — and
produced a modern classic
26 Drugs How the Nazis
ruined the reputation of LSD
SHUTTERSTOCK

Kirsty Lang is a journalist and broadcaster

Critics

TV & Radio
29 The best guide to the
week’s programmes

© Times Media Ltd, 2024. Published and licensed by Times Media Ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF (020 7782 5000). Printed at Walstead Bicester Limited, Oxfordshire. Not to be sold separately.

Win a trip to the Roland Garros
men’s semi-finals with Renault
Experience the electrifying atmosphere of
Roland Garros and watch the world’s top tennis
pros battle it out on the clay courts of Paris.
You have the chance to win two tickets to the
men’s semi-finals on June 7 and explore Paris
with two nights’ accommodation in the city.

Visit mytimesplus.co.uk

T&Cs apply.

7 April 2024 3

Cover story
At 73, Antony Gormley is exhibiting 100 cast iron
sculptures of himself in the shadow of Sandringham. He
tells Kirsty Lang about rejecting his Catholic upbringing,
working with the one per cent — and what’s next

‘I’ve got a sixth
of my life left.

I don’t want

ntony Gormley is obsessed with
the passage of time. Many of his
works contain the word “time”
in the title. His army of silent,
featureless iron figures
interrogatFe time and the
relationship between humans, geology
and nature over the course of our
planet’s history. The artist is also
listening to the clock ticking on his own
lifetime, he says when we meet at his
London studios. At 73 he is filled with
a sense of urgency. Does he feel, like
David Hockney, that he must be even
more productive as he gets older
because time is running out? “Yes,” he
replies, leaning forward and nodding
vigorously. “I feel that strongly. I’ve got
maybe a fifth or a sixth of my life left to
live and I don’t want to waste it. Time is
the most precious, fugitive material.”
He works in a space just north of
King’s Cross. From the outside it looks
like a small factory, and there’s a
constant hum of drilling and banging.
As he greets me I’m struck by how
youthful he looks. He’s 6ft 4in and lean,
with a healthy glow on his cheeks; I can
well imagine him still producing art in
his nineties. Gormley’s body shape is
familiar to anyone who has seen his
work because the artist has been using
it for over 40 years as a mould for his
sculptures, and he doesn’t appear to
have altered in that time. There’s no
sign of any spread round the waist or
a stoop to the shoulders.
Not since Henry Moore or Barbara
Hepworth has a sculptor connected
with the British public on such a scale.
His sculptures can be found in public
spaces from Plymouth to Margate,
Merseyside to Leith. Every new show
is an event. One hundred of Gormley’s
lifesize figures have taken up residence
in the house and gardens of Houghton
Hall, a Georgian stately home in

A

4 7 April 2024

Norfolk, just down the road from the
Prince and Princess of Wales’s country
retreat on the Sandringham estate.
Back in his studio, the artist brings up
images and a map of the grounds on his
computer to show me how and where
the figures have been placed. Spread
over 300 acres, some are buried up to
their waist or neck, while others stand
on the ground or above it on a plinth.
Gormley estimates that it will take the
average visitor two to three hours to
walk around the entire work.
The photographs taken on a misty
February morning reveal an army of
silent men, frozen in time, surveying
the manicured landscape of an English
Versailles. There is something almost
judgmental about them. Are they
everymen questioning the privilege of
their surroundings? “By implication,
yes,” Gormley says. “In this ever more
divided world, between rich and poor,
between the one per cent and the rest,
where does justice come in?”
I ask whether the contemporary art
world is a reflection of those huge
divisions in wealth he’s referring to,
thinking about the one per cent who
travel round the world to art fairs in
Basel, Hong Kong and Miami and spend
half a million pounds or more on a
single Gormley figure. “Yes, and that’s
a responsibility I must take. I’m
immensely grateful to people who are
keen enough to collect my work, but in
my view that puts a responsibility on
me to make works that are more
accessible, in collective spaces.”
Gormley is the youngest of seven
children, born into a devout Catholic
family in which religion dominated
daily life. His father, who fought in
the First World War, was loving but
authoritarian. His mother was German
and during the Second World War had
to leave Britain for Canada to avoid

The
marquess
and his wife
let me drill a
hole in their
hall floor

being interned; she took the four eldest
children with her. Gormley, who was
born in Hampstead, north London, in
1950, was baptised Antony Mark David
Gormley so that he should have the
same initials as the Latin motto for the
Society of Jesus: “Ad majorem Dei
gloriam” — for the greater glory of God.
He went to Ampleforth College, a
Benedictine boarding school in
Yorkshire, then the University of
Cambridge. He lost his Catholic faith
as an undergraduate, but admits that
it marked him for life. You only have
to look at his best-loved sculpture,
The Angel of the North in Gateshead,
to see the influence of Christian
iconography on him.
After graduating in 1971 he joined the
hippy trail to Afghanistan and ended
up spending two years in India. At one
point, having run out of money, he
slept on the streets of Calcutta, an

mark the end of industrial power in the
northeast while making a “totemic
sculpture for a community that had
lost its faith in the future”. To make it
he employed the engineering and
shipwrighting skills for which the
northeast was once world-renowned.
He’s passionate about the northeast
and thinks the quayside renovation of
Gateshead and Newcastle in the late
Nineties and early Noughties was
inspirational, and that using art as a
generator for urban renewal has given
people in the region a huge sense of
pride. “We are all feeling beings, we all
respond to our environments, we know
what a desert feels like in an urban

PHOTOGRAPH BY PETE HUGGINS

to waste it’

experience that fed into his first
sculpture: a homeless figure made
from plaster and linen that lies curled
on the ground covered in a sheet. It
was during that time that he immersed
himself in the study of vipassana
meditation. He even contemplated
becoming a Buddist monk before
deciding to return to Britain and study
art at the Slade School of Fine Art,
where he met his fellow artist Vicken
Parsons, whom he married in 1980.
They have a daughter who is an
architect and two sons, a film-maker
and a photographer.
One of the things you notice about
Gormley is how calm and centred he
appears. There is a strong spiritual
element running through his work,
demonstrated by his sense of purpose
and desire to give a voice to the
voiceless. The Angel of the North, which
looms over the A1, was intended to

Facing the future
Antony Gormley
with one of the Time
Horizon statues in
the grounds of
Houghton Hall

I want to
make work
that’s
accessible,
in collective
spaces

situation.” Gormley’s concern is
genuine: he gave a generous gift to
Gateshead’s Baltic Centre for
Contemporary Art, of which I am
chairwoman, in the wake of the
pandemic, which helped to keep the
gallery running.
Place and setting is critical to
Gormley’s work, as his new show at
Houghton Hall illustrates. He clicks on
a photograph of a sculpture half-buried
in the floor of the entrance hall of the
property, which is home to David and
Rose, the Marquess and Marchioness of
Cholmondeley. It was the first work to
go in, the baseline from which all the
other figures take their position. The
idea is to create a single horizontal
plane across the landscape and the
geological processes that shaped it.
I express surprise that the
Cholmondeleys allowed him to drill a
hole in their floor. He nods. “David and
Rose are very committed to this. They
even agreed to leave their front and
back doors open during the exhibition
so you can look straight through.”
The name of the work at Houghton
Hall is Time Horizon. Gormley thinks
of his army of iron men as industrially
made fossils representing a period in
time. As visitors wander across the
lawns, through the woods and walled
gardens, he hopes they will reflect
on the impermanence of humans on
this planet and the imprint our species
has left.
Time Horizon was commissioned
in 2006 for an archaeological site in
southern Italy. The manufacture of the
100 iron sculptures — moulded from
the artist’s body — was paid for by the
taxpayers of Catanzaro province. The
irony of European money funding
an artwork in the UK is not lost on
Gormley, a passionate Remainer.
Thanks to his mother he has a German

passport and sees himself as a
European artist. His work Another
Place, comprising 100 cast iron
sculptures of his body planted in the
sand in Merseyside, was a German
commission. The fabrication was paid
for by the taxpayers of SchleswigHolstein. Critical Mass II, which was
at the Royal Academy in London, was
funded by Austrian money.
“Brexit was the biggest act of
self-harm this country has ever played
on itself, and what a betrayal. It [the
EU] is a creative, collective project
which found a way of putting Europe
back together after two devastating
world wars.”
Given that he uses industrial
processes and engineering to make his
art, is it hard to find assistants with the
right skills? “Yes. There used to be
foundries in most cities in this land, but
now there are fewer and fewer. We had
to take over our foundry in Hexham
because it was going to shut down. It
couldn’t compete with Russia, China
and India.” There were 23 employees
when he bought the foundry; seven of
them stayed on and were combined
with seven people who had trained at
art school. “The cross-fertilisation has
been extraordinary. Nobody had asked
any of these workers how they might
do things differently or better.”
When Gormley was 11 his father,
Ambrose, gave him a lump of wood
and some tools and showed him how to
make a bench. He still has it. “It was an
unbelievable gift. It gave me agency and
made me realise I could contribute to
this world, and I think that’s what art
can provide in schools.” He also credits

We had to take over
our foundry or it would
have been shut down
his father with taking him to the
National Gallery and the British
Museum as a child. Appearing recently
on the podcast The Rest Is Politics, he
told the hosts, Alastair Campbell and
Rory Stewart how, aged six or seven,
he would gaze up in wonder at statues
from the ancient world. It lit a creative
spark in him that continues to burn.
“We are unbelievably lucky that our
museums are free. We lead the world
in this, but we must fight to keep this.”
Given that we are likely to have a new
government soon, what would he like
them to do? First of all, he says, art
must no longer be sidelined in schools.
“Politicians come and go, but what
defines our hopes, fears and values
is the art we produce. That will be
remembered long after we’re all gone.”
Time Horizon is at Houghton Hall,
Norfolk, Apr 21-Oct 31; houghtonhall.com
7 April 2024 5

Television
Scoop tells the inside story of
Newsnight’s showdown with the
Duke of York. But was Emily
Maitlis really so haughty —
and what does it gloss over?
By Rosamund Urwin

THE PRINCE,
THAT INTERVIEW AND
A

fter the cameras stopped rolling
on his catastrophic Newsnight
interview in November 2019,
Prince Andrew turned to Emily
Maitlis and said: “Well, that
went well, didn’t it?” It was an
extraordinary misjudgment: the grilling
about his friendship with the convicted
paedophile Jeffrey Epstein would force
the Duke of York to step back from
public life, win the BBC awards and
launch a thousand memes: about
Andrew’s Pizza-Express-in-Woking alibi,
inability to sweat and description of
“a straightforward shooting weekend”.
It was deemed such a car crash that
it has been mined for two rival projects,
the first of which, Scoop, is based on
three chapters of a book by Sam
McAlister, the producer who helped to
secure the interview for Newsnight, and
landed on Netflix on Friday. Billie Piper
plays McAlister and Gillian Anderson is
Maitlis. Amazon’s A Very Royal Scandal,
starring Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and
Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew, is
expected later this year.
So how accurate is Scoop? The film
features a disclaimer stating that
“some parts have been fictionalised”.
A number of the real-life protagonists
emphasise that the film-makers have
used “creative licence”, most obviously
rejigging the timeline (BBC job cuts
were announced after the interview,
not before) and turning emails into
in-person conversations. As McAlister
has noted, the writers faced a
challenge: they had to turn sending
scores of emails into a compelling film.
Some of the most interesting
decisions, however, are around
characterisation — including that of
6 7 April 2024

the duke. Rufus Sewell, transformed
through prosthetics from comely to
jowly, plays Andrew as a buffoon with a
Bridesheadesque teddy bear obsession
(true) who reminisces about “Mummy”
combing his hair before he went off to
boarding school. Sewell modelled his
version of Andrew on Ricky Gervais’s
David Brent from The Office, a character
devoid of self-awareness.
Some viewers will feel this lets the
duke off lightly. “Where Netflix slightly
pulled its punches, [it was because]
they did not want this to become a row
with the royal family,” a Palace insider
says. “They didn’t want to get into the
dynamics of the ‘spare’, and so they
made Andrew look like a petulant idiot.
There will be people who think they’re
glossing over the issue here: that this
is a guy who, at the very best, made
an appalling error of judgment and
at worst turned a blind eye or was
complicit in crimes.” Epstein’s victims,
while mentioned, are not given a voice
in the film.
In the royal camp, Andrew’s former
spin doctor Jason Stein comes out of
Scoop well — he is a Cassandra who can
see that the interview will be a disaster,
but is ignored. Stein joined the Palace
in September 2019 to try to rebuild
Andrew’s reputation, and left before
the Newsnight interview was filmed
in November. His alternative PR
strategy, as shown in the film, was
to have tête-à-têtes with royal
correspondents and newspaper
editors, an approach deemed
too slow by Andrew. Scoop
doesn’t show this, but Stein felt
that the duke would need to
give an interview to mark his

Brief encounter
Rufus Sewell as Prince
Andrew and Gillian
Anderson as Emily
Maitlis in Scoop.
Below: Billie Piper
as Sam McAlister

Netflix didn’t
want this to
become a
row with the
royal family

60th birthday in which he would
apologise for his association with
Epstein to try to detoxify his image.
This would have been more tightly
controlled, with rules about what could
not be asked.
Considering the brutal criticism she
received in the press for encouraging
Andrew to do the interview, Scoop is
relatively sympathetic to his aide
Amanda Thirsk. Played by Keeley
Hawes, Thirsk, who joined the royal
household in 2004 after a career in
banking, is portrayed as naive about
her boss’s flaws, thinking that he would
be able to redeem himself if the world
saw him as she did.
“Amanda was let down by her
perception of Andrew not being true,”
the Palace source says. “The film makes
it look like Sam bounced her and that
she had no choice, whereas in reality
Amanda made enormous mistakes.
One of them was that she didn’t use the
institutional BBC for this, which has a
way and a history of interacting with
the Palace — an unwritten contract. The
Newsnight crew were like a renegade
arm of the BBC who ended up in
Buckingham Palace interviewing the
renegade prince.” That he was being
set up for failure now seems obvious.
In the preparation for the interview in
the film, Maitlis asks, “What if he is
good?” when the reality is that
Newsnight wouldn’t have allowed
Andrew to “be good”.
This royal source added that
while Thirsk “threw away the
house advantage” that the
monarchy has when dealing
with the media, the wider
Palace let this interview

PETER MOUNTAIN/NETFLIX 2023, STEVE MEDDLE/SHUTTERSTOCK, NEIL HALL/PA, KEN MCKAY/SHUTTERSTOCK

THE TRUTH
happen. “I think she made some
spectacular mistakes, but she was also
allowed to make those mistakes by the
royal household, who just didn’t care
about Andrew. The film doesn’t really
get into that because Netflix doesn’t
want to annoy the royal family. In real
life no one stopped Thirsk. There are
safety measures to stop such disasters,
but the airbags didn’t inflate.” This is
only briefly alluded to in the drama,
with the brief presence of Queen
Elizabeth’s communications secretary,
Donal McCabe, before the interview,
then later when the director-general of
the BBC at the time, Tony Hall, notes
that the Palace has not called to try to
stop the broadcast.
Scoop has Andrew going to seek
“Mummy’s” approval for the interview,
which was conducted in a state room
in Buckingham Palace. This remains
disputed, with Maitlis and McAlister
believing he consulted her and royal
sources insisting that she was told only
after the interview had been arranged.
Andrew’s fiasco was, of course,
Newsnight’s triumph. The show had
been struggling with dwindling
audiences and locked in infernal Brexit
debates; afterwards, one of the show’s
most senior staff said that the interview
had bought it a stay of execution. The
timing of this drama seems “mad”
to Newsnight staffers now, as the
programme faces big cuts and its run
time is being reduced to 30 minutes.
Where the film seems to stick most
closely to the facts is round the
interview negotiations. It did all begin
with a press release about Pitch@
Palace, Andrew’s initiative to encourage
entrepreneurship. Princess Beatrice

WHAT THEY
DID NEXT

Emily Maitlis, 53
Left the BBC in 2022
to start a podcast,
The News Agents,
with fellow ex-BBC
stalwart Jon Sopel.
In her 2022 James
MacTaggart lecture
she mentioned “Tory
cronyism at the
heart of the BBC”.

Prince Andrew, 64
Stripped of royal
patronages in 2022,
he paid an
estimated £12
million to settle a
sexual assault case
with Virginia Giuffre.
Yet he attended the
coronation and this
year’s Easter service.

came to a meeting, although another
source remembers her as more
“standoffish” than in the show.
McAlister did tell Andrew that he was
still perceived by the public as “Randy
Andy” and “Air Miles Andy” and after
the interview Andrew was pleased with
himself and offered Maitlis a palace
tour. However, while in Scoop Maitlis
jokes about being smuggled in à la
Martin Bashir coming to see Princess
Diana, the reality was more mundane;
they walked in through the front door.
This film is McAlister’s version of
events; Maitlis will tell hers in the threepart series A Very Royal Scandal, which
she has executive-produced. In the
Newsnight offices staff assume that
Maitlis, who left the BBC in 2022, is
irked by the Netflix version, although
she is diplomatic to her friends, telling
them that she is happy for McAlister.
In turn there have been rumours that
McAlister feels her part in negotiating
the interview has been diminished,
including in a 2020 interview that Maitlis
and the Newsnight editor at the time,
Esme Wren, gave to Radio Times that
didn’t mention her. McAlister says that
the animosity between her and Maitlis
on screen isn’t real — it’s just drama.
Some at the BBC feel the portrayal of
Maitlis is unfair. Gillian Anderson has
deployed the same languid superiority
that she used when playing Margaret
Thatcher in The Crown, making Maitlis
seem haughty, cold and eccentric.
“Maitlis is rigorous and has high
standards, but she was popular at
Newsnight — and she’s friendly, generous
and really not grand,” a friend says.
Her dog Moody is in the office all
the time in Scoop, like an emotional

support animal (Maitlis wrote on
Twitter/X that she had been “upstaged
by my own whippet — again”). In
reality Newsnight insiders say that
she never brought Moody in when
presenting as it would be such a long
shift, only very occasionally taking him
in when she had a couple of hours of
interview prep or briefings to do.
The film has divided opinion in the
BBC. There are those who applaud that
one of the corporation’s army of
underpaid and often underappreciated
production staff is enjoying a moment
in the sun and a more vociferous group
who complain that McAlister has taken
too much of the glory.
“BBC presenters hog the credit and
they’re well paid; I don’t understand
why people are so resentful of someone
who used to be pretty poorly paid
profiting from their work,” a producer
on another BBC news programme says.
“Sam’s just spotted an opportunity and
run — in her leopard print boots — with
it.” McAlister has told the story of how
a BBC executive spent more on taxis
than she earned in a year working
part-time. A former Newsnight staffer,
however, said that McAlister had taken
too much credit for what was a team
job. Another Newsnight source added
that the absence of many colleagues
from McAlister’s book launch and the
Scoop premiere was telling.
The pursuit of truth is a journalistic
aim, but the story of how that interview
came about in November 2019 perhaps
illustrates the wisdom of the royal
household’s line about its own internal
dramas: recollections do indeed vary.
Scoop is on Netflix now. Review, page 12
7 April 2024 7

My
Cultural
Firsts

Books

Phil Wang
The Taskmaster star, 34, on
singing for Brunei’s royal
family. By Joshua Lamb

The novelist Marian Keyes’s life is
divided into two. At 30 she put bad
boys and drink behind her and
went on to sell 30 million books

borrow money from my
aunt and she was furious
about it because albums
are very expensive in
Malaysia, but I loved the
song It Wasn’t Me. It was
just so goofy and fun.

First comedian I admired
My love for comedy was born
in the flames of a corporate
environment. I saw Harith
Iskander, the grandfather of
Malaysian comedy, when I
accompanied my mother,
an archaeologist, on a
conference trip in Sarawak.
The predinner entertainment
was this guy who got up and
started being funny and I’d
never seen that before.

‘Don’t get
bitter,

First pop-inspired fashion
trends I adopted
I went nuts on our school’s
non-uniform day. I wore
shorts, trainers, thin
sunglasses like in The Matrix,
a single fingerless glove
and a sleeveless vest
that on the back said
Phil Wang
“One life, live it”.
presents the Bafta
Games awards on
The first concert
Thursday; Bafta
I went to
YouTube
I saw my dad, a civil

First time I realised
I wanted to be a
comedian
I always wanted to be
a clown with a red
nose, but that dream
went away when I
started to get into
science and maths.
Then, when I was 14,
people started to share
YouTube clips of Russell
Peters, an Indian-Canadian
stand-up. He made me realise
that it was possible for an
Asian person to do stand-up
in English in the West.

Johanna
Thomas-Corr
Interview

WATCH IT

First time I cried in the
cinema
I wasn’t much of a crier
until my twenties, but
now I’ve started crying
more at movies. I cried a
lot at the Pixar film Up.
Recently, the hardest I’ve
cried was watching All
of Us Strangers with
Andrew Scott and
Paul Mescal.
It just really
got me.
First album
I bought
Shaggy’s
Hot Shot.
I had to
8 7 April 2024

First time I was
overwhelmed by fame
The Edinburgh Fringe after
I appeared on Taskmaster. I
was walking in the Pleasance
Courtyard when people
started whispering to each
other and asking for
photographs. It was weird
because it felt like it came
from nowhere.
First video game I loved
The building simulator
Theme Park World. You
could design the route and
actually ride your own rides.
It blew my mind. My dad
encouraged me to get
it as he said it would
teach me business.
It’s the tradition of
every gaming
child to pretend
there are
educational
elements to
games so
their parents
leave them
alone.

JAKE TURNEY/GETTY IMAGES

First film I saw at the cinema
We went to the cinema a lot
in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo,
where I grew up. The main
cinema was called Golden
Screen Cinema and it had
a big billboard next to it.
Someone would go up there
and paint the poster for
whatever movie was playing.
The Lion King or a Jackie Chan
movie were probably the first
movies I remember seeing.

T

engineer, play the
Beatles with his brothers in
Malaysia, but my first proper
concert was Coldplay at the
O2 when I was about 19. In my
high school in Brunei I was
the school crooner and even
sang for the Brunei royal
family. There’s not much to do
in Brunei, to the point where
people will come and watch
a school band perform.

he National Gallery
of Ireland recently
unveiled a new portrait
of Marian Keyes, one
of the most successful
authors in the history
of the republic. Seated in an
extravagant floral dress against
a backdrop of sumptuous
golds, she looks like a regal elf
as conjured by Gustav Klimt —
only with a subtle twitch of
irony playing round the mouth.
The artist, Margaret Corcoran,
has captured Ireland’s funniest
writer about to tell us a joke.
“I was braced for something
quite Francis Bacony because
I have an asymmetric face,”
Keyes tells me. “But it was so
wonderful — and it’s not about
me, it’s about the art.”
In person Keyes, 60, is
every bit as shimmering as
her portrait. She turns up to
brunch in layers of bright blue,
with hot-pink nails and a green
handbag. But she is ever so
humble, showering me with
compliments. It’s easy to see
how everyone is disarmed by
her warmth, but make no
mistake: Keyes is a powerhouse.
Over the past three decades
she has become a publishing
phenomenon, having sold
30 million books worldwide.
More recently she has
co-presented a popular BBC
Radio 4 comedy-meets-agonyaunt podcast, Now You’re
Asking, with Tara Flynn, and
landed a Netflix deal that will
give her much-loved novel
Grown Ups an eight-part TV
treatment. And there is her
more unofficial role as a
spokeswoman for mental
health, having talked so vividly

about her depression,
anxiety and alcohol
addiction. But I don’t
want to enter into a
cycle of what Keyes calls
“fawning”, a habit she
falls into whenever she
is feeling nervous. “I’ve
always thought it made me
insincere,” she confessed in
an Instagram video. “But [it’s]
a survival mechanism.”
She has nothing to worry
about. In my case the fawning
is genuine. Her latest novel,
My Favourite Mistake, is the
seventh in her series featuring
the big, noisy Walsh family.
We follow Anna (one of five
now-menopausal sisters) as she
leaves a stressful executive job
in New York for small-town
Ireland. There she encounters
her old flame and old mistakes
and misunderstandings.
It’s not just a fizzy romantic
comedy, but also a piece of
social commentary. I was struck
by how she sees her characters’
struggles — whether financial
hardship, burnout at work,
body dysmorphia or loneliness
— as endemic of what she refers
to as “late-stage capitalism”.
Keyes believes we are living
through a time when
“everything is about instant
gratification. Lots of money is
applauded, but taking rest for
ourselves isn’t. Anna is at the
stage where she is making the
decision to swim against the
tide and trying to explain that
to her sisters and her parents.”
Her protagonist’s voice is
crystal cut with observations
about gentrification, sexism
and an economic system that
tells women they are nothing
without expensive serums and
Peloton machines. In one
amusing scene we hear Anna’s
inner demon try to persuade
her that only a “weak, lazy
loser” would walk away from a

FREDRIK SANDBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK

get angry’
high-paid job
in beauty PR.
“You there, Anna Walsh, yes
you, you dedicated grafter, you
can buy anything you want
right now! How about an air
fryer? You never cook and you
don’t know what an air fryer
actually does, but that’s not
important.”
Keyes says she was inspired
by seeing several friends quit
senior jobs after the pandemic,
as well as by her younger sister
Caitriona, an oncology nurse
in New York, who decided to
return home more regularly
after lockdown.
For all the astute social
observations, though, the book
was born out of a need to hide
away from the world. Two
years ago, when we were
emerging from the pandemic
and Russia invaded Ukraine,
Keyes said she felt she “had
nothing left inside, no
stamina for the sharp and
pointy bits of the world”. She

Astute Marian
Keyes. Above
right: her
National
Gallery of
Ireland
portrait, by
Margaret
Corcoran

I’m so
proud of
Sally
Rooney,
an Irish
feminist
Marxist

abandoned a book,
“a 40-year opus”
about people who
had been friends since their
twenties, because it involved
characters who had got rich
by unethical means. She
didn’t want to write about “a
world that I recognise where
democracy is manipulated,
where entitled people
prosper”. In fact, for the past
two years she has not really
read or watched the news.
“I know that’s irresponsible.
It was never meant to go on
this long. I know broad
brushstrokes and that’s all
I can cope with.”
It’s perhaps no surprise,
then, that Keyes decided to
write a “midlife forgiveyourself book”. Keyes, who
was born into a large Limerick
family (she’s the eldest of five
siblings), says her life has
been divided into two halves.
In the first 30 years she was
“completely clueless about
myself ... It was all about the
bad boys ... all about the fake
passion of dysfunctional
relationships.” From a young

age she found the world
“frightening” and human
beings “baffling”, so she studied
people. “I wanted to know the
rules. I wanted to know how
to behave like other people.”
After studying law at University
College Dublin she took an
administrative job and moved
to London, where she felt she
was failing in all her aspirations.
Her alcoholism and clinical
depression spiralled and when
she was 30 she attempted
suicide, ending up in rehab
for three months.
That’s when the second half
of her life began. Shortly after
rehab she got together with
her husband, Tony Baines (a
former IT system designer
who since 1998 has worked,
in his words, as her “dogsbody,
finance person, IT person,
driver”). She was impressed
by how he loved books by
female writers and Irish music
and is “nice ... and I deserved
nice so I thought, we’ll give it
a go”. Eighteen months later
she had her first novel
published.
Her books are all about
the gap between the way we
present ourselves and who we
really are. “I love for a person
to admit something and for me
to think, ‘Oh thank God, it’s
not just me.’”
Many of those admissions
are in this novel. The struggle
with the menopause and the
frustrations of trying to get
HRT (Keyes is a big advocate:
“I love it”), the ugly feelings
of jealousy and anger, and
the anguish of falling out
with a friend.
“There is huge shame about
female friendships that break
down,” Keyes says. “There
is a myth around female
friendship that it just stays
without challenges. When it
doesn’t work, and I’ve been

My Favourite Mistake
(Michael Joseph £22) is
published on Thursday.
Buy from timesbookshop.co.uk
or call 020 3176 2935.
Discount for Times+ members
7 April 2024 9

A PORTRAIT OF MARIAN KEYES, 2023 BY MARGARET CORCORAN. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND

I know broad
brushstrokes
of the news
but that’s all I
can cope with

there, I have felt there is
something wrong with me.”
We don’t get beyond our
youthful pain or mistakes,
even in our sixties, Keyes says.
There are days when she feels
“as ancient and wise as Mount
Everest” and others when she
just wants to browse Etsy for
“Hello Kitty doorknobs”.
She talks a lot about the
need to do things that bring
her joy, such as hiking and —
more niche — framing Swedish
tapestry (“I could just weep
at the gorgeousness of it all”).
However, she also emphasises
the need to speak her mind.
The cuts to the arts and to
library services appal her, as
does the “unspeakably bad
housing crisis in Ireland”. Of
Sally Rooney she says: “I’m
so proud of a young Irish
feminist Marxist woman
getting people queuing
outside bookshops!”
On the subject of Irish
novelists, she has plenty of
theories as to why they have
enjoyed so much recent
success, especially the
women. The influence of the
Catholic Church has waned
and social media has allowed
them to be less parochial and
more connected to their British
and American counterparts.
More generally, she believes
Irish writers have moved on
from “questions of who we
are” to wider economic
inequalities. “A lot of these
great young writers came of
age at the time of the economic
crash in 2009 and it woke
them up to how events in the
wider world affect individuals.
They expect to be listened to
on a bigger stage. We were told
to sit down and be quiet.”
No chance of that now.
Keyes leans over and whispers
conspiratorially: “Anger is
kind of wonderful. It’s very,
very empowering.” Better
than becoming bitter, I suggest.
“Yes, if it’s used properly,
anger gets things done.
Bitterness doesn’t change
things — there’s no entry point
for a conversation — whereas
anger can open up the
channels of communication.”
Look again at that portrait.
There’s a fire raging behind
that smile.

here’s music,” Mark
Knopfler says, “and
there’s the music
business. They’re two
separate things. You
have to realise that and
come to terms with it. But you
can’t get too precious about it.”
That’s quite an admission
from the guitarist, who always
put his music first and for
decades enjoyed a showbiz
profile like that of the average
hermit — he split up Dire Straits
in the mid-1990s essentially
because they had become so
big he no longer knew the
band’s roadies by name.
Yet, at 74, Knopfler has been
flirting with the spotlight again.
First there was the January
auction of more than 120 of his
guitars, which raised £8.8
million at Christie’s. Last
month there was an all-star
version of his Local Hero theme
Going Home in aid of Teenage
Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer
America. Now he is preparing
for the release of One Deep
River, his first solo album since
2018, and for all his disdain
for self-promotion, he knows
the alternative.
“You’ve got to put your hand
up so somebody at the far side
of the stampede will see you
waving,” he says. “I tried not
doing promo once and nobody
knew I’d even made a record.
This time it was just three
buses that came along at once.
It really wasn’t planned.”
A fourth bus arrives this
month, when Johnson and
Knopfler’s Music Legends starts
on Sky Arts. It’s an interview
and performance series in
which Knopfler and his fellow
Geordie the AC/DC frontman
Brian Johnson break bread
with Tom Jones, Cyndi Lauper
and the like.
One Deep River, Knopfler’s
tenth solo studio album, is
another beautifully crafted
collection of vignettes on
such themes as western
railroad robberies (Tunnel
13), bar bands (Ahead of
the Game) and romantic
goodbyes (Before My Train
Comes). All are decorated
with the refined riffs that
have informed his
compositions since he told
us about those swinging
sultans 46 years ago.
Knopfler produced the
album with his collaborator of
40 years, Guy Fletcher, at
British Grove, the west London
studio that he is as proud of as
any multimillion-selling record

‘T

10 7 April 2024

‘Our hits
didn’t all
come out
the way
I wanted’
Mark Knopfler’s giving up
touring. He talks fame with
Dire Straits, his ‘patient
wife’ and the time he got
bored listening to his own
song. By Paul Sexton

Strait talking
Mark Knopfler
and, above, in
the Eighties

he has made. The building has
become Knopfler’s creative
north star.
“It’s been a long process,”
he says, sitting in the studio
control room. “Patience has
been required, with lockdowns
and everything. But you live
for those days when the band
is together. I love working on
my own and being at home and
writing the songs. But there’s
nothing quite like having a man
in every corner of the room.”
Being at home in London is
something Knopfler will be
doing more of because he
has made the decision
to end his touring days
and enjoy home
comforts with his third
wife, the author Kitty
Aldridge, 61. They have
two daughters and he has
twin sons from a previous
marriage. “With the studio
really coming into its own,
every time I go in there, I think,
what am I doing travelling
anywhere? It’s wonderful to
have the band in there and
to be recording, so why is
it happening so rarely?”
Knopfler says.
“To be at home and
to be writing would be
nicer for me and Kitty
because she’s been so
patient. We’ve been
together for 30 years
and she’s been so
good, not preventing me
from doing anything I wanted
to do. So that would be just
great for us and the family. And
then go into the studio, where
I’ve never had a bad day, to see
if I can record a good song.”
Knopfler is still doing just
that at a rate that shames
almost all of his

Buddy Holly
blows Dire Straits
into the weeds

contemporaries, with
the exception of his friend Van
Morrison. One Deep River has
12 tracks in its regular version,
but four more in a special
vinyl edition and five others,
different again, on a deluxe
CD. “There’s no sign of [the
productivity] drying up, which
I definitely expected,” he says.
Knopfler studied journalism
at Harlow College and worked
for a time as a junior reporter for
the Yorkshire Evening Post. His
lyrics are so vividly presented
that one always feels he could
have become a novelist. The
Boy EP features four songs on
a boxing theme, a particular
fascination for Knopfler. But
writing and journalism are not
for him, he says.
Knopfler’s modesty extends
to making affectionate fun of
his signature work. “About 20
years ago I was at a street café
somewhere,” he tells me.
“They had the Dire Straits song
Telegraph Road playing, which
is a big, long, tortuous thing.
I remember thinking, God,
when is this going to end? Then
Buddy Holly’s Rave On came on
and blew it into the weeds.”
He adds that when he and
the Straits were making Why
Worry, the beguiling lullaby
from Brothers in Arms, they
used to refer to it as “Why
Bother”. “It didn’t come out
the way I wanted, just because
I chose the wrong key,” he says.
The 30 million buyers of the
album didn’t mind.
Spend any time in public with
Knopfler and you will witness
him besieged by admirers, each
with a story about how his
songs have played roles in their
lives, which he enjoys hearing.
He still regards music with the
same sense of wonder that he
did as a kid in Newcastle with
his nose pressed against the
window of the guitar shop.
“I remember a few
disturbed years of being this
comically driven young person
who was determined to make
it,” he says. “It seemed so
impossible. I’d go to
[Newcastle] City Hall and I’d
see Van Morrison and think,
I so wish I was doing that. Or
[Bob] Dylan and the Band
somewhere. You’d reserve
a place in that line-up for
yourself. The dreams of a
teenage kid have always been
the fuel. That’s the whole thing
that keeps you going.”
One Deep River is out on
British Grove/EMI on Friday

JOBY SESSIONS/GETTY IMAGES. INSET: PETE STILL/GETTY IMAGES

Music

Rachel Chinouriri’s
mum and dad
fought in
Zimbabwe’s
independence war.
Now she’s a star
singer and Adele
is a big fan. By
Blanca Schofield

KATIE COLLINS/ALAMY

‘S

o there’s a new artist,
she’s British, her name
is Rachel and
she does
indie
music,”
Adele told her fans
in February at a gig
in Las Vegas. “She’s
absolutely amazing, she has
a show in LA in March and I’m
going to go.”
Alas, in the end, Adele was
unwell and missed the show,
but Rachel Chinouriri didn’t
mind too much. “It’s wild that
she even knows any of my
stuff,” says the 25-year-old
when we meet at her local
café in east London.
In the past year Chinouriri
has become an A-lister’s
darling. She has toured with
Louis Tomlinson and Lewis
Capaldi (she got the gig after
drunk-messaging him on
Instagram). Florence Pugh
got in touch to say how much
she loved her songs and
Chinouriri cast her in her
latest music video, Never Need
Me. It’s no surprise the singer
has taken off: her music is
an intoxicating blend of
dreamy vocals and prominent
guitar lines.
Today she’s wearing a pink
and lilac shirt made for her by a
fan (and she sports a star sticker
on her face to cover a blemish
— a very Gen Z trend). She has
recently got back from the US,
where she dropped out of an
appearance at SXSW festival
in Texas. More than 60 artists
boycotted the event over the
US army’s sponsorship.
Chinouriri had a particularly
personal reason to object,
though. She shared a statement
on Instagram saying: “As the
daughter of two child soldiers
I have grown up seeing the
permanent effects war has …
I am 100% anti-war and do not
want any association with war.”
“That’s how my parents met
— when they were 13, at war,”
Chinouriri tells me. They

My parents
were

child soldiers
fought in Zimbabwe’s struggle
for independence in the
Seventies. “They’ve seen a lot
of violence and death. My mum
cannot stand crowded spaces.”
During the conflict her father
sustained a brain injury that
led to epilepsy, which stopped
him from working for a lot of
her childhood. “I’ve grown up
in fear of losing my dad all the
time with him being ill. Seeing
him not able to do the same
things as other dads because of
those effects is heartbreaking.”
Chinouriri’s four elder
sisters and brother were born
in Zimbabwe but her parents
moved to the UK in the late
Nineties before she came
along, settling in Caterham,
Surrey, because they wanted
their children to have a good
education. Her mother was
so protective that they weren’t
allowed to go to concerts: “A
lot of people in one space?
Just no.”
“I’m glad I did it,” she says
about pulling out of SXSW.
Conscious of how much money
her team would lose, she did
contemplate performing and
doing some form of protest
during her set. But she worried
about her safety if she did so “as
a black woman in America in an
area where people are clearly
pro-guns and pro-weaponry”.
Chinouriri is no stranger to
racist abuse. For a while hers
was the only black family on
her street and she recalls being
called a slave at her first

Intoxicating
Rachel
Chinouriri

My dad
wasn’t
like other
dads, war
gave him
a brain
injury

secondary school, de Stafford
in Caterham, where students
would make monkey chants as
she walked down the corridor.
“I was having a lot of suicidal
thoughts … It was just a big
inner battle of self-hate, hatred
of being black from the people
around me and then within
myself,” she says. “I started
isolating in my room and
that’s probably why I started
making music at 13.”
Desperate to get away from
the bullying, she moved to
Thomas More, a Catholic
comprehensive in south
London, where a supportive
music teacher encouraged her
to apply to the Brit School,
Amy Winehouse’s alma mater.
“I owe that man a lot.” Eager
to get signed, she started
contacting Duncan Ellis (the
manager of Lianne La Havas
and Gabriels) on social media
while sending her work to BBC
Music Introducing. Finally the
BBC played her stunning ballad
So My Darling on the radio.
Ellis took notice and she
started working with him in
2018 before signing to
Parlophone, the home of
Coldplay, who were a big
influence on her as a teenager.
A lot of her songs deal with
trauma: the title track of her
debut album, What a
Devastating Turn of Events, is
about her cousin’s suicide at 25.
But she is careful to make sure
depression doesn’t become a
prerequisite for creativity. “I’m

so used to writing music from
such a sunken place that when
I suddenly started getting
healthier and happier I was,
like, I have no ability to write
songs any more. And that’s
when I had to start changing my
mindset.” She does counselling
every week. “I was with my
therapist yesterday. Love her.”
Chinouriri has had to fight
to be recognised as an indie
artist. In 2022, frustrated by
miscategorisations, she posted
on Instagram: “My music is not
RnB. My music is not Soul. My
music is not alternative RnB.
My music is not Neo Soul. My
music is not Jazz. Black artists
doing indie is not confusing.
You see my colour before you
hear my music.”
Indie rock has often been
perceived as dominated by
white men with guitars and her
manager had warned her that
being seen as indie could be a
challenge as a black woman.
“And I was just thinking, ‘Well,
that’s silly’ … Three years later
it clicked when every playlist I
was getting on was R&B, soul
Sunday. That’s when I started
thinking, ‘OK, I don’t think
anyone is actually listening.’”
Anxiety about classification
has limited Chinouriri at times.
“Sometimes songs would go a
bit more soul, R&B, but then I
was hesitant to put them out
because I knew it would just
overshadow anything I had
done. So I kind of lost my
chance to experiment.”
I ask her what success would
look like for her. She already
has an Ivor Novello
nomination. “Winning things
would be nice. But my core
thing is being in touch with my
fanbase … I just want to make
loads of albums.”
Her dedication to her fans,
who call themselves the
Darlings, led to her spending
whole days looking at screens,
so she’s cut down on social
media. Now she gets letters;
she installed a postbox for
them at a recent concert at
Koko in London.
Messaging Capaldi after a
few drinks worked out, so who
is her next target? “I haven’t
been drinking that much; I’m
trying to make sure I’m fit for
my gigs,” she says. Very
responsible. Besides, she
doesn’t really need to make
tipsy requests any more.
What a Devastating Turn of
Events is out on Parlophone
on May 3
7 April 2024 11

Television
ILLUSTRATION: GEORGINA SMITH

The
Critics
Sarah
Ditum

Life after Peaky Blinders
The show’s creator is back with organised crime in Birmingham. But this time it’s the 1981 ska scene
A few years ago I was in the desert
outside Marrakesh when a young
Moroccan man in a flat cap came up
to me, pointing at his head. “English?”
he said, excitedly. “Peaky Blinders!”
I would be willing to swear that he had
a very slight Brummie accent.
That was when I realised Peaky
Blinders wasn’t just a superior historical
crime drama. It was a phenomenon —
one of the few bits of British TV that
could go toe-to-toe with the American
big boys like Breaking Bad or The
Sopranos. The Birmingham gangsters
the Shelby brothers had achieved levels
of cultural penetration not enjoyed by
a fictional British character since
Thomas the Tank Engine.
For Steven Knight, who made the
show, this is a problem — a nice
problem to have but still a problem,
because what do you do next? In
Knight’s case he did the 2023
adaptation of Great Expectations, but
that wasn’t very good, so let’s move
on to This Town. The new six-parter
goes back to Knight’s safe place: the
West Midlands, organised crime and
historical social disorder.
It’s 1981 rather than 1919, so the
flat caps have given way to rude boy
pork-pie hats. Otherwise the
correspondence is pretty like-for-like:
the economy is tanking, the Irish are
kicking off and the working-class boys
12 7 April 2024

This Town
BBC1, Sun, Mon
Scoop
Netflix
Masterchef
BBC1, Mon, Wed, Fri

Out on the town
Levi Brown and
Eve Austin star in
This Town. Right:
Gregg Wallace

are looking sharp (and getting rowdy).
We meet the main character, Dante,
just as he walks into the middle of a
riot. He’s a dreamy lyricist, so he’s
thinking, “This is the dawn of the age
of love,” as a Molotov cocktail whisks
by his ear.
I’m going to level with you that
Dante is a pretty annoying kid, trying
to make hot girls in record shops listen
to Leonard Cohen. Two things
keep him just the right side of
throttleable: the first is Levi
Brown’s performance (it’s
his first lead role and he has
charisma to burn), and the
second is that he clearly
drives all the other

John Torode
is no match
for the array
of sex faces
Wallace can
summon at
the sniff of
a potato

characters nuts, so you’re not alone
with your irritation.
Dante wants to start a band, his
friend Jeannie (Eve Austin) wants to be
in the band (but has to shake off her
skinhead boyfriend first) and his cousin
Bardon (Ben Rose) needs to be in the
band — because the alternative is
getting sucked into the world of his
father, a big man in the IRA. Oh, and
there’s Dante’s brother ( Jordan Bolger),
a soldier who has been tasked with
infiltrating the Provo side of the family.
That means This Town is constantly
sliding between band drama (can they
find a drummer, and can the drummer
stop being a junkie?) and spy drama.
Squint at this set-up in an unfair mood
and you might find yourself wondering
if it’s not just a gritty version of Josie and
the Pussycats, the trash 2001 movie
about a girl band battling corporate
espionage between gigs.
It’s a lot to handle, and some viewers
are going to lose patience while it finds
its feet. This, admittedly, takes most of
the six-episode run (all of them are on
iPlayer). But your incentives for sticking
with it are that it looks incredibly cool
— never has a flat-roofed pub been as
gorgeous as the flat-roofed pub here —
and sounds absolutely buzzing.
Peaky Blinders always gave great
soundtrack, but the way Knight weaves
music into the story here (including the

Radio & Podcasts
impressively uncringe ska-style tracks
written for Dante’s band) might be my
favourite use of pop songs in a drama
since Dennis Potter. Even counting Josie
and the Pussycats.
I had a problem with Scoop. It was
this: how is it possible for Rufus Sewell
(officially the most beautiful man in the
world ever since his angelic Ladislaw in
the 1994 Middlemarch) to be playing
Prince Andrew? Squirming, sweatless,
Pizza Express Woking-patronising,
“Lolita Express”-commuting Prince
Andrew? Absurd. And yet it worked
brilliantly. Sewell’s Andrew might be
his role of a lifetime.
This was a re-enactment of the
fateful 2019 Newsnight interview, in
which Andrew crumbled in the face of
questioning about his friendship with
the convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein from Emily Maitlis — a briskly
convincing Gillian Anderson here.
(Andrew denies any personal
wrongdoing.) Making must-see TV out
of something I have already watched
several times on YouTube seemed like
a tall order, but the magic of Scoop was
all in the build-up.
Think of it as a heist movie, with the
plucky BBC team (led by the producer
Sam McAlister, played by Billie Piper
in full working-class heroine mode)
working to filch their dream interview
from under the Palace’s nose.
Obviously I’m partial here, but I was
delighted to see hard-nosed journalists
portrayed as heroes rather than Spitting
Image rats — even the paparazzo who
caught the telltale photo of Andrew
and Epstein together gets to be one of
the good guys.
Lest this sounds a bit onedimensional, it’s balanced by Sewell’s
surprisingly complex Andrew. Yes,
he’s a spoilt manchild who bawls out
the maid for putting his teddies in
the wrong order. But that pampered
existence is his prison: no wonder
he falls to pieces the second Maitlis
declines to show him deference.
Scoop is agnostic about what Andrew
did, but it sure makes him look as
pathetic as hell.
It’s been a while since I watched
Masterchef, so I was not prepared for
how incredibly weird Gregg Wallace has
become over the course of 20 series.
“The wave of ambition hits the rock of
reality,” he said at one point. Later he
kept a straight face while delivering the
line: “Your beans are stepping up and
shaking my hand, but I wanted to dance
with them.”
Jesse Armstrong won Emmys for
putting this kind of high-flown
nonsense in the mouth of Succession’s
Tom Wambsgans, and here’s Wallace
giving it away for a plate of pulses.
John Torode can stand there stoically
acting like he’s on a normal cooking
show, but he’s no match for the
relentless array of sex faces Wallace can
summon at the merest sniff of a potato.

Audiobooks go A-list
With stars like Andrew Scott, no wonder sales rival hardbacks
Patricia
Nicol

At the cinema I saw a trailer for
the actors Andrew Garfield,
Cynthia Erivo and Andrew
Scott’s latest big-budget
venture. Erivo and Garfield are
Oscar-nominated; Scott and
Garfield Bafta-winners. But
this trailer was not for the
forthcoming movie of Wicked
starring Erivo, or Netflix’s new
Ripley, with Scott portraying
Patricia Highsmith’s
psychopath. Instead it was for
an unsettlingly immersive
audiobook adaptation of
George Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four (Audible
Original), in which Garfield
voices Winston Smith, Erivo
is his lover Julia, Scott plays
O’Brien and Tom Hardy
menaces as Big Brother. The
electro score is notable too: the
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy
has collaborated with the
composer Ilan Eshkeri.
Audiobooks were not always
so A-list. Before smartphones,
streaming and the take-off of
Audible (all in the 2010s) they
occupied a dusty sanctum
within publishing. Many of the
best were broadcast on BBC
Radio 4, then released as CDs.
My husband and I cherish fond
memories of driving our firstborn to Scotland for Christmas
2009, through freezing fog,
while listening to Simon
Russell Beale in The Spy Who
Came in from the Cold, part of
the BBC’s superlative The
Complete Smiley. But last
month the Radio 4
controller, Mohit Bakaya,
said book abridgements
would be getting less
prominence in the
schedules, with
Book of the
Week moving
from 9.45am to
11.45am, Mondays
to Friday.
Once that slot
had been
innovative,
Well read Andrew
Scott is in Audible’s
Nineteen Eighty-Four

he said, but now audiobooks
could be found easily “in other
places”. Also, competition for
the best books is tough —
publishers mostly prefer
consumers to buy audiobooks
rather than get a free précis
via the BBC.
Propelled initially by
Audible, now increasingly
by publishers’ in-house
production, the quality of
audiobooks today is
staggeringly high. Many are
more akin to audio dramas.
The British Book awards are
next month and I am a judge
of the fiction audiobooks
category. Shortlisted titles
include the psychological
thriller None of This Is True
by Lisa Jewell, her first
audiobook to outsell the
hardback, one of a growing
number to do so. The telling of
its twisty narrative is shared by
the popular actresses Nicola
Walker (The Split) and Louise
Brealey (Sherlock). Another
nomination is Yomi Adegoke’s
The List, narrated by two
brilliant young stage actors,
Sheila Atim and Arinzé Kene.
Although fiction drove the
popularity of audiobooks, it is
non-fiction where the greatest

The quality of
books you can
listen to is
staggering

growth is seen, particularly
with author-read memoirs
(Prince Harry’s Spare) and
clever multicast productions.
The recently released
audiobook of Annabelle
Hirsch’s A History of Women
in 101 Objects employs 101
narrators including Kate
Winslet and Margaret Atwood.
Spotify entered the
audiobooks market last year
with 15 hours’ free listening
offered monthly to Premium
subscribers who pay £10.99
for monthly membership. It
received a frosty welcome from
the Society of Authors, which
has concerns about the
protection of writers’ income
and copyright. My husband
had an unfortunate experience
with his first download, a
Stephen King. When time ran
out on a cliff-hanger, he had
to choose between a £10
top-up or waiting a month to
hear the finale.
The market leader,
Amazon’s Audible, has
supercharged production,
which has galvanised the books
industry. But its monthly
subscription of £7.99 adds up if
you don’t manage to listen to
more than a book a month.
With prices and enticements
varying wildly, it is worth
shopping around. Robert
Galbraith’s The Running
Grave, winningly narrated over
a staggering 34 hours by Robert
Glenister, can be heard
promotionally for free, or for
as much as £34.
If you want to avoid the tech
giants, a cost-effective UK
alternative is Xigxag, which
sells books individually for
£7.99 or less, with loyalty
rewarded. Or Libro.fm
allows you to buy from
your favourite indie
bookseller. Worthiest
of all, Borrowbox,
ULibrary and Libby
all facilitate local
library lending,
with the writer
receiving a fee.
While all this
investment
continues to pour
into audiobooks,
budding listeners/
readers remain
the winners.
7 April 2024 13

The Critics Music & Film

POP & ROCK
Heaven-sent melodies
Vampire Weekend
Only God Was Above Us
HHHH
Columbia
Allusion,
metaphor,
war, betrayal,
truth, lies, the
past, the
present and
an eternal-return doom
loop of repeated
failures and mistakes
— these are some
of the recurring
characteristics of the
New York trio’s fifth
album. If that makes Only
God Was Above Us sound
intellectually chewy and
knotty, well, it really isn’t.
Ezra Koenig’s heaven-sent
melodies and faux-naif vocals

help the songs go down with
ease, as familiar sonic tics —
calypso guitar, cascading
piano, stuttering beats —
burrow their way into your
brain. There is a deep-dive,
Paul Simon-like engagement
with the band’s home town
here, with its cruelty and
romance. Classical is
quintessential VW: airy
soundscapes — loping
double bass, a break
into free jazz — quite
at odds with the
lyrics. Capricorn is
similarly beautiful and
bleak. I’m not entirely
convinced by some of
it, but I’m entirely engrossed
by all of it. Genuinely, thank
God for Vampire Weekend.
A band that takes us seriously.
Dan Cairns

ALBUM
OF THE
WEEK

Benson Boone
Fireworks & Rollerblades
H
Warner

The Libertines
All Quiet on the
Eastern Esplanade
HH

Dev Patel is a
raging young
Scorsese
The actor lands a direct hit with his first film as
director, about Mumbai’s bare-knuckle boxers
Jonathan
Dean

EMI
The moustachioed Mormon
scored a No 1 single here
with Beautiful Things, despite
its shrill, slightly stalky
sentiment. His debut album
possesses an icky, maudlin
and corporate shtick that is
relentless, exhausting and
intolerable. DC

Messrs Doherty and Barât, and
the two no one can name,
rehash a rehash on their new
album. The Clashy, Strokesy
songs bowl along blamelessly,
note-perfect homages that
are both absolutely fine and
utterly inconsequential. DC

CLASSICAL
Strauss, Mahler
Ein Heldenleben,
Rückert-Lieder
HHH
Sonya Yoncheva (soprano),
Orchestre symphonique de
Montréal, cond Rafael Payare
Pentatone
Richard
Strauss’s
critics-baiting
1898 tone
poem Ein
Heldenleben,
so exquisite one minute, so
overwrought the next,
receives a middling
performance by the Montreal
14 7 April 2024

orchestra under Payare.
There is an epic sweep to
their playing in Des Helden
Weltflucht und Vollendung,
and the orchestra leader
Andrew Wan is superb in the
passages for solo violin. But
their account lacks a certain
effervescence, although the
recording balance is spot-on.
The Bulgarian operatic
soprano Yoncheva’s reading
of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder is
a similarly mixed bag —
haunting in Um Mitternacht
and Ich bin der Welt abhanden
gekommen, perhaps a little
too light of tone elsewhere.
Much to enjoy, though. DC

Monkey Man
Dev Patel, 18, 121min
HHHH

Dev Patel is back in Mumbai
again for Monkey Man,
retracing familiar ground from
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny
Boyle’s 2008, Bollywoodinspired romp in which Patel
plays a genius street kid who
wins a quiz show. It took best
picture at the Oscars, but has
not aged well, with Boyle
since accused of cultural
appropriation and directing
a film that was, quite simply,
far too long.
Patel, though, was superb.
He was making his big screen
debut fresh off the sex and
drugs headline maker that was
the schooldays TV show Skins
and is now a bona fide movie
star. It is easy to see why — he
plays worried and wired so well
and always looks like he thinks
he is about to be punched.
Such a skill was perfect for
Slumdog, when the authorities
were out for him, and even
more ideal for Monkey Man.
It is an all-in performance

Thriller gorilla Dev Patel plays
a masked boxer on his uppers
and, what’s more, Patel, still
only 33, directs for the first
time (he is also a co-writer).
So yes, he is back in Mumbai
— but now on his own terms.
Monkey Man starts with
Patel’s Kid, the lowest of the
low. He’s a man who puts on
a monkey mask to be knocked
out in a bare-knuckle fighting
ring, but doesn’t even manage
to get the extra 50 per cent
fee for a “bleed bonus”. It is
brutal, and the script is sharp,
with the South African
character actor Sharlto Copley
having a ball as a dodgy MC
who has a line about gamblers
being Muslim, Hindu or, even,
Christian (cue booing), but all
of them only worshipping “the
God of the Rupee”.
Anyway, Kid wants out.
His life is awful, and there is
something else on his mind —
avenging his mother by
snaking into a job in a building
where the nefarious officials
who murdered her take coke

The slum scenes are
more empathetic
than in Slumdog

Theatre

Bad? No, Jacko’s a sensation
How do you make a musical about a pariah? Ignore the scandal
Dominic
Maxwell

MJ: The Musical
Prince Edward, London W1
HHHH

JOHAN PERSSON

and fondle sad women. He
starts work in a kitchen, a man
who knows revenge is a dish
best served by chucking a
curry at some goon’s face.
What a vibrant and kinetic
film this is. Pulsing like
Scorsese in his early years —
albeit on meaner streets. Patel,
who was born in Harrow to
Indian parents, is imbued in
the culture. When his film
visits the slums, with its codes
and fellowship, or the forest,
where there is peace, it feels
more empathetic than the
blockbuster Slumdog. “They
don’t even see us,” Kid says
about the well-off, which
makes the point.
There are lapses in
judgment, though. Kid’s ascent
from street kid to a VIP room
filled with the most important
people in Mumbai — most of
whom he wants to kill — is
far-fetched. Also, he spends
a lot of his time staring into
nothingness in shock, in
places that would get you
killed, while flashbacks are
overladen. So Monkey Man is
not perfect, but it does not
have to be. The film feels alive,
with all the rush of Drive or
Uncut Gems. This is not
Bollywood — nobody sings —
but rhythm is key.
And when the violence
comes, it erupts. Axes, biting,
cutlery, all very bad for the
Mumbai tourist board.
Battered and bruised, Kid is
saved by a Rocky training
montage in a temple of
transsexuals. And, yes, I have
checked my notes, and, yes,
there is perhaps too much
packed in here: corruption,
fascism, spiritualism, Diwali.
But then this is a film about
excess, so let’s celebrate it —
with immense credit to Patel.
His vision and acting pull the
disparate strands together, and
it will be fascinating to see
what he does next.
Finally, hats off to Skins, that
funny, sad, morality-bothering
house party of a Channel 4
series, with Patel just one of
its staggering alumni. Jack
O’Connell is Blake in next
week’s Amy Winehouse biopic
Back to Black; the best thing
about Guy Ritchie’s The
Gentlemen is Kaya Scodelario;
Nicholas Hoult continues to
make bold and interesting
choices; while Daniel Kaluuya
is his generation’s best actor.
Has there ever been a better
TV show for producing the
stars of the future?

It’s a tribute. It’s a jawdroppingly well-staged,
fabulously sung and fluidly
choreographed act of
necromancy. It’s the career
story of one of the most
talented performers of our
lifetimes. MJ: The Musical is
also, as a look back at Michael
Jackson’s career as he prepares
for his Dangerous world tour in
1992, artfully arranged to stop
just short of the moment he
became one of the most
controversial performers of
our lifetimes. It is sometimes
clunky, but never dull. If it
doesn’t contain every last one
of the hits, that’s only because
Jackson had too many of them
to be crammed into his own
jukebox musical.
It’s not, however, the
exclusion of Dirty Diana that
is the talking point here. You
may be wondering how this
mega-budget show addresses
its moonwalking elephant in
the room, the allegations of
child sexual abuse that
surfaced in 1993, went through
two unsuccessful court cases,
but came back into focus with
the release of the documentary
Leaving Neverland in 2019. If
so, you won’t be surprised to
hear that it doesn’t. The
Jackson we see is eccentric,
troubled, impish, soft-spoken
yet steely — but the worst
abuse he dishes out is to be too
demanding on his dancers.
It is a partial account, then,
for all the efforts to show
Jackson’s complexity by Lynn
Nottage, who won Pulitzer
prizes for her plays Ruined and
Sweat. Nottage and the director
and choreographer Christopher
Wheeldon are operating with
the backing of Jackson’s
estate. This is great product
rather than great art. Yet if
you can take it on its own
terms, it’s incredible
entertainment, one of

the best jukebox musicals
I’ve seen. It summons with
uncanny elan the excessive yet
eldritch spirit of its subject.
And in the way it dovetails
between the 1992 rehearsals
and the preceding decades, its
apparitions of former glories
approach the kinetic perfection
that it shows Jackson selfdestructively reaching.
Myles Frost won a Tony for
his turn as Jackson in MJ: The
Musical on Broadway. He
remains a phenomenon here.
If for the first few minutes you
wonder quite what you are
watching, it doesn’t take long
to sink into the fiction that,
yup, this is Jackson. Whether
running the band through Beat
It or owning the stage solo with
Billie Jean, he catches Jackson’s
smooth power and sexless
sensuality. Yet as he negotiates
the MTV interview team who
are there to prompt revelations
from him — “I want to keep this
about my music,” he retorts,
and what Jackson wants Jackson
mostly gets — or quietly
overrules his business
manager’s attempts to keep
him from bankruptcy, he
assumes some of Jackson’s
defiant life force too.
As much as anything,
that force, MJ suggests,
came from the push-pull
between defying and
embodying the influence of
his father, Joseph. Scenes

This is great
product
rather
than
great art

You can’t
beat it Myles
Frost in MJ:
The Musical
HHHHH KO
HHHH A-OK HHH OK
HH So-so H No-no

flash back to rehearsals and TV
shows in the early days, and
the superb Ashley Zhangazha
segues between being the
supportive tour manager Rob
and the taskmaster Joseph
heckling from the sidelines. It’s
a doubling of father figures that
does for MJ what Mr Darling
and Captain Hook do for
Jackson’s beloved Peter Pan.
Given the era of notoriety
that the Jordy Chandler child
abuse accusations kicked off
after the Dangerous tour ended,
which continued until Jackson
died in 2009, there is limited
tension about whether or not
the live show triumphs or flops.
So it’s best to bathe in the
seamless transitions between
decades, the exquisite
embodiment of songs and
dances that conquered the
world. To revel in MJ’s
equivalent of the Beatles
documentary moment when
Paul McCartney makes up Get
Back on the spot: Jackson
(played superbly as a younger
man by Mitchell Zhangazha,
Ashley’s brother), scatting
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
into existence in the studio.
There’s a touch of Wikipedia
to the first half with some
brutally functional dialogue.
The second half has a more
visually led style as Jackson
dances with Bob Fosse and
Fred Astaire or reimagines the
Thriller video with voodoo
visuals. The crowd, quite
rightly, goes crazy.
MJ: The Musical is
neither a hatchet job nor
a hagiography. The pop
star is a saturnine figure
here — a man on a strange
mission, not merely some
misunderstood bringer
of joy. As it ends on a
saccharine note with one of
Jackson’s most saccharine hits,
Man in the Mirror, the singing
is led by the rest of the cast
as if to show that, whatever
Jackson’s other superpowers,
self-examination was not chief
among them. As drama it only
goes so far. As spectacle, as
a celebration of what he
achieved in song and dance,
it’s pretty much sensational.
For tickets, visit thetimes.co.uk/
tickets
7 April 2024 15

Art

Waldemar
Januszczak

There are many reasons to
enjoy — or in my case to love
— Acts of Creation: On Art and
Motherhood at the Arnolfini
gallery in Bristol. The show is
an in-depth examination of the
relationship between mothers
and their children, as seen by
female artists from the 1970s
to now. So it delves into the
deepest human territory there
is: the bearing of babies.
Without which none of us
would be here.
Of course, there are already
plenty of mothers and children
in art. The countless versions
we have of the Madonna
cradling Jesus might even lead
us to believe the topic has been
extensively tackled. It has. But
only by men. The outside view
is familiar. The inside view, a
woman’s view, is not.
Bristol is the first stop of a
touring exhibition, organised
by the Hayward Gallery in
London, that will also arrive
in Birmingham, Sheffield and
Dundee. You really should see
it when it stops near you. It’s
an eye-opener.
Until now, what we have
mostly had in art on the subject
of motherhood have been the
dewy-eyed fantasies of doting
artistic dads. From Perugino to
Picasso, the fathers of art have
gone soppy on us en masse.
But their view has a narrow
angle. On this evidence, and
there is a lot of it, with 60
artists in the show, motherhood
and childbirth have myriad
moods, and none of them is as
uncomplicated as a Madonna
and Child by Botticelli.
To be honest — and I speak
as a fully qualified doting dad
— the amount of resentment,
unhappiness, regret and
frustration on display took me
aback. There is wonder, too,
and occasional flickers of joy,
but they are outnumbered by
the assortment of maternal
sadnesses.
As it travels through Britain,
the show will be reconfigured,
so it is perhaps unfortunate
that in Bristol it commences
with a largely unhappy section
entitled “MAINTENANCE”.
Here women artists who have
had babies remember and, in
the main, lament the impact
that motherhood has had on
their careers.
16 7 April 2024

A different take
on motherhood
There are already plenty of mothers and
children in art — but usually depicted by men.
And the woman’s view is strikingly different
An advancing
threat
Temporary
Reprieve by
Billie Zangewa

You
should
really see
this show.
It’s on tour

Thus Valie Export, previously
an explosive performance artist
associated with the Viennese
Action movement — who could
forget the self-portrait in which
she points a machinegun at us
while striding wide in a pair of
crotchless biker leathers that
show off her pubic mound? —
has metamorphosed into a
glum social satirist. She
comments on her days of
motherhood by photographing
a woman in the pose of a
Renaissance Madonna with a
washing machine full of kids’
laundry pouring out from
between her legs.
More beautifully, more
poetically, Billie Zangewa
from Malawi has sewn a silk
hanging in which her young
boy is asleep on the floor
while the cloth around him
unravels as if to signify an
advancing threat. Considering
that we are talking about
embroidered silk, it is done
with astonishing realism.

So precisely is the show
curated that every artwork
feels as if it is progressing the
story. The talented Barbara
Walker, who should surely
have won the Turner prize last
year when she was shortlisted,
offers a mother’s lament on
her teenage son’s recurring
relations with the police. He’s
been stopped and searched on
numerous occasions. So Walker
draws her images on the
dockets the police sent her to
add evidential poignancy to her
retorts. With kids, the urge to
protect them never diminishes.
Cassie Arnold, from Texas,
provides the event with one of
its showstoppers: a girl’s school
outfit knitted from Kevlar,
the material used to make
bulletproof vests. In everyday
Texas, every child needs one.
As I said, the
“MAINTENANCE” section is in
the wrong place here and only
when you climb upstairs do
you encounter the show’s

rightful beginning. It’s a tribute
to “CREATION”, in which the
display winds back to the
beginning: the days of
pregnancy and expectation.
In 1977 Susan Hiller began
taking weekly close-ups of
her expanding stomach. They
are exhibited in a minimalist
sequence like the phases of the
moon. Less pleasantly, less
positively, Dorothy Cross
commemorates the “joys of
breastfeeding” in a harsh
sculpture in which a baby’s
pillow has been stitched
together with a cow’s udder.
In a show ripe with negativity,
Cross’s bovine teats wobble
with special dismay.
At the centre of it all is a
large gallery called the Temple
in which a ring of female
self-portraitists tackle the state
of motherhood in a lively
sequence, packed, again, with
unexpected issues. Chantal
Joffe, a veteran of the territory
who has devoted much of her
recent art to her daughter,
Esme, shows herself sitting
topless in saggy pants while her
moody offspring sulks next to
her on the settee. The topless
mother looks straight at us.
The sulking child stares at the
floor. Like so much of the art
here, it features the child, but
is principally about the parent.
None of the artists who
continue the story — Paula
Rego, Tracey Emin, Ishbel
Myerscough, Catherine Opie
— says anything straightforward
about motherhood. The image
of uncomplicated joy that art
has generally proposed is
recurringly outed as a masculine
projection. Yet still we do it,
still we need it, still we want it.
In a final section, poignantly
labelled “LOSS”, we witness
various failed attempts at
pregnancy and their bleak
consequences. Another of
the show’s masterpieces, a
photographic story by Elina
Brotherus in which she
remembers her numerous
attempts at IVF, plunges us
into the artist’s depression.
The sequence is called
Annonciation, after those old
master paintings in which
Gabriel tells Mary she is going
to have a child, and that the
child is going to be Jesus. In
Brotherus’s tragic version there
is no child. Only the hope, the
wait, the sadness.
Acts of Creation: On Art and
Motherhood is at the Arnolfini,
Bristol, until May 26

PHOTGRAPH BY LISA WHITING. COURTESY ARNOLFINI AND HAYWARD GALLERY TOURING

The Critics

THURSDAY JUNE 13TH 2024

FRIDAY JUNE 14TH 2024

SATURDAY JUNE 15TH 2024

SUNDAY JUNE 16TH 2024

CHAKA
KHAN
A CELEBRATION OF 50 YEARS IN MUSIC
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

ONLY UK APPEARANCE THIS YEAR
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
PLUS SPECIAL
CIAL GUESTS
GUESTS

SISTER SLEDGE

HEATHER SMALL

THE FATBACK BAND

HEAVEN 17

THE VOICE OF M PEOPLE

MELANIE C SHERYL CROW
CROW
SHAZNAY LEWIS

TRAVEL,L ACCOMMODATION
TRAVE
, ACCOMM ODATI&
ON
VIP&PACKAGES
VI P PACKAG
AVAILABLE
ES AVAI L AB L E

TICKETS
TI
C KE TSON
ON
SALE
SALNOW
E N OW
| NOCTURNELIVE.COM
|
NO CT UR NEL IVE| .CO
@NOCTURNELIVE
M | @ NO CTU RNEL I V E

TURIN BRAKES
TURIN
BRAKES

PREMIERE TOUR

LIVE IN CONCERT
FILM WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA

INCEPTION

E.T.

GLADIATOR

STAR WARS

BATMAN BEGINS

SUPERMAN
HARRY POTTER

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

JURASSIC PARK

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

AND MANY MORE . . .
The very best music from the worlds of film and fantasy.

THE HOBBIT ● PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
STAR WARS ● GAME OF THRONES
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON ● THE WITCHER
Sat 13 Apr
Sun 8 Sept
Sun 10 Nov
Sun 24 Nov

LONDON Royal Festival Hall
BRISTOL Hippodrome
SHEFFIELD City Hall
MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall

7.30pm
3pm
3pm
3pm

The critically acclaimed movie charting
the life and music of the legendary Elton John!
Watch the award winning film as
the London Concert Orchestra plays the score live.

Sat 20 April LONDON Royal Festival Hall
4pm & 8pm
Sat 22 June BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall 7.30pm

Sat 27 Apr
Sat 25 May
Sun 27 Oct
Sat 30 Nov

LEICESTER - De Montfort Hall
LONDON - Royal Festival Hall
OXFORD - New Theatre
SOUTHEND - Cliffs Pavilion

7.30pm
2.30pm
2.30pm & 7pm
7.30pm

2024 TOUR DATES
Fri 19 Apr
Fri 03 May
Sat 04 May
Fri 10 May
Fri 24 May
Fri 04 Oct
Fri 11 Oct
Fri 13 Dec

Legendary DJ Gary Davies brings the UK’s
most popular 80s radio show live on stage.

LEICESTER O2 Academy
EDINBURGH O2 Academy
GLASGOW O2 Academy
SCARBOROUGH Scarborough Spa
BLACKPOOL TOWER
COVENTRY HMV Empire
GUILDFORD G Live
CARDIFF, Tramshed

7pm
7pm
7pm
7pm
6pm
7pm
7pm
7pm

Piano Concerto No. 5
‘Emperor’
Symphony No. 9
‘Choral’
including ‘Ode to Joy’
London Philharmonic Choir
LONDON PHILHARMONIC
ORCHESTRA

SATURDAY 25 MAY 7.30PM
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON southbankcentre.co.uk

Featuring music from
STAR WARS HARRY POTTER INDIANA JONES
JURASSIC PARK CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

SUNDAY 23 JUNE 3.00PM
SYMPHONY HALL, BIRMINGHAM bmusic.co.uk

THE PERFECT TREAT FOR THE EASTER HOLIDAYS

Wagner Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg Overture
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 Holst The Planets
Christopher Warren- Green conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra

SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2.30PM
ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON royalalberthall.com

TICKETS FROM £29.50
Tue 9 Apr 2024 LIVERPOOL Empire

3pm

Fri 12 Apr 2024 EDINBURGH Usher Hall

3pm

Sat 13 Apr 2024 GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall

3pm

Enjoy the much loved film with a live orchestra.
©P&Co. Ltd/ SC 2023

RG Live is the trading name of Raymond Gubbay Ltd.

www.rg.live

Twitter/X @TheTimesBooks
Instagram @thetimesbooks
Facebook Times First Edition

Books
50 years of the
King of horror
In 1974 Stephen King’s first shocker of a novel, Carrie, was published.
Sam Leith salutes his fantastical, creepy and undimmed imagination
he first sight of blood comes only
half a dozen pages into Stephen
King’s vast oeuvre. Carrie, the
telekinetic teenage protagonist of
King’s first novel, experiences the
humiliation of getting her first
period in the communal shower. Her
classmate “felt welling disgust as the first
dark drops of menstrual blood struck the
tile in dime-sized drops”. Soon the blood
comes, literally, in buckets: a drenching
with pails of it as a prank sets off Carrie’s
apocalyptically murderous revenge.
It is 50 years this month since Carrie
was published. It nearly wasn’t; the
manuscript was fished from the
wastepaper basket by the young author’s
wife. This lurid, impassioned little
shocker of a novel didn’t just change
Stephen and Tabitha King’s fortunes. It
marked the arrival of one of the
outstanding writers of popular fiction of
the second half of the 20th century, one
who shows no signs of slowing up a
quarter of the way into the 21st.
What made Carrie work wasn’t the
blood; or wasn’t just the blood. It was
how thoroughly its author inhabited the
rage and shame of that teenage girl,
with her Jesus-jumping mother and her
cruel schoolmates. That imaginative
concentration has been a constant
through his work. King works in

T

20 7 April 2024

From book to
screen From left,
Louise and Lisa Burns
in The Shining (1980);
Kathy Bates in Misery
(1990); Bill Skarsgard
in It (2017); Sissy
Spacek in Carrie
(1976); 1958 Plymouth
Fury in Christine
(1983); River Phoenix
and Wil Wheaton in
Stand by Me (1986);
Michael Clarke
Duncan in The Green
Mile (1999)

His fictional
multiverse is
an omniumgatherum of
things that
go bump in
the night

primary colours, no doubt, but those
colours are super-saturated.
Later books, such as The Stand, It
and those in the Dark Tower series, tell
vast, boisterous, multistranded stories
teeming with subplots and characters.
Other novels and short stories work out
a single idea or situation with a fanatical
intensity of imagination. What if you
had to walk round a narrow ledge on
the outside of a skyscraper (The Ledge)?
What if your whole town was suddenly
cut off from the outside world by a
forcefield (Under the Dome)? What if you
were handcuffed to a bed in a cabin in
the middle of nowhere (Gerald’s Game)?
What if you were stuck in a car with a
giant rabid dog outside (Cujo)? What if
there were a fun run where if you
dropped below four miles an hour you
got a warning, and after three warnings
you got shot (The Long Walk)? What if
there was a portal to Hell beneath north
London’s Crouch End (Crouch End)?
Like all true artists, King follows his
muse where it goes without the faintest
regard to decorum or good taste. Leave
tremulous descriptions of birch leaves
to wannabe literary novelists. Any fool
can do a sunset. King is your man for
horny, rotting corpses in bathtubs (The
Shining) or for the “shit weasel”, a
bristling, muscly caterpillar-cum-leech

Misery

thing with dozens of rows of sharp teeth,
whose signature move is to jump right
up its victim’s bum (Dreamcatcher). He’s
not afraid to be silly. Indeed, he once
ticked off William Blatty of The Exorcist
fame for belonging to the “Humorless,
Thudding Tract” school of horror fiction.
All this puts him in a lineage that
goes back through Ray Bradbury’s
combination of wistfulness and carnival
wildness, through the pulps and the EC
horror comics of his own youth,
through Dickens and Poe and Wilkie
Collins — and beyond them right back
to the myths and folk tales out of which
all storytelling springs and to which
fantasy and horror remain closest. Is
there another horror writer in living
memory to command anything like the
sort of respect and admiration that King
does? Horror has always been the poor
relation among the genres, but King
shows that if you’re good enough at
what you do the genre doesn’t matter.
In terms of imaginative fecundity — of
sheer output and range of characters
and situations — King is in the territory
of Dickens. The huge sales, the screen
adaptations and the fervent fandom
speak to his narrative brio: even when
the plots are ridiculous, he absolutely
hauls you through them. And though
his writing is seldom showy, it is exact
— those “dime-sized drops” — and
contains sublime observational touches.
From Mr Mercedes, for instance:
“At the corner of the building, he
looks back. She’s trying to light another
cigarette, but it’s hard going because
the shakes are back. She’s holding her
disposable Bic in both hands, like a
shooter on the police gun range.”
King lights on the strange little jokes
and mishearings, earworms and
catchphrases, that texture our
thoughts: a “blood bool”, “incunks”,
“dirty birdie”, “Duddits”. In his work
they form the basis for all sorts of
homemade magic. He’s a deeply realist

OLIVIER DOULIERY, ALAMY, SHUTTERSTOCK

The Shining

Christine

It

Carrie

writer of the fantastical. King doesn’t
just write horror stories. He has
dabbled in science fiction, in
postapocalyptic fantasy and the tropes
of westerns and thrillers. In the recent
Bill Hodges Trilogy he turned his hand
to gumshoe crime and did it as deftly as
he does everything else. Some of his
books have little or no supernatural
element. One such, Dolores Claiborne,
is an exercise in voice: an uninterrupted
dramatic monologue in the Maine
dialect King does so well. It tackles
class, female friendship, motherhood,
alcoholism and abuse — and (it being
King) murder.
Horror, though, remains at the heart
of what he does. His default move is to
slip something creepy or supernatural
in. But his naturalistic stories share a
universe with his fantastical ones. In
his world view the universe is larger,
stranger and more terrifying than a
person can comprehend. There is
always more out there. His fictional
multiverse is an omniumgatherum of things that

Stand by Me

go bump in the night. His imaginary
Maine is crawling with homicidal
maniacs, monsters from beyond the
stars, vampires, zombies, ghosts,
psychics, soul-stealers and werewolves.
Better and funnier yet, King’s fictional
universe also contains the works of
Stephen King — and therefore,
presumably, their author. Mr Mercedes
mentions “that TV movie about the
clown in the sewer”. As early as The
Dead Zone in 1979 you find a reference
to “that book Carrie”.
In Danse Macabre, his 1981 nonfiction book about horror, King defined
the term “gothic” as applying to books
“where the past eventually becomes
more important than the present”. The
past is certainly important in his own
books. His heartland is the 1950s Maine
of his childhood, and his recurring
preoccupations are childhood
friendship, teenage lust and small-town
Americana. That supplies the electric
current of feeling in
It and The
Body (the

FIVE GREAT
KING NOVELS
Misery (1987)
A popular novelist
discovers his No 1
fan wants more than
a signed book and
a selfie.
It (1986)
The scariest clown
in literary history
lives in the sewers
under Derry, Maine.
Local nerds gang
up to see it off.
Dolores Claiborne
(1992)
A housekeeper is
accused of killing
her rich employer.
The Shining (1977)
A failing writer
becomes overwinter
caretaker of a highly
haunted hotel and
goes crackers.
Gerald’s Game
(1992) A little
light BDSM
goes south.
Safe word:
“Heeeelp!”

The Green Mile

short story later filmed as Stand by Me)
and the near-fetishistic attention to that
1958 Plymouth Fury in Christine.
As much as his stories are filled with
monsters and blood, they aren’t about
monsters and blood. They are about
power, sex, human connection, loyalty,
trauma and, yes — because it is one of
the most visceral human emotions —
about fear; and its opposite, courage.
He has said that he writes (I paraphrase)
not for the child who’s frightened of the
monster under the bed, but for the adult
who knows with absolute certainty that
there’s no monster under the bed, and
that no clammy, dead hand will shoot
out to grab your ankle ... but who
nevertheless stays tucked in just to be
on the safe side. So if the cosmology of
this ghosts-and-monsters-stuffed
universe doesn’t add up that doesn’t
really matter: he’s interested in what
imagination can make of the world.
And, accordingly, he is a writer for
whom a recurring subject is writing
itself. There are at least as many
novelists in King’s novels as there are
in those of Rachel Cusk or JM Coetzee.
The principal protagonist of It, Bill
Denbrough, is a novelist. The Dark Half
investigates the bifurcation of a
novelist’s imagination. The Shining is
about a blocked writer (and alcoholism;
King wrote it during his own addiction).
Misery plays on a popular writer’s
relationship with his fandom. Lisey’s
Story investigates the afterlife of a writer
(the protagonist is a novelist’s widow).
Billy Summers, whose protagonist is a
novelist/hitman, contains an Ian
McEwanish metafictional rug-pull. One
of the subplots of his latest book, Holly,
is about the making of a poet.
King’s only two significant works of
non-fiction, On Writing and Danse
Macabre, have both been about writing:
how it’s done and why it’s done. It’s a
subject on which he has bloody well
earned the right to be heard.
7 April 2024 21

Books
ALAMY

Nature
The Rising Down Lives
in a Sussex Landscape
by Alexandra Harris
Faber £25 pp490

John Walsh
Romanticism didn’t begin
with Wordsworth’s dancing
daffodils. In the 1760s, some
thirty years before the
Cumbrian bard suggested that
nature was alive and interested
in the minds of men, the
naturalist Gilbert White rode
across West Sussex to visit his
aunt. He gazed at the Sussex
Downs and saw, he said, some
“growth in their swellings
and smooth fungus-like
protuberances … that carry
at once the air of vegetative
dilation and expansion”. In
simpler words, he saw a land
that was breathing and growing.
Observations such as
White’s are music to the ears
of Alexandra Harris. Her
well-received 2015 work
Weatherland explored how
painters, poets and scribes
have responded to England’s
changing weather over the
years, seeing rainclouds as
weeping or the wind as wanton.
Her new book concentrates on
the landscape of Harris’s native
West Sussex, examining how
writers, artists and locals have,
over centuries, considered its
contours and reflected on its
moods. Her main aim, she says,
was “to watch what happened
when people I associated with
other landscapes set foot on
earth I knew”.
So we see JMW Turner and
John Constable showing up,
years apart, at Petworth House,
a fabulous Sussex landmark, as
guests of Lord Egremont, an
arts patron. Their responses to
the place contrasted sharply.
Turner was dazzled by “the
boundless park with spectral
deer”, whereas Constable
covered his fancy dressing table
with “pieces of bark with
lichens and mosses adhering
to them” that he had brought
home from his morning walks.
Harris captures Constable’s
delight in finding a canoe that
was probably paddled on the
river in the 12th century when
the local churches were being
built and his fascination with
the old brick watermill on
Swanbourne Lake, the subject
of his last painting, Arundel
Mill and Castle.
22 7 April 2024

Fired up by the
joy of Sussex
A native of West Sussex shows how Blake, Turner,
Ravilious and a host of other artists and writers
became inspired by the county’s rolling downs
Decades earlier we find
another arts patron, William
Hayley, inviting the poet
William Cowper to join a jollysounding party at Eartham,
near Chichester, in the summer
of 1792. Other guests included
George Romney, the most
fashionable society artist of his
day, and Charlotte Smith, who
was writing “a romance of
illicit loves” set on the south
coast. But Cowper, a
hypochondriac, wasn’t happy.
“We shiver’d constantly with
cold,” he complained and
found Eartham “nothing but
one vast and desolate country,
much like that where Don Juan
Fernández uttered his
mournful soliloquy”. He was
referring to the uninhabited
islands, named after a Spanish
explorer, on one of which
Alexander Selkirk was
marooned for four years,
inspiring Daniel Defoe to write
Robinson Crusoe — and Cowper
to write his poem about Selkirk
that starts: “I am monarch of

Sussex boy
Chalk Paths
1935 by Eric
Ravilious

William
Blake felt
celestial
voices
could be
heard
there

all I survey …” Yes, Cowper
gazed on the rolling downs and
agreeable climate of West
Sussex, and really hated it.
Hayley also invited William
Blake to Sussex in 1800. Blake
was in trouble, struggling to
pay the rent in London and
suffering from a notundeserved reputation as a
madman, who walked about
naked and saw visions. His
trip south was a great success.
Blake had never seen the sea
before, loved his thatched
cottage and approved of the
local chatter. “Voices of
celestial inhabitants are more
distinctly heard [here],” he
informed Hayley, “and their
forms more distinctly seen.”
Even the soft furnishings
took on a mystic quality. When
his landlord, a Mr Grinder, put
in new rugs, Blake felt “that he
was carpeting the stairs for
angels”. The sea shore was
inspirational too. Harris thinks
it was here that he wrote
Auguries of Innocence, which

starts: “To see a world in a
grain of sand ...”
I admired Harris’s immersion
in archaeological research. She
buries herself in parish records
of petty thefts, clergymen’s tax
returns, a water-bailiff’s record
of swan-ownership … (To be
honest, I struggled to care
about, for example, the people
charged with felling trees
belonging to the Earl of
Northumberland.) Sometimes,
her immersion goes too far. At
one point she finds that a local
historian has drawn a plan of
his church, labelled the pews
and written thumbnail sketches
of who sat in each. Harris coolly
hijacks his descriptions with
some Lawrentian prose of her
own (“The dry rock had dried
him out. His fingers were
prunes, his voice croaky …”)
She explains that “these are
fictions … made from the
materials of the place, the
political and religious contexts
I was trying to grasp”, but
leaves the reader puzzled about
the ethics of making up stuff in
a work of history.
In the 20th century Eric
Ravilious, the watercolour
celebrant of the Sussex
countryside, gets a single
namecheck for a woodcut he
engraved in 1936 in a new
edition of Gilbert White’s The
Natural History of Selborne
(1789). It shows White beside
a dead moose. The creature
had been shipped over from
Canada in 1768 by the third
Duke of Richmond to be part
of the menagerie at Goodwood
House. Ravilious shows it
pathetically slung from the
rafters of a greenhouse,
resembling (Harris smartly
observes) a Damien Hirst calf
suspended in formaldehyde.
And we find Ford Madox
Ford, the author of The Good
Soldier, sequestered in
Fittleworth in 1919, living an
idyllic life in a labourer’s
cottage with a fresh-water
spring under an oak tree. In an
article, however, he described
how war had skewed his sense
of landscape. From the moment
German troops crossed the
Belgian border, “aspects of the
earth no longer existed for me
… There were no nooks, no
little, sweet corners; there were
no assured homes, countries,
provinces or kingdoms. All the
earth held its breath and
waited.” It’s a profoundly dark
thought in a book stuffed with
stories of nature’s power to
move, comfort and inspire.

FC HUNT AFTER EGO (M EGERTON), C 1825. WELLCOME COLLECTION

A phantom
illness! Call
Dr Google
This history of hypochondria shows
that the internet is ‘the most expansive
and spacious playground that the
condition has ever had’
History
A Body Made of Glass
A History of Hypochondria
by Caroline Crampton
Granta £16.99 pp336

Sophie McBain
In the 2nd century the Greek
physician Galen of Pergamon
wrote of a strange condition in
which a “melancholic” person
becomes convinced that he is
made of pottery and begins
avoiding others for risk of
being broken. By the late 14th
century this same delusion had
assumed a slightly different
form and sufferers became
convinced that their bodies
were made of glass and were
liable to shatter.
The French king Charles VI
became gripped by this fear
after suffering what we would
now call a breakdown during
a military campaign in 1392
and had his clothing reinforced
with iron rods. A possibly
exaggerated 17th-century
account by a French royal
physician described a Parisian
glassmaker who believed his
buttocks were made of glass
and went round with a small
cushion affixed to his behind.
The glass delusion resurfaced
as late as 1964, when a Dutch
doctor met a patient who
thought his body had become
as transparent as a window.
The glass delusion is not the
same as hypochondria, but they
share a similar preoccupation
with human fragility. The
history of hypochondria shows
how our fears about our bodies
change over time: the modern
hypochondriac is unlikely to be
fearful about an excess of black
bile, but they do worry about

cancer, Alzheimer’s or some
other awful neurological
condition. In fact, far from
assuaging our health fears,
advances in modern medicine
tend to fuel them: the more we
learn about the body the more
we find to worry about.
The internet is “the most
expansive and spacious
playground that hypochondria
has ever had”, writes Caroline
Crampton, an author,
podcaster and self-described
hypochondriac, in her deeply
researched, subtly argued
history of the condition.
Before Google, hypochondriacs
had fewer ways to torture
themselves when they woke
with a headache at 3am; they
were less likely to stumble
across an account of some
obscure and horrifying illness
and inevitably think: “Oh my
God, that’s what I have.”
A Body Made of Glass is
written with elegance and
flashes of humour.
Hypochondria is after all
comical and faintly ridiculous
— it turns otherwise rational
people into neurotic
oversharers desperate to talk
to anyone who will listen about
the weird lump they found on
their balls — and it’s also not
funny at all. “To take the
hypochondriac seriously
would be to acknowledge that
we are always standing much
closer to the edge than we
realise,” Crampton writes.
It’s hard to trace the history
of a condition as slippery as
hypochondria, but Crampton
is skilled at uncovering hidden
connections, charting how
ideas about health and
medicine rise, fall and
re-emerge over centuries.
She writes about famous
hypochondriacs such as Freud,

I’m dying! An 1825 drawing of a hypochondriac

For $20 a
pop you
can buy
inactive
pills for
your own
placebo
regimen

BUY FROM
OUR ONLINE
BOOKSHOP
All titles
reviewed can
be bought at
timesbookshop.
co.uk or call
020 3176 2935.
Discount for
Times+
members

Darwin, Larkin and Donne and
is as comfortable writing about
South Park as she is analysing
ancient Babylonian poetry.
She studies the oldest
known Egyptian medical
document, the Kahun
Gynaecological Papyrus, which
dates from about 1800BC and
kicked off the rich tradition of
blaming almost every women’s
health complaint on some
kind of womb malfunction.
One long-suffering ancient
Egyptian woman with a
toothache was advised that she
had “toothache of the womb”
and needed to have “the urine
of an ass” poured on her.
In ancient Egyptian
papyruses Crampton also
finds an attempt to develop a
scientific approach to illness
combined with a magical
thinking that she argues has
never left medicine. Doctors
have renewed their interest
in the role that our beliefs
and expectations play in how
well medicine works. We’re
learning that the placebo effect
is so powerful that it works
even when a person is told
they have been given a

placebo. In a modern twist
on medical quackery, the
company Zeebo even sells, at
$20 a pop, packets of inactive
pills for anyone who wants to
combat any ailment with their
own placebo drug regimen.
Crampton includes an
account of her own struggles
with hypochondria, and these
passages form some of the most
memorable and vivid parts of
the book. She was diagnosed
with Hodgkin’s lymphoma aged
17 and underwent gruelling
rounds of chemotherapy and
a stem-cell transplant before
being declared cured at 22. In
a story that will haunt anyone
even slightly prone to
hypochondria, she describes
finding a photograph of herself
aged 17, dancing and smiling
with a friend at a school party,
the tennis-ball-size tumour
that she hadn’t yet discovered
already clearly visible by her
collarbone, “big enough to cast
its own shadow on my neck”.
How long had those
cancerous cells been there, she
wondered after. How could she
not have noticed the lump? It’s
little wonder that she would
remain on high alert, more
acutely aware than most of the
terrifying truth that sometimes
the harmless-seeming niggle
really is the start of something
catastrophic. “Hypochondria
is merely the human condition
with the comforting fictions
stripped away,” she writes.
Crampton concludes that
her hypochondria may partly
be a trauma response,
something inscribed in her
body as much as in her mind.
Despite her initial scepticism
she has some success with eye
movement desensitisation and
reprocessing, a new form of
therapy for trauma-related
problems that requires her to
revisit traumatic memories —
such as the moment she learnt
she had cancer — while moving
her eyes from right to left.
But anyone reading this
book hoping for a cure for their
hypochondria will be left
disappointed: like an anxious
late-night Google search, it
leaves you with more questions
than answers, and an uncertain
prognosis. The best anyone can
do, Crampton suggests, is learn
to accept this uncertainty, to
stop expecting medicine to
have all the answers, to let go
of the need for a resolution.
Hypochondria is at root a fear
of death, and we haven’t found
a cure for that either.
7 April 2024 23

Books

Huck Finn — the slave’s version
Book of the week
James
by Percival Everett
Mantle £20 pp320

Johanna
Thomas-Corr
“Humour is an interesting
thing,” Percival Everett
remarked to an interviewer
in 2004. “If you can get
someone laughing, then you
can make them feel like shit
a lot more easily.”
These two responses —
laughing and feeling like
shit — are never far apart in
Everett’s 30-plus works of
fiction, which tended to be
politely passed over until a
few years ago, when they were

The
Sunday
Times
Bestsellers
of 2024
(so far)

abruptly recognised as one
of the most vital oeuvres in
modern American literature.
Everett, 67, came to the
attention of many British
readers when The Trees (2022),
a dark farce about a spate of
lynchings of white people in
Mississippi, was shortlisted for
the Booker prize. This was
followed by the success of the
movie American Fiction,
which won the Oscar
for best adapted
screenplay last
month. Its source
material was Erasure
(2001), Everett’s savage
satire on the publishing
industry’s ghettoisation of
black American writers.

Slaves
adopt
dialect
to flatter
white
owners

Savagely funny
Percival Everett

General hardbacks

1

Charles III
Robert Hardman
(Macmillan £22)
The royal biographer’s portrait of
King Charles III and his first year on
the throne (32,920)

And now comes James,
which gives every appearance
of being the book that seals his
legacy. It is Everett’s reworking
of a foundational American
text, Mark Twain’s Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn. Everett,
who describes himself as
“pathologically ironic”, says
he read the novel 15 times in
succession, the better to
subvert it for his own ends.
Twain’s classic was
published in 1884, although it is
set 20 years previously in the
antebellum south. It is narrated
by 13-year-old Huck, who fakes
his death to flee his abusive
father, intending to camp
out on an island in the
Mississippi River.
Here he crosses paths
with the runaway
slave Jim, who has

heard he is about to be sold —
but has now accidentally
implicated himself in Huck’s
supposed murder.
In Huck’s narration Jim is
a good-natured, superstitious
man who speaks in slave
dialect (which Twain assures
us in his foreword is authentic).
Everett’s version is narrated by
Jim — and he’s angry and
poker-faced from the very first
line: “Those little bastards
were hiding out there in the tall
grass.” He’s referring to two of
the best-loved characters in
American literature, Huck and
his friend Tom Sawyer, who
plan to trick him while he
sleeps. Only here Jim is awake.
He plays along because “it
always pays to give white folks
what they want”.
The conceit deepens. Jim,

General paperbacks

Weeks in
top 10
6

1

Atomic Habits
James Clear
(Random House Business £17.99)
The minuscule changes that can
grow into life-altering outcomes
(71,545)

Weeks in
top 10
132

2

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
Julie Smith (Michael Joseph £16.99)
Clinical psychologist’s advice for
navigating life’s ups and downs (23,010)

89

2

Food for Life Tim Spector
(Vintage £12.99)
The epidemiologist reveals insights based
on the latest science of eating well (59,200)

13

3

Politics on the Edge Rory Stewart
(Jonathan Cape £22)
The challenges and absurdities of political
life are revealed by the former MP (22,390)

19

3

The Wager David Grann
(Simon & Schuster £10.99)
The story of HMS Wager, wrecked in 1741,
and the mutiny that followed (46,585)

12

4

Wild Hope Donna Ashworth
(Black & White £12.99)
Poems and writings to help to find peace, hope
and inspiration during dark days (22,380)

11

4

Surrounded by Idiots Thomas Erikson
(Vermilion £10.99)
How understanding personality types can
improve human interaction (25,635)

89

5

Ultra-Processed People Chris van Tulleken
(Cornerstone £22)
Investigating the science and economics
of highly processed food (21,920)

31

5

4 Weeks to Better Sleep Michael Mosley
(Short £14.99)
The science of sleep explored and the
secret to a good night’s rest (22,625)

7

And don’t forget
romantasy. Six novels
in the fiction hardback
chart march under the
colours of femalefriendly fantasy.

6

Gabrielle Chanel Oriole Cullen and
Connie Karol Burks (V&A £40)
Exploring some of Chanel’s notable designs
from her 60 years in fashion (21,910)

7

6

The Psychology of Money Morgan Housel
(Harriman House £14.99)
A series of short essays on the strange ways
people think about money (18,205)

11

7

The Diary of a CEO Steven Bartlett
(Ebury Edge £20)
The podcaster and entrepreneur reveals his
principles for business and life (19,475)

18

7

Strong Female Character Fern Brady
(Brazen £10.99)
The stand-up comedian’s memoir on growing
up with undiagnosed autism (17,955)

6

For this week’s
bestsellers, go to
thetimes.co.uk

8

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing
Matthew Perry (Headline £25)
The Friends star on fame, fortune and
his struggles with addiction (16,515)

23

8

Masters of the Air Donald L Miller
(Ebury £8.99)
The story of the American Eighth Air Force
and its fight against the Nazis (17,525)

8

9

Unruly David Mitchell
(Michael Joseph £25)
Tales of England’s monarchs from the comedian
and Cambridge history alumnus (16,195)

16

9

Damaged Cathy Glass
(HarperCollins £8.99)
The story of a violent and aggressive girl
failed by the social care system (16,910)

17

10

This Book May Save Your Life Karan Rajan
(Century £18.99) The NHS surgeon and star of social
media sorts medical facts from fiction (15,105)

3

10

The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk
(Penguin £12.99) On psychological trauma and
an alternative approach to healing (16,550)

23

The first quarter of the
year is over, so which
books have you been
buying in 2024? The
winner by a large
margin is Nathan
Anthony’s slowcooking recipe book,
Bored of Lunch.

The lists are prepared
by and the data is supplied
by (and copyrighted to)
Nielsen BookScan,
and are taken from the
TCM for the 12-week period
ending 23/03/24.

24 7 April 2024

ALAMY. INSET: DAVID LEVENSON/GETTY IMAGES

Jim is a black man stuck in a white man’s story. This clever, funny rewrite sets him free at last

it transpires, is literate — when
he is bitten by a rattlesnake, he
hallucinates an argument with
Voltaire — and the slaves adopt
their dialect only to flatter
their white owners. Jim
instructs his daughter, Lizzie,
and the other children to do
the same, making them chant:
“The better they feel, the safer
we are.”
“February, translate that.”

American
classic Elijah
Wood as Huck
and Courtney
B Vance as
Jim in The
Adventures
of Huck Finn,
1993

Fiction hardbacks

1

2

“Da mo’ betta dey feels, da
mo’ safer we be.”
Jim is all too aware that
language presents the greatest
threat to white supremacy.
“What would they do to a slave
who knew what a hypotenuse
was, what irony meant, how
retribution was spelled?”
We have a pretty good idea
what the answer is — as it is
clear from the beginning that
the stakes for the two soon-tobe-runaways are very different.
For Huck, the trip down the
Mississippi is a youthful
odyssey, never too far from
playing. For Jim, simply to be
seen without a white adult
master all but guarantees that
he will endure a violent death.
Huck can afford to enjoy
the scenery. For Jim it is an
environment of pure hostility.
We hear Jim’s deadpan
reactions to snakes, murderers,
liars, thieves, swindlers, mad
men and conmen. But the most
malevolent figures are those
that wear the clothes of the
“good master”. Here we get a

Weeks in
top 10

House of Flame and Shadow
Sarah J Maas
(Bloomsbury £22)
Stranded in a strange world, Bryce
Quinlan strives to return home to
Midgard (59,210)

4

Iron Flame Rebecca Yarros
(Piatkus £22)
Violet Sorrengail’s second year at Basgiath War
College; sequel to Fourth Wing (36,740)

15

very different take on Huck’s
protector, Judge Thatcher, who
experienced a “tinge of
pleasure” when he whipped
13-year-old Jim. There are also
ingenious additions. Daniel
Decatur Emmett, the real-life
founder of the first blackface
minstrel show, pays $200 to
buy Jim as a tenor for his
troupe. This creates a typical
Everettian inversion: Jim must
black up to pass as white.
“Never has a situation felt so
absurd, surreal and
ridiculous,” Jim thinks. “And I
had spent my life as a slave.”
If Everett’s fiction has a
sizable preoccupation, it’s the
erasure of humanity that
happens when black people
are stuck in white people’s
stories, at the mercy of their
prejudices, assumptions and
failures of imagination.
Humour and playfulness
emerge as a sign of resistance
to being pinned down and
reduced to a stereotype.
If I have one quibble, it’s
that Everett often sacrifices

Fiction paperbacks

1

2

One Day
David Nicholls
(Hodder £9.99)
The story of two close friends, told on
the same day over a 20-year period
(86,120)
I Will Find You Harlan Coben
(Penguin £9.99)
An innocent father jailed for his son’s murder
receives news he may still be alive (80,370)

Weeks in
top 10
53

2

38

3

The Housemaid Freida McFadden
(Little, Brown £9.99)
Hired as a live-in maid, an ex-con finds her
employers difficult to work for (79,590)

13

4

The Last Devil to Die Richard Osman
(Viking £22)
The Thursday Murder Club probe the murder
of an old friend in the antiques trade (29,690)

26

4

None of This Is True Lisa Jewell
(Penguin £9.99)
The lives of a true crime podcaster and one
of her guests become intertwined (74,450)

4

5

The Island Swimmer Lorraine Kelly
(Orion £20)
A woman returns to her family home on Orkney
after her estranged dad falls ill (21,235)

4

5

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage £9.99)
The story of two friends brought together
by a shared love of video games (73,405)

34

6

Faebound Saara El-Arifi
(HarperVoyager £16.99)
A fatal mistake leads a warrior in an elven army to
be exiled into the terrifying wilderness (19,605)

1

6

The Housemaid’s Secret Freida McFadden
(Little, Brown £9.99)
A maid suspects her new employer is hiding
dark secrets behind a locked door (59,555)

2

8

1

Bored of Lunch:
Healthy Slow Cooker:
Even Easier
Nathan Anthony
(Ebury £20)
More slow cooker
recipes, all under 500
calories (151,285)

13

Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros
(Piatkus £20)
A young woman is among many candidates to
become an elite dragon rider (31,555)

The Secret Lee Child and Andrew Child
(Bantam £22)
Jack Reacher races to discover the link between
a series of suspicious deaths (14,955)

Manuals
Weeks
in top 10
12

3

7

poetry for pace. Several scenes
are sketchy, like provisional
marks on a page. But pace has
a quality of its own: we get a
novel that feels urgent and
which glows with intelligence
and imagination.
I’m wary of making grand
claims for fiction, but James has
the potential to become a
classic text, one that conveys
in the most compelling voice
the absolute stupidity of
slavery. In shifting the
emphasis and insisting on Jim’s
agency, Everett creates
something thrilling, bold and
profound. If Huck is the
embodiment of the plucky
American spirit, he is also
immature, naive, protected — a
child. It is Jim, the jaded mind
in the scarred black body, who
is the responsible adult in the
great American adventure. It is
he who makes the significant
decisions regarding what to
disclose and when his white
audience might be ready to
hear it. He makes us feel that
the game is very much on.

Weeks
in top 10
53

3
Weeks
in top 10
14

4

14

7

Homecoming Kate Morton
(Pan £9.99)
A journalist looks into a long-buried cold case
discovered in a true crime book (58,650)

4

A Fate Inked in Blood Danielle L Jensen
(Del Rey £16.99)
A fisherman’s wife, blessed by the gods, battles to
unite a nation; Norse-inspired fantasy (14,115)

1

8

The Lucky Penny Dilly Court
(HarperCollins £8.99)
The story of a young woman rescued from
a life of poverty on London’s streets (55,990)

4

9

Good Material Dolly Alderton
(Fig Tree £18.99)
A struggling stand-up comedian tries to solve the
puzzle of his broken relationship (13,370)

11

9

Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus
(Penguin £9.99)
In 1960s America a chemist becomes the
star of a TV cooking show (53,905)

10

Empire of the Damned Jay Kristoff
(HarperVoyager £22) Gabriel de León tries to deliver
the Holy Grail to ancients of the Blood Esani (13,255)

1

10

Killing Moon Jo Nesbo
(Vintage £9.99) Harry Hole is enticed back to Oslo
to hunt a killer targeting young women (53,890)

48

4

Weeks
in top 10
38

5
Weeks
in top 10
6

Bored of Lunch:
The Healthy Air Fryer
Book
Nathan Anthony
(Ebury £20)
Fuss-free recipes for
the oven alternative
(55,485)
Pinch of Nom: Express
Kate Allinson and
Kay Allinson
(Bluebird £22)
Quick and easy recipes
designed to fit around
busy everyday life
(52,375)
Murdle
GT Karber
(Souvenir £14.99)
A collection of 100
original murder
mystery logic puzzles
for armchair detectives
(50,295)
Deliciously Ella:
Healthy Made Simple
Ella Mills
(Yellow Kite £22)
Plant-based recipes
that take less than
30 minutes to make
(42,590)

7 April 2024 25

Drugs
Tripped Nazi Germany,
the CIA and the Dawn of
the Psychedelic Age
by Norman Ohler
Atlantic £18.99 pp240

Will Lloyd
Drugs, like wars, are dangerous.
The German author Ernst
Jünger feasted on both. As a
young soldier in the kaiser’s
army he fought furiously in the
trenches, before burying
himself under mountains of
Weimar Berlin’s cocaine. As he
aged, Jünger’s taste in chemical
delicacies grew more refined:
hashish, morphine, peyote.
His novel Heliopolis (1949) is set
in a dystopian future city
where a scientist defies its
miseries through drug-induced
mental voyages. But how did
his “psychonaut” uncover
dreamlike truths?
The method had a formula:
C20 H25 N3 O, or lysergic acid
diethylamide — LSD. This
unbelievably potent, egodissolving drug was discovered
and first ingested by a friend of
Jünger’s, the Swiss chemist
Albert Hofmann. While Jünger
was one of the greatest artists
to enjoy the drug — JG Ballard
tried it once in 1967, said it
opened up a “vent into hell”
and refused to take anything
stronger than a whisky and
soda ever again — it is Hofmann,
not Jünger, who is the hero of
Norman Ohler’s entertaining
study of LSD, Tripped.
Ohler has experimented
with drugs before. He is the
author of Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi
Germany. This rampant
account of cocaine, heroin,
morphine and, above all,
methamphetamine-addled
Nazis was controversial with
traditional historians. The way
Ohler told it, the Nazis were
just colossally spangled and
the invasion of France was
powered by pills, not Panzers.
Tripped is a less provocative
tale, replete with accounts of
tripping. The first is Hofmann’s
— Friday, April 16, 1943.
“With my eyes closed (I
found the daylight unpleasantly
harsh),” Hofmann wrote in his
lab notes, “fantastical images of
extraordinary plasticity and
with an intense kaleidoscopelike play of colours pressed in
on me without cease.” Three
days later Hofmann ups the
dose, “a massive trip” begins,
26 7 April 2024

How Hitler
killed acid
LSD was hailed as a wonder medicine and
mind expander — until interest from the
Nazis turned it into a dangerous weapon
and he emerges with the
revelation that lysergic acid
diethylamide was the “most
potent substance heretofore
known”. Extraordinary powers
were contained within LSD.
And over the next quarter of
a century those powers were
celebrated, and then feared.
How did LSD, considered
“the most promising
pharmaceutical development of
all time”, with the potential to
relieve dementia, depression
and anxiety disorders, end up
disreputable, derided and
banned across every time zone?
Enter the Nazis, yet again.
As the war swung towards the
Allies, and plots against Hitler
intensified, the Nazis began to
study the use of psychedelics
as potential truth serums for
interrogations. Tripped explains
how this Nazi taint led the CIA
to believe the drug was a
dangerous weapon rather than
a revolutionary medicine.
By the end of the 1940s the
Americans believed that the
Soviet Union might want to
weaponise the drug. Spooks

Trip out The
Nazis studied
psychedelics
as potential
truth serums

BUY FROM
OUR ONLINE
BOOKSHOP
All titles
reviewed can
be bought at
timesbookshop.
co.uk or call
020 3176 2935.
Discount for
Times+
members

thought that LSD had potential
as a “psychotomimetic”
weapon: “a substance that
made it possible to look at the
psyche as if under a magnifying
glass”. That would be
incalculably useful during the
Cold War, a “fight for the brains
of the people of the world”.
In the 1950s the CIA carried
out “the most systematic
research that had ever been
conducted in the field of
human consciousness”, with
LSD playing a significant role.
This was a story involving front
organisations, dodgy funds,
bizarre experiments, scientists,
assassinations, magicians, spies
and hookers. During the
infamous “MKUltra”
programme, for instance, the
CIA set up a soundproofed,
camera-stuffed pad in New
York. There, the agency bruiser
Sidney Gottlieb could “secretly
test LSD — not on his colleagues
[he’d done that] or at
universities, but in the wild.”
What happened in the safe
house “remains shrouded in
darkness” — all recordings and

photographs were destroyed.
Another mission, Operation
Midnight Climax, used
prostitutes to lure individuals
into the CIA’s net, where they
could be dosed with
“substances they didn’t even
know existed”. As Ohler stacks
up these morally queasy
missions, you wonder what
the CIA is getting up to now.
Framed initially as a
therapeutic medicine, then
used as a weapon, LSD finally
became a narcotic in the 1960s.
Under the dubious banner of
Timothy Leary, the Harvard
professor who urged the
children of America to “Turn
on, tune in, drop out”, acid,
along with magic mushrooms,
became synonymous with the
countercultural moment.
When Allen Ginsberg took
shrooms at Leary’s house, he
ripped his clothes off and tried
to run through the streets of
Boston to spread the good
news: “Leary held him back — it
was winter and freezing cold
outside — Ginsberg grabbed the
nearest telephone and tried to
call the US president, the
general secretary of the USSR
and Mao Zedong.” If only
politicians could get high, chill
out and learn to love each
other! But Ginsberg’s calls went
unanswered. Lyndon B Johnson
did not want to get high. The
US government, unnerved by
the emerging youth culture,
declared LSD an illegal
substance in 1966.
For Ohler this is a moment
when history failed to turn,
when the drug’s medical
potential was ignored. His
argument will please old-school
hippies and the growing
numbers of investors who see
psychedelics as their next
pharmaceutical pay day. The
money men are moving hard
into psychedelic therapy, and
what Ohler grandly calls “the
spectre of legalisation” looms
over the West.
It’s hard to imagine a field
more promising, and also
more susceptible to quackery.
Tripped shows the fearful
life-giving and death-dealing
powers of psychedelics. Ernst
Jünger was alive to these
potentialities. He would,
perhaps, find it amusing to
see where they have ended
up today, with microdosed
LSD being put forward in trite
ways to optimise productivity.
The psychonauts are gone,
but their drugs will be with us
for years to come.

MONTAGE. ORIGINALS: GETTY IMAGES

Books

Prepare to be
pummelled
In this thumping good read, teenage
female boxers struggle in and out of the
ring as they battle each other for a prize
Fiction
Headshot
by Rita Bullwinkel
Daunt £9.99 pp256

Laura Hackett
Izzy Lang is 17, and the past
two years of her life have been
utterly dedicated to boxing.
“She has made every decision
in her life based on boxing:
what time she wakes up, where
she practises, where she works
after she practises, the clothes
she wears.” She has been
working towards a singular,
clearly defined goal, and today,
at the Daughters of America
tournament, a national
competition for women’s
boxing, she has the chance to

realise that goal. But she isn’t
alone: there are eight teenage
girls competing in the semifinals, and each of them has
sacrificed time, money, beauty
(and boys) to make it this far.
Only one can win.
A sports tournament is a
fantastic structure for a novel,
and in her red-hot, fast-paced
debut, Headshot, Rita
Bullwinkel uses it to great
effect. She so perfectly
captures the emotions of a
fight that I was surprised to
discover that she hasn’t boxed.
Bullwinkel was a competitive
water polo player in her teens,
so understands the strangeness
of travelling across the country
to sports centres that all look
the same, the odd relationship
between strangers competing
against each other, and the

Eye of the
tigress Each
teenage
fighter has
her own fears

Rachel
shouts ‘I’m
a toaster’
to psych
out her
rivals

iron commitment of an athlete.
She introduces us to the girls
fight by fight. The use of the
present tense, which in most
novels becomes irritating after
a while, here ramps up the
simmering tension: “Rachel
Doricko’s right arm is like a
rubber band that has
repeatedly been pulled back.
It snaps onto Kate Heffer with
loud, quick snaps.” The
paragraphs are short —
becoming staccato in the white
heat of a bout — so each one
feels like a punch itself.
But there is more than
adrenaline-fuelled action here.
Each character has their own
hopes, anxieties and specific
brand of insanity. Andi can’t

stop thinking about the little
boy she couldn’t save as a
lifeguard, about his “corn-dogsized thigh” in her grip and
“his blue cheeks”. Artemis has
two elder sisters already
holding their own in women’s
boxing: her family are royalty
in this tiny world. Rachel is the
maverick who shouts “I’m a
toaster” to psych out her
opponents. Kate counts out the
first 50 digits of pi as she fights.
Izzy and Iggy are cousins, made
to engage in the psychological
weirdness of beating each other
up. Tanya’s mother walked out
on her. Rose is a Catholic who
sees boxing as another rosary.
We also get glimpses,
sometimes comforting,
sometimes tragic, into their
futures: Rachel will be a grocery
store manager, Kate an event
planner and, thanks to the
broken fingers over the years,
“when Artemis is 60 she won’t
be able to hold a cup of tea”.
Perhaps most impressive is
that in each of the fights it is
genuinely unclear from the
start who might win. Bullwinkel
does not cave in to clichés:
“People are called underdogs
for a reason.” It all adds up to
an ambitious, exciting debut.
You emerge from it sweaty,
pummelled and ready for
your next fight.

Discover one of David Bowie’s favourite writers
The freewheeling
Rupert Thomson has
not had the recognition
that he deserves
Fiction
How to Make a Bomb
by Rupert Thomson
Head of Zeus £20 pp432

GETTY IMAGES, SVETA MISHINA

Robert Collins
In Rupert Thomson’s 14th novel, a
lowly historian at a conference in
Bergen leaves behind his wife and
son after the beep on a tram’s card
reader lands him with a nauseating
hypersensitivity to modern life (“He
was sickened by the living … he felt
besieged by announcements”). It’s
a Kafkaesque moment — random,
life-changing — from a novelist who
has arguably been better loved by
fans and his fellow writers (David

Bowie picked Thomson’s novel The
Insult as one of the 100 books that
changed his life) than critics and
literary prize panels.
Thomson’s fiction is littered with
characters abruptly removed from
their lives. His novels have featured
a baby called Moses being freed
from a police state in the English
countryside (Dreams of Leaving,
1987), a male dancer being
kidnapped in Amsterdam and kept
as a sexual captive by a group of
cloaked women (The Book of
Revelation, 1999) and a woman
born by IVF seeking out her father
in Russia by following the clues
of total strangers (Katherine
Carlyle, 2015).
With their cosmopolitan
tendencies and
dreamlike narratives,
Thomson’s novels
have always felt
closer to the
freewheeling
Uncanny
Rupert Thomson

odysseys of Haruki Murakami than,
say, the careful, closed menace of
Ian McEwan. That might explain
why Thomson has never quite been
embraced as a leading light of the
British literary establishment.
In this latest novel he abandons
his out-and-out reliance on the
uncanny and plumps for what feels
like a pretty straightforward midlife
crisis in the figure of his archly
named historian, Philip Notman.
After the debilitating beep on the
tram, Notman doesn’t recognise his
own life any more, so, like many of
Thomson’s protagonists, he sets off
on a trip — first to Cadiz, to find the
attractive young academic he met
at the Bergen conference, then
to Crete, where strangers tell
him peculiar stories, like a
gothic version of Rachel
Cusk’s Outline trilogy.
For a book about an
ostensibly devastating
breakdown, there
sure are a lot of comfy
lunches and carafes
of wine. Thomson’s

best novels make their surreal
scenarios feel utterly compelling
through his precise descriptive eye:
a police constable in Death of a
Murderer (2007) speaking to the
ghost of Myra Hindley as he guards
her body; the narrator of The Insult
(1996), left blind by a mysterious
bullet to his head, but who regains
his vision at night.
Here, there’s nothing that
extraordinary to spark off the
ordinariness of Notman’s cosy
wanderings. The book’s best
innovation is its punchy, short
sentences, arranged one clause per
line; now there’s a form to cut
through the attention disorder of
itchy iPhone brain.
It’s just a shame the underlying
material doesn’t take flight. On the
final page Thomson pulls off one of
his brilliant, circular, last-minute
twists. Is it enough to turn
everything round? Probably not.
But he remains something of an
undiscovered gem. Go and read
almost any of his earlier work for a
taste of his talent for the uncanny.
7 April 2024 27

Books

PAPERBACKS
OF THE WEEK

Time to Think
by Hannah Barnes
Swift £12.99 pp464

This inside story of the
collapse of the Tavistock’s
gender service for children
shows what happens when
the exponents of an
ideology, so certain of its
righteousness, capture a
field of medicine, silencing
critics, refusing even to
collect follow-up data on
whether its treatments work.
Hannah Barnes, a former
BBC journalist, has followed
the story since the clinic
began to implode in 2017.
Her account is sober,
rhetoric-free and
meticulously researched.
It is a police procedural,
analysing every piece of
evidence, from internal
documents to quashed
external reports, until the
full scandal is laid bare.
Janice Turner

The Raging Storm
by Ann Cleeves

A Victorian stalker in the
house of fallen women
HISTORICAL FICTION
ROUND-UP

a debut novel of great imagination
and originality.

Nick Rennison

Scribe £16.99
At the Shim-Sham club in
1930s Soho, Rita, known as
“the Baby”, is performing
in a dance troupe when she
spots her half-sister, Manny,
in the audience. She has not
seen her for years. Manny is an
aspiring writer and she takes her
younger sibling under her wing.
Together they set out on a difficult
path to realise their ambitions.
Framing this historical story is
a contemporary tale, set in Bath
in 2012. Itai, who discovers some
cassette tapes owned by his late
father on which an older Rita
recounts her experiences, has
moved to the West Country.
He embarks on an ambivalent
relationship with Josh, a teenage
drug dealer and an athlete with
his eye on the next Olympics. In
her debut novel the writer and
artist Varaidzo provides telling
portraits of black British lives,
past and present.

The Household
by Stacey Halls

Sparks of Bright Matter
by Leeanne O’Donnell

DI Matthew Venn looks into
the death of a famous
yachtsman whose naked
corpse is found in a boat off
the Devon coast. Everything
about the murder is “bloody
peculiar”, but our hero
gradually makes sense of the
twisted threads and tangled
relationships that his creator
is so good at contriving.
Mark Sanderson

Eriu £16.99
Peter Woulfe, the central character
of this compelling novel, is
London’s last practising alchemist,
still pursuing arcane secrets in
the late 18th century. After an
accident in which he believes he
has killed his assistant, events
conspire to draw Woulfe (and us)
into his past. Nearly 40 years
earlier he was unwittingly involved
in a Jacobite plot, obsessively in
love with a prostitute named
Sukie and fascinated by a
mysterious, illustrated alchemical
text known as Mutus Liber. Before
that, as a child in rural Ireland, he
fell under the spell of Bridey
Leary, a peasant visionary. In her
multistranded story Leeanne
O’Donnell starts so many
narrative hares running that it is
sometimes difficult to keep pace
with them all, but she has written

choice of the best of 2024,
go to thesundaytimes.
co.uk/culture
28 7 April 2024

PICK
OF THE MONTH

Manilla £16.99
The author of the bestselling
The Familiars and Mrs England,
Stacey Halls mixes melodramatic
motifs with psychological insight
in her absorbing new novel set
in Victorian London. Angela
Burdett-Coutts, a philanthropist,
uses some of her vast riches to
establish a home for “fallen
women”. At Urania Cottage, in
the countryside near London,
former prostitutes and petty
thieves live together to pursue the
chance of redemption and a fresh
start in life. However, at the same
time, Angela is the target of a
stalker, Richard Dunn, intent on
forcing her into marriage or paying
him large sums of money. Urania
Cottage proves less of a refuge
than its founder had hoped. One
of the women flees, another dies
and a third unexpectedly elopes
with an older man. As Dunn
concocts an elaborate plot to
entrap Angela, Halls weaves
together the disparate elements of
her story with great skill.

Pan £9.99 pp416

ST DIGITAL
For more picks, and our

Manny and the Baby
by Varaidzo

The Voyageur
by Paul Carlucci

BUY FROM OUR
ONLINE BOOKSHOP
All titles reviewed
can be bought at
timesbookshop.co.uk
or call 020 3176 2935.
Discount for
Times+ members

Swift £16.99
In 1830s Canada the naive Alex is a
lamb let loose in a wolfish society.
Stranded in the wilderness after
the death of his mentor and lover,
a grizzled fur trader, he stumbles
back to the fortified village on
Mackinac Island on Lake Huron.
There he is persuaded to take
part in a doomed robbery that
ends in a shoot-out. Alex takes
a bullet to the torso. His life is
saved by a doctor, William
Beaumont, but his body
reconstructs itself bizarrely,
creating a kind of fleshy tunnel that
leads directly into his stomach.
Beaumont sees an opportunity for
medical discovery and, keeping
Alex a virtual prisoner, subjects
him to a series of invasive
experiments. Alex’s attempts to
escape only lead him into new
forms of captivity. Already
acclaimed for three volumes of
short stories, the Canadian author
Paul Carlucci has written an
exceptionally vivid and intense
tale of a young man struggling to
find freedom amid people eager
only to exploit him.

The best of the week ahead
SEVEN DAY LISTINGS
APRIL 7-13

TV &
Radio

THE REGIME
Monday, Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm
It feels improbable that 2024 will throw
out any more bizarre and embarrassing
TV sights than Kate Winslet belting out
a wildly off-key version of Chicago’s
soft-rock ballad If You Leave Me Now. In
The Regime — now available as a box set
— she plays the middle-European
autocrat Elena Vernham: a capricious,
paranoid germophobe who rules
unsteadily over a vast palace of
Seat of power Kate Winslet plays Elena
Vernham in the six-episode series

viperous politicians and sycophants,
as well as her turbulent country.
As her grasp on reality wobbles like
her singing voice, she comes to rely
on her new humidity tester: the
disgraced soldier Herbert Zubak
(Matthias Schoenaerts).
Fans of Armando Iannucci’s The
Death of Stalin will recognise the
absurdist tone; Succession aficionados
will relish the brutal wit and vicious
power plays. The supporting cast
(Andrea Riseborough, Pippa Haywood,
Henry Goodman and, later, Hugh
Grant) give the satire the hard sell,
yet it’s Winslet’s compelling grotesque
who rules.
Victoria Segal

PICK
OF THE
WEEK

DOCUMENTARY CHOICE

ART CHOICE

Meet the Roman
Emperor (Mon, BBC2)
Mary Beard is our
guide in a show that
attempts to look past
the myths surrounding
the great emperors of
Rome. In this warts and
all look at one of the
most recognised

The Warhol Effect
(Wed, Sky Arts)
He was one of the
most influential artists
of the 20th century
and it’s not hard to find
critics and celebrities
queueing up to talk
about his impact. This
one-off film examines

political jobs in history,
Beard asks whether
these seemingly
all-powerful figures
at the centre of the
empire were quite as
free as we might think:
“Should the emperor
actually inspire as
much pity as envy?”

FILM CHOICE
the legacy of Andy
Warhol through
interviews
with those
who knew
him and have
been
inspired
by his
work.

Oppenheimer
(Fri, Sky Cinema)
It’s only been a few
weeks since
Christopher Nolan’s
film about the father of
the nuclear bomb
swept the board
at the Oscars.
It won seven

awards, including
best picture and best
actor for its star,
Cillian Murphy, left,
and now arrives on Sky
Cinema. Theoretical
physics and political
hearings have never
been so cool.
Tim Glanfield
7 April 2024 29

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
7.30 Match Of The Day (R)
9.00 Sunday With Laura
Kuenssberg Interviews.
10.00 Celebration Kitchen —
Vaisakhi Matt Tebbutt
celebrates the Sikh festival.
11.00 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
12.00 Bargain Hunt Curios. (R)
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.15 Songs Of Praise Sean
Fletcher joins Christians
at a spiritual retreat
centre in north Wales.
1.50 Money For Nothing (R)
2.20 Escape To The Country (R)
3.05 FILM: Horrible Histories
Stars Sebastian Croft.
Family comedy. (2019, PG)
4.35 Mammals David
Attenborough looks into
the lives of mammals. (R)
5.35 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 Countryfile Hamza Yassin
and Charlotte Smith visit
the National Arboretum at
Westonbirt, Gloucestershire
home to a collection of
2,500 different tree species.
7.00 CHOICE Mammals How
mammals are adapting to
environmental changes,
from sea lions in fish markets
to cheetahs struggling to
survive in tourist areas.
(See Critics’ choice)
8.00 Antiques Roadshow Fiona
Bruce is at Sefton Park in
Liverpool, where items
include 2,000-year-old
cu�links, and a portrait from
the English Civil War. (R)
9.00 CHOICE This Town
Skinhead Tyro seeks out
Dante to avenge his beating;
and Special Branch target
Bardon and see an
opportunity to use Gregory.
(3/6; see Critics’ choice)
10.00 News; Weather Reports.
10.30 Match Of The Day 2
Including Manchester
United v Liverpool.
11.30 CHOICE Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy Stars Gary
Oldman and Colin Firth.
A former intelligence
operative tries to track
down a Soviet mole.
(2011, 15; see Film choice)
1.35-6.00 Joins BBC News
SCOTLAND 1.50 Landward.
11.30 Sportscene — Premiership
Highlights. 12.30 FILM: Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy. 2.35 News.

Variations
BBC1 WALES 1.50 Escape To
The Country 2.35 FILM: Horrible
Histories 4.05 Mammals 5.05
Weatherman Walking BBC
SCOTLAND 7.00 The Seven 7.15
Sportscene — Premiership
Highlights 8.15 Grand Tours Of
Scotland’s Rivers 8.45 Rewind
2000s 9.00 Paramedics On Scene
10.00 Still Game 10.30 Paul Black
— Under The Influence 11.0012.00 Seven Days STV 6.00 James
Martin’s Spanish Adventure 7.00
FILM: Casino Royale. Adventure

30 7 April 2024

BBC 2
Countryfile Rural life. (R)
Breakfast Headlines.
Beechgrove Garden (R)
Landward Rural issues.
Heligan — Secrets Of The
Lost Garden Wildlife. (R)
11.00 Tales From A Kitchen
Garden Double bill. (R)

6.35
7.30
9.00
9.30
10.00

12.00 CHOICE Julius Caesar
Stars Marlon Brando.
Impressive. (1953, U,
B/W; see Film choice)
2.00 FILM: Guys And Dolls
Stars Frank Sinatra and
Marlon Brando. A gambler
tries to win the heart of a
Salvation Army member.
Marvellous. (1955, PG)
4.25 Italy’s Invisible Cities (R)
5.25 Japan With Sue Perkins
Sue travels to the ancient
city of Kyoto to spend time
with geishas. (2/2, R)
6.25 Flog It! Selling items. (R)
7.00 This Farming Life
Carianne searches for the
mother of an abandoned
newborn calf. (R)
8.00 Burma With Simon Reeve
Documentary exploring the
country in the aftermath of
the humanitarian crisis
in which thousands of
Rohingya Muslims were
driven from their homes
by the military. (1/2, R)
9.00 CHOICE The Darkest
Days — Israel-Gaza Six
Months On Lyse Doucet
looks at the consequences
of Hamas’s rampage
through southern Israel,
with accounts of the cost
on both sides and asking
what it will take to bring
peace. (See Critics’ choice)
10.00 CHOICE On Chesil Beach
Stars Saoirse Ronan and
Billy Howle. Two young
newlyweds from different
backgrounds spend their
honeymoon fearful by the
upcoming consummation
of their marriage. (2017,
15; see Film choice)

ITV 1
6.00 James Martin’s Spanish
Adventure Dishes. (R)
7.00 FILM: Casino Royale
Stars David Niven and
Peter Sellers. (1967, PG)
9.25 News; Weather Reports.
9.30 Love Your Weekend With
the actors Tom Courtenay
and Colin Salmon.
11.35 News; Weather Update.
11.50 Champions Cup Rugby:
Northampton Saints v
Munster. Live coverage of
the round-of-16 match at
cinch Stadium at Franklin’s
Gardens. Kickoff at 12.30.
2.50 You’ve Been Framed (R)
3.20 FILM: Charlie And The
Chocolate Factory Stars
Johnny Depp. A penniless
boy wins a once-in-alifetime tour of a magical
sweet company. Fun
fantasy. (2005, PG)
The 1% Club Game. (R)
News; Weather Update.
Regional News Headlines.
Tipping Point — Lucky
Stars With guest panellists
Phil Tufnell, Colin Jackson
and Lisa Riley. (R)
8.00 Paul O’Grady’s Great
Elephant Adventure
The presenter concludes
his southeast Asian trip
by heading south to
Thailand’s biggest
wildlife hospital. (2/2)
9.00 Passenger As Kane faces a
grilling from Riya, Linda
has other ideas about how
best to spend police time;
and Ali and Nish trace
Mehmet’s footsteps. (5/6)
10.05 News; Weather Update.
10.20 Unbelievable Moments
Caught On Camera (R)
11.15 EFL Highlights
12.15 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 Britain’s Strictest
Headmistress (R)
3.50 Unwind Daily relaxation.
5.05-6.00 Fletchers’ Family
Farm Chickens arrive. (R)
5.30
6.30
6.45
7.00

11.45 FILM: Eternal Beauty
Stars Sally Hawkins. A
woman falls into a state of
despair and schizophrenia,
but her life changes
when she meets a failed
musician. Fair. (2019, 15)
1.15 This Town (Signed, R)
2.15 Mandy (Signed, R)
2.45-3.15 The Assembly With
Michael Sheen. (Signed, R)

9.25 News; Weather 9.30 Love
Your Weekend 11.35 News;
Weather 11.50 Champions Cup
Rugby. Live 2.50 You’ve Been
Framed 3.20 FILM: Charlie And
The Chocolate Factory 5.30 The
1% Club 6.30 News; Weather 6.45
Regional News 7.00 Tipping Point
— Lucky Stars 8.00 Paul O’Grady’s
Great Elephant Adventure 9.00
Passenger 10.05 News; Weather
10.20 Unbelievable Moments
Caught On Camera 11.15 EFL
Highlights 12.15 Teleshopping
3.00 Britain’s Strictest
Headmistress 3.50 Night Vision

On the lookout (BBC1, 7pm)
5.05-6.00 Fletchers’ Family Farm
S4C 6.00 Cyw 9.00 Y Castell
10.00 Waliau’n Siarad 11.05 Teulu
Shadog: Tymhorau’r Flwyddyn
11.40 Pobol Y Cwm 12.45 Cwpan
Adran 1: Llanelli Wanderers v
Glynneath. Live, kickoff 1.00 3.00
Cwpan Y Bencampwriaeth:
Bargoed v Ystrad Rhondda. Live,
kickoff 3.15 5.15 Cwpan Yr Uwch
Gynghrair: Llandovery v Merthyr.
Live, kickoff 5.35 7.45 Newyddion
A Chwaraeon 8.00 Cor Cymru —
Corau Ieuenctid. Youth category
9.00 Creisis 10.00 Gogglebocs
Cymru 11.00-11.35 Y Ditectif

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00 The King Of Queens (R)
7.15 The Simpsons Cartoon. (R)
9.30 Sunday Brunch Food and
chat, with guests Orbital,
Jo Hartley, Greg Jenner
and Natalie Cassidy.
12.30 Formula 1 Action from the
fourth round of the season,
the Japanese Grand Prix.
3.00 The Dog House A family
encounters two dogs that
cannot be separated. (R)
4.00 Love It Or List It —
Brilliant Builds Kirstie
Allsopp and Phil Spencer
take a look back at
cluttered homes. (R)
4.30 A Place In The Sun Ben
Hillman helps a couple find
a home in the Algarve. (R)
5.15 Key To A Fortune Sisters
inherit a semi-detached
home in Herefordshire.
6.15 News; Weather Reports.
6.45 Inside The Superbrands
Helen Skelton goes behind
the scenes at Walkers
crisps, and meets their
spokesman Gary Lineker. (R)
7.40 CHOICE The Great
Celebrity Bake Off Dermot
O’Leary, Greg James, Fern
Brady and Mel B take part in
aid of Stand Up To Cancer.
(See Critics’ choice)
9.00 Hunted A homesick pair of
fugitives try to trick the
hunters with a decoy on
their home turf; and two
fugitives head for a coastal
regatta, unaware that
HQ have broken into
the rowing network.
10.00 Gogglebox The armchair
critics share their opinions
on what they have been
watching during the week.
(R) 10.55 Gogglebox
Views on Coronation Street,
Starstruck, Cheat, Love
Island, Dancing on Ice
and Catfish UK. (R)

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Spongebob Animation. (R)
Entertainment News
The Yorkshire Vet (R)
Holidaying With Jane
McDonald — The
Caribbean Travel. (R)
12.25 Inside The Tower Of
London The Beefeaters’
iconic uniforms must be
updated. (R) 1.25 Inside
The Tower Of London It is
May 2023 and the Tower is
preparing for the crowning
of a new monarch. (R) 2.25
Inside The Tower Of
London It is May 2023, and
a spectacular coronation
concert is staged. (R)
3.25 The Great Stink Of 1858
How London was
overwhelmed by a noxious
smell in the 19th century. (R)
5.25 Air Fryers — Entertaining
Made Easy Alexis Conran
explains how to cook
decent meals in the
kitchen gadget. (R)
6.25 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 When Motorhoming
Goes Horribly Wrong
Paul Merton narrates a
compilation of clips from
motorhome holidays. (R)
8.00 The Tube — Keep London
Moving! Members of the
fare-evasion team are out
in force scouring tube
stations for people
suspected of racking up
thousands of pounds in
unpaid fares over long
periods of time. (4/6)
9.00 CHOICE The Hilton —
Park Lane New series. As
the hotel undergoes a
multimillion-pound
renovation, this series has
behind-the-scenes access
to staff and guests at the
London Hilton on Park Lane.
(1/4; see Critics’ choice)
10.00 When Sex On TV Goes
Horribly Wrong Maria
McErlane narrates a
compilation of scandalous
moments gone wrong.
11.55 Adults Only: Sexual
Healing. Sex therapists. (R)
12.55 Entertainment News
1.00 Casino Show Gambling.
3.00 Mummies Unwrapped (R)
3.45 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres Stonehenge. (R)
4.35 Great Artists Durer. (R)
5.05 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.30 Entertainment News (R)
5.40 Children’s Shows
5.50-6.00 Pip And Posy (R)

12.00 FILM: A Time To Kill Stars
Matthew McConaughey
and Samuel L Jackson. A
lawyer defends a black
man charged with killing
the racist thugs who raped
his daughter. Engrossing
drama. (1996, 15)
2.35 Car SOS Tim Shaw and
Fuzz Townshend pick up a
Ferguson TE20 tractor. (R)
3.25 Come Dine With Me
Parties in Edinburgh. (R)
5.30 The Perfect Pitch (R)
5.55-6.10 Sunday Brunch Best
Bits With Big Zuu. (R)

You say

SUNDAY 7 APRIL
BBC 1

6.00
8.50
9.00
9.10
9.35

Fancy our ambassador in Paris being shown
eating a mouthful of the fish course from her
knife at the final banquet on Great British
Menu (BBC2). Perhaps that snippet would have
been best left on the chopping board.
Malcolm Watson
Continuity announcers on TV. Lesson one:
never pronounce the “T” in “Britain” or
“British”. Lesson two: never pronounce the “G”
in “watching” or “living”.
Phil Birkett
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

Thank you for the
music... since 1974

Critics’ choice
The Darkest Days — Israel-Gaza
Six Months On (BBC2, 9pm)
The horrific assault by Hamas
on southern Israel on October
7 last year — with the attackers
killing more than 1,100 people
— triggered a hostage crisis and
a devastating war, a conflict that
has become a bleak fixture in the
rolling news cycle, with more
than 30,000 Palestinians reported
to have been killed in Gaza. In this
film — not available for preview
at the time of going to press
— Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief
international correspondent and
a regular reporter on the Middle
East since the 1980s, focuses
on the human cost of the war,
presenting eyewitness accounts
of the conflict and the immense
suffering that it has caused
from both Israeli and Gazan
perspectives. Doucet will also
turn the documentary towards an
exploration of the conditions that
might one day enable an enduring
peace to take hold in the region.
Victoria Segal
The Hilton — Park Lane
(C5, 9pm)
The London Hilton hotel on Park
Lane is a world of precisionengineered luxury, but as this
four-part series begins, an element
of chaos has started to infiltrate
the perfectly folded napkins and
meticulous customer service. The
hotel’s renovation programme has
fallen behind schedule, putting the
lobby out of action in the same
week that high-profile guests are
arriving for the King’s coronation.
There is plenty of Upstairs,
Downstairs drama to amuse fans of
sly observational documentaries,
spilling over into the realm of
Absolutely Fabulous when it comes
to the sales department. The
team’s attention to detail —
chocolate elephants, royal-themed
tasting menus — is fierce, but
given the economic climate, there
is a touch of let-them-eat-cake
decadence here; read the
immaculately refurbished room. VS

On demand
○ Red Queen (Prime Video)
Based on the trilogy of novels by
Juan Gómez-Jurado, this Spanishlanguage thriller could have been
just another familiar blend of
police procedural and serial-killer
drama. What makes it work is
the delicious chemistry between
our mismatched investigators,
disgraced bear-like cop Jon
Gutiérrez (Hovik Keuchkerian)
and his partner, the super-

Hannah Waddingham won
an army of new fans with her
enthusiastic hosting of the 2023
Eurovision song contest, and
now she turns her attention to
celebrating the 50th anniversary
of Abba’s 1974 win in Brighton
with Waterloo. In Hannah
Waddingham’s Eurovision 1974
Celebration (BBC4, from 8pm)
she introduces a full rerun of
the final, which features Olivia
Newton-John as the UK entry and
the Wombles as an interval act.
Tim Glanfield
Hannah
Waddingham
(BBC4, 8pm)

The US air force drops humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza City

This Town (BBC1, 9pm)
It’s episode three of Steven Knight’s
drama (of six), so isn’t it about time
the promised two-tone band at its
centre actually started rehearsing?
In the meantime, Knight deftly
shows the impact of 1980s social
and political upheaval on his
young protagonists, as Dante (Levi
Brown) is beaten up by racist
skinheads and Bardon (Ben Rose)
is investigated as a suspected
terrorist. And the women? So
far they are just love objects,
helpmeets and peacemakers.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off For
Stand Up To Cancer
(C4, 7.40pm)
Fern Brady, Greg James, Dermot
O’Leary and Mel B take part in
another mash-up of dough-raising
and fundraising. A likeable bunch,
but lax on detail, as shown when
they make iced buns and raspberry
roulades. The final challenge
is picturing their “celebrity
lookalikes” using biscuits, and
creations hazily resembling Clare
Balding, Boy George, James Norton
and, er, Mel B are the result.

Film choice

Taste test: Fern Brady (C4, 7.40pm)

Mammals (BBC1, 7pm)
Flexibility is the theme in
David Attenborough’s second
compilation: sea lions, otters,
elephants, cheetahs, hippos and
buffaloes adapt to the problems
posed by human environmental
impact — but the solutions too
often involve humans altering
habitats, or simply helping them.
John Dugdale

On Chesil Beach (BBC2, 10pm)
Ian McEwan adapted his novella,
which focuses on one narrative
event: a premature ejaculation
during a wedding night disaster
that demolishes a young couple’s
nascent relationship. The film stars
Saoirse Ronan as Florence Ponting,
a sexually reticent Oxford graduate
and wife of a mere six hours to the
ambitious, occasionally angry and
perpetually randy Edward Mayhew
(Billy Howle). (2018)

intelligent bipolar psychic Antonia
Scott (Vicky Luengo). The plot is
Silence of the Lambs by way of True
Detective, and not for the fainthearted, but Keuchkerian and
Luengo invest everything with a
compelling dynamic that lifts this
tense, gory drama to the next level.
○ Superstore (ITVX)
After getting drubbed by the critics,
it’s great to see Justin Spitzer’s
workplace sitcom finding a new
fanbase via ITVX. Set in a fictional

hypermarket in the US Midwest,
the first season felt like an ownbrand facsimile of something far
superior: perfectly serviceable
but with a slightly odd aftertaste.
That bittersweet tang became its
defining quality. For here is a show
that pointedly critiques its own
country on matters of race, gender,
politics and morality, under the
guise of a benign, sweet-hearted
formula sitcom. Comic subversion
of the finest kind.
Andrew Male

Julius Caesar (BBC2, noon)
Joseph L Mankiewicz’s adaptation
of Shakespeare’s play is something
of a triumph, with Marlon Brando
disproving those who feared that
this was a “stunt casting”. Brando
was nominated for the best actor
Oscar for the third consecutive
year for his portrayal of Mark
Antony. Other cast members
include Louis Calhern as Caesar,
James Mason as Brutus and John
Gielgud as Cassius. (1953)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC1,
11.30pm; Scotland 12.30am)
Gary Oldman, in a performance
of restrained inscrutability,
captures perfectly the character
of John le Carré’s seasoned spy
George Smiley, who is called out
of retirement to uncover a Soviet
agent within the upper echelons of
“the Circus”. Colin Firth, Benedict
Cumberbatch, John Hurt, Ciarán
Hinds, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy
are among the cast. (2011)
7 April 2024 31

SUNDAY 7 APRIL
BBC 3
7.00pm EastEnders Soap.
8.00 Sort Your Life Out
Stacey Solomon helps
families declutter their
homes. (Last in series)

BBC 4

12.00 Bad Education Double bill.
1.00 Calamity James Comedy.
1.15 Wreck Two episodes.
2.50-3.50 Bad Education

7.00pm Flat Pack Pop —
Sweden’s Music Miracle
James Ballardie charts the
country’s rise as a global
musical superpower.
8.00 CHOICE Hannah
Waddingham’s Eurovision
1974 Celebration Marking
50 years since Abba’s
victory. (See Critics’ choice)
8.10 Eurovision Song Contest
1974 A look back at the
19th staging of the event.
10.00 Eurovision At 60 The
behind-the-scenes story of
the annual music event.
11.30 Hemingway Revealing
how the writer tried to start
a new life with Mary Welsh.
12.20 Hemingway How
depression and addiction
took hold. (Last in series)
1.10 Flat Pack Pop — Sweden’s
Music Miracle Insights.
2.10-3.40 Tish Documentary.

Drama

Sky Arts

9.00 FILM: Easy A Stars Emma
Stone. A misfit teen lies
about her sexual history,
and uses the resulting
rumours to become the
talk of the school. Smart
teen comedy. (2010, 15)
10.25 FILM: Kick-Ass 2 Stars
Aaron Taylor-Johnson. An
amateur vigilante joins a
team of crimefighters, but
faces the world’s first
supervillain. Pedestrian
comedy sequel. (2013, 15)

3.20pm Catherine Cookson’s
Colour Blind Drama, with
Niamh Cusack. A woman
returns to her Tyneside
home newly married to her
black husband, and faces
bigotry from all sides.
6.35 Miss Marple With Joan
Hickson. The sleuth visits
the country house of an old
friend’s sister, where an
argument in a locked room
culminates in a man being
killed. (Series 3, ep 3)
9.00 Silent Witness While Nikki
travels to her childhood
home in South Africa, Harry
and Leo try to reverse the
deportation of an asylumseeker. (Series 13, ep 5)
11.15-2.20 Taggart Livingstone
and Taggart investigate
the discovery of a woman’s
severed leg by the side of a
motorway. (Series 2, ep 1)

Films
SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
4.45pm 10 Lives (2024, U) 6.20
Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate
(2024, U) 8.00 The Flash. Barry
Allen uses his super speed to
change the past, but his efforts to
save his family creates a world
without superheroes. (2023, 12)
10.30-12.30 Rumble Through
The Dark. A cage fighter seeks to
repay his debts in an effort to
save his family home. (2023, 15)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
4.35pm Last Seen Alive (2022, 15)
6.15 One Way. A badly wounded
robber goes on the run with a bag
full of cash and drugs. (2022, 15)
8.00 Now You See Me 2. Magicians
turned criminals expose the activities
of a ruthless businessman. (2016,
12) 10.15-12.05 Breaking (2022, 15)
SKY CINEMA GREATS
5.35pm The United States Vs
Billie Holiday (2021, 15) 8.00 Zero
Dark Thirty. Intelligence operatives
hunt down Osama bin Laden
after the 9/11 attacks. (2012, 15)
10.40-1.05 Detroit (2017, 15)

32 7 April 2024

5.10pm The Music Of Buddy
Holly And The Crickets
Paul Gambaccini narrates a
documentary about the life
of the singer-songwriter,
who began his career
opening for Elvis Presley.
7.10 The Phantom Of The
Opera At The Royal
Albert Hall Twenty-fifth
anniversary performance
of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
musical about a disfigured
composer’s doomed love
for a beautiful singer, with
Ramin Karimloo, Sierra
Boggess and Hadley Fraser.
10.00-12.10 Kinky Boots
A performance of the
musical in which a man tries
to save the family shoe
factory by creating a line
of sexy footwear modelled
by a vivacious drag
queen with perfect feet.

SKY CINEMA SELECT
5.45pm Dungeons & Dragons —
Honour Among Thieves (2023, 12)
8.00 Mad Max — Fury Road. A
drifter encounters a crazed warlord
in a post-apocalyptic land. (2015,
15) 10.00-12.35 Terminator 2 —
Judgment Day. A cyborg is sent
to protect the future saviour
of the human race. (1991, 15)
FILM4
5.10pm Titanic (1997, 12) 9.00
The Equalizer 2. When a CIA friend
is killed, vigilante Robert McCall
sets out to avenge her death.
(2018, 15) 11.20-1.15 Nowhere Boy.
A teenage John Lennon is torn
between the aunt who raised him
and his mother, who encourages
his love of music. (2009, 15)
TALKING PICTURES TV
6.00pm The Thirty-Nine Steps.
A man is pursued by ruthless spies
as he races to avert the First World
War. (1978, PG) 8.25 A Lifetime Ago
With The Baim Collection 9.00
Manhunt 10.05-12.05 The Caller.
The inhabitant of an isolated cabin
lets a mysterious stranger in to
make a phone call, and an odd
mind game begins. (1987, 18)

ITV 2
5.10pm FILM: How To Train
Your Dragon Animated
fantasy. (2010, PG;
includes FYI Daily)
7.00 FILM: Addams Family
Values Stars Anjelica
Huston. A spooky couple
hire a nanny, but she
hatches a wicked plan.
Inventive sequel. (1993,
PG; includes FYI Daily)
9.00 Family Guy Brian appears
on a dating show. (S4, ep 7)
9.30 Family Guy Peter
sells Meg. 10.00 Family
Guy Lois meets a former
boyfriend. (S3, ep 19)
10.30 Family Guy Stewie
plans a trip to England.
11.00 Family Guy Stories
inspired by viewers’ letters.
11.30-12.00 American Dad!
Cartoon. (Series 2, ep 7)

Sky Max
6.00pm Grimm A mysterious
woman bewitches Nick.
(Series 2, ep 20, R)
7.00 A Discovery Of Witches
Matthew hunts down the
witch who broke into his
lab. (Series 1, ep 5, R)
8.00 An Idiot Abroad Karl
Pilkington prepares for a
15-hour trek to the summit
of Mount Fuji in Japan. (R)
9.00 Swat Yakuza assassins
descend on Los Angeles,
targeting a number of
mysterious Japanese
expats. (Series 7, ep 3, R)
10.00 FILM: Snitch Stars
Dwayne Johnson. A man
volunteers to become an
undercover informant in a
drug trafficking operation
to save his son from
prison. Efficient drama.
(2013, 12; ends at 12.00)

Entertainment
ITV4
5.40pm Monster Carp 6.45 LIVE
Snooker. Live coverage of the
concluding session of the Tour
championship final 10.15 FILM: The
Silence Of The Lambs. Stars Jodie
Foster and Anthony Hopkins 12.40
River Monsters 1.05 The Protectors
1.40-2.45 Dempsey And Makepeace
MORE4
5.50pm Come Dine With Me 8.00
24 Hours In A&E 9.00 Lake District
Rescue. New series. Documentary
about the Lake District Mountain
Rescue Association 10.00 The
Emergency Ward 11.00 Emergency
Helicopter Medics 12.00 The Good
Doctor 1.00 Lake District Rescue
2.00-3.05 24 Hours In A&E
GOLD
5.40pm Only Fools And Horses 8.20
Dad’s Army 9.00 Live At The Apollo
10.00 I’m Alan Partridge 11.20
Bottom 12.35 Victoria Wood As Seen
On TV 2.00-3.15 I’m Alan Partridge
SKY COMEDY
5.30pm Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.00
Saturday Night Live. Sketch show

ITV 3
5.50pm Poirot A spate of petty
thefts culminates in a
series of murders at a
student hostel. (S6, ep 2)
8.00 Long Lost Family The
stories of two women
trying to find birth parents
after half a century apart,
one looking for her mother,
the other her father.
9.00 The Savoy Staff prepare
for the re-opening of the
hotel’s world-renowned
American bar, the oldest
cocktail bar in London.
10.00 Foyle’s War The detective
is drawn into the strange
murder of a former highranking Nazi who had been
hired by MI5 due to his
expert knowledge of Soviet
intelligence. (Series 7, ep 3)
11.50-12.45 Poirot A restaurant
customer’s change of diet
intrigues Poirot. (S1, ep 4)

E4
5.05pm Lego Masters New
Zealand (Last in series)
6.05 FILM: Transformers
— Revenge Of The Fallen
Stars Shia LaBeouf. The
shape-changing robots
fight for control of a
machine with the power to
destroy planets. Soulless
sci-fi sequel. (2009, 12)
9.00 FILM: Men In Black
— International Stars
Chris Hemsworth and
Tessa Thompson. The
intergalactic law enforcers
tackle their biggest threat
— a mole within their own
organisation. Redundant
fantasy sequel. (2019, 12)
11.15-12.20 8 Out Of 10 Cats
Does Countdown With
Sarah Millican, Phil
Wang and Tom Allen.

Sky Atlantic

Talk TV

5.40pm Boardwalk Empire
Nucky has reservations
about investing in a Tampa
land deal. (Series 4, ep 3)
6.45 Boardwalk Empire
Rothstein agrees to
bankroll Nucky’s Tampa
deal. 7.50 Boardwalk
Empire Nucky deals with
the fallout from Willie’s
Philadelphia fiasco; and
Kessler is detained by Knox.
9.00 Mary & George A political
crisis is triggered by Walter
Raleigh, driving a wedge
between Mary, George
and King James. (5/7)
10.05 The White Lotus Rachel
shares some harsh truths
with Shane and confides in
Belinda. (Series 1, ep 6)
11.20-12.25 Euphoria Rue grows
concerned when Jules
starts exhibiting disturbing
behaviour. (Series 1, ep 6)

4.00pm Nick De Bois The
former MP asks the big
questions on everyone’s
minds, with monologues,
lively debates and plenty
of time for viewers’ calls.
4.00 Trisha Goddard The
broadcaster takes a look
through the week’s leading
stories and gives her
opinion on the latest
news and developments.
7.00 The Sunday Night Club
The host Mark Saggers
reflects on the sporting
weekend and more.
10.00-1.00 Peter Cardwell
The Westminster insider
scours the latest news
from parliament, featuring
exclusive interviews with
political heavyweights.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

10.25 Ricky Gervais — Politics.
Stand-up comedy 11.55 Saturday
Night Live 1.25-2.30 Insecure

11.10 Lee Evans — Monsters 12.10
Jimmy Carr — Laughing And Joking
2.00-3.00 Out Of Order — Best Bits

5 STAR
6.00pm Police Interceptors 9.00
FILM: Oblivion 11.35 FILM: Elysium
1.45-2.35 My Lover, My Killer

YESTERDAY
6.00pm Bangers & Cash 7.00 Find
It, Fix It, Flo g It 8.00 ’Allo ’Allo!
Three episodes of the comedy 10.00
Bangers & Cash 11.00 Dream Car
Fixers 12.00-1.00 Bangers & Cash

5 USA
6.00pm NCIS 10.00 Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit 1.50-2.45 NCIS
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Caught On Dashcam 10.00 Fire
Country 11.00 The Cleaning Lady
12.00 FBI 1.00 FBI — International
2.00-3.00 The Cleaning Lady
W
5.40pm Miranda 6.20 Miranda 7.00
999 Rescue Squad 8.00 Inside The
Operating Theatre 9.00 Reclaiming
Amy 10.05 Stacey Dooley Sleeps
Over 11.05 DNA Family Secrets
12.25 Changing Rooms Australia
1.25-3.00 Plate Of Origin
COMEDY CENTRAL
5.50pm Friends 6.45 FILM: This Is
40. Stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann
9.00 FILM: The Hangover. Stars
Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms

DAVE
6.00pm The Americas With Simon
Reeve 7.00 Border Force —
America’s Gatekeepers 8.00
World’s Most Dangerous Roads.
Olga Koch and Thanyia Moore head
to Bulgaria 9.00 Have I Got A Bit
More News For You 10.00 QI 10.40
Mock The Week 12.00 Live At The
Apollo 1.00-2.25 Red Dwarf

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm Lost Beasts Unearthed 7.00
Car SOS 8.00 Ancient Bodies —
Secrets Revealed 9.00 Car SOS. Fuzz
Townshend and Tim Shaw restore a
Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ 10.00 Trafficked
— Underworlds 11.00 Miracle
Landing On The Hudson 1.00-2.00
Airport Security: Colombia

5
1
2
3

Great shows...
Spoofs

The Mrs Merton Show
(1995-98, BBC iPlayer)
In a career of highs Caroline
Aherne’s performance as the
spoof chat-show host Mrs
Merton was probably her finest.

Caroline
Aherne as
Mrs Merton

Look Around You
(2002-05, BBC iPlayer)
An exquisite parody of the
Open University, Tomorrow’s
World and 1970s BBC Schools
programming.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
(2004, C4)
An inspired spoof of 1980s
horror movies, starring
Matthew Holness,
Richard Ayoade and
Matt Berry.

Radio & Podcasts
○ Sunday Feature
(Radio 3, 7.15pm)
Neil Brand, the warm and
enthusiastic musician
and broadcaster, charts
the rise and fall of the
legendary MGM musical
whose golden age
spanned the Thirties
to the Fifties. With
productions such as An
American in Paris, Kiss Me
Kate and Meet Me in St
Louis, the studio set the
gold standard for movie
musicals, led by Louis B
Mayer and the producer
Arthur Freed. Freed
brought together the
best musicians of the
era, many of whom had
fled Europe and brought
an unprecedented
sophistication to
mainstream Hollywood
musicals.
TIMES RADIO

4
5

Hunderby
(2012-15, Sky/Now)
Julia Davis’s dark spoof
of the endless adaptations
of Austen, Brontë and
Du Maurier is fabulous.
A Touch Of Cloth
(2012-14, Sky/Now)
Charlie Brooker’s
detective satire lampoons
the cop show.
Joe Clay

DISCOVERY
6.00pm America’s Backyard Gold
7.00 Alaska — Homestead Rescue
8.00 Alaskan Bush People 9.00
Alaska — The Last Frontier 10.00
Kindig Customs 11.00 Holden Bros
Restos 12.00-4.00 Diesel Brothers
PBS AMERICA
5.40pm 1968 — The Year That
Changed America 7.30 The Korean
War 9.45 Schindler — The Real
Story. A profile of Oskar Schindler
11.30-12.00 Beautiful Serengeti
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
7.00pm Spitfire 9.00 The Beatles
— Eight Days A Week: The Touring
Years 11.00-12.50 Jealous Guy —
The Assassination Of John Lennon
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Macaque Island 7.00 David
Attenborough’s Global Adventure
8.00 David Attenborough’s Global
Adventure — Home Planet 9.00
David Attenborough’s Global
Adventure — The Rise Of Nature
10.00 Woodpeckers — The Hole
Story 11.00-12.00 Macaque Island
DISCOVERY HISTORY
8.00pm Salvage Hunters
10.00-12.00 Shed And Buried

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
8.00am Formula 1 9.00 Ted’s
Notebook 9.30 Formula 1 10.30
Super Sunday Matchday 11.00 LIVE
SPFL: Rangers v Celtic. Coverage of
the match at Ibrox Stadium. Kickoff
at 12.00 2.30 LIVE Super Sunday:
Manchester United v Liverpool.
Kickoff at 3.30 6.30 LIVE PGA Tour
Golf. The Texas Open 11.00 LIVE
LPGA Tour Golf. The Match Play
tournament held at Shadow Creek in
Las Vegas, Nevada 2.00-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
8.30am PL Stories 9.00 Serie A
10.00 Ligue 1 11.00 Champions
Cup 12.00 LIVE Champions Cup:
Northampton Saints v Munster.
Kickoff at 12.30 2.45 LIVE Champions
Cup: Toulouse v Racing 92. Kickoff
at 3.00 5.15 Champions Cup 6.15
Reload 6.30 The Football’s On 7.30
LIVE Serie A: Juventus v Fiorentina.
Kickoff at 7.45 9.45 Tom Aspinall’s
Fight Lab 10.15 The Edge 11.45
Reload 12.00 LIVE NBA: Milwaukee
Bucks v New York Knicks. Tip-off at
12.00 2.30 NBA Action 3.00 Test
Cricket 5.00-6.00 PSA Squash

10.00 Carole Walker 1.00 Henry
Bonsu 4.00 Ayesha Hazarika With
Times Radio Drive 7.00 The Best
Of Times Podcasts 8.00 The Story
8.30 Highlights From Times Radio
10.00 Darryl Morris 1.00 The Story
1.30 Highlights From Matt Chorley
2.00 The Best Of Times Radio
To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.

programme on BBC
Sounds from midnight
on Sunday. The Reunion
moves back an hour, and
looks back at That’s Life
with Esther Rantzen and
several of her sidekicks.

Neil Brand charts the rise
and fall of MGM musicals
○ The Reunion (Radio 4,
10am) and The Archers
(Radio 4, 11am)
A shake-up to the station’s
Sunday morning schedule
has The Archers move
forward an hour. Listeners
who have built their
weekends around the old
time slot can listen to the
1.50 Halfway Here 3.00 All Gas
And Gaiters 3.30 The Navy Lark
4.00 Space Force 4.30 The
Striking Image 5.00 Desert Island
Discs Revisited 5.45 David
Attenborough’s Life Stories 6.00
Poetry Extra 6.30 Charles Dickens
— A Life 7.40 Inheritance Tracks
7.50 Halfway Here 9.00 All Gas
And Gaiters 9.30 The Navy Lark
10.00 Revolting People 10.30
Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones! 11.00
Great Unanswered Questions
11.30-12.00 The In Crowd

RADIO 4

LBC

10.00 The Reunion. New series.
Kirsty Wark recalls the BBC’s
consumer rights show That’s Life!
11.00 The Archers (R) 12.15 Profile
(R) 12.30 It’s A Fair Cop (R) 1.00
World This Weekend 1.30 Electric
Car Shock 2.00 Gardeners’
Question Time (R) 2.45 Opening
Lines. John Yorke looks at The
Sportswriter, by Richard Ford 3.00
Drama: Frank Bascombe — An
American Life: The Sportswriter, by
Richard Ford (1/4) 4.00 Bookclub.
With Clare Chambers 4.30 Round
Britain Quiz 5.00 Witness History.
New series. Josephine McDermott
recalls the Queen’s role in the
2012 Olympic opening ceremony
5.10 The Patch (R) 5.54 Shipping
6.00 News 6.15 Pick Of The Week
7.00 The Archers 7.15 Gegs (9,4)*
— A Cryptic History. James Peak
explores the history of the cryptic
crossword 7.45 Why Do We Do
That? (R) 8.00 Feedback (R) 8.30
Last Word (R) 9.00 Money Box (R)
9.25 Appeal (R) 9.30 From Our
Own Correspondent (R) 10.00
The Westminster Hour 11.00 In
Our Time (R) 11.45 Short Works
(R) 12.00 News 12.15 Crossing
Continents (R) 12.45 Bells (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service

10.00 David Lammy 1.00 Sangita
Myska 4.00 Leading Britain’s
Conversation 7.00 Rachel Johnson
10.00 Nick Abbot. Discussion 1.00
Richard Spurr 4.00 Ian Payne

RADIO 4 EXTRA
10.00 All Gas And Gaiters 10.30
The Navy Lark 11.00 Desert Island
Discs Revisited. With Frankie
Dettori 11.45 David Attenborough’s
Life Stories 12.00 Poetry Extra
12.30 Charles Dickens — A Life
1.40 Inheritance Tracks. Music

RADIO 3
9.00 Sunday Morning 12.00 Private
Passions 1.30 Music Map. New
series exploring classical pieces in
the context of their history, legacy
and connections, starting with
Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi
d’un Faune 3.00 Choral Evensong
(R) 4.00 Jazz Record Requests 5.00
The Early Music Show. Ensemble
Augelletti performs works by Bach,
Telemann, Corelli, Geminiani and
Mrs Philharmonica 6.00 Words And
Music. A sequence on the theme of
luck and chance, with readings from
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ian Fleming,
Roald Dhal, Charles Baudelaire,
Colson Whitehead and Edith
Wharton 7.15 Sunday Feature. Neil
Brand charts the rise and fall of the
MGM musical, celebrating the
golden years of lavish movie
musical production from the
late-1930s to the mid-1950s 8.00
Drama On 3: The Ballad Of Johnny
Longstaff, by the Young’uns. The
folk trio’s production about the life
of Stockton-on-Tees-born anti-fascist
activist Johnny Longstaff, who
fought with the International
Brigades in the 1930s (R) 9.35 New
Generation Artists. The Mithras Trio
plays Brahms’ intensely romantic
Piano Trio No 3 in C minor, Op 101,
which is widely regarded as one
of the masterpieces of the genre

○ Abba — The
50 Year Voyage
(Boom Radio, 9pm)
Celebrating half a century
since the Swedish group’s
Eurovision win. Tim Rice
looks at pivotal moments,
including the release
of their first Greatest
Hits album, the first
performance of Mamma
Mia! in the West End, in
1999, and the arrival of the
ABBAtars at the Voyage
show in 2022. Radio 2 has
shows celebrating the
group on BBC Sounds.
Clair Woodward
10.00 Night Tracks. Sara MohrPietsch presents an adventurous,
immersive soundtrack for latenight listening 11.30 Unclassified.
Elizabeth Alker brings the show to
a new regular slot, choosing the
best new experimental, ambient
and electronic tracks to fit the
mood 12.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
10.00 Aled Jones 1.00 Joanna
Gosling. Elgar’s 1st is Joanna’s
Sunday Symphony 4.00 Stephen
Mangan 7.00 Relaxing Evenings
10.00 Ritula Shah 1.00 Bill
Overton 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
9.00 Sunday Love Songs 11.00
The Michael Ball Show. The
broadcaster is joined by stage star
Mazz Murray and the inspirational
trio Three Dads Walking 1.00
Beverley Knight. Sitting in for
Elaine Paige 3.00 Sounds Of The
70s With Johnnie Walker 5.00
Judi Love. Sitting in for Rob
Beckett 7.00 Tony Blackburn’s
Golden Hour 8.00 The Paul
Gambaccini Collection 10.00
Radio 2 Unwinds 12.00 Phil
Williams 3.00 Alternative Sounds
Of The 90s 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
VIRGIN RADIO
9.30 Virgin Radio 12.30 Tom Allen
4.00 Tim Cocker 7.00 Sunday
Special 8.00 Bam. Music and chat
12.00 My 80s Playlist 1.00 Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
TALKSPORT
9.00 The Sunday Edition 11.00
The Warm Up 1.30 The Sunday
Session 6.30 Final Word 9.00
Trans Europe Express 12.00 A
Talksport Special 1.00 Extra Time
RADIO 4 FM 92.4-94.6 MHz
LW 198 kHz (1515m), MW 720 kHz
LBC FM 97.3 MHz
RADIO 3 FM 90.2-92.4 MHz
CLASSIC FM FM 100-102 MHz
RADIO 2 FM 88-90.2 MHz
TALKSPORT MW 1053,
1071, 1089, 1107 kHz

7 April 2024 33

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
9.30 Morning Live Magazine.
10.45 Big Little Crimes New run.
An explosion in Liverpool
exposes a drug gang.
11.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
12.15 Bargain Hunt Curios.
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.45 Clive Myrie’s Italian Road
Trip Exploring Capri. (R)
2.15 Money For Nothing (R)
3.00 Escape To The Country
3.45 The Bidding Room (R)
4.30 Bridge Of Lies Quiz.
5.15 Pointless Quiz show.
6.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 Regional News Update.
6.55 Party Election Broadcast
By the Green Party. (R)
7.00 The One Show Features.
7.30 EastEnders Johnny
represents Sharon when
she is re-questioned by the
police; and Kathy and Suki
come up with a new plan.
8.00 Panorama Monika Plaha
reports on a private
hospital chain that is being
used to clear NHS waiting
lists, and investigates the
safety record of one of the
UK’s biggest private
healthcare providers.
8.30 The Bidding Room Nigel
Havers hosts as five
dealers battle each other
to buy items brought in by
the public including a set
of French candelabras, a
train-shaped pedal car
and a carousel horse. (R)
9.00 MasterChef John Torode
and Gregg Wallace set a
new challenge in the
second week of heats,
where contestants create a
dish that puts an everyday
ingredient front and centre.
10.00 News; Weather Reports.
10.40 Have I Got A Bit More
News For You Clive Myrie
hosts an extended edition
of the current-affairs quiz
show, with Jon Richardson
and Marianna Spring. (R)
11.20 CHOICE The Martian
Stars Matt Damon. An
astronaut left stranded on
Mars has to find a way to
survive for years on
meagre resources. (2015,
12; see Film choice)
1.40-6.00 Joins BBC News
SCOTLAND 6.30 Reporting
Scotland; Weather. 8.30
Scotland’s Greatest Escape.

Variations
BBC1 WALES 7.00 SOS —
Extreme Rescues 8.00 Wynne’s
Welsh 80s 8.30 Panorama BBC2
WALES 7.00 The One Show BBC
SCOTLAND 2.00 Sign Zone:
Beechgrove Garden 2.30
Landward 3.00-3.30 Eat The Town
7.00 Back From The Brink 7.50
Beechgrove Repotted 8.00 Inside
The Zoo 9.00 The Nine 10.00
River City 10.30 The Scotts 11.00
David Wilson’s Crime Files — Scams
& Scandals 11.30-12.00 Up For It
STV 6.00 Good Morning Britain

34 7 April 2024

BBC 2
6.30
7.15
8.00
9.00
1.00
1.45
2.30
3.00
3.45
4.45
5.15
6.00
6.30

7.00

7.30

8.00

8.30

9.00

10.00

10.30

Money For Nothing (R)
Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
MasterChef (Signed, R)
News; Weather Headlines.
Impossible Game. (R)
The Edge Gameshow. (R)
Lose Weight And Get Fit (R)
Jay Blades’ Home Fix (R)
Best Home Cook (R)
The Hairy Bikers’ Pubs
That Built Britain (R)
Flog It! At Newby Hall. (R)
House Of Games With Joe
Sugg, Kerry Howard, Evelyn
Mok and Toby Anstis. (R)
Great Coastal Railway
Journeys New run. Michael
Portillo sets out to explore
the shores of Britain.
SOS — Extreme Rescues
A man fears he has led
his fiancée to her death
on a mountain; and a
trainee paramedic is in the
right place at the right
time. (Last in series)
Mortimer & Whitehouse
— Gone Fishing Bob and
Paul fish for wild carp in
mid Wales, and meet the
founders of a charity that
offers angling as respite for
people with cancer. (R)
Only Connect The QI Elves
and Inquisitors return for
a one-off edition of the
quiz show, hosted by
Victoria Coren Mitchell. (R)
University Challenge
Amol Rajan hosts the
final of this year’s quiz
contest. (Last in series)
CHOICE Meet The Roman
Emperor Mary Beard
explores what it was like to
be an emperor of Rome,
going behind palace walls
to reveal the hidden world
of the imperial lifestyle.
(See Critics’ choice)
Alma’s Not Normal
Alma faces up to her
experiences of being in
the care system. (5/6, R)
Newsnight Headlines.

ITV 1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00
9.00
10.00
12.30
1.30
2.00

6.10 Countdown Game. (R)
6.50 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
8.05 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
9.30 Frasier Sitcom. (R)
11.00 Work On The Wild Side (R)
12.00 News; Weather Reports.
12.05 Sun, Sea And Selling
Houses In Alicante. (R)
1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (R)
2.10 Countdown Game.
3.00 A Place In The Sun (R)
4.00 A New Life In The Sun (R)
5.00 Chateau DIY Insights. (R)
6.00 A Place In The Sun Laura
Hamilton helps a couple
search Paphos, Cyprus. (R)
6.30 The Simpsons Lisa tries to
convince her family of the
evils of the town’s annual
snake-clubbing ritual. (R)
7.00 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Grand Indian Hotel
Documenting how staff
at the Oberoi New Delhi
cope with the busiest week
in its social calendar, as
international guests
descend on the city for
India Art Fair. (Last in series)
9.00 CHOICE Defiance
— Fighting The Far Right
New series exploring how
Britain’s Asian community
has stood against far-right
violence and racist murders,
from the Southall protests
to the battle for Brick Lane.
(1/3; see Critics’ choice)
10.00 24 Hours In Police
Custody DCI Adam Gallop
believes a man declared
missing has been killed,
but has so far been unable
to locate his body, and
the investigation takes
officers across Europe
in search of clues. (R)
11.05 Night Coppers Two
colleagues are assigned to
a football fan who has been
knocked out in the street;
and a solo officer is given
the task of tracking down
some youths who were
involved in a fight. (R)
12.05 Surviving R Kelly
Journalists uncover a trail
of secret settlements
concerning underage
girls. (Series 1, ep 3)
12.55 Warren Jeffs — Prophet
Of Evil Documentary.
2.30 Car SOS Renovations. (R)
3.20 Big Mood Double bill. (R)
4.15 Sunday Brunch Best Bits
With Karl Pilkington. (R)
4.20 Grand Designs (R)
5.15-6.10 Renovation Nation (R)

6.00
9.15
11.15
12.45
1.40
1.45
2.15

Good Morning Britain
Lorraine Lifestyle chat.
This Morning Features.
Loose Women Debate.
News; Weather Reports.
Alan Titchmarsh’s
Gardening Club Creating
a Mediterranean garden.
3.00 Winning Combination (R)
4.00 Tipping Point Game. (R)
5.00 The Chase Quiz show. (R)
6.00 Regional News Update.
6.25 Regional Programme
6.30 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Emmerdale Cain ends
Ruby’s plan; Claudette
makes a suggestion; Billy
commits to a new idea;
and Charles and Manpreet
get caught up in a lie.
8.00 Coronation Street Dylan
plans to do a runner rather
than testify against Mason;
Sam defies Nick to pay Roy
a secret visit; and Ryan
refuses to console Daisy.
9.00 Passenger Riya loses faith
in her entire investigation
in light of revelations
about Jim’s attack, until
a bittersweet farewell
unlocks one final piece of
evidence. (Last in series)
10.00 News At Ten Bulletin.
10.45 Mel Giedroyc And Martin
Clunes Explore Britain
By The Book The acting
friends head to Dorset to
explore the scenery and
locations made famous by
some of Britain’s favourite
books and films. (R)
11.45 English Football League
Highlights Roundup of
action from recent games,
including Norwich City v
Ipswich Town, Cardiff City
v Hull City, and Coventry
City v Leeds United.
12.55 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 Next Level Chef (R)
3.50 Unwind Daily relaxation.
5.05-6.00 Ainsley’s Fantastic
Flavours Demonstrating
meaty recipes. (R)

11.15 CHOICE The Two Faces
Of January Stars Viggo
Mortensen. A conman
tries to scam a couple
holidaying in Greece,
only for all three to get
drawn into a murder.
(2014, 12; see Film choice)
12.45 Countryfile (Signed, R)
1.40 MasterChef (Signed, R)
2.40-3.10 Norwegian Fling
Travel series, with Martin
Compston. (Signed, R)

9.00 Lorraine 10.00 This Morning
12.30 Loose Women 1.30 News;
Weather 2.00 Alan Titchmarsh’s
Gardening Club 3.00 Winning
Combination 4.00 Tipping Point
5.00 The Chase 6.00 Regional
News 6.30 News; Weather 7.00
Emmerdale 8.00 Coronation Street
9.00 Passenger 10.00 News At
Ten 10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05
Big Zuu’s 12 Dishes In 12 Hours
11.45 English Football League
Highlights 12.55 Teleshopping
3.00 Next Level Chef 3.50 Night
Vision 5.05-6.00 Ainsley’s
Fantastic Flavours S4C 6.00 Cyw

Jill Halfpenny (C5, 9pm)
12.00 Newyddion 12.05 Dim Byd
I’w Wisgo 12.30 Heno 1.00 Cymry
Ar Gynfas 1.30 Caeau Cymru
2.00 Newyddion A’r Tywydd 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 3.05 Y Castell 4.00 Awr
Fawr 5.00 Stwnsh 6.00 Sain
Ffagan 6.30 Rownd A Rownd
6.57 Newyddion S4C 7.00 Heno
7.30 Newyddion A’r Tywydd 8.00
Cysgu O Gwmpas 8.25 Garddio A
Mwy 8.55 Newyddion A’r Tywydd
9.00 Teulu Shadog — Tymhorau’r
Flwyddyn 9.30 Sgorio 10.00
Windrush — Rhwng Dau Fyd
11.00-12.05 Dylan Ar Daith

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Jeremy Vine Debate.
Storm Huntley Opinions.
Friends US sitcom. (R)
News; Weather Reports.
Home And Away (R)
A Family’s Secret Thriller,
with Maia Alvina. A woman
takes a post as a personal
care worker for a woman
with early onset dementia,
but is convinced that a
murderous plot is afoot. (R)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits In
The Sun Mini mart owners
promote mindfulness.
5.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres A visit to Highclere
Castle, one of Britain’s
most recognisable stately
homes, now better known
as Downton Abbey. (R)
6.55 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Traffic Cops Charting the
work of officers policing
North Yorkshire’s roads, as
a 70-year-old biker crashes
down an embankment but
is spared serious injury. (R)
7.55 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Motorway Cops
— Catching Britain’s
Speeders In Sunderland,
an officer stops a car
thought to be linked to
organised crime, and not
only does the driver not
have a valid licence, he
also smells of cannabis.
9.00 CHOICE The Cuckoo The
first in a new psychological
thriller series, with Jill
Halfpenny, Lee Ingleby and
Claire Goose. A couple
experiencing financial
difficulties take in a lodger,
but the husband becomes
suspicions of her motives.
(1/4; see Critics’ choice)
10.00 The Intruder — He’s
Watching You From
Within Telling the story of
the police manhunt for
‘The Fox’ — one of the
most prolific offenders in
British criminal history, as
told by the detectives who
finally captured him.
11.45 Traffic Cops Crime. (R)
12.45 Entertainment News
1.00 Casino Show Gambling.
3.00 The Mega Council
Estate Next Door (R)
4.00 A Yorkshire Farm (R)
4.45 Great Artists Insights. (R)
5.10 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.35 Entertainment News
5.40-6.00 Children’s Shows

I avoid watching any show with “celebrities” in
the title as I have usually never heard of them
and have no idea why they are allegedly famous!
Jane Sanderson

You say

MONDAY 8 APRIL
BBC 1

Australia With Simon Reeve (BBC2) has been
so enjoyable. An insight into a beautiful and
fascinating country about which we know
surprisingly little. Simon Reeve is a perfect
commentator and I hope we’ll see more from
him soon.
Lindsay Maeder
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

What was it like to live
in imperial Rome?

Critics’ choice
Curb Your Enthusiasm
(Sky Comedy/Now, 3am, 9pm)
After 12 seasons of gaffes,
misunderstandings and displays
of insensitivity Larry David brings
his sitcom to a close with a
one-hour finale. Although it was
not available for viewing, we do
know that the setting is Atlanta (to
which Larry has to return for his
trial) and Richard Lewis and
Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) are both
involved — so, assuming Jeff ( Jeff
Garlin) is too, the cast of the first
episode will be reunited. As for
what happens, two scenarios have
been suggested. One is the finale
of 2011’s season eight — when Curb
Your Enthusiasm seemed to end,
only to return six years later — in
which Larry flew off to Paris. The
other is the David-scripted final
episode of Seinfeld, in which Jerry
and the other leads went to
prison. If that’s the template,
Larry will be jailed — but David
could be counting on us making
that assumption to wrongfoot us.
John Dugdale
Defiance — Fighting The Far
Right (C4, 9pm)
Former activists recall “the British
Asian fightback against far-right
violence” between 1976 and 1981 in
a series that continues tomorrow
and Wednesday. Part one brings
together the impact of two murders
at a time when Bengali and Punjabi
communities felt “under siege” and
politicians sought to boost their
vote by exploiting anti-immigrant
attitudes. In Southall, west
London, in 1976, the killing of a
Sikh student galvanised other
south Asians to demonstrate and
form the Southall Youth
Movement. Two years later in
Bethnal Green, east London, the
murder of Altab Ali (whose funeral
was followed by a march to
Downing Street) led to protests
against racist aggression, the
police’s lack of interest in
investigating it, and tolerance of
the National Front’s menacing
presence in the East End. JD

On demand
○ American Horror Story
(Disney+)
The biggest shock in season 12 of
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s
Grand Guignol anthology series is
how restrained it is. Based on
Danielle Valentine’s 2023 novel,
Delicate Condition, about an indie
actress, Anna Alcott, undergoing
an IVF treatment from hell, this is
AHS by way of Rosemary’s Baby,
where gross-out shocks are

Meet The Roman Emperor
(BBC2, 9pm)
Mary Beard made her name as
a TV historian in 2012’s Meet The
Romans by focusing on ordinary
citizens. Here she switches her
attention to their leaders, but still
looks at everyday life: from their
daily routine, diet and mental
and physical health to their baths,
loos and dining rooms and their
palaces as workplaces. After a
closing section on their often
grim and paranoid final years,
she admits to feeling “a bit sorry”
for these “lonely” and vulnerable
demigods. JD
Mary Beard

The end is nigh for Curb: Larry David (Sky Comedy/Now, 3am, 9pm)

Meet The Richardsons
(Dave, 9pm)
This patchy sitcom comes of age
even as its main characters pretend
that it has “served its purpose” by
making a star of co-writer Lucy
Beaumont, Bafta-nominated for
best female performance in a
comedy programme last year. She
may not have won, but as proud
and not-at-all-jealous spouse Jon
Richardson points out, she has said
yes to every panel show since.
Celebrity pals appear in the first
episode of a joyous new series.

The Cuckoo (C5, 9pm)
Even the least observant creditswatcher will have noticed the name
Barunka O’Shaughnessy scrolling
past on comedy shows such as
Motherland and Breeders. She is
also the brains behind Channel 5’s
latest four-part potboiler, which
sticks Jill Halfpenny, Lee Ingleby
and Claire Goose into a draughty
old house in the country.
Halfpenny is the new lodger, and
judging by the ominous music that
follows her everywhere, she’s set
on making mischief.

Meet The Richardsons (Dave, 9pm)

The Sky At Night
(BBC4, 9.30pm)
The team investigates the progress
of Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission. Last
year it captured rock and dust
from the surface of the near-Earth
asteroid Bennu. Maggie AderinPocock, the space scientist, reports
on the powerful equipment being
used to study the fragments.
Helen Stewart

replaced by slow-burn maternal
dread. The final half of the season
is here and, while Emma Roberts is
great as Anna, the real triumph is
Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife), who
portrays Anna’s husband, Dex,
with an unsettling mix of oily
charm and supernatural unease.
○ The Ambassadors
(BBC iPlayer)
The knotty late novels of Henry
James are not easy to bring to the
screen. Iain Softley’s 1997

adaptation of The Wings of the Dove
achieved it, while James Ivory’s
2000 film The Golden Bowl failed.
This low-budget 1977 BBC
interpretation of James’s 1903
masterpiece is a quiet triumph.
Paul Scofield imbues the role of
Lewis Strether with a haunted
innocence while Lee Remick, as his
European guide, Maria Gostrey,
gives her character a cryptic
seductive wisdom that James
himself would have delighted in.
Andrew Male

Film choice
Anaconda (Film4, 10.50pm)
A documentary film crew battles
with gigantic killer snakes in the
Amazon jungle in this shamelessly
trashy and old-fashioned creature
feature. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube
and Eric Stoltz play team members
fighting to avoid being munched
into lunch by a 30ft-long monster
after a suspicious encounter with
Jon Voight’s demented wildlife
expert. (1997)
The Two Faces Of January
(BBC2, 11.15pm)
The backdrop for this thriller,
based on a Patricia Highsmith
story, is Greece in 1962. The tour
guide and occasional conman
Rydal (Oscar Isaac) is struck by
a glamorous couple. Chester
and Colette MacFarland (Viggo
Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) are
gilded by wealth and effortless
charisma, but they are not all they
seem, and soon Rydal is helping
them to go on the run. (2014)
The Martian (BBC1, 11.20pm)
The astronaut Mark Watney (Matt
Damon) is accidentally left for
dead on Mars, yet he faces the
reality of this situation not with
psychological meltdown but with
quips, one-liners and repeated use
of the sarcastic “Yay”. Damon’s
irrepressible hero sets the film’s
tone with a jocular video diary,
a kick-ass can-do attitude and a
playlist of disco tunes. It is a paean
to the power of positivity. (2015)
7 April 2024 35

MONDAY 8 APRIL
BBC 3

BBC 4

ITV 2

ITV 3

10.50 Man Like Mobeen Eight
learns that his father is
dying. (Series 1, ep 3)
11.15 Man Like Mobeen An
anti-Islam march comes to
Mobeen’s neighbourhood.
11.35 RuPaul’s Drag Race —
UK Versus The World
The final. (Last in series)
12.45 Charlotte In Sunderland
1.45 Wreck Double bill.
3.20 Man Like Mobeen
3.40-3.55 Calamity James

7.00pm Fred Dibnah’s
Industrial Age
7.30 Britain In Focus —
A Photographic History
The response to historic
events in the 20th century.
8.30 Britain’s Lost
Masterpieces In Oxford’s
Bodleian Library, Dr Bendor
Grosvenor finds a finely
painted portrait.
9.30 CHOICE The Sky At Night
(See Critics’ choice)
10.00 Caligula The life of the
Roman emperor.
11.00 Roman Britain —
A Timewatch Guide The
public’s view of Roman
Britain. (Last in series)
12.00 As 7pm
12.30 Welsh Greats: Harry
Secombe. A profile.
1.00 Caligula Documentary.
2.00 As 11pm
3.00-4.00 As 7.30pm

6.00pm Catchphrase
7.00 Family Fortunes
Clans from Worcester
and Luton compete.
8.00 Superstore Dina’s texts
lead to animosity. (Series 5,
ep 16) 8.30 Superstore
Amy organises a
community service event.
9.00 TikTok — Murder Gone
Viral: The Mother
And Daughter Killers
Documentary looking
at a shocking murder.
10.00 Family Guy Lois is sent to
prison. (Series 4, ep 9)
10.30 Family Guy Peter
tries to convert Chris to
Judaism. (Series 3, ep 22)
11.00 Family Guy Peter
and Lois go on a second
honeymoon. (Series 4, ep 1)
11.30-12.00 American Dad!
Roger and Steve seek fame
and fortune. (Series 2, ep 8)

5.55pm Heartbeat An
investigation into a cattle
auctioneer puts Mike and
his wife at loggerheads.
6.55 Heartbeat Mike
struggles to deal with his
wife’s departure. (1/2)
8.00 Vera The detective
investigates when a
seemingly beloved
resident of a coastal
community is fatally driven
off the road. (Series 8, ep 2)
10.00 Blue Murder Pete
pressures Janine for a
divorce as she grapples
with the case of a
murdered childminder.
(Series 2, ep 4)
11.30-12.20 Wild At Heart
An anxious Danny tries to
make sure everything is in
order for the conservation
authority’s annual visit
to Leopard’s Den.

Drama

Sky Arts

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

Talk TV

5.45pm Boardwalk Empire
Nucky reconnects with
Sally Wheet in Tampa.
(S4, ep 6) 6.50 Boardwalk
Empire Eli’s son Willie
asks Nucky for a job.
7.55 Game Of Thrones Theon
tries to prove his Ironborn
status. (Series 2, ep 7)
9.00 CHOICE The Regime
Political satire, with Kate
Winslet. As Chancellor
Elena Vernham prepares for
Victory Day, her new adviser
arrives at the palace. (1/6;
see Pick of the week)
10.05 Succession The Roy family
assembles at an English
castle; and Logan’s
children reunite with their
mother Caroline. (S1, ep 9)
11.15-12.30 Mildred Pierce
A newly single mum
struggles to raise her
two children in LA. (1/5)

4.00pm Vanessa Feltz The
host shares her opinion on
the day’s main events; plus,
a phone-in and analysis.
6.00 The Talk A panel of famous
faces debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about.
7.00 Prime Time With James
Max The host gets inside
the stories of the day with
expert analysis and debate.
8.00 The Independent
Republic Of Mike Graham
A run through the day’s
breaking news stories.
10.00 The Talk A panel of famous
faces debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about.
11.00-12.00 Prime Time With
James Max The host gets
inside the stories of the day
with analysis and debate.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

MORE4
5.50pm The Secret Life Of The Zoo
6.55 Car SOS 7.55 Grand Designs
9.00 Car SOS 10.00 Raising The
Mary Rose — The Lost Tapes 11.00
24 Hours In A&E 12.05 Emergency
Helicopter Medics 1.05-2.10
999 — On The Front Line

11.00 Killer At The Crime Scene
12.00 Sleeping With My Murderer
1.00 999 — Emergency Call
Out 2.00-2.50 Wanted

YESTERDAY
6.00pm Antiques Roadshow 7.00
Great British Railway Journeys 8.00
Find It, Fix It, Flog It 9.00 Retro
Electro Workshop 10.00 Bangers &
Cash — Restoring Classics 11.00
Abandoned Engineering 12.00-1.00
Great British Railway Journeys

GOLD
5.40pm Porridge 6.20 The Green
Green Grass 7.00 Dinnerladies 7.40
Dad’s Army 9.00 Bottom 10.20 The
Young Ones 11.05 Bottom 12.20
The Young Ones 1.05 Back To Life
1.40-2.40 Chewing Gum

SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Blue Bloods 9.00 The Cleaning Lady
10.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 11.00 The Rookie 12.00 Coroner
1.00-3.00 FBI — Most Wanted

7.00pm Young MasterChef
Poppy O’Toole and Big Has
host the cooking contest.
8.00 Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson
drives the Jaguar F-Type.
9.00 FILM: Blinded By The
Light Stars Viveik Kalra. A
teen learns to find his own
voice through the music of
Bruce Springsteen. Goodhearted drama. (2019, 12)

6.00pm Keeping Up
Appearances Daddy
sustains an injury. (S1, ep 1)
6.40 Last Of The Summer Wine
Compo speculates how
the body circulates blood.
7.20 Last Of The Summer
Wine Compo discovers
a treasure in the canal.
8.00 The Last Detective
Dangerous investigates the
murder of a pornographic
film-maker. (Series 4, ep 2)
9.30 New Tricks A tabloid
editor approaches the
detectives with evidence
implicating a world-famous
celebrity chef in a murder.
(Series 2, ep 4) 10.35 New
Tricks Jack investigates
when a diamond is found.
11.55-1.10 Spooks The
Nightingale group plans
to assassinate Pakistan’s
president. (Series 8, ep 8)

Films
SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
4.35pm Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles — Mutant Mayhem (2023,
PG) 6.25 10 Lives (2024, U) 8.00
Barbie. The living doll’s perfect life
is turned upside down when she
suffers an existential crisis. (2023,
12) 10.00-12.00 Carmen. A young
Mexican woman goes on the run
with an ex-marine. (2022, 15)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
4.30pm Identity (2003, 15) 6.10
Breaking (2022, 15) 8.00 Public
Enemies. The story of the bank
robber John Dillinger. (2009, 15)
10.25-12.35 Hotel Mumbai.
Terrorists take staff and residents
hostage at the Taj Mahal Palace
Hotel in 2018. (2018, 15)
SKY CINEMA GREATS
3.40pm 13 Hours (2016, 15) 6.05
Charlie Wilson’s War. An American
congressman provides aid to rebels
in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.
(2007, 15) 8.00 Black Hawk Down.
American soldiers try to save their
compatriots. (2001, 15) 10.35-1.00
The Wizard Of Lies (2017, 18)

36 7 April 2024

6.00pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: Design For
Loving. A man purchases
an android duplicate of
himself. 6.30 Alfred
Hitchcock Presents: Man
With A Problem. A man
threatens to commit
suicide by jumping
from a high window.
7.00 The Joy Of Painting Bob
Ross depicts a scene using
only his special painting
knife. 7.30 The Joy
Of Painting Bob Ross
depicts marshland scene.
8.00 Andre Rieu — Dancing
Through The Skies The
Dutch violinist’s concert
from the Semper Opera
House in Dresden.
10.00-12.00 Cirque Du Soleil
— Kurios: Cabinet Of
Curiosities Featuring a
steampunk-inspired show.

SKY CINEMA SELECT
4.10pm Mad Max — Fury Road
(2015, 15) 6.15 65 (2023, 12) 8.00
Transformers — Rise Of The Beasts
(2023, 12) 10.10-12.10 Terminator
Salvation. John Connor leads a war
against killer robots. (2009, 12)
FILM4
4.35pm Cutthroat Island (1995, PG)
6.55 Maid In Manhattan (2002, PG)
9.00 Mile 22. US intelligence
officers try to smuggle a police
officer out of Indonesia. (2018, 18)
10.50-12.40 CHOICE Anaconda
(1997, 15; see Film choice)

6.00pm Stargate Atlantis
Sheppard and Ronon come
under mind control. (Series
3, ep 9, R) 7.00 Stargate
Atlantis Ancients return
to reclaim a lost city. (R)
8.00 Freddie Down Under
Andrew Flintoff and Rob
Penn prepare to swim with
sharks. (Series 3, ep 2, R)
9.00 FILM: Final Score Stars
Dave Bautista and Pierce
Brosnan. An ex-soldier
takes action when terrorists
seize control of a packed
football stadium. Patchy
action thriller. (2018, 15)
11.00 Rob Beckett’s Smart TV
With Joe Thomas, Gregg
Wallace, Alan Davies
and Ruth Madeley. (R)
11.50-12.50 Brit Cops — Rapid
Response Following
police officers on patrol. (R)

Entertainment

SKY COMEDY
6.00pm The US Office 7.00 Sort Of
8.00 Will & Grace 9.00 CHOICE
Curb Your Enthusiasm. Final episode
of the sitcom, with Larry David. (See
Critics’ choice) 10.00 Last Week
Tonight 10.45 Ramy Youssef —
Feelings 12.00 Last Week Tonight
12.45-2.05 Sex And The City

ITV4
5.55pm Monster Carp 7.00 Monster
Carp 8.00 MotoGP 9.00 FILM:
Nighthawks 11.05 Motorbike Show
12.05 The Chase 1.10 From Dusk
Till Dawn 2.00-2.25 Auto Mundial

5 STAR
6.00pm Home And Away 7.00 GPs
— Behind Closed Doors 8.00
Shoplifters — Caught Red Handed
9.00 Ambulance — Code Red 10.00
Trauma Room One. Documentary

TALKING PICTURES TV
4.00pm The Riddle Of The Sands
(1979, U) 6.05 Look At Life 6.30
Out Of Town 7.00 The Footage
Detectives 8.00 The Ice House
(1978) 8.45 Black Velvet Band
10.50-12.45 Tight Spot (1955, PG)

5 USA
6.00pm NCIS 10.00 Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit 1.55-2.50 NCIS

W
6.00pm MasterChef Australia 7.00
The Secret Life Of 4, 5, 6 Year Olds
Australia 8.00 Ambulance Australia
9.00 Nurses On The Ward 10.00
Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over 11.00
Louis Theroux’s Altered States
12.20 Changing Rooms Australia
1.45-3.00 Plate Of Origin
COMEDY CENTRAL
6.00pm Friends 9.00 Lee Evans
— Monsters 10.00 Impractical
Jokers 10.30 Jimmy Carr — Being
Funny 12.40 Rhod Gilbert’s
Growing Pains 1.40-2.10 Comedy
Central Live: David O’Doherty

E4
6.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Howard enrols on a course
taught by Sheldon. (Series
8, ep 2) 6.30 The Big Bang
Theory Howard is asked
to throw the first pitch
at a baseball game.
7.00 Hollyoaks Chester soap.
7.30 Married At First Sight
Australia Eden and Jayden
discuss how Sara’s secret
caused issues between
them; and Stephen makes
a shocking confession.
9.10 The Underdog — Josh
Must Win In the final
challenge the players must
protect each other to
win a phone call home.
10.10 Gogglebox Critics
opinions on the state
funeral of Elizabeth II.
11.10-12.15 First Dates
A security guard sets out to
impress a podium dancer.

DAVE
6.00pm Rick Stein’s Long Weekends
7.00 House Of Games 8.20 Would I
Lie To You? The Unseen Bits 9.00
CHOICE Meet The Richardsons.
New run. (See Critics’ choice) 9.40
Have I Got A Bit More News For You
10.40 QI 12.00 Hustle 1.20 Mock
The Week 2.00-2.25 Schitt’s Creek

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm World War II — Secrets
From Above 7.00 Air Crash
Investigation 10.00 Trafficked —
Underworlds. With Mariana Van
Zeller 11.00 Air Crash Investigation
12.00 Car SOS 1.00-2.00
Doing Hard Time — Vegas
DISCOVERY
6.00pm Junkyard Empire 7.00
Wheeler Dealers. An Austin Allegro

5
1

Great films...
Studio Ghibli

Spirited Away won
Spirited Away
an Oscar for best
(2001, Netflix)
The best-known film from animated feature
this Japanese animation
house follows the story
of a family who stray into
a world of spirits.

2

The Boy And The
Heron
(2023, Netflix)
Director Hayao
Miyazaki’s final
film offers semiautobiographical
musings on family.

3

Howl’s Moving
Castle (2004, Netflix)
Sophie is turned into
an old woman
by a witch and
meets a wizard
living in a castle
on legs.

4
5

My Neighbour
Totoro
(1988, Netflix)
Two young sisters
befriend a furry spirit who
helps them to cope with
their mum’s illness.
Nausicaa Of The Valley
Of The Wind
(1984, Netflix)
A princess tries to repair
humankind’s relationship
with the land.
Rachel Rees

8.00 Blowing Up History 9.00
Kindig Customs 10.00 Holden Bros.
Restos. Transforming a 67 Toronado
11.00 Combat Dealers 12.00 Gold
Divers 1.00-2.00 Kindig Customs
PBS AMERICA
5.00pm Spitfire Paddy 6.05 Fall Of
The Maya Kings 7.10 WW1 — Aces
Falling 8.30 Ancient Apocalypse
9.35 Spitfire Paddy. A pilot who was
an ace fighter pilot with the RAF
10.40-12.00 WW1 — Aces Falling
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
6.00pm Lockerbie 6.55 The
Vietnam War 8.00 Urban Secrets
9.00 Six Silent Killings — Ireland’s
Vanishing Triangle. Double bill
11.00-12.30 Phoenix Rising
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Malawi Wildlife Rescue
7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Shark. With
Steve Backshall 9.00 Surviving The
Amazon 10.00 Malawi Wildlife
Rescue 11.00-12.00 Uptown Otters
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Unsolved History 7.00
Expedition Unknown 8.00 Bloody
Britain 9.00 Combat Dealers. British
RAF gear 10.00 Salvage Hunters
11.00-12.00 Find It, Fix It, Flog It

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 10.00 LIVE Tennis. Day
one of the Monte-Carlo Masters
6.00 LIVE Indian Premier League:
Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata
Knight Riders 7.00 Golf — The
Masters. Build-up 10.00 News 10.30
Back Pages Tonight 11.00-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
6.00am The Edge 7.30 Premier
League Stories 8.00 Premier
League — The Big Interview 8.30
Premier League 10.00 National
League 11.30 Uefa Europa League &
Conference League Magazine 12.30
Champions Cup Highlights 1.30
Sign Up — Into Football 2.15 Around
The Block 2.30 The Edge 4.00 Ligue
1 Highlights 5.00 WSL— Inside Pro
Surfing 6.00 SVNS Highlights 7.00
Uefa Champions League Magazine
7.30 LIVE Serie A: Udinese v Inter
Milan. At Bluenergy Stadium. Kickoff
at 7.45 9.45 Goals Reload 10.15 Sign
Up — Into Football 11.00 WWE
12.00 WWE Smackdown Highlights
1.00 LIVE WWE Monday Night Raw
4.15-6.00 Ariel Helwani Meets

Radio & Podcasts
○ Courtney Love’s
Women (6 Music, 11pm)
From today until
Thursday (this week and
next), the still-edgy
Courtney Love reveals
stories from her life and
reflects on the female
artists who have
influenced her, alongside
Rob Harvilla (who has a
great podcast, 60 Songs
That Explain the ’90s).
Today Love recalls her
early years in a family
that was the epitome of
Sixties counterculture:
her mother a hippy
psychotherapist, her
dad the road manager
of the Grateful Dead. She
also discusses how she
discovered disco through
the record collection of
a care home she had
been placed in.

sherpas were killed in an
avalanche while carrying
equipment for climbing
companies.

Courtney Love shot to fame
with alt-rock band Hole
○ The Everest Obsession
(Radio 4, 1.45pm)
Rebecca Stephens, the first
British woman to reach the
summit of Everest (1993),
asks if our obsession with
the mountain is threatening
for those whose livelihoods
depend on the climbing
community. In 2014, 16

TIMES RADIO

RADIO 4 EXTRA

5.00 Rosie Wright With Early
Breakfast 6.00 Ayesha Hazarika
And Calum Macdonald With Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt
Chorley 1.00 Ed Vaizey 3.00 Jane
Garvey And Fi Glover 5.00 John
Pienaar With Times Radio Drive
7.00 Pienaar And Friends 8.00 The
Evening Edition With Kait Borsay
10.00 Carole Walker 1.00 The
Story 1.30 Highlights From Matt
Chorley 2.00 Best Of Times Radio

5.00 All Gas And Gaiters 5.30 The
Navy Lark 6.00 Sherlock Holmes
With Carleton Hobbs 6.30 Agatha
Raisin 7.00 Winston Comes To
Town 7.30 Steptoe And Son 8.00
Mum’s On The Run 8.30 Small
Pleasures 8.45 Halfway Here 9.00
It’s A Fair Cop 9.30 A Piece Of Cake
9.45 Daily Service 10.00 Radiolab
10.55 Inheritance Tracks 11.00
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton
Hobbs 11.30 Agatha Raisin 12.00
Winston Comes To Town 12.30
Steptoe And Son 1.00 Mum’s On
The Run 1.30 Small Pleasures 1.45
Halfway Here 2.00 Many A Slip
2.30 Ring Around The Bath 3.00 A
Surfeit Of Smiths 4.00 Radiolab
4.55 Inheritance Tracks 5.00
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton
Hobbs 5.30 Agatha Raisin 6.00
Winston Comes To Town 6.30
Steptoe And Son 7.00 Mum’s On
The Run 7.30 Small Pleasures 7.45
Halfway Here 8.00 Many A Slip
8.30 Ring Around The Bath 9.00 A
Surfeit Of Smiths 10.00 It’s A Fair
Cop 10.30 Goodness Gracious Me
10.55 The Comedy Club Interview
11.00 The Now Show 11.30-12.00
Dave Podmore’s Cricket Fix

To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.
RADIO 4
5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45
Farming Today 6.00 Today 9.00
Start The Week. Kirsty Wark
discusses poetry and music 9.45
Cafe Hope. Finding positivity
through charity after a family
tragedy 10.00 Woman’s Hour
11.00 The Patch. Polly Weston
pays a visit to St Mary Cray 11.45
Book Of The Week: The Life And
Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah
(R) 12.00 News 12.04 You And
Yours 1.00 The World At One 1.45
The Everest Obsession. New
series. Rebecca Stephens listens
to personal stories of climbing
Everest 2.00 The Archers (R) 2.15
Drama: Another Place, by Sian
Owen (R) 3.00 Great Lives. The
political writer and broadcaster
Steve Richards pays tribute to
Bruce Forsyth 3.30 History’s Secret
Heroes. One of the first West
African airmen to join the Royal
Air Force 4.00 Electric Car Shock
(R) 4.30 Soul Music (R) 5.00 PM
6.00 News 6.30 It’s A Fair Cop
7.00 The Archers 7.15 Front Row
8.00 The Briefing Room (R) 8.30
Inside Science (R) 9.00 Start The
Week (R) 9.45 Cafe Hope (R)
10.00 The World Tonight 10.45
Book At Bedtime 11.00 The System
(R) 11.30 Between Ourselves With
Marian Keyes (R) 12.00 News
12.30 The Life And Rhymes Of
Benjamin Zephaniah (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service

LBC
7.00 Nick Ferrari 10.00 James
O’Brien 1.00 Shelagh Fogarty
4.00 Tom Swarbrick 6.00 Tonight
With Andrew Marr 7.00 Iain Dale.
Debate 10.00 Ben Kentish 1.00
Richard Spurr 4.00 Ian Payne
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.30 Essential
Classics 1.00 Classical Live.
Including a live recital by the cellist
Nicolas Altstaedt and the pianist
Dénes Varjon 4.00 Composer Of
The Week: Brahms 5.00 In Tune.
A selection of music and arts news
7.00 Classical Mixtape. A selection
of classical favourites mixed with
jazz, folk and music from around
the world 7.30 In Concert. Ian
Skelly presents a programme
of choral music to celebrate
Judith Weir’s 70th birthday year,
performed by the BBC Singers
under the conductor Owain Park

○ Femicide — Eight
Steps To Stop A Murder
(BBC Sounds)
In the latest season of BBC
Radio Ulster’s Assume
Nothing series Amybeth
McNulty investigates why
women continue to be
murdered and how these
deaths (147 worldwide
every day) could be
prevented. Professor Jane
Monckton-Smith, an
expert in domestic
homicide, details the eight
stages of behaviour she
has identified in these
types of killing, which, if
spotted early, could keep
women safe.
Clair Woodward
9.45 The Essay. Michael Goldfarb
remembers his time as a theatre
actor, beginning by revealing how
he won his Equity card through
appearing in a production of
Macbeth 10.00 Night Tracks.
Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a
soundtrack for late-night listening
11.30 ’Round Midnight. Soweto
Kinch presents the best in jazz, with
a particular focus on the British
scene 12.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
6.30 Dan Walker 9.00 The Hall
Of Fame Hour. With Dan Walker
10.00 Stephen Mangan 1.00
Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00
Margherita Taylor 7.00 Relaxing
Evenings 10.00 Ritula Shah 1.00
Bill Overton 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
6.30 The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
With Bill Nighy 9.30 Gary Davies.
Fitness coach Joe Wicks picks
tracks 12.00 Jeremy Vine 2.00
Scott Mills 4.00 OJ Borg 7.00
Best Of Radio 2’s Piano Room.
New series. Featuring Bruce
Hornsby, Beverley Knight, the
Libertines, PP Arnold and Gabrielle
9.00 The Blues Show With Cerys
Matthews 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Magnificent 7 10.30 Trevor
Nelson’s Rhythm Nation 12.00
Phil Williams 3.00 Pick Of The
Pops (R) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
VIRGIN RADIO
6.30 The Chris Evans Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00 Jayne Middlemiss
4.00 Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam
10.00 Amy Voce 1.00 Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
TALKSPORT
5.00 Early Breakfast 6.00
Talksport Breakfast With Jeff
Stelling 10.00 Jim White And
Simon Jordan 1.00 Hawksbee And
Jacobs 4.00 Talksport Drive With
Andy Goldstein And Darren Bent
7.00 Monday GameNight:
Tottenham Hotspur v Nottingham
Forest. Kickoff is at 8.00 10.00
Sports Bar 1.00 Extra Time

7 April 2024 37

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
9.30 Morning Live Magazine.
10.45 Big Little Crimes Police
hunt a romantic fraudster.
11.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions.
12.15 Bargain Hunt Curios. (R)
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.45 Clive Myrie’s Italian Road
Trip Exploring Naples. (R)
2.15 Money For Nothing Items.
3.00 Escape To The Country
Properties in Norfolk. (R)
3.45 The Bidding Room A £20
note is offered — with the
Queen’s head missing. (R)
4.30 Bridge Of Lies Ross Kemp
presents the quiz show.
5.15 Pointless Quiz, hosted by
Alexander Armstrong.
6.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 Regional News Update.
7.00 The One Show Features.
7.30 EastEnders Linda reels
when she hears the new
plan; George prepares to
testify at Eddie’s trial; and
Harvey steals Jade’s pill
box to confront Dean, who
manages to twist the
narrative, placing the
blame on Harvey and Jean.
8.00 Interior Design Masters
The remaining designers
demonstrate reversible
design as they are
challenged to make a
rental apartment a more
personalised space
without losing the deposit
at the end of the tenancy.
9.00 Who Do You Think You
Are? The singer Marvin
Humes delves into both
his Jamaican and English
heritage and finds
connections to slavery
and one of the most
dramatic events of the
Second World War. (R)
10.00 News; Weather Reports.
10.40 CHOICE The Dropout
Under intense scrutiny
from the Wall Street
Journal, Elizabeth and
Sunny double down on
defence; and Tyler and
Erika face a difficult choice.
(7/8) 11.25 The Dropout In
the wake of the Wall Street
Journal article, Elizabeth
and Sunny face a
reckoning. (See Critics’
choice; last in series)
12.20-6.00 Joins BBC News
SCOTLAND 6.30 Reporting
Scotland; Weather. 7.00 River
City. Eddie does some digging.

Variations
BBC1 WALES 12.45 Match Of The
Day Wales. Live 9.00 Tree On A
Hill BBC2 WALES 1.45 Clive
Myrie’s Italian Road Trip 2.15
Money For Nothing BBC
SCOTLAND 7.00 This Farming
Life 8.00 Paramedics On Scene
9.00 The Nine 10.00 The Ice
Cream Wars 11.00-12.00 The
Women Who Changed Modern
Scotland STV 6.00 Good Morning
Britain 9.00 Lorraine 10.00 This
Morning 12.30 Loose Women 1.30
News; Weather 2.00 Riddiculous

38 7 April 2024

BBC 2

ITV 1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.30 The Bidding Room (R)
7.15 Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
8.00 Sort Your Life Out
(Signed, Last in series, R)
9.00 News; Weather Headlines.
1.00 Impossible Gameshow. (R)
1.45 The Edge Gameshow. (R)
2.30 Lose Weight And Get Fit (R)
3.00 Jay Blades’ Home Fix (R)
3.45 Best Home Cook The
cooks fight for a place in
the final of the contest. (R)
4.45 The Hairy Bikers’ Pubs
That Built Britain Si King
and Dave Myers learn about
the Great Fire of London. (R)
5.15 Flog It! Catherine Southon
and David Fletcher are in
Ushaw in Co Durham. (R)
6.00 House Of Games With Joe
Sugg, Toby Anstis, Evelyn
Mok and Kerry Howard. (R)
6.30 Great Coastal Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo
travels through the cities
of Exeter and Plymouth.
7.00 Britain’s Biggest Dig
Alice Roberts and Yasmin
Khan investigate the
excavation of a vast
Georgian cemetery near
Euston Station to make
way for the HS2 rail link. (R)
8.00 Saving Lives At Sea
In Queensferry, near
Glasgow, an American
visitor is caught out by
the tide — and is barely
conscious when the RNLI
crew manage to drag
him out of the water.
9.00 QI XL The host Sandi
Toksvig asks the questions
in a university-themed
edition, with panellists Guz
Khan, Joe Lycett, Morgana
Robinson and Alan Davies.
9.45 Live At The Apollo Tom
Allen hosts the comedy
showcase from London’s
Hammersmith Apollo,
introducing sets from
fellow stand-ups Rosie
Jones and Kae Kurd. (R)
10.30 Newsnight Headlines.

6.00
9.00
10.00
12.30
1.30
2.00

6.10 Countdown Game. (R)
6.50 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
8.05 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
9.30 Frasier Sitcom. (R)
11.00 Work On The Wild Side (R)
12.00 News; Weather Reports.
12.05 Sun, Sea And Selling
Houses In Almeria. (R)
1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (R)
2.10 Countdown Game.
3.00 A Place In The Sun (R)
4.00 A New Life In The Sun (R)
5.00 Chateau DIY Owners
host a wedding. (R)
6.00 A Place In The Sun A
couple who want to retire
to Benalmadena, Spain. (R)
6.30 The Simpsons Bart and
Lisa call on the showbiz
friends of Krusty the Clown
to rescue his career. (R)
7.00 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Aldi’s Next Big Thing In
bakery week, a father and
daughter duo hope to bowl
over the executives with
their novelty-shaped bread
and a couple present their
edible raw cookie dough.
9.00 Night Coppers An officer
is sent on a wild goose
chase by some runaway
youths; and a colleague
steps up at a tense
stand-off with a baseballbat-wielding suspect.
10.00 Defiance — Fighting
The Far Right When the
killing of Blair Peach goes
unprosecuted, Asian youth
movements around the
country take the matter of
protecting themselves into
their own hands. (2/3)
11.05 India 1947 — Partition In
Colour Colourised archive
footage and documents
tell the story of the division
of British-ruled India into
the independent dominions
of India and Pakistan,
and the subsequent
outbreaks of violence
and refugee crisis. (1/2, R)
12.10 Random Acts British Asian
stories and experiences
in modern Britain.
12.15 Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA An eatery
in Seattle with a menu
unchanged since 1984. (R)
1.10 Taskmaster Challenges. (R)
2.05 The Simpsons Cartoon. (R)
2.30 The Last Leg Comedy. (R)
3.25 The Piano Contest. (R)
4.20 Grand Designs New
Zealand Property. (R)
5.15-6.10 Renovation Nation (R)

6.00
9.15
11.15
12.45
1.40
1.45

Good Morning Britain
Lorraine Lifestyle chat.
This Morning Features.
Loose Women Debate.
News; Weather Reports.
Riddiculous Ranvir Singh
presents the quiz show. (R)
3.00 Winning Combination (R)
4.00 Tipping Point Gameshow,
with Ben Shephard. (R)
5.00 The Chase Contestants
from Middlesex, Southport,
Sunderland and Belfast
take part in the quiz. (R)
6.00 Regional News Update.
6.30 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Uefa Euro 2025 Qualifier:
Republic Of Ireland v
England. Seema Jaswal
introduces all the action
from both teams’ second
match in Group A3, live at
Aviva Stadium. With
analysis from Karen Carney
and Eni Aluko, reports by
Katie Shanahan, and
commentary from Seb
Hutchinson and Siobhan
Chamberlain. Kickoff 7.30.
10.00 News At Ten Bulletin.
10.45 Paul O’Grady’s Great
Elephant Adventure
The presenter heads south
near the beaches of Hua
Hin to the Wildlife Friends
Foundation Thailand, the
country’s biggest wildlife
hospital, that looks after
any animal in need. (2/2, R)
11.40 Sorry, I Didn’t Know
Jimmy Akingbola hosts as
Desiree Burch, Nick Helm,
Tez Ilyas and Sikisa join
the team leaders Chizzy
Akudolu and Eddie Kadi
to answer questions
about black history. (R)
12.05 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 The Jonathan Ross Show
The host welcomes Michael
Palin, Lulu, Anthony Joshua
and Laura Smyth. (R)
3.55 Unwind Daily relaxation.
5.10-6.00 James Martin’s
Spanish Adventure (R)

11.15 CHOICE Molly’s Game
Stars Jessica Chastain. The
story of Molly Bloom, a
skier who ran the world’s
most exclusive highstakes poker game and
became an FBI target.
(2017, 15; see Film choice)
1.25 Interior Design Masters
With Alan Carr. (Signed, R)
2.25-3.25 Pilgrimage — The
Road Through North
Wales (Signed, R)

3.00 Winning Combination 4.00
Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase
6.00 Regional News 6.30 News;
Weather 7.00 Uefa Euro 2025
Qualifier. Live 10.00 News At Ten
10.40 Scotland Tonight 11.05
Paul O’Grady’s Great Elephant
Adventure 12.05 Teleshopping
3.00 The Jonathan Ross Show
3.55 Night Vision 5.10-6.00
James Martin’s Spanish
Adventure S4C 6.00 Cyw 12.00
Newyddion A’r Tywydd 12.05
Bwrdd I Dri 12.30 Heno 1.00
Pobol Y Penwythnos 1.30 Teulu
Shadog — Tymhorau’r Flwyddyn

Mirren Mack (Sky Atlantic, 9pm)
2.00 Newyddion A’r Tywydd 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 3.05 Ty Am Ddim 4.00
Awr Fawr: Caru Canu A Stori 4.10
Tomos A’i Ffrindiau 4.20 Anifeiliaid
Bach Y Byd 4.30 Sam Tan 4.40
Awyr Iach 5.00 Stwnsh: Mwy O
Stwnsh Sadwrn 5.25 Lego
DREAMZzz 5.50 Newyddion Ni
6.00 Pel-Droed Rhyngwladol
6.57 Newyddion 7.00 Heno 7.30
Newyddion A’r Tywydd 8.00 Pobol
Y Cwm 8.25 Rownd A Rownd
8.55 Newyddion A’r Tywydd
9.00 Ar Brawf 10.00 Pel-Droed
Rhyngwladol 11.00-12.10 Heliwr

You say

TUESDAY 9 APRIL
BBC 1

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Jeremy Vine Debate.
Storm Huntley Opinions.
Friends US sitcom. (R)
News; Weather Reports.
Home And Away
Theo asks Valerie about
sourcing more pills. (R)
2.15 Deadly Engagement
Thriller, with Sarah-Jane
Redmond. A mother will
stop at nothing to keep
her son from marrying the
woman that she believes
is only after his money.
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits In
The Sun An animal
sanctuary owner deals
with extreme weather.
5.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres The poet’s next
journey begins at Longleat
House in Wiltshire. (R)
6.55 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Kate & The King — A
Special Relationship
Examining the bond that
has grown between
King Charles and the
Princess of Wales. (R)
7.55 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Dogs Behaving (Very)
Badly In this rehomed and
rescue dog edition, Graeme
Hall meets two feisty
rehomed newfoundlands
that needed calming
down. (Last in series)
9.00 The Cuckoo Sian guesses
the safe’s combination
and takes a slip of paper
— a pawnshop receipt —
which she reveals to
Jessica after being asked
about Nick’s infidelity. (2/4)
10.00 Stalked — Murder In Slow
Motion The story of a
woman shot dead by her
stalker in the department
store where she worked.
(Last in series, R)
11.05 Casualty 24/7 — Every
Second Counts A teenager
is in extreme pain following
a sports injury, which the
registrar has never seen
before. (Last in series, R)
12.05 999 — Critical Condition
Medical emergenices. (R)
1.00 Casino Show Gambling.
3.00 The Mega Council Estate
Next Door Insights. (R)
4.00 Dorset — Country And
Coast Documentary. (R)
4.45 Great Artists Raphael. (R)
5.10 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.35 Entertainment News (R)
5.40-6.00 Children’s Shows

Why are Mastermind (BBC2) specialist subject
questions sooo drawn out, all involving subclauses? Some contestants who get all the
questions correct score 12 points — while others
only get 11 questions. That can’t be fair.
Kay Bagon
Just when I thought we’d run out of celebrities
to send out to “discover” the world, we now
have Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures In Spain
(BBC1). The results are in and it’s a no from me.
Peter Harold
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

Fresh approach to
the art of comedy

Critics’ choice
Ministry Of Evil — The Twisted
Cult Of Tony Alamo
(BBC4, 10pm, 10.45pm)
“I didn’t think I was searching
but, you know, it seemed cool,”
says one of the contributors to
this documentary, which follows
the ignominious trail of an
evangelical Christian church
formed in 1969 Los Angeles. Quite
what it was about a leaflet bearing
the message “Repent or perish”
that propelled her to board the
bus and join their community is
never made clear, but when she
got there her fellow travellers
“knew all the words” to the gospel
songs, so she stayed. News reports
about the camp show a diverse
bunch of hippies, students and
dropouts who endured living
conditions described as “squalid”
by Alan Whicker, the British
journalist, and worked as unpaid
labour for Tony and Susan Alamo.
The four-part series is a salutary
lesson in how the minds of young
people can be captured.
Helen Stewart
The Dropout
(BBC1, 10.40pm, 11.25pm)
The story of Elizabeth Holmes will
come to a close this evening. As
episode seven of eight begins she
is still riding high, the youngest
self-made billionaire in the world,
with a $9 billion fortune. A
montage shows Amanda Seyfried’s
goofy face-pulling over footage of
the real Holmes as she is anointed
one of Time magazine’s top 100,
meets Bill Clinton and is praised as
an inspiration by Joe Biden. At The
Wall Street Journal, John Carreyrou
(Ebon Moss-Bachrach) remains
frustrated by the reluctance of
whistleblowers to go on the record,
but his editor, Judith, insists he
bide his time. There’s no doubt
this is an interesting story, but
dramatically its focus on money,
business and politics rather than
the inevitable human cost of
sending out false medical test
results does somewhat leave it
lacking a clear emotional focus. HS

On demand
○ Death And Other Details
(Disney+)
For anyone who loved Rian
Johnson’s Daniel Craig-led 2019
whodunnit Knives Out but found
2022’s follow-up Glass Onion a
disappointment, do we have a treat
for you. Violett Beane and Mandy
Patinkin are wonderful as the
mismatched detective couple
Imogene Scott and Rufus
Cotesworth, investigating a murder

Crazy Good (Netflix)
Neal Brennan is the platonic ideal
of the edgy comedian. Unlike,
say, Ricky Gervais, who tends to
disguise prejudices as free speech,
Brennan has the ability to present
his comic Swiftian proposals as
daring thought experiments.
“I think myself into isolated,
asshole-y positions” he said in
previous Netflix special Blocks.
This is no different, covering such
matters as social media, drugs and
mental health with a winningly
acerbic honesty. AM
Neal Brennan

Cult leader Tony Alamo and his wife, Susan (BBC4, from 10pm)

Mary & George
(Sky Atlantic/Now, 9pm)
While this pungent costume drama
slightly overplays the symbolic
shots of raw meat, its quest to show
history as red in tooth and claw is
robustly effective, in the style of
The Favourite. Plenty of schemes
and intrigues in this episode:
Queen Anne’s death leads to a
financial crisis, while civil unrest
escalates in the wake of Sir Walter
Raleigh’s execution. Fortunately
James (Tony Curran) can play his
“divine right of kings” card.

Unforgivable (Dave, 10pm)
Mel Giedroyc and her louche
sidekick Lou Sanders hear more
celebrity confessions in this
embarrassing panel show, now
in its fourth series. While guests
Shirley Ballas and Rosie Jones
have no shame about exposing
their moral flaws, it’s Ross Kemp
who best lives up to the
programme’s name, not only
conjuring up the image of himself
as a “tap-dancing luvvie” but also
telling a story that demands the
phrase “around my testicles”.

Shock: Mel Giedroyc (Dave, 10pm)

The Somme 1916 —
From Both Sides Of The Wire
(PBS America, 7.15pm)
The historian Peter Barton warns
of “uncomfortable” discoveries in
this three-parter. Challenging
“self-serving” British myths around
the bloodshed, Barton dives into
German archives, anatomising
their “tactical revolution”.
Victoria Segal

on a luxury cruise liner where
everyone is a suspect and
no one can be trusted. However,
alongside the joys of a proper
murder mystery, this is also a
stunning-looking show, with
pulchritudinous cast, gorgeous sets
and eye-popping costume design.
○ Doctor Foster (ITVX)
It’s nearly ten years since Suranne
Jones first appeared on our screens
as Gemma Jones, the GP whose life
starts to unravel when she suspects

that her handsome husband,
Simon (Bertie Carvel), of having an
affair. Admittedly, season two was
a nonsense, but season one
remains a banger. Yes, there are
ridiculous plot twists and the
actors are regularly called upon to
dispense great gobs of exposition,
but Jones’s Gemma is a magnificent
creation of perfectly measured rage
— and let’s not forget a young Jodie
Comer, who is perfect playing Kate,
Simon’s moody mistress.
Andrew Male

Film choice
The Nanny Diaries
(Film4, 6.55pm)
Based on the bestselling novel by
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola
Kraus, this chick flick is rather
less scathing in its analysis of rich
New Yorkers than its source
material. Scarlett Johansson is
an anthropology graduate who
finds herself working as a nanny
for a wealthy family. Laura Linney
steals the show as Mrs X, who is
more interested in her social life
than her son. (2007)
We Own The Night (Sky Cinema
Crime/Thriller, 10.20pm)
James Gray’s gritty thriller recalls
the classic New York-set cop films
from the 1970s such as The French
Connection. Joaquin Phoenix and
Mark Wahlberg play siblings on
either side of the law — Phoenix
is a nightclub owner with dodgy
connections, while Wahlberg
upholds the family tradition, and
is a cop like their father (Robert
Duvall). They clash. (2007)
Molly’s Game (BBC2, 11.15pm)
Aaron Sorkin’s drama is based on
the 2014 memoir of Molly Bloom,
the former competitive skier who
was arrested by the FBI in 2013
and charged with profiting from
underground gambling — she
operated a high-stakes poker
game. Bloom, whose career was
wrecked by a back injury, is played
by Jessica Chastain, with Kevin
Costner as her father. (2017)
7 April 2024 39

TUESDAY 9 APRIL
BBC 3

BBC 4

ITV 2

ITV 3

E4

7.00pm Young MasterChef
The cooks visit London
Community Kitchen.
8.00 Top Gear Older hot
hatches are put to the test.
9.00 The Apprentice The
candidates create a new
vegan alternative to cheese.
10.00 Wreck Jamie and Vivian’s
morals are put to the test
as they find out what it
will take to win the battle
against Velorum. (S2, ep 5)
10.50 The Young Offenders Billy
enlists Conor and Jock to
help him fake his death.
(Series 2, ep 5) 11.20 The
Young Offenders Orla
suggests that everyone go
away for a weekend break.
11.50 Wreck (Series 2, ep 5)
12.35 Squad Goals — Dorking
’Til I Die Documentary.
2.05 The Young Offenders
3.05-3.50 Wreck (S2, ep 5)

7.00pm India’s Frontier
Railways Documentary.
8.00 To The Manor Born
8.30 No Place Like Home
9.00 Secrets Of Size — Atoms
To Supergalaxies
Exploring the universe. (1/2)
10.00 CHOICE Ministry Of Evil
— The Twisted Cult Of
Tony Alamo New series
charting the criminal
activity behind the Alamo
Christian Foundation. (1/4)
10.45 Ministry Of Evil —
The Twisted Cult Of Tony
Alamo Tony and Susan’s
grip on power is challenged.
(See Critics’ choice)
11.30 Murder In The Bush —
Cold Case Hammarskjold
The death of UN secretarygeneral Dag Hammarskjold.
1.30 India’s Frontier Railways
2.30-3.30 Britain’s Lost
Masterpieces Art works.

6.00pm Catchphrase With Jeff
Stelling, Charlotte Hawkins
and Andy Whyment.
7.00 Family Fortunes Game.
8.00 Superstore Amy grows
frustrated by everyone’s
criticism of her parenting.
(Series 5, ep 18) 8.30
Superstore Carol returns
from her suspension.
9.00 Hell’s Kitchen New run.
Contestants compete
in the signature dish
challenge after being
divided into two teams.
10.00 Plebs Stylax decides
to reinvent himself as a
charioteer. (Series 2, ep 1)
10.30 Plebs Aurelius asks
Marcus to be his best man.
11.00 Family Guy Lois becomes
a model. (Series 4, ep 10)
11.30-12.00 Family Guy
Chris develops a crush on
his teacher. (Series 4, ep 2)

5.55pm Heartbeat Tricia’s
decision continues to
cause problems. (2/2) 6.55
Heartbeat Vernon attracts
the attention of MI5.
8.00 Midsomer Murders
With Neil Dudgeon.
As Midsomer St Claire
prepares for storms and
flooding, it appears a
murderer is using ancient
torture methods to punish
modern-day ‘sinners’.
10.00 Blue Murder Detective
Janine Lewis suffers a
close shave when a
colleague is murdered just
metres away from where
she is standing. (S3, ep 1)
11.30-12.20 Wild At Heart
Sarah’s mother arrives
at the reserve, but soon
angers her daughter by
meddling in the affairs
of two celebrity guests.

6.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Leonard and Penny argue
about money. (Series 8, ep
6) 6.30 The Big Bang
Theory Guest starring
Billy Bob Thornton.
7.00 Hollyoaks Chester soap.
7.30 Married At First Sight
Australia The couples
participate in challenges
designed to help identify
improvement areas.
9.00 The Underdog — Josh
Must Win In the final, the
celebrity panel have one
last chance to manipulate
the game. (Last in series)
10.00 Gogglebox Opinions on
Strictly Come Dancing,
Coronation Street, Frozen
Planet II, Kings of Pain and
Antiques Roadshow.
11.05-12.10 First Dates A pair of
octogenarians bond over
memories of lost loves.

Drama

Sky Arts

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

Talk TV

6.00pm Stargate Atlantis
Jack O’Neill is taken
prisoner. (Series 3, ep 11, R)
7.00 Stargate Atlantis A
medical team vanishes. (R)
8.00 A League Of Their Own
US Road Trip James
Corden, Jamie Redknapp,
Jack Whitehall and Andrew
Flintoff take part in a
baseball challenge. (R)
9.00 Rob Beckett’s Smart TV
With Joe Thomas, Gregg
Wallace, Alan Davies
and Ruth Madeley. (R)
9.45 Peacemaker Picking up
where The Suicide Squad
left off, Peacemaker
returns after recovering
from his encounter with
Bloodsport. (1/8, R)
10.45 Swat (Series 7, ep 3, R)
11.45-12.40 The Force — North
East Northumbria Police
answer a flood of calls. (R)

5.45pm Boardwalk Empire
Knox gets a break in his
investigation. (S4, ep 8)
6.50 Boardwalk Empire
The Capone brothers
recruit Van Alden for a hit.
7.55 Game Of Thrones Robb
Stark discovers he has
been betrayed. (S2, ep 8)
9.00 CHOICE Mary & George
Anti-Spanish riots have
taken hold of the city so
George tries to persuade
the king to open parliament
to request funds. (6/7;
see Critics’ choice)
10.05 The Gilded Age Peggy
gets welcomed back to
61st Street by almost
everyone. (Series 2, ep 2)
11.10-12.25 House Of The
Dragon King Viserys
Targaryen hosts a
tournament to celebrate
the birth of his child. (1/10)

4.00pm Vanessa Feltz The host
brings viewers up to date
on what is on her mind, plus
calls and guest analysis.
6.00 The Talk A panel of
well-known faces debate
the latest topics that
everybody is talking about.
7.00 Prime Time With James
Max The journalist uses his
experience to get inside
the day’s biggest stories.
8.00 The Independent
Republic Of Mike Graham
A run through the day’s
breaking news stories.
10.00 The Talk Well-known faces
debate the topics that
everybody is talking about.
11.00-12.00 Prime Time With
James Max A look inside
the stories of the day.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

9.00 FILM: The Krays. Biopic of the
twins who ruled east London’s
gangland with a rod of iron in the
1960s 11.30 All Elite Wrestling —
Rampage 12.40 From Dusk Till Dawn
1.40-2.05 Auto Mundial. Updates

9.00 A&E — Crash Scene
Emergency 10.00 A&E After Dark
11.00 999 — Critical Condition
12.00 Making A Serial Killer 1.00
Skin A&E 2.00-2.50 Wanted

YESTERDAY
6.00pm Antiques Roadshow 7.00
Great British Railway Journeys 8.00
Dream Car Fixers 9.00 Bangers &
Cash 11.00 Abandoned Engineering
12.00-1.00 British Railway Journeys

6.00pm Keeping Up
Appearances Hyacinth
invites the new vicar round
for tea . (Series 1, ep 2)
6.40 Last Of The Summer Wine
An afternoon in Wesley’s
car causes problems.
7.20 Last Of The Summer
Wine Clegg and Seymour
visit Smiler in hospital.
8.00 Dalziel & Pascoe When a
woman is found dead at a
health spa, Dalziel books
himself in. With Norman
Wisdom. (Series 7, ep 2)
10.00 New Tricks Standing links
the death of a bookmaker’s
father with the kidnapping
of a champion greyhound
in the 1980s. (Series 2, ep 6)
11.20-12.40 Spooks The team
tries to stop a ship carrying
explosives from reaching
Plymouth. With Sophia
Myles. (Series 9, ep 1)

Films
SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
4.10pm Barbie (2023, 12) 6.10
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles —
Mutant Mayhem (2023, PG) 8.00
Gran Turismo. A teenager beats
thousands of other gamers in
a competition to sit behind the
wheel of a real racing car. (2023,
12) 10.20-12.20 Rumble Through
The Dark. A cage fighter seeks to
repay his debts in an effort to
save his family home. (2023, 15)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
6.00pm Last Looks (2021, 15) 8.00
Miami Vice. Two detectives pose as
smugglers in an effort to infiltrate
a powerful drug cartel. (2006, 15)
10.20-12.25 CHOICE We Own The
Night. The manager of a nightclub
is caught between the policemen in
his family and his criminal clientele.
(2007, 15; see Film choice)
SKY CINEMA GREATS
5.45pm Ferrari (2023, 15) 8.00 The
Last Samurai. An American Civil
War veteran is hired to train the
imperial Japanese army. (2003, 15)
10.35-12.45 She Said (2022, 15)

40 7 April 2024

6.00pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: Safety For The
Witness. A gun-shop owner
sees two mobsters kill a
witness. 6.30 Alfred
Hitchcock Presents:
Murder Me Twice. A
woman kills her husband
while under hypnosis.
7.00 Grand Ole Opry With
Willie Nelson, Charley
Pride and Chris Ledoux.
8.00 Dickens — Phantoms And
Fictions Exploring Charles
Dickens’ supernatural tales.
9.00 Camille Pissarro — The
Father Of Impressionism
A profile of the artist.
10.10 FILM: Escher — Journey
Into Infinity Exploring the
life and work of the Dutch
graphic artist. (2018, PG)
11.45-1.45 The Black Italian
Renaissance Insights.

SKY CINEMA SELECT
5.35pm Wonder Woman (2017, 12)
8.00 Justice League. Batman
enlists the help of other heroes in
the fight against a super villain.
(2017, 12) 10.05-12.10 Suicide
Squad. A ragtag team of villains
are strong-armed into doing good
by a government agent. (2016, 15)
FILM4
4.40pm Junior (1994, PG) 6.55
CHOICE The Nanny Diaries (2007,
12; see Film choice) 9.00 Alita —
Battle Angel. A cyborg in the 26th
century is repaired by a technician
with a secret. (2019, 12) 11.25-1.30
Desperado. A guitar-playing stranger
seeks revenge on a drug baron
in a backwoods town. (1995, 18)
TALKING PICTURES TV
5.55pm The Beverly Hillbillies 6.30
Scotland Yard 7.05 The Four Just
Men 7.35 Dangerous Assignment
8.05 Manhunt 9.05 Maigret 11.0512.55 Doctor Faustus (1968, PG)

Entertainment
ITV4
5.50pm Monster Carp 8.00 River
Monsters. Creatures in Indonesia

MORE4
5.50pm The Secret Life Of The Zoo
6.55 Car SOS 7.55 Grand Designs
9.00 Julia Bradbury’s Irish Journey
10.00 Brain Surgeons — Between
Life And Death 11.05 24 Hours In
A&E 12.10 Emergency Helicopter
Medics 1.15-2.15 Brain Surgeons
GOLD
5.40pm Porridge 6.20 The Green
Green Grass 7.00 Dinnerladies
7.40 Dad’s Army 9.00 Bottom
10.20 The Young Ones 11.10 Bottom
12.25 The Young Ones 1.15 Back
To Life 1.50-2.40 Chewing Gum
SKY COMEDY
6.00pm The US Office 7.00 Sort Of
8.00 Will & Grace 9.00 Barry 10.15
The Tonight Show. Chat show 11.15
Veep 12.30 Girls 1.40-3.00 Hung
5 STAR
6.00pm Home And Away 7.00
GPs — Behind Closed Doors 8.00
Casualty 24/7 — Every Second Counts

5 USA
6.00pm NCIS 9.00 Law & Order
10.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 1.50-3.35 Law & Order
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Blue Bloods 9.00 FBI — Most Wanted
10.00 Bull 11.00 The Rookie 12.00
Coroner 1.00-3.00 Fire Country
W
6.00pm MasterChef Australia 7.00
The Secret Life Of 4, 5, 6 Year Olds
Australia 8.00 Ambulance Australia
9.00 Nurses On The Ward 10.00
Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over 11.00
Louis Theroux — Gambling In Las
Vegas 12.20 Changing Rooms
Australia 1.25-3.00 Plate Of Origin
COMEDY CENTRAL
6.00pm Friends 9.00 FILM: Police
Academy 4 — Citizens On Patrol
10.40 Harry Hill Live — Sausage
Time 11.55 Drunk History 12.55
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show 1.552.55 The Complaints Department

DAVE
6.00pm Rick Stein’s Long Weekends
7.00 House Of Games 8.20 Would I
Lie To You? 9.00 8 Out Of 10 Cats
10.00 CHOICE Unforgivable. With
Mel Giedroyc. (See Critics’ choice)
11.00 World’s Most Dangerous
Roads 12.00-1.20 Hustle

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm World War II — Secrets
From Above 7.00 Air Crash
Investigation 8.00 Apocalypse —
Hitler Takes On The East 10.00 Nazi
Megastructures 11.00 Air Crash
Investigation 12.00 To Catch A
Smuggler — JFK Airport 1.00-2.00
Doing Hard Time — Vegas
DISCOVERY
6.00pm Junkyard Empire 7.00
Wheeler Dealers 8.00 Blowing Up
History 9.00 Gold Rush — White
Water 10.00 America’s Backyard Gold

5
1

Great shows...
Journalism

State Of Play
(2003, UKTV Play)
John Simm’s journo
investigates his friend —
an MP (David Morrissey)
up to his neck in it after
his young researcher is
found dead.

2

The Newsroom
(2012-14, Sky/Now)
Aaron Sorkin’s serial
was like The West Wing
relocated to a TV evening
news show, with Jeff
Daniels as the star.

3

Press
(2018, BBC iPlayer)
Charlotte Riley’s talented
journo works for an
earnest, quality paper
and goes up against Ben
Chaplin’s wolfish editor
at the helm of a tabloid.

4
5

Charlotte Riley
played Holly
Evans in Press

The Morning Show
(2019-, Apple TV+)
Jennifer Aniston,
Reese Witherspoon and
Steve Carell star in this
addictive drama.
The Newsreader
(2021-, iPlayer/Sky)
A 1980s backstage drama,
it’s a bit like an Aussie
cousin of the 1987 film
Broadcast News.
James Jackson

11.00 Combat Dealers. A Second
World War tank 12.00 Gold Divers
1.00-2.00 Gold Rush — White Water
PBS AMERICA
5.00pm Sabotage In Auschwitz
6.05 Egypt’s Sun King — The Mystery
Tombs 7.15 CHOICE The Somme
1916 — From Both Sides Of The Wire
(See Critics’ choice) 8.30 Ancient
Apocalypse. The Rapa Nui people of
Easter Island 9.35 Sabotage In
Auschwitz 10.45-12.00 The Somme
1916 — From Both Sides Of The Wire
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
6.00pm Lockerbie 7.00 The
Vietnam War 8.00 Urban Secrets
9.00-12.00 Dublin Narcos
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Malawi Wildlife Rescue
7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Macaque
Island 9.00 Amazing Animal Friends
10.00 Malawi Wildlife Rescue
11.00-12.00 Uptown Otters
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Unsolved History. The gun
battle at the OK Corral in Arizona,
in 1881 7.00 Expedition Unknown
8.00 Gunslingers 9.00 Combat
Dealers 10.00 Salvage Hunters
11.00-12.00 Find It, Fix It, Flog It

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 10.00 LIVE Tennis. The
Monte-Carlo Masters 3.00 LIVE
Indian Premier League: Punjab Kings
v Sunrisers Hyderabad 7.00 Soccer
Special 7.30 LIVE EFL: Leeds United
v Sunderland. Kickoff at 8.00 10.30
Back Pages Tonight 11.00-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
6.00am Goals Reload 6.30 National
League 7.00 FIA Formula E Preview
Show 8.00 Women’s ODI Cricket
9.00 Uefa Champions League
Magazine 9.30 Uefa Documentaries
11.30 PL Stories 12.00 PL Review
1.00 SVNS 2.00 National League
4.00 Serie A 5.00 A-League 5.30 PL
Netbusters 6.00 PL Stories 6.30
Uefa Champions League Magazine
7.00 LIVE Uefa Champions League:
Arsenal v Bayern Munich. Kickoff at
8.00 10.45 The Football’s On 11.45
Premier League Reload 12.00 NBA
Tip-Off 12.30 LIVE NBA: Milwaukee
Bucks v Boston Celtics. Tip-off at
12.30 3.00 LIVE NBA: Los Angeles
Lakers v Golden State Warriors. Tipoff at 3.00 5.30-6.30 Inside The NBA

Radio & Podcasts
○ In The Studio
(BBC World Service,
1.30pm, 10.30pm)
Ellie Simmonds, the
Paralympian gold
medallist, always brings
a genuine joy as a
broadcaster. In this
documentary she
explores what it takes
to design and build a
swimming pool, and
asks why they are so
important in our
post-Covid era. She
speaks to the architects
behind the Aquatics
Centre for the Paris
Olympics, and to the
architect and swimming
advocate Chris RomerLee about the benefits of
public pools. If outdoor
swimming is your thing,
try Freya Bromley’s The
Tidal Year podcast.

mason by the bishop in
charge of creating the new
building. Given that he has
no idea what he’s doing,
why has he been asked?

Ellie Simmonds has five
Paralympic gold medals
○ Drama On 4
(Radio 4, 2.15pm)
Lizzy Mansfield’s comedy
Master Mason takes
listeners back to the golden
age of cathedral building,
when run-of-the mill
craftsman Bill Mason
(Edward Hogg) is asked to
take the role of master

TIMES RADIO

RADIO 4 EXTRA

5.00 Rosie Wright With Early
Breakfast 6.00 Ayesha Hazarika
And Adam Boulton With Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt
Chorley 1.00 Ed Vaizey 3.00 Jane
Garvey And Fi Glover 5.00 John
Pienaar With Times Radio Drive
7.00 Pienaar And Friends 8.00 The
Evening Edition With Kait Borsay
10.00 Carole Walker 1.00 The
Story 1.30 Highlights From Matt
Chorley 2.00 Best Of Times Radio

5.00 A Surfeit Of Smiths 6.00 The
Rivals 6.30 A Charles Paris Mystery:
Murder In The Title 7.00 The Michael
Bentine Show 7.30 The Goon Show
8.00 The Wilsons Save The World
8.30 Small Pleasures 8.45 Halfway
Here 9.00 Tim Key’s Poetry
Programme 9.30 A Piece Of Cake
9.45 Daily Service 10.00 A Good
Read 10.30 My Dream Dinner Party
11.00 The Rivals 11.30 A Charles
Paris Mystery: Murder In The Title
12.00 The Michael Bentine Show
12.30 The Goon Show 1.00 The
Wilsons Save The World 1.30 Small
Pleasures 1.45 Halfway Here 2.00
Hidden Treasures 2.30 The Change
3.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 4.00 A Good Read
4.30 My Dream Dinner Party 5.00
The Rivals 5.30 A Charles Paris
Mystery: Murder In The Title 6.00
The Michael Bentine Show 6.30
The Goon Show 7.00 The Wilsons
Save The World 7.30 Small Pleasures
7.45 Halfway Here 8.00 Hidden
Treasures 8.30 Change 9.00 The
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
10.00 Tim Key’s Poetry Programme
10.30 Josh Howie’s Losing It 10.55
Comedy Club Interview 11.00
At Home With The Snails
11.30-12.00 Pleased To Meet You

To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.
RADIO 4
5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45
Farming Today 6.00 Today 9.00
The Life Scientific. Jim Al-Khalili
talks to fellow scientists 9.30
Inside Health 10.00 Woman’s
Hour 11.00 Screenshot (R) 11.45
Book Of The Week (R) 12.00 News
12.04 Call You And Yours 1.00
The World At One 1.45 The
Everest Obsession. As climbers
get ready to reach the summit,
an avalanche errupts 2.00 The
Archers (R) 2.15 Drama On 4.
Master Mason, by Lizzy Mansfield.
With Edward Hogg and Laura
Elphinstone 3.00 Don’t Log Off
(R) 3.30 Beyond Belief 4.00 Percy
Shelley, Reformer And Radical.
Benjamin Zephaniah presents his
personal take on Shelley’s work
(1/2, R) 4.30 Your Place Or Mine.
Stephen Mangan showcases Erris
in Co Mayo, Ireland (R) 5.00 PM
6.00 News 6.30 Tim Key’s Poetry
Programme. Americana special,
with Morgana Robinson and Simon
Armstrong 7.00 The Archers 7.15
Front Row 8.00 File On 4 8.45 In
Touch 9.00 Crossing Continents
9.30 Three Million. The escalating
food crisis forces people to make
life and death decisions (R) 10.00
The World Tonight 10.45 Book At
Bedtime 11.00 The Confessional
(R) 11.30 Between Ourselves With
Marian Keyes (R) 12.00 News
12.30 Book Of The Week (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service

LBC
7.00 Nick Ferrari 10.00 James
O’Brien 1.00 Shelagh Fogarty
4.00 Tom Swarbrick 6.00 Tonight
With Andrew Marr 7.00 Iain Dale.
Debate 10.00 Ben Kentish 1.00
Richard Spurr 4.00 Ian Payne
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.30 Essential
Classics 1.00 Classical Live. The
French National Orchestra play
Schumann’s Symphony No 2; plus,
music by Bach, Shostakovich,
Smetana, Rossini, Gipps, Mozart
and Enescu 4.00 Composer Of The
Week 5.00 In Tune. Live music and
interviews 7.00 Classical Mixtape.
Sequence of music 7.30 In Concert.
Linton Stephens presents Sinfonia
Cymru teaming up with the soloist
Sean Shibe, and music by living
composers from the UK and America

○ The Magdalenes And I
(podcast)
Steven O’Riordan, a
film-maker, explains how
he became a leading light
in the campaign for justice
for the survivors of
Ireland’s Magdalene
Laundries. While making a
documentary about them,
he became their accidental
advocate, and the podcast
features his interviews
with them as they recall
stories of appalling cruelty
by nuns from Catholic
religious orders, one
stating that they treated
the girls as child slaves.
Clair Woodward
9.45 The Essay. Michael Goldfarb
talks about Maxim Gorky’s
Summerfolk, a play about Russian
upper middle classes at their
summer homes, as their country
teeters on the brink of catastrophe
10.00 Night Tracks. Sara MohrPietsch presents an adventurous
soundtrack for late-night listening
11.30 ’Round Midnight. The
saxophonist Soweto Kinch
presents the best in jazz is joined
by guest Fergus McCreadie
12.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
6.30 Dan Walker 9.00 The Hall Of
Fame Hour 10.00 Stephen Mangan
1.00 Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00
Margherita Taylor 7.00 Relaxing
Evenings 10.00 Ritula Shah 1.00
Bill Overton 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
6.30 The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
9.30 Gary Davies 12.00 Jeremy
Vine 2.00 Scott Mills 4.00 OJ
Borg 7.00 Best Of Radio 2’s Piano
Room. Featuring highlights from
Tony Hadley, Olivia Dean, Johnny
Marr, Shaznay and Rick Astley
performing at Maida Vale with
the BBC Concert Orchestra
9.00 The Jazz Show With Jamie
Cullum 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Magnificent 7 10.30 Trevor
Nelson’s Rhythm Nation 12.00
Phil Williams 3.00 Pick Of The
Pops (R) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
VIRGIN RADIO
6.30 The Chris Evans Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00 Jayne Middlemiss
4.00 Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam
10.00 Amy Voce 1.00 Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
TALKSPORT
5.00 Early Breakfast 6.00
Talksport Breakfast With Jeff
Stelling 10.00 Jim White And
Simon Jordan 1.00 Hawksbee And
Jacobs 4.00 Talksport Drive With
Andy Goldstein And Darren Bent
7.00 Kick Off: Arsenal v Bayern
Munich. Kickoff at 8.00 10.00
Sports Bar 12.00 Extra Time

7 April 2024 41

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
9.30 Morning Live Magazine.
10.45 Big Little Crimes A rookie
officer finds himself on the
front line of a murder case.
11.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
12.15 Bargain Hunt Curios. (R)
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.45 Clive Myrie’s Italian Road
Trip Fishing on Europe’s
biggest volcanic lake. (R)
2.15 Money For Nothing Items
include a cabinet. (R)
3.00 Escape To The Country (R)
3.45 The Bidding Room Items
include a golfing statue,
some designer glassware
and a chopping block.
4.30 Bridge Of Lies Quiz show.
5.15 Pointless Quiz show.
6.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 Regional News Update.
7.00 The One Show Features.
7.30 EastEnders Cindy and
Elaine join forces as
George testifies against
Eddie; and Denzel faces
off with Pastor Clayton.
8.00 CHOICE The Repair Shop
New run. Jay Blades and his
team of experts, including
Kirsten Ramsay, breathe
new life into a pair of
cowboy boots, a traditional
Turkish Saz and a glass
lamp. (See Critics’ choice)
9.00 CHOICE Race Across The
World New run. Five teams
race from Hokkaido, the
most northerly island of
Japan, to the Indonesian
island of Lombok without
being able to make use of
their phones or credit
cards. (See Critics’ choice)
10.00 News; Weather Reports.
10.40 CHOICE The Aunties
Documentary following a
group of women from
Bradford as they plan an
intergenerational coach
trip to the coast in an effort
to keep their culture alive.
(See Critics’ choice)
11.30 Pointless Contestants on
the quiz include Kate
Holderness, Adele Roberts
and Dave Gorman. (R)
12.20 Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
1.10-6.00 Joins BBC News
SCOTLAND 6.30 Reporting
Scotland; Weather. 10.40
Sportscene — Premiership
Highlights. 11.10 The Aunties.
Documentary. 12.00 Pointless.
12.50 The Edit. Entertainment.
1.05 Bridge Of Lies. 1.55 News.

Variations
BBC SCOTLAND 7.00 This
Farming Life 8.00 Scotland’s
Greatest Escape 8.30 Accidental
Renovators 9.00 The Nine 10.00
River City 10.30 Disclosure —
Dead Man Running 11.30-12.00
Anton Danyluk On Body Shame
STV 6.00 Good Morning Britain
9.00 Lorraine 10.00 This Morning
12.30 Loose Women 1.30 News;
Weather 2.00 Riddiculous 3.00
Winning Combination 4.00
Tipping Point 5.00 The Chase
6.00 Regional News 6.30 News

42 7 April 2024

6.30
7.15
8.00
8.30

ITV 1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00
9.00
10.00
12.30
1.30
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
6.30
7.30

6.10 Countdown Game. (R)
6.50 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
8.05 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
9.30 Frasier Sitcom. (R)
11.00 Work On The Wild Side (R)
12.00 News; Weather Reports.
12.05 Sun, Sea And Selling
Houses A look at how
some property purchases
have worked out. (R)
1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (R)
2.10 Countdown Game.
3.00 A Place In The Sun (R)
4.00 A New Life In The Sun (R)
5.00 Chateau DIY Insights. (R)
6.00 A Place In The Sun On
Spain’s Costa Blanca. (R)
6.30 The Simpsons Homer gets
a job as a department store
Santa at Christmas. (R)
7.00 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Remarkable Renovations
George Clarke meets a
project manager and
plasterer who have sold
both their houses and
poured their life savings
into the renovation of a
Victorian pie factory they
bought for £160,000.
9.00 CHOICE Renovation
Rescue New run. Stacey
Solomon shares her
infectious enthusiasm for
DIY and her money-saving
design tips as she helps
families who have been left
high and dry by builders.
(See Critics’ choice)
10.00 Defiance — Fighting The
Far Right In July 1981,
violence explodes in east
London, Bradford and
Southall and 12 young
people are arrested for
stockpiling petrol bombs,
leaving them to convince
a court they are for self
defence. (Last in series)
11.05 India 1947 — Partition In
Colour Uncertainty over
the new borders leads
to tensions. (2/2, R)
12.10 Random Acts Stories.
12.15 Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA (R)
1.05 24 Hours In A&E (R)
2.00 FILM: Hit The Road Stars
Mohammad Hassan
Madjooni. (2021, 12; In
Persian with subtitles)

6.00
9.15
11.15
12.45
1.40
1.45

Money For Nothing (R)
Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
MasterChef (Signed, R)
Robson Green’s
Weekend Escapes In
Durham. (Signed, R)
9.00 News; Weather Headlines.
1.00 Impossible Gameshow. (R)
1.45 The Edge Gameshow. (R)
2.30 Lose Weight And Get Fit
The chef Tom Kerridge
offers solutions to keep the
volunteers on track. (R)
3.00 Jay Blades’ Home Fix (R)
3.45 Best Home Cook (R)
4.45 The Hairy Bikers’ Pubs
That Built Britain Si King
and Dave Myers visit
Carlisle. (Last in series, R)
5.15 Flog It! Selling items. (R)
6.00 House Of Games Toby
Anstis, Kerry Howard, Joe
Sugg and Evelyn Mok take
part in trivia games. (R)
6.30 Great Coastal Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo
explores the southwestern
shores of Britain, where
he visits Tintagel Castle.
7.00 Britain’s Biggest Dig
The search of the lost
remains of an explorer
and a champion boxer. (R)
8.00 Fabulous Feasts Andi
Oliver travels to the East
Yorkshire seaside town of
Bridlington, where she
plans to throw a party to
secure the future of its
historic fishing industry.
9.00 Surgeons — At The Edge
Of Life A consultant and a
surgeon operate on a 55year-old woman who has
an egg-sized tumour
in her pancreas that has
spread, causing multiple
tumours in her liver.
10.00 Mandy A revelation leads
Mandy to confess a dark
secret. (Series 3, ep 5)
10.15 Mandy Examining
the role of the shadowy
global elite in world
events. (Last in series)
10.30 Newsnight Headlines.
11.15 Meet The Roman
Emperor An insight
into the lives of the
emperors of Rome. (R)
12.15 Pilgrimage — The Road
Through North Wales
The travellers head into
Eryri National Park. (R)
1.15 Make It At Market
A contemporary furnituremaker and a wearable cake
shoe designer. (Signed, R)
2.00-3.00 Bring The Drama (R)

Good Morning Britain
Lorraine Lifestyle chat.
This Morning Features.
Loose Women Debate.
News; Weather Reports.
Riddiculous Quiz show. (R)
Winning Combination (R)
Tipping Point Game. (R)
The Chase Quiz show. (R)
Regional News Update.
News; Weather Reports.
Emmerdale Marlon
struggles to comfort
Rhona; Charles proposes;
and Caleb pleads for help.
8.00 Coronation Street Stu
puts himself at risk to help
Roy; Toyah identifies
Rowan as a fraud; Rita
gets tough with Jenny;
and Dylan begs Violet to let
him stay in Weatherfield.
9.00 Professor T As he takes
the stand in court, the
professor must decide
whether to save himself or
his former lover; and when
a prison officer is found
dead, there is no shortage
of suspects. (Series 3, ep 3)
10.00 News At Ten Bulletin.
10.45 Ramadan — A Journey
Across Britain Shehab
Khan delves into Islam’s
holy month of Ramadan
and learns how different
people cope with the
challenges of fasting.
11.25 Heathrow — Britain’s
Busiest Airport Two
border officers help a
student from India. (R)
11.50 Sorry, I Didn’t Know With
Desiree Burch, Nick Helm,
Tez Ilyas and Sikisa. (R)
12.15 English Football League
Highlights The latest
Championship fixtures.
1.25 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 Priced Out? The Rising
Costs Of Your Car (R)
3.25 Fishing Allstars (R)
3.50 Unwind Daily relaxation.
5.05-6.00 Alan Titchmarsh’s
Gardening Club (R)

The Aunties (BBC1, 10.40pm)

7.30 Emmerdale 8.00 Coronation
Street 9.00 Professor T 10.00
News 10.40 Scotland Tonight
11.05 Ramadan — A Journey
Across Britain 11.40 Heathrow
— Britain’s Busiest Airport 12.15
English Football League Highlights
1.25 Teleshopping 3.00 Priced
Out? The Rising Costs Of Your
Car 3.25 Fishing Allstars 3.50
Night Vision 5.05-6.00 Alan
Titchmarsh’s Gardening Club
S4C 6.00 Cyw 10.00 Caru Canu
10.05 Olobobs 10.10 Byd TadCu 10.25 Blero Yn Mynd I Ocido
10.40 Dal Dy Ddannedd

11.00 Dysgu Gyda Cyw 12.00
Newyddion A’r Tywydd 12.05
Colleen Ramsey — Bywyd A Bwyd
12.30 Heno 1.00 Byd O Liw —
Arlunwyr 1.30 Garddio A Mwy
2.00 Newyddion A’r Tywydd 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 3.05 Arctig Gwyllt Iolo
Williams 4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00
Stwnsh 6.00 Caeau Cymru 6.30
Sgorio 6.57 Newyddion S4C 7.00
Heno 7.30 Newyddion 8.00 Pobol
Y Cwm 8.25 Y Sin 8.55 Newyddion
9.00 Y Lein — Streic Friction
Dynamics 10.00 Jess Davies
10.30-11.35 Teulu’r Castell

3.35 Grand Designs New
Zealand Property. (R)
4.30 Renovation Nation (R)
5.25 The Perfect Pitch (R)
5.50-6.10 Sunday Brunch Best
Bits With Jeff Goldblum. (R)

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Jeremy Vine Debate.
Storm Huntley Opinions.
Friends US sitcom. (R)
News; Weather Reports.
Home And Away
Mackenzie and Levi
rendezvous in private. (R)
2.15 Living Next To Danger
Thriller, with Kristi Murdock
and Noemi Alexis. A
woman’s daughter goes
missing and suspicion falls
on her new neighbours.
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits In
The Sun A couple research
their retirement dream
of moving to Benidorm.
5.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres The poet heads to
Stow-on-the Wold. (R)
6.55 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Shop Smart, Save Money
Gaby Roslin and Ortis
Deley look at ways to
keep a home ship-shape.
7.55 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 CHOICE Air Fryers
— Batch Cooking Made
Easy Alexis Conran shows
how the gadget can make
batch cooking easier; and
celebrities reveal assorted
tips. (See Critics’ choice)
9.00 The Cuckoo Sian lies to
Alice about her parents
not caring for her; and
Fay is left reeling at the
news that Sian wants to
bring Alice to her house,
leading them to argue
about family history. (3/4)
10.00 Lost Boy — The Killing
Of James Bulger The
definitive background
to the abduction and
murder of James Bulger,
which shocked the nation
in 1993, and continues to
resonate to this day. (R)
12.00 Motorway Cops —
Catching Britain’s
Speeders Storms bring
travel chaos to the roads;
and a major incident
occurs in Runcorn
where a roof has blown
off and collapsed. (R)
1.00 Casino Show Gambling.
3.00 VE Day — The Lost Films
The celebrations marking
the end of the war. (R)
3.50 Lighthouses — Building
The Impossible (R)
4.40 Great Artists Titian. (R)
5.05 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.30 Entertainment News (R)
5.40-6.00 Children’s Shows

Surely it’s only a matter of time before
Antiques Roadshow is renamed
Rolex Roadshow?
Ba Penney

You say

WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL
BBC 1
BBC 2

Near the end of each episode Alexander
Armstrong almost invariably describes the
trophy as “the coveted Pointless trophy”.
It looks like a fairly unremarkable lump
of glass to me! Who covets it?
Ian McDonald
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

On the legacy and late
work of Andy Warhol

Critics’ choice
Race Across The World
(BBC1, 9pm)
While this competition no longer
provides the vicarious thrill it did
when its second season became a
lockdown travel fix, it still revs up
into a delightful Phileas Fogg-style
TV adventure. For series four the
five duos (among them a brother
and sister and two motherdaughter pairings) start their
journey in Sapporo, Japan, where
they surrender their phones and
credit cards in exchange for an
allowance. Their final destination
is Lombok, Indonesia — a journey
that will take them across South
Korea and Vietnam. While the
quest to arrive first and win the
£20,000 prize adds tension,
there’s a real joy in seeing the
varying organisational styles —
haphazard to chaotic to wildly
uptight — and witnessing their
on-the-road relationships. Reality
TV participants often claim that
they are “on a journey” — this
time they really are.
Victoria Segal
Renovation Rescue (C4, 9pm)
“Plumbing is not a string currently
in my bow,” says Stacey Solomon,
but you need not go too far into
this home improvement show
before the presenter is on the
floor fitting a sink. A quite literal
DIY SOS — or Grand Designs if
Kevin McCloud got his power tools
out — Renovation Rescue follows
Solomon as she helps people left in
the lurch by builders. Tonight she
meets a couple whose wrecked
Enfield bungalow is a long way off
being their “Japandi” — JapaneseScandinavian — dream, thanks to
contractors who let them down. As
in her BBC show Sort Your Life Out,
Solomon is both a natural empath
and a whirlwind of practicality —
part Julie Andrews, part Dick Van
Dyke — teaching money-saving DIY
skills while expanding her own
building expertise. After all, as she
says reassuringly, “You don’t come
out of the womb with a spirit level,
do you?” VS

On demand
○ Anthracite (Netflix)
When a young woman is found
murdered in a small alpine village
it looks like the work of a religious
cult that inhabited the region
30 years earlier. So begins this
labyrinthine six-part French thriller
from the creators of the excellent
Paris Murders and Crimson Rivers.
Shows such as these succeed or fail
on the strength of their detective
teams, and this one benefits from

The Warhol Effect
(Sky Arts/Now, 9pm)
Although it opens with a
pleasingly illustrated zip through
the pop artist’s rise, Lloyd
Stanton’s film focuses on the postshooting period of Andy Warhol’s
life, from 1968 until his death in
1987. His star power continued
to grow, yet to the art world his
work as a society portrait painter
appeared less consequential.
Blondie’s Chris Stein and Debbie
Harry, and Kim Kardashian, sing
his praises. HS

Andy Warhol

The teams count down for their “race across the world” (BBC1, 9pm)

The Repair Shop (BBC1, 8pm)
Jay Blades’ show begins its 13th run
with more tears, memories and
glimpses of history — in this case
1960s Cyprus and Northern
Ireland’s industrial past. Steve
mends scales used in Belfast’s linen
trade. Dean repairs tiny boots given
to a nephew by a drummer who
worked with Elton John. A vintage
Murano lamp is pieced together
by Kirsten. Cyprus-born Mehmet
brings in a saz — a Turkish stringed
instrument that for him evokes a
time before conflict.

Air Fryers — Batch Cooking
Made Easy (C5, 8pm)
Although Channel 5 may seem
oddly obsessed with air fryers,
you have to admire their ability to
come up with new programmes
about the seemingly magical
powers of the device — almost
weekly, stretching back into last
year. Alexis Conran, their go-to guy
on consumer topics, is joined by
Laura Hamilton, the A Place in the
Sun host, to find out how to make
sure that her freezer is always
stocked up with tasty options.

Kirsten Ramsay (BBC1, 8pm)

The Aunties (BBC1, 10.40pm;
Scotland, 11.10pm)
Three Asian aunties from Bradford
organise a coach trip to the
Lancashire coast to “keep their
culture and traditions alive”. Part
of the BBC’s Easter output, their
day in Blackpool resembles the
1993 movie Bhaji on the Beach, but
reworked as a documentary.
John Dugdale

the delightfully eccentric duo of
Noémie Schmidt as hyperactive
amateur sleuth Ida and Clément
Penhoat as the young ex-con
wrongly accused of the killing and
determined to prove his innocence.
○ Play For Today — Kisses
At Fifty (BBC iPlayer)
Colin Welland is best known as the
Oscar-winning scriptwriter of
Chariots of Fire who optimistically
shouted “The British are coming!”
upon receipt of his award. But the

actor and author served his
apprenticeship at the BBC and this
1973 TV play is Welland at his
finest. Set in the West Riding of
Yorkshire, it’s the story of Harry
Cook (Bill Maynard), an unhappily
married factory worker whose
flirtatious kiss with Audrey
(Marjorie Yates), a barmaid, leads
to a marriage-wrecking affair.
Maynard is magnificent and the
whole play crackles with a
claustrophobic intensity.
Andrew Male

Film choice
Hulk (ITV4, 8pm)
Ang Lee’s take on Bruce Banner —
the scientist whom you won’t like
when he’s angry — stands up rather
well as a counterpoint to today’s
CGI-drenched behemoths. It lacks
the lightness of touch and sense of
humour that characterises Marvel’s
recent output, but it has a brain
and, in Eric Bana, the right sort of
brooding, cerebral hero. Jennifer
Connelly also stars. (2003)
What Dreams May Come
(Sky Cinema Drama, 8pm)
Heaven cannot wait for Robin
Williams in this visually stunning
supernatural fantasy. He plays
Christopher, a newly married
doctor who, after dying in a car
crash, can’t bear the afterlife
without his wife, Annie (Annabella
Sciorra). Meanwhile, her own
grief drives her to suicide; he must
rescue her from Hell. Barmy plot,
with some excellent computerised
effects. (1998)
Fight Club (Film4, 10.50pm)
David Fincher’s adaptation of the
Chuck Palahniuk novel is a shrewd
and expertly crafted study of the
male in crisis. Edward Norton’s
character finds respite from his
slow-burning existential crisis
when he meets the charismatic
iconoclast Tyler Durden (Brad
Pitt) during a flight. The two start
a weekly meeting in which they
cathartically beat each other to
a pulp. (1999)
7 April 2024 43

WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL
BBC 3
BBC 4

ITV 2

ITV 3

E4

7.00pm Young MasterChef
8.00 Glow Up — Britain’s Next
Make-Up Star New series.
Eight aspiring make-up
artists compete. (S6, ep 1)
9.00 Paranormal — The Girl,
The Ghost And The
Gravestone Wwitnesses
claim to see a hooded
figure. 9.30 Paranormal
— The Girl, The Ghost
And The Gravestone
Sian Eleri interviews the
daughters of the couple
that owned the house. (4/4)
10.00 Wreck The gang race
against time to escape with
their lives. (Last in series)
10.45 Some Girls Double bill.
11.45 As 9pm
12.15 As 9.30pm
12.45 As 7pm
1.45 Charlotte In Sunderland
2.15 Wreck (Series 2, ep 6)
3.00-3.55 Some Girls

7.00pm India’s Frontier
Railways A train journey
from the town of Janakpur
in Nepal to Jaynagar, India.
8.00 Himalaya Michael Palin
travels along the Yangtze
river into China, where he
meets Mosuo singer Namu.
9.00 Henry VIII’s Enforcer
— The Rise And Fall Of
Thomas Cromwell A
profile of the 16th-century
lawyer and statesman.
10.00 Clocking Off Steve takes
the law into his own hands.
(Series 1, ep 4) 10.55
Clocking Off Trudy is
shocked by her father’s
death. 11.45 Clocking Off
Katherine takes drastic
action. (Last in series)
12.40 Peter Sellers — A State Of
Comic Ecstasy Profile.
1.55 India’s Frontier Railways
2.55-3.55 Himalaya

6.00pm Catchphrase With
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sean
Fletcher and Ryan Thomas.
7.00 Family Fortunes Game.
8.00 Superstore Amy joins
Jonah for lunch with his
family. (S5, ep 20) 8.30
Superstore Cheyenne
enlists Bo’s help to make
her birthday memorable.
9.00 Hell’s Kitchen Tensions run
high when the contestants
must decide which chef
makes the best scallops.
10.00 Family Guy Peter
befriends actor James
Woods. (Series 4, ep 11)
10.30 Family Guy Peter
decides he needs to
achieve fame. (Series 4, ep
3) 11.00 Family Guy Meg
receives a makeover.
11.30-12.00 American Dad!
Stan opens a teddy bear
factory. (Series 2, ep 11)

5.55pm Heartbeat An African
chieftain visits Aidensfield.
6.55 Heartbeat A spate of
petty thefts is traced to
a local nursing home.
8.00 Midsomer Murders With
Neil Dudgeon. When a
farmer is discovered
bound to a tree, doused in
truffle oil and mauled to
death by a wild boar, the
investigation leads Barnaby
to a tyrannical chef.
10.00 Blue Murder The
discovery of a child’s body
presents Janine with a
particularly tough case,
especially when her
ex-husband Pete delivers
shattering news. (S3, ep 2)
11.30-12.20 Wild At Heart
When a plane crash-lands,
Caroline finds the pilot
and his pet chimp are a
welcome distraction.

6.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Sheldon says goodbye to
Fun with Flags. (Series 8,
ep 10) 6.30 The Big Bang
Theory Amy hosts a
Christmas Eve dinner.
7.00 Hollyoaks Chester soap.
7.30 Married At First Sight
Australia Cassandra and
Tristan declare an
impromptu ’Jade Day’.
9.00 Teen First Dates Fred
Sirieix welcomes a 17year-old corporal in the air
cadets, and a 16-year-old
who is also still getting to
grips with her confidence.
10.00 Gogglebox The armchair
critics share their opinions
on Bad Sisters, Nadiya’s
Everyday Baking and
The Kardashians.
11.05-12.10 First Dates A
hairdresser is left waiting
for her date to turn up.

Drama

Sky Arts

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

Talk TV

6.00pm Stargate Atlantis The
team is taken hostage by
Kolya. (Series 3, ep 13, R)
7.00 Stargate Atlantis
Rodney McKay gains
superhuman abilities. (R)
8.00 There’s Something About
Movies Sean Bean, Josh
Widdicombe and Suzi
Ruffell join team captains
Michael Sheen and
Jennifer Saunders. (R)
9.00 Swat The team is called
into action when Yakuza
assassins descend on Los
Angeles. (Series 7, ep 3, R)
10.00 Banshee A town’s
incoming sheriff is killed
and a recently paroled
master jewel thief takes on
the man’s identity and his
job. (Series 1, ep 1, R)
11.15-12.15 Brassic Vinnie’s friend
calls to say his mother has
passed away. (S3, ep 2, R)

5.45pm Boardwalk Empire
Sally spots evidence of
heroin being smuggled in
Nucky’s rum shipments.
(Series 4, ep 10) 6.50
Boardwalk Empire Chalky
takes Daughter to the home
of his mentor Oscar Boneau.
7.55 Game Of Thrones Tyrion
defends King’s Landing
against Stannis Baratheon’s
naval assault. (S2, ep 9)
9.00 The Regime As Chancellor
Elena Vernham prepares
for Victory Day, her new
adviser Herbert Zubak
arrives at the palace. (1/6)
10.05 Mary & George AntiSpanish riots have taken
hold of the city, so George
tries to persuade the king
to open parliament to
request funds. (6/7)
11.10-12.15 The Gilded Age
Drama. (Series 2, ep 3)

6.00pm The Talk Famous faces
from the worlds of politics,
showbiz, business and
current affairs debate
the latest hot topics.
7.00 Prime Time With James
Max The host gets inside
the stories of the day with
analysis and lively debate.
8.00 The Independent
Republic Of Mike Graham
A run through some of the
day’s breaking news.
10.00 The Talk A panel of famous
faces debate the hot topics
everybody’s talking about.
11.00-12.00 Prime Time With
James Max The host
gets inside the stories
of the day with expert
analysis and lively debate.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview
237; Virgin 606; Freesat 217;
YouTube, connected TVs and
smart devices

Entertainment

5 STAR
6.00pm Home And Away 7.00 GPs
— Behind Closed Doors 8.00 Babies
24/7 — The Maternity Ward 9.00
Casualty 24/7 — Every Second Counts
10.00 999 — Critical Condition
11.00 Sleeping With My Murderer
12.00 My Lover, My Killer 1.00-2.00
5 Mistakes That Caught A Killer

10.00 Lee Evans — Roadrunner
11.05 Dara O Briain — Craic Dealer
12.10 Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains
1.10-2.10 Tom Allen Absolutely Live

6.00pm Keeping Up
Appearances Hyacinth
visits a stately home, where
she naturally tries her
hardest to meet the lord of
the manor. (Series 1, ep 3)
6.40 Last Of The Summer Wine
Seymour tries to prove that
skiing does not have to be
an expensive sport. 7.20
Last Of The Summer Wine
Compo encounters a ferret.
8.00 The Inspector Lynley
Mysteries A horse trainer
with money worries is
found hanged, and suicide
is assumed until tests reveal
he was drugged shortly
before his death. (S4, ep 2)
10.00 New Tricks The team
tracks a possible serial
killer. (Series 2, ep 7)
11.00-12.20 Spooks Beth Bailey
is tasked with protecting
an oil baron. (Series 9, ep 2)

Films
SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
6.00pm Barbie. The living doll
suffers an existential crisis. (2023,
12) 8.00 The Flash. Barry Allen’s
efforts to save his family create a
world without superheroes. (2023,
12) 10.30-12.30 Rumble Through
The Dark. A cage fighter seeks to
repay his debts in an attempt to
save his family home. (2023, 15)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
5.45pm Raging Fire (2021, 15) 8.00
Marnie. A publisher falls for a thief.
(1964, 15) 10.15 Melancholia. A
German ex-pat living in London is
confronted by his past when he is
asked to assassinate a Chilean
murderer. (1989, 15) 11.50-1.40
Naked Singularity (2021, 15)
SKY CINEMA GREATS
6.00pm Dallas Buyers Club (2013,
15) 8.00 A Beautiful Mind. Charting
the life story of the brilliant but
troubled mathematician John Nash.
(2001, 12) 10.15-12.20 Gia. Charting
the life of the supermodel Gia
Marie Carangi, who died of an
Aids-related illness. (1998, 18)

44 7 April 2024

6.00pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: Tea Time. A
woman invites her lover’s
wife to tea. 6.30 Alfred
Hitchcock Presents: And
The Desert Shall Blossom.
A killer on the run demands
help from two prospectors.
7.00 The Joy Of Painting A
summertime nature walk.
7.30 The Joy Of Painting
Creating a scene of
evergreen trees at sunset.
8.00 Painting Birds With Jim
And Nancy Moir The duo
head to Lancashire looking
for the elusive bearded tit.
9.00 CHOICE The Warhol
Effect The fascinating last
decade of Andy Warhol’s
life. (See Critics’ choice)
11.00-12.15 Klimt And The Kiss
Experts examine the
popularity of Gustav Klimt’s
20th-century painting.

SKY CINEMA SELECT
5.50pm Snow White & The
Huntsman (2012, 12) 8.00 Jurassic
World: Dominion. Four years after
Isla Nublar was destroyed, Biosyn
operatives try to locate Maisie
Lockwood while familiar faces
make an appearance. (2022, 12)
10.30-1.05 The Last Samurai.
Historical adventure. (2003, 15)
FILM4
4.55pm We Bought A Zoo (2011,
PG) 7.20 Table 19. Dumped by the
best man via text, a former maid
of honour goes to the wedding
anyway. (2017, 12) 9.00 Nobody. A
quiet family man slowly reveals his
true character after his house is
burgled by two petty thieves. (2021,
15) 10.50-1.40 CHOICE Fight
Club (1999, 18; see Film choice)
TALKING PICTURES TV
5.30pm Bonanza 6.30 Dick
Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre 7.00
Dixon Of Dock Green 8.00 Public
Eye 9.05 Gideon’s Way 10.0512.00 Full Moon In Blue Water.
A bar owner faces up to his wife’s
drowning and an assortment of
banks and creditors trying to
shut down his business. (1988, 15)

ITV4
5.55pm Monster Carp 7.00 Monster
Carp 8.00 CHOICE Hulk. Stars
Eric Bana. (See Film choice) 10.50
River Monsters 11.20 The Best Of
The 80s 11.30-1.00 EFL Highlights
MORE4
5.50pm The Secret Life Of The Zoo
6.55 Car SOS 7.55 The Dog House
9.00 24 Hours In Police Custody —
The Home County Cartel.
Documentary 10.30 In The
Footsteps Of Killers 11.35 24 Hours
In A&E 12.35-2.05 24 Hours In Police
Custody — The Home County Cartel
GOLD
5.40pm Porridge 6.20 The Green
Green Grass 7.00 Dinnerladies 7.40
Dad’s Army 9.00 Bottom 10.20 The
Young Ones 11.10 Bottom 12.25 The
Young Ones 1.10 This Time With Alan
Partridge 1.50-2.40 Chewing Gum
SKY COMEDY
6.00pm The US Office 7.00 Sort Of
8.00 Will & Grace 9.00 Insecure
10.15 Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.20
The Tonight Show 12.20 Veep
1.40-3.00 Bounty Hunters

5 USA
6.00pm NCIS 9.00 Criminal Minds
10.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 1.50-2.50 Criminal Minds
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Blue Bloods 9.00 Fire Country
10.00 The Good Doctor 11.00 The
Equalizer 12.00 FBI 1.00 FBI —
International 2.00-3.00 FBI
W
6.00pm MasterChef Australia 7.00
Wife Swap USA 8.00 Ambulance
Australia 9.00 Nurses On The Ward
10.00 Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over
USA 11.00 Louis Theroux — Talking
To Anorexia 12.20 Changing Rooms
Australia 1.40-3.00 Plate Of Origin
COMEDY CENTRAL
6.00pm Friends 9.00 Michael
McIntyre’s Big Show. Entertainment

YESTERDAY
6.00pm Antiques Roadshow 7.00
Great British Railway Journeys
8.00 Great Canal Journeys 9.00
Bangers & Cash 11.00 Abandoned
Engineering 12.00-1.00 Great
British Railway Journeys
DAVE
6.00pm Rick Stein’s Spain 7.00
House Of Games 8.20 Would I Lie To
You? 9.00 8 Out Of 10 Cats 10.00
World’s Most Dangerous Roads
11.00 Taskmaster 12.00 Hustle 1.152.25 Mel Giedroyc — Unforgivable

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm World War II — Secrets
From Above 7.00 Air Crash
Investigation 8.00 Car SOS 11.00
Air Crash Investigation 12.00 To
Catch A Smuggler — JFK Airport
1.00-2.00 Doing Hard Time — Vegas
DISCOVERY
6.00pm Junkyard Empire 7.00
Wheeler Dealers. Toyota Landcruiser

5
1
2
3
4
5

Great films...

Radio & Podcasts

Morgan Freeman

○ Sport’s Strangest
Crimes (BBC Sounds)
Adam Hills presents
a new season of the
podcast The Ballad Of
Bruiser Brody, telling
the story of the life and
death of one of the
biggest wrestling stars
of the 1980s. Brody, aka
Frank Goodish, played
the bad guy in the ring,
and the podcast discusses
how the world of
wrestling at the time was
secretive and had its
own bad guys, and how
Brody died from stab
wounds in the locker
room of a stadium in
Puerto Rico in 1988 after
a sporting feud.

The Shawshank
Redemption (1994,
buy/rent)
His performance as the
prison drama’s narrator Ellis
Boyd “Red” Redding earned
him a best actor Oscar
nomination.

Morgan
Freeman
in Million
Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby
(2004, Netflix)
Freeman won the best
supporting Oscar for his role
opposite Hilary Swank in the
boxing movie.
Invictus
(2009, Prime Video)
He plays South African
president Nelson Mandela
in this film about the
power of sport to heal
deep wounds.
Se7en (1995, Netflix)
Freeman co-stars
with Brad Pitt in this
disturbing serial killer
thriller based on the
seven deadly sins.
Driving Miss Daisy
(1989, Buy/ rent)
In this fine film he
plays a chauffeur
who becomes friends
with the titular Miss
Daisy ( Jessica Tandy).

PBS AMERICA
6.05pm Egypt’s Sun King — The
Mystery Tombs 7.15 The Somme
1916 — From Both Sides Of The Wire
8.30 Ancient Apocalypse 9.35
The Lafayette Squadron 10.4512.00 The Somme 1916 — From
Both Sides Of The Wire
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
6.00pm Lockerbie 7.00 The
Vietnam War 8.05 David Fuller —
Monster In The Morgue 9.00 The
Jinx — The Life And Deaths Of
Robert Durst 11.00-12.00 Ghislaine
Maxwell — Epstein’s Shadow
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Malawi Wildlife Rescue
7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Chasing The
Rains 9.00 Africa’s Hidden
Kingdoms 10.00 Malawi Wildlife
Rescue 11.00-12.00 Uptown Otters
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Unsolved History 7.00
Expedition Unknown 8.00
Gunslingers 9.00 Combat Dealers
10.00-11.00 Salvage Hunters

SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 10.00 LIVE Tennis.
The Monte-Carlo Masters 2.00 The
Masters 7.00 LIVE SPFL: Dundee v
Rangers. Kickoff at 8.00 10.30 Back
Pages Tonight 11.00-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
6.30am Tom Aspinall’s Fight Lab
7.00 WWE Monday Night Raw 9.30
Premier League Review 10.30
Champions Cup Highlights 11.30
Women’s One-Day International
Cricket 12.30 Badminton Weekly
12.45 Original Documentary 2.00
PTO Triathlon 2.30 Premier League
Review 3.30 Premier League — The
Big Interview 4.00 Premier League
5.30 Reload 6.00 Serie A — Full
Impact 6.30 What I Wore 7.00 LIVE
Uefa Champions League: Paris
Saint-Germain v Barcelona. Kickoff
at 8.00 10.30 Uefa Champions
League 11.30 The Football’s On
12.30 LIVE NBA: Miami Heat v
Dallas Mavericks. Tip-off at 12.30
3.00 LIVE NBA: Denver Nuggets v
Minnesota Timberwolves. Tip-off
at 3.00 5.30-6.00 Goals Reload

Smith in George Orwell’s
dystopian novel, alongside
Cynthia Erivo as Julia,
a character who has
been expanded in this
adaptation (see p13). Tom
Hardy voices Big Brother
and Andrew Scott brings
his Moriarty skills to
playing Winston’s sadistic

TIMES RADIO

RADIO 4 EXTRA
5.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 6.00 The Rivals 6.30
A Charles Paris Mystery: Murder In
The Title 7.00 Ballylenon 7.30
Hancock’s Half Hour 8.00 Dot 8.30
Small Pleasures 8.45 Halfway Here
9.00 Room 101 9.30 A Piece Of
Cake 9.45 Daily Service 10.00 Short
Cuts 10.30 Joan Turner — The Highs
And Lows Of The Wacky Warbler
11.00 The Rivals 11.30 A Charles Paris
Mystery: Murder In The Title 12.00
Ballylenon 12.30 Hancock’s Half
Hour 1.00 Dot 1.30 Small Pleasures
1.45 Halfway Here 2.00 Say The
Word 2.30 Elephants To Catch Eels
3.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 4.00 Short Cuts
4.30 Joan Turner — The Highs And
Lows Of The Wacky Warbler 5.00
The Rivals 5.30 A Charles Paris
Mystery: Murder In The Title 6.00
Ballylenon 6.30 Hancock’s Half
Hour 7.00 Dot 7.30 Small Pleasures
7.45 Halfway Here 8.00 Say The
Word 8.30 Elephants To Catch Eels
9.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 10.00 Room 101
10.30 The Museum Of Everything
11.00 Alex Horne Presents The
Horne Section 11.30 The Skewer
11.45-12.00 Crème De La Crime

RADIO 4

Sport

Adam Hills tells the story of
the wrestler Bruiser Brody

5.00 James Hanson With Early
Breakfast 6.00 Rosie Wright And
Adam Boulton With Times Radio
Breakfast 10.00 Matt Chorley
1.00 Ed Vaizey 3.00 Jane Garvey
And Fi Glover 5.00 John Pienaar
With Times Radio Drive 7.00
Pienaar And Friends 8.00 The
Evening Edition With Kait Borsay
10.00 Rick Kelsey 1.00 The Story
1.30 Highlights From Matt Chorley
2.00 The Best Of Times Radio
To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.

Tim Glanfield

8.00 Blowing Up History 9.00
Mud Madness 10.00 Caught!
11.00 Combat Dealers 12.00 Gold
Divers 1.00-2.00 Mud Madness

○ 1984 (Audible)
Andrew Garfield leads
a star cast as Winston

torturer O’Brien. Music is
by Ilan Eshkeri and Muse’s
Matt Bellamy. Orwell is
under discussion on an
episode of the podcast
The Rest Is History.

5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45
Farming Today 6.00 Today 9.00
Life Changing 9.30 Helen Lewis
Has Left The Chat. Helen finds out
how a messaging app brought
down three prime ministers 10.00
Woman’s Hour 11.00 File On 4 (R)
11.45 Book Of The Week (R) 12.00
News 12.04 You And Yours 1.00
The World At One 1.45 The
Everest Obsession 2.00 The
Archers (R) 2.15 Drama: The
Performer, by William Humble.
Monologue about a family pulled
apart by the disappearance of
their father in the 1960s. With
Stephen Fry (R) 3.00 Money Box
Live 3.30 Why Do You Hate Me?
Marianna Spring speaks to a
survivor of the mass shooting in
Las Vegas in 2017 (R) 4.00 The
Media Show 5.00 PM 6.00 News
6.30 Room 101. Hannah Fry
banishes exams and complicated
toilet flushes 7.00 The Archers
7.15 Front Row 8.00 AntiSocial (R)
8.45 Uncharted. The story of a
climate scientist who shocked the
world and provoked a scandal (R)
9.00 The Life Scientific (R) 9.30
Inside Health (R) 10.00 The World
Tonight 10.45 Book At Bedtime
11.00 Aurie Styla — Tech Talk
11.15 Jessica Fostekew — Sturdy
Girl Club (R) 11.30 Between
Ourselves 12.00 News 12.30
Book Of The Week (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service

LBC
7.00 Nick Ferrari 10.00 James
O’Brien 1.00 Shelagh Fogarty 4.00
Tom Swarbrick 6.00 Tonight With
Andrew Marr 7.00 Iain Dale. Debate
10.00 Ben Kentish. Discussion 1.00
Richard Spurr 4.00 Ian Payne
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.30 Essential
Classics 1.00 Classical Live.
Including the Ébène Quartet
playing Ravel from Paris, and Ailish
Tynan singing Strauss in Belfast
3.00 Choral Evensong. From All
Saints, Kingston, London, with the
choir of Tiffin School 4.00
Composer Of The Week 5.00 In
Tune. John Wilson talks about his
new recording of music by
Bacewicz, Enescu and Ysaye 7.00
Classical Mixtape. A selection of
favourites mixed with jazz, folk
and music from around the world

○ Veterans In Politics
(podcast)
Johnny Ball hosts an
interview series in which
he talks to those who have
moved into politics from
the military, and what
their experience brings
to their new roles — a real
sense of purpose comes
through in the series.
Guests include Tobias
Ellwood, a former Royal
Green Jacket, and ex-MP
Tom Blenkinsop who
joined the Army Reserve
while he was still in
parliament.
Clair Woodward
7.30 In Concert. Recorded live in
concert at Wigmore Hall, the Elias
Quartet play Felix Mendelssohn’s
Four Pieces, Op 81, and his final
Quartet, No 6 in F minor, and
Fanny’s Quartet in E flat 9.45 The
Essay. Michael Goldfarb talks about
performing The Count of Monte
Cristo with the Jean Cocteau
Repertory in New York City 10.00
Night Tracks. Sara Mohr-Pietsch
presents an adventurous,
immersive soundtrack for late-night
listening, from classical to
contemporary and everything in
between 11.30 ’Round Midnight.
Soweto Kinch is joined by New
Generation Artist and Mercury
Prize nominee Fergus McCreadie
12.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
6.30 Dan Walker 9.00 Hall Of
Fame Hour 10.00 Stephen Mangan
1.00 Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00
Margherita Taylor 7.00 Relaxing
Evenings 10.00 Ritula Shah 1.00
Bill Overton 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
6.30 The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
9.30 Gary Davies 12.00 Jeremy
Vine 2.00 Scott Mills 4.00 Sara
Cox 7.00 Best Of Piano Room.
Featuring Texas, Jalen Ngonda,
Lisa Stansfield, Crowded House,
Jess Glynne and Paloma Faith
9.00 The Folk Show. Shaun
Keaveny sits in for Mark Radcliffe
10.00 Trevor Nelson 12.00 OJ
Borg 3.00 Sounds Of The 90s (R)
4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
VIRGIN RADIO
6.30 The Chris Evans Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00 Jayne Middlemiss
4.00 Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam
10.00 Amy Voce 1.00 Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
TALKSPORT
5.00 Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast With Alan Brazil 10.00
Jim White And Simon Jordan
1.00 Hawksbee And Jacobs
4.00 Drive 7.00 Kick Off 10.00
Sports Bar 1.00 Extra Time

7 April 2024 45

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
9.30 Morning Live Magazine.
10.45 Big Little Crimes Police
apprehend thieves who
have been targeting their
elderly victim for years.
11.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
12.15 Bargain Hunt Curios. (R)
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.45 Clive Myrie’s Italian Road
Trip The newsreader goes
off the tourist track in
Rome to Monteverde. (R)
2.15 Money For Nothing Items
include a work bench,
an old oak bureau, some
vintage christening gowns
and a wedding dress.
3.00 Escape To The Country
New homes in Moray. (R)
3.45 The Bidding Room Items
include Murano glass fruit,
a cocktail cabinet, a 1920s
purse and a dentist’s lamp.
4.30 Bridge Of Lies Quiz.
5.15 Pointless Quiz show.
6.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 Regional News Update.
7.00 The One Show Features.
7.30 EastEnders Gloria wakes
in hospital after suffering
a heart attack; George
takes a trip down memory
lane; and Ben is sentenced
to six years in prison.
8.00 MasterChef John Torode
and Gregg Wallace host as
the six contenders take an
everyday ingredient from
‘basic to brilliant’, before
four must use a whole
quail as the centrepiece.
9.00 CHOICE The Apprentice
The final five candidates
face the interview phase, in
which they are interrogated
on their CVs and business
plans by a number of Alan
Sugar’s no-nonsense
business associates.
(See Critics’ choice)
10.00 News; Weather Reports.
10.40 Wreck Jamie and Vivian’s
morals are put to the test
as they find out what it
will take to win the battle
against Velorum. (Series 2,
ep 5, R) 11.25 Wreck The
gang race against time to
escape the festival with
their lives; and Jamie
faces a final choice that
might leave him with no
way out. (Last in series, R)
12.15-6.00 Joins BBC News
SCOTLAND 6.30 Reporting
Scotland. 7.00 River City.

Variations
BBC SCOTLAND 7.00 Back From
The Brink 7.50 Grand Tours Of
Scotland’s Lochs 8.00 Beechgrove
Garden 8.30 Landward 9.00 The
Nine 10.00 Scot Squad 10.30
Paul Black — Nostalgia 11.3012.00 Growing Up Scottish STV
6.00 Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30
Loose Women 1.30 News 2.00
Racing 5.00 The Chase 6.00
Regional News 6.30 News 7.30
Emmerdale 8.30 Scotland Tonight
— Challenging Coercive Control

46 7 April 2024

ITV 1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00
9.00
10.00
12.30
1.30
2.00

6.10 Countdown Game. (R)
6.50 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
8.05 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
9.30 Frasier Sitcom. (R)
11.00 Work On The Wild Side (R)
12.00 News; Weather Reports.
12.05 Sun, Sea And Selling
Houses A Derbyshire
couple want a holiday
home in Alicante. (R)
1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (R)
2.10 Countdown Game.
3.00 A Place In The Sun (R)
4.00 A New Life In The Sun (R)
5.00 Chateau DIY Insights. (R)
6.00 A Place In The Sun
A holiday home on the
Greek island of Crete. (R)
6.30 The Simpsons Homer
reluctantly pawns the TV to
pay for the family to have
counselling sessions. (R)
7.00 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 The Dog House A Jack
Russell puppy has a
second chance of a home
with a 10-year-old boy —
provided it can win over
his mum and dad. (R)
9.00 Taskmaster Greg Davies
remorselessly judges
Joanne McNally, John
Robins, Nick Mohammed,
Sophie Willan and Steve
Pemberton as they
vie to become the
champion of the 17th series.
10.00 Big Mood Eddie explores
London’s nightlife to find
a rich man, and has a runin with her mother. (5/6)
10.35 Big Mood Maggie
and Eddie reckon with
the past and prepare for
the future. (Last in series)
11.10 Gogglebox The critics’
opinions on recent TV. (R)
12.10 Random Acts Insights.
12.25 Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA (R)
1.15 Hunted Gameshow. (R)

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Jeremy Vine Debate.
Storm Huntley Opinions.
Friends US sitcom. (R)
News; Weather Reports.
Home And Away Mali
takes Mackenzie’s call. (R)
2.15 A Killer Affair Thriller, with
Calli Taylor. A troubled
teen sentenced to house
arrest falls for a young
man who has moved in
next door, with deadly
consequences. (R)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits In
The Sun B&B owners try
out their first tapas night.
5.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres The poet heads
to Highgrove Gardens,
where she meets thethen Prince Charles. (R)
6.55 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 CHOICE A Yorkshire
Farm With the spring
lambing season on the
horizon, farmers bring in a
sheep scanner so they know
how many lambs to expect.
(See Critics’ choice)
7.55 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 Air Fryers — Takeaways
Made Easy Alexis Conran
prepares some takeaway
favourites using the
kitchen gadget, featuring
recipes covering fast
foods, and classic Indian
and Chinese cooking.
9.00 The Cuckoo Sian takes
Alice to a desolate caravan
park and reveals that this is
where she came to have
her baby, and Jessica
and Nick try to find the
youngster. (Last in series)
10.00 Killer At The Crime Scene
The discovery of three
bodies hidden under a
shed in Cornwall, and
how investigating police
uncovered a web of
lies as they zeroed in on
their prime suspect. (R)
11.05 Making A Serial Killer The
mystery of a woman’s DNA
found on three female rape
and murder victims. (R)
12.05 Motorway Cops —
Catching Britain’s
Speeders Crime. (R)
1.00 Casino Show Gambling.
3.00 Lighthouses — Building
The Impossible (R)
4.40 Great Artists Bruegel. (R)
5.05 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.30 Entertainment News (R)
5.40-6.00 Children’s Shows

6.30 Escape To The Country (R)
7.15 Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
8.00 Gardeners’ World Adam
Frost takes stock of his
borders. (Signed, R)
9.00 News; Weather Headlines.
1.00 Impossible Game. (R)
1.45 The Edge Gameshow. (R)
2.30 Lose Weight And Get Fit
Tom Kerridge shares
recipes to help volunteers
with their temptations
for unhealthy treats. (R)
3.00 Jay Blades’ Home Fix (R)
3.45 Italy’s Invisible Cities (R)
4.45 The Best Dishes Ever (R)
5.15 Flog It! At Newby Hall. (R)
6.00 House Of Games Toby
Anstis, Kerry Howard,
Evelyn Mok and Joe Sugg
take part in trivia games. (R)
6.30 Great Coastal Railway
Journeys An outdoor
theatre built into a cliffside.
7.00 Britain’s Biggest Dig A
look at how Birmingham’s
Victorian working class
residents made their
home city one of the
most important industrial
centres on the planet. (R)
8.00 Amazing Hotels — Life
Beyond The Lobby
Monica Galetti and Rob
Rinder go behind the
scenes at Nusfjord Arctic
Resort, a preserved
200-year-old cod-fishing
village in the Lofoten
Islands of Norway. (R)
9.00 CHOICE Alexander
McQueen — A Life In Ten
Pictures Images of the
fashion designer, with his
secrets revealed by those
who were there, and those
who knew the star best.
(See Critics’ choice)
9.55 Natural World The work
of staff at a jungle animal
hospital in Guatemala,
where the team nurse their
exotic patients back to
health and prepare them
for a return to the wild. (R)
10.00 The Apprentice —
You’re Fired Tom Allen
meets the candidates who
missed out on the final.
10.30 Newsnight Headlines.
11.15 Surgeons — At The Edge
Of Life Medics remove
tumours in a patient’s
pancreas and liver. (R)
12.15 Dragons’ Den (Signed, R)
1.15 Saving Lives At Sea
Documentary. (Signed, R)
2.15-3.15 Beyond Paradise
Drama series. (Signed, R)

Helen Skelton (C5, 7pm)

9.00 The Twelve 10.05 News;
Weather 10.35 Regional News
10.50 Fly Tipping — Britain’s
Rubbish Nightmare 11.15 The
Jonathan Ross Show 12.20
Teleshopping 3.00 The Twelve
3.55 Night Vision 5.10-6.00 The
Best Of Saint & Greavsie S4C
6.00 Cyw 12.00 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 12.05 Ffasiwn Drefn
12.30 Heno 1.00 Arfordir Cymru:
Sir Benfro 1.30 Cysgu O Gwmpas
2.00 Newyddion A’r Tywydd 2.05
Prynhawn Da 3.00 Newyddion
A’r Tywydd 3.05 Iaith Ar Daith
4.00 Awr Fawr — Sali Mali

4.05 Bendibwmbwls 4.15 Digbi
Draig 4.30 Pentre Papur Pop 4.40
Deian A Loli 5.00 Stwnsh: Oi!
Osgar 5.10 Byd Rwtsh Dai Potsh
5.20 Lego Ffrindiau — Amdani
Ferched! 5.35 Pigo Dy Drwyn
6.00 Pobol Y Penwythnos
6.30 Rownd A Rownd 6.57
Newyddion 7.00 Heno 7.30
Newyddion A’r Tywydd 8.00
Pobol Y Cwm 8.25 Rownd A
Rownd 8.55 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 9.00 Y Byd Yn Ei Le 9.45
Cor Cymru — Corau Ieuenctid
10.45 Wil Ac Aeron — Taith
Rwmania 11.20-11.35 Grid

Good Morning Britain
Lorraine Lifestyle chat.
This Morning Features.
Loose Women Debate.
News; Weather Reports.
Racing Ed Chamberlin
presents day one of the
Grand National festival
from Aintree. Richard
Hoiles, Mark Johnson and
Stewart Machin provide
commentary, with analysis
from AP McCoy, Ruby
Walsh and Mick Fitzgerald.
5.00 The Chase Quiz show. (R)
6.00 Regional News Update.
6.30 News; Weather Reports.
7.30 Emmerdale Rhona has her
day in court; and Kerry
makes a big decision.
8.30 Fly Tipping — Britain’s
Rubbish Nightmare
As local authorities in
England deal with over 1m
fly tipping incidents each
year, Lucy Verasamy
reports on why so much
rubbish is being dumped.
9.00 The Twelve The Crown
calls Claire’s best friend
to the stand, and as the
trial gets more complex,
so too does the juryroom dynamics, as their
personal lives become
more entangled. (3/10)
10.05 News At Ten Bulletin.
10.50 The Jonathan Ross Show
The host is joined by
Michael Palin, Anthony
Joshua, Laura Smyth and
Lulu, ahead of her final
tour; and the music is
provided by Jungle. (R)
11.50 All Elite Wrestling
— Rampage Hard-hitting
action from America. (R)
12.50 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 The Twelve The Crown
calls Claire’s best friend
to the stand. (3/10, R)
3.55 Unwind Daily relaxation.
5.10-6.00 The Best Of Saint &
Greavsie Jimmy Greaves
reveals his love of rugby. (R)

2.10 FILM: Jackie Stars Natalie
Portman, Peter Sarsgaard
and Greta Gerwig. Biopic
of Jacqueline Kennedy as
she battles with grief
after the assassination of
her husband, President
John F Kennedy. Intimate
portrayal. (2016, 15)
3.50 Grand Designs New
Zealand Property. (R)
4.40 Renovation Nation (R)
5.30 The Perfect Pitch (R)
5.55-6.10 Sunday Brunch Best
Bits Highlights from the
culinary talk show. (R)

6.00
9.15
11.15
12.45
1.40
1.45

Just watched EastEnders (BBC1). Little wonder
the BBC is haemorrhaging viewers.
Gordon Stewart

You say

THURSDAY 11 APRIL
BBC 1
BBC 2

Coma (ITV) looked promising — and Jason
Watkins never disappoints — but when I realised
it was filmed in Budapest (the credits and unBritish interiors gave it away) I found myself,
during subsequent episodes, looking for lefthand-drive cars and Hungarian numberplates.
Do the producers think we won’t notice?
DE Simmons
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

Who will win the
coveted green jacket?

Critics’ choice
Fallout (Prime Video)
Like The Last of Us, Fallout is an
adaptation of a video game set
in a post-apocalyptic America.
Instead of a fungal pandemic as
this dystopia’s cause, it posits a US
v China nuclear war in 2077, after
which those able to afford it spend
their entire lives underground. In
2296 one of these vault dwellers
— Lucy, the drama’s righteous and
plucky but naive heroine, played
by Ella Purnell, a British actress
— emerges into the above-ground
wasteland on a rescue mission
and discovers that many of the
survivors up there are not very
nice. Among them is Maximus
(Aaron Moten), a mixed-up junior
member of a sinister military
fellowship that seeks to bring its
version of order to the west coast.
And then there’s Cooper Howard
(Walton Goggins), a former
Hollywood actor transformed by
nuclear fallout into an undead
freak known as the Ghoul and
alive for hundreds of years.
John Dugdale
Alexander McQueen — A Life
in Ten Pictures (BBC2, 9pm)
Friends, lovers and colleagues
recall how the east London-born
fashion designer wowed the world
of couture in the 1990s and early
Noughties, when he rose to be the
chief designer at Givenchy while
also producing collections under
his own name. Even the photos
from this period give a sense of
strain, negative body image and
feeling out of place, and later the
mood of the “pictures” darkens
further as addiction, depression
and exhaustion take their fatal
toll. While the series’ format is up
to the job of sketching McQueen’s
personality, its bittiness makes the
film unable to convey the qualities
of his work. What is missing is
someone being given the scope to
tell us why he was so different and
special that he was called a
“genius” — and not just recycle
clichés about his catwalk shows’
riskiness and shock value. JD

On demand
○ Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
In 2019 the comedian Richard Gadd
appeared in a one-man show about
his stalker, a middle-aged woman
who had harassed him for nearly
five years — including sending
more than 40,000 emails, 350
hours of voicemails and 106 pages
of letters — culminating in threats
of violence and a restraining order.
Now Gadd has transformed that
award-winning show into a brutally

The Masters (Sky Sports Main
Event, 2pm, 7.30pm)
There’s no golf tournament
quite like it. Thursday and
Friday’s rounds offer a more
relaxed viewing experience
before things hot up with Sky’s
coverage for Saturday’s “moving
day”, then the fireworks on the
back nine on Sunday. Jon Rahm
is the defending champ, while
speculation will be rife about
whether Rory McIlroy can finally
win the only major to elude him.
James Jackson
Rory McIlroy

Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean, the plucky but naive heroine of Fallout

The Apprentice (BBC1, 9pm)
With the unlucky candidates waved
off in their BBC-expensed black
hackney cabs, the long-running
show has arrived at its semi-final
stage — five remaining contestants
clutching business plans with more
holes than a curry-flavoured vegan
cheese. Enter beloved Apprentice
baddies Mike Soutar, Claude
Littner, Claudine Collins and the
formidable Linda Plant, ready to
catch every bluff and exaggeration.
The only question is, who will they
make cry this year?

Bangers & Cash
(Yesterday, 8pm)
Toby Foster, a BBC radio host and
voiceover artiste, daren’t have
hoped that, as he introduced the
Mathewson family auction business
in North Yorkshire in 2019, he
would still be providing the
narration for this 100th episode.
That he is doing so is testament to
those (mostly men) who feature,
whose petrolhead tendencies
prove sweetly sentimental and
offer a glimpse of confident,
old-fashioned masculinity.

Film choice

McQueen and his mum (BBC2, 9pm)

A Yorkshire Farm (C5, 7pm)
These compilation shows give the
production team the chance to
trim any fat off their clips to leave
100 per cent prime TV viewing.
We’d struggle to think of a better
example than Ian Watson, a
Lincolnshire farmer. “It’s more of
an adrenaline rush than anything,
I think,” he says, “growing peas.”
Helen Stewart

Frida
(Sky Cinema Greats, 5.55pm)
The Mexican-born actress Salma
Hayek fought for years to make and
star in this lavish biopic of the artist
Frida Kahlo. Hayek was Oscarnominated for her portrayal of the
prototype feminist icon’s bisexual
affairs, revolutionary politics and
fiery relationship with husband
Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). (2002)

student (Miray Daner) who decides
to wreak revenge on a veteran
television news anchor (Birce
Akalay) after a single off-hand
remark. It’s Fatal Attraction crossed
with Broadcast News, but it’s also
a resolutely Gen X show about
those awful millennials and their
ability to use social media to lie,
cheat and manipulate. Trashy,
melodramatic and consistently
entertaining, this is guilty-pleasure
TV of the highest order.
Andrew Male

The Eagle Has Landed
(BBC4, 8.30pm)
As decent a Second World War
movie as they come, this is the one
with Michael Caine as a disgraced
Nazi officer on an undercover
mission to snatch Churchill from
sleepy East Anglia. There is also
Donald Sutherland wandering
about as a charming Irish patriot
spying for the Germans. It was the
final movie of the director John
Sturges, working from a script
by the Bond-movie scribe Tom
Mankiewicz. (1976)

honest seven-part limited series.
Gadd, who plays himself, is
marvellous — wiry, wired, naive.
But the real star is Jessica Gunning
who, playing Gadd’s stalker,
Martha, morphs effortlessly from
flirtatious to vulnerable to
absolutely terrifying.
○ As The Crow Flies (Netflix)
This Turkish newsroom drama is
not aiming for high art. Now into
its third season, it’s the story of
an ambitious young journalism

Turner & Hooch (Film4, 2.55pm)
Tom Hanks is Scott Turner, an
obsessively neat California cop
who is forced to take in Hooch —
a huge, slavering, badly behaved
French mastiff — when its master is
murdered. Sure, it’s predictable
— Hooch trashes Turner’s flat,
Turner hates dogs, they eventually
bond and solve the crime. It’s also
goofy, knockabout fun and the
pooch nearly matches Hanks for
easy screen charisma. (1989)

7 April 2024 47

THURSDAY 11 APRIL
BBC 3
BBC 4

ITV 2

ITV 3

7.00pm Young MasterChef
Four cooks compete in the
semi-final of the contest.
8.00 Top Gear The Alfa Romeo
4C and the McLaren P1
hypercar are tested.
9.00 Stranger In My Family
Following a man’s search
for his biological father.
10.00 Sliced Naheema seeks a
sugar daddy. (Series 2, ep
5) 10.30 Sliced Josh and
Ricky need some money
for a get-rich-quick scheme.
11.00 Starstruck Jessie considers
pursuing an old flame. (S3,
ep 3) 11.20 Starstruck
Tom accidentally lets slip
a secret to Steve and Ian.
11.45 Glow Up — Britain’s
Next Make-Up Star
12.45 Made Up In Belfast
1.45 Starstruck Two episodes.
2.35 Ellie & Natasia (3/6)
2.50-3.50 As 9pm

12.40 Ministry Of Evil — The
Twisted Cult Of Tony
Alamo Documentary.
2.10-3.10 As 7.30pm

6.00pm Catchphrase Shirley
Ballas, Bhavna Limbachia
and Dr Ranj Singh take part.
7.00 Family Fortunes Game.
8.00 Superstore It is March
2020 and the pandemic is
beginning to hit. (Series 6,
ep 1) 8.30 Superstore
The employees prepare a
send-off for Amy and Jonah.
9.00 Gordon, Gino & Fred’s
Roadtrip — Viva España!
Gordon Ramsay, Gino
D’Acampo and Fred Sirieix
experience Spanish culture.
10.00 Family Guy Peter gets
stranded on an island. (S4,
ep 12) 10.30 Family Guy
Peter learns Loretta is
having an affair. (S4, ep 5)
11.00 Family Guy Peter
tries to prove he is a genius.
11.30-12.00 American Dad! Stan
takes a tour of the Mr Pibb
factory. (Series 2, ep 12)

5.55pm Heartbeat Ashfordly
Hall throws opens its doors
to the public, but chaos
erupts. 6.55 Heartbeat
Ventress probes a
possible case of sabotage
at a carpet factory.
8.00 Vera A teenager is found
dead in a reservoir near a
rural town, and Vera takes
on the case, uncovering a
complex web of fractured
relationships within the
community. (Series 8, ep 4)
10.00 Blue Murder Janine
investigates when a man
newly released from prison
is strangled with a dog
chain — and ends up with
an entire family confessing
to the crime. (Series 3, ep 3)
11.30-12.20 Wild At Heart Du
Plessis returns to Leopard’s
Den; and Caroline receives
a life-changing proposal.

Drama

Sky Arts

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

6.00pm Keeping Up
Appearances Comedy.
6.40 Last Of The Summer Wine
Mrs Teesdale feels slightly
uncomfortable around the
trio. 7.20 Last Of The
Summer Wine Clegg
makes himself scarce.
8.00 Father Brown A gossip
columnist is murdered
after threatening to
expose a fashion house’s
secrets. (Series 8, ep 9)
9.00 Whitstable Pearl A mother
takes her daughter out for
a boat ride that ends in the
pair needing saving after an
act of sabotage. (S1, ep 5)
10.00 New Tricks A pathologist
joins the team to help learn
the identity of a girl found
dead in 1987. (S2, ep 8)
11.20-12.40 Spooks A lethal
nerve agent falls into the
wrong hands. (S9, ep 3)

6.00pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: Mrs Herman
And Mrs Fenimore. Two
women conspire to kill.
6.30 Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: Six People, No
Music. A supposedly dead
man comes back to life.
7.00 The Joy Of Painting
A mountain cabin. 7.30
The Joy Of Painting
A portrait of a little girl.
8.00 The Directors The life
and work of Ron Howard.
9.00 Isle Of Wight Festival
Greatest Hits Amy
Winehouse’s set from 2007.
9.30 Discovering Amy
Winehouse Insight into the
life and career of the singer.
10.00 The Movies A look at cult
classics from the 1980s.
11.00-1.00 The Warhol Effect
A look at the last decade
of Andy Warhol’s life.

6.00pm Stargate Atlantis
Sheppard and McKay rush
to stop a war. (S3, ep 15, R)
7.00 Stargate Atlantis
The team accidentally
disturbs a frozen race. (R)
8.00 A Discovery Of Witches
Diana’s life hangs by a
thread as she is tortured
by Satu. (Series 1, ep 6, R)
9.00 Rob Beckett’s Smart TV
With Joel Dommett, Jason
Fox, Nathaniel Curtis
and Hermione Norris. (R)
9.45 The 80s — Cinema’s
Greatest Decade Standout movies of the 1980s. (R)
10.45 Entourage Vince hangs
out with an old friend. (S3,
ep 3, R) 11.15 Entourage
Vince sets his sights on
his next dream movie. (R)
11.45-12.45 An Idiot Abroad
Karl Pilkington arrives
back in the UK. (R)

Films

10.15-12.10 The Last Rifleman. A
Second World War veteran embarks
on a journey to France. (2022, 15)

Entertainment

SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
4.45pm 10 Lives (2024, U) 6.15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
— Mutant Mayhem. Turtle brothers
Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo
and Raphael set out to win the
hearts of New Yorkers. (2023, PG)
8.00 The Flash. Barry Allen uses
his super speed to change the
past, but his efforts to save his
family creates a world without
superheroes. (2023, 12) 10.3012.00 One Day As A Lion (2023, 15)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
5.20pm The Firm (1993, 15) 8.00
Layer Cake. Stars Daniel Craig and
Michael Gambon. (2004, 15) 9.50
Billionaire Boys Club. A group of
men in 1980s Los Angeles plan to
get rich quick. (2018, 15) 11.451.45 Paradise Highway (2022, 15)
SKY CINEMA GREATS
5.55pm CHOICE Frida. Biopic of
the artist Frida Kahlo. (2002, 15; see
Film choice) 8.00 She Said. Two
reporters break a story that shattered
years of silence around sexual
assault in Hollywood. (2022, 15)

48 7 April 2024

7.00pm The Sky At Night
Exploring the universe.
7.30 India’s Frontier Railways
Charting the Samjhauta
Express as it crosses the
border from India to
Pakistan. (Last in series)
8.30 CHOICE The Eagle Has
Landed Stars Michael
Caine. A Nazi agent plans
to kidnap Churchill as
the prime minister
spends the weekend in
the Norfolk countryside.
(1976, 15; see Film choice)
10.40 FILM: Julius Caesar
Stars Marlon Brando.
Impressive Shakespeare
adaptation. (1953, U, B/W)

SKY CINEMA SELECT
3.30pm The Last Samurai (2003,
15) 6.05 The Huntsman — Winter’s
War. Members of an ice queen’s
army try to conceal their forbidden
love. (2016, 12) 8.00 2012. As the
human race faces extinction a
writer tries to get his family to
the last safe refuge. (2009, 12)
10.40-1.10 Goodfellas (1990, 18)
FILM4
5.00pm My Spy (2020, 12) 6.55
Daddy’s Home 2. A father and a
stepfather deal with intrusive
relatives. (2017, 12) 9.00 The
Equalizer. A retired secret agent
uses his talents to help victims
of injustice. (2014, 18) 11.40-2.00
The Equalizer 2 (2018, 15)
TALKING PICTURES TV
5.35pm Robinson Crusoe (1954, U)
7.30 Time To Remember 8.00
The Brothers 9.05 Van Der Valk
10.10-12.00 The Snorkel. A
teenager tries to prove that her
mother did not take her own life,
but was murdered. (1958, 12)

ITV4
6.00pm Football League Legends
6.15 FILM: Thunderball 9.00 Auf
Wiedersehen, Pet 10.05 FILM: The
Silence Of The Lambs 12.30 The
Professionals 1.35-2.05 Auto Mundial
MORE4
5.50pm The Secret Life Of The Zoo
6.55 Car SOS 7.55 Grand Designs
9.00 Warplane Workshop 10.00 Car
SOS 11.00 24 Hours In A&E 12.05
Warplane Workshop 1.05-2.10
999 — On The Front Line
GOLD
5.40pm Porridge 6.20 The Green
Green Grass 7.00 Dinnerladies 7.40
Dad’s Army 9.00 Bottom 10.15 The
Young Ones 11.10 Bottom 12.25 The
Young Ones 1.15 This Time With Alan
Partridge 1.50-2.55 Chewing Gum
SKY COMEDY
6.00pm The US Office 7.00 Sort Of
8.00 Will & Grace 9.00 Ramy
Youssef — Feelings. Stand-up comedy
10.15 The Tonight Show 11.15 Sex
And The City 12.30 Drew Michael
1.30 In The Long Run 2.00-3.15
Ramy Youssef — More Feelings

5.40pm Boardwalk Empire
Nucky sets out to kill Eli.
(S4, ep 12) 6.45 Boardwalk
Empire Nucky looks to
the future as the end of
Prohibition looms. (S5, ep 1)
7.50 Game Of Thrones
Daenerys summons the
courage to enter the House
of the Undying. (S2, ep 10)
9.00 Succession The big day
arrives as the Roy family
assembles at a castle to
prepare for Shiv and Tom’s
wedding. (Series 1, ep 9)
10.10 Helgoland 513 Ewelike’s
wife, Kaisolochukwu, finds
she has fierce competition
in her application for the
vacant position on the
island. (5/7) 11.10-12.10
Helgoland 513 Beatrice
calls a meeting to charge
Ewelike for his crimes.
(German with subtitles)

5 STAR
6.00pm Home And Away 7.00
GPs — Behind Closed Doors 8.00
Casualty 24/7 9.00 A&E After Dark
10.00 999 — Emergency Call Out
11.00 Ambulance — Code Red
12.00 A&E — Crash Scene
Emergency 1.00 10 Years Younger
In 10 Days 2.00-2.50 Wanted
5 USA
6.00pm NCIS 9.00 Blue Bloods
10.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 1.55-2.50 The Blacklist
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Blue Bloods 9.00 FBI 10.00 FBI —
International 11.00 The Rookie
12.00 Coroner 1.00 Chicago Med
2.00-3.00 Chicago Fire
W
6.00pm MasterChef Australia 7.00
Wife Swap USA 8.00 Ambulance
Australia 9.00 Nurses On The Ward
10.00 Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over
USA 11.00 Louis Theroux’s LA Stories
12.20 Changing Rooms Australia
1.20-3.00 This Is My House
COMEDY CENTRAL
6.00pm Friends 9.00 FILM: The
Hangover 11.10 Impractical Jokers

E4
6.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Leonard and Sheldon
defend themselves against
an online bully. (Series 8,
ep 14) 6.30 The Big Bang
Theory Howard receives
some shocking news.
7.00 Hollyoaks Chester soap.
7.30 Married At First Sight
Australia At the latest
dinner party, a participant
decides to confess to
an anonymous letter.
9.05 Celebrity Gogglebox
Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell
and Back, Bake Off — The
Professionals and Thelma
& Louise are appraised.
10.10 Open House — The Great
Sex Experiment A couple
want help in organising
their first threesome.
11.10-12.10 First Dates
A restaurateur tries to
impress a dance teacher.

Talk TV
6.00pm The Talk A panel of
well-known faces debate
the latest topics that
everybody is talking about.
7.00 Never Mind The Ballots
Harry Cole provides
the latest election
discussion and updates.
8.00 The Independent
Republic Of Mike Graham
A run through the
day’s breaking news.
10.00 The Talk A panel of
well-known faces from the
worlds of politics, showbiz,
business and current
affairs debate the topics
everybody is talking about.
11.00-12.00 Never Mind The
Ballots Harry Cole
provides all the important
election talk and updates.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

11.40 Al Murray — My Gaff, My Rules.
Another dose of satire 1.10-2.10
Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains
YESTERDAY
6.00pm Antiques Roadshow 7.00
Great British Railway Journeys 8.00
CHOICE Bangers & Cash. (See
Critics’ choice) 9.00 Dream Car
Fixers 10.00 Bangers & Cash 11.00
Abandoned Engineering 12.00-1.00
Great British Railway Journeys
DAVE
6.00pm Rick Stein’s Spain 7.00
House Of Games 8.20 Would I Lie To
You? 9.00 8 Out Of 10 Cats 10.00
Meet The Richardsons 10.40 Gavin &
Stacey 12.00 Hustle 1.20-2.40 Two
Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm World War II — Secrets
From Above 7.00 Air Crash
Investigation 8.00 Car SOS 10.00
Alaska — The Next Generation 11.00
Air Crash Investigation 12.00-1.00
Drug Lords — The Takedown
DISCOVERY
6.00pm Junkyard Empire 7.00
Wheeler Dealers. Volvo 240 Torslanda

5

Great shows...
Vampires

1
2

Being Human
(2008-13, ITVX)
Friends who are living
double lives as vampires
and werewolves move
into a houseshare.

3
4

Supernatural
(2005-20, ITVX)
Brothers Sam and Dean
Winchester hunt down
evil supernatural forces.

5

Interview With
The Vampire
(2022, BBC iPlayer)
Jacob Anderson and Sam
Reid star in this glossy
2022 retelling of Anne
Rice’s epic tale.

Aidan Turner
plays Mitchell
in Being Human

What We Do In The
Shadows
(2019-24, Disney+)
Kayvan Novak, Matt
Berry and Natasia
Demetriou star as
vampires in this comedyhorror mockumentary.

Buffy The
Vampire Slayer
(1997-2003, Disney+)
Sarah Michelle Gellar
stars as the titular
Buffy Summers who
along with her friends
defends Sunnydale from
supernatural threats.

Tim Glanfield

8.00 Blowing Up History 9.00 Naked
And Afraid 10.00 Escape From Hell
11.00 Combat Dealers 12.00 Gold
Divers 1.00-2.00 Naked And Afraid
PBS AMERICA
5.00pm The Lafayette Squadron
6.10 Peru, Sacrifices In The
Kingdom Of Chimor 7.15 The
Somme 1916 — From Both Sides Of
The Wire 8.30 Ancient Apocalypse
9.35 The Lafayette Squadron
10.45-12.00 The Somme 1916 —
From Both Sides Of The Wire
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
6.00pm Lockerbie 7.00 The
Vietnam War 8.05 David Fuller
— Monster In The Morgue 9.00
Spitfire 11.00-1.00 The Last Rider
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Carpathian Predators
7.00 Monkey Life 8.00 Wild Birds
Of Australia. Birds of prey 9.00
Islands 10.00 Carpathian Predators
11.00-12.00 Uptown Otters
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Unsolved History 7.00
Expedition Unknown 8.00
Gunslingers 9.00 Combat Dealers
10.00 Salvage Hunters 11.00-12.00
Find It, Fix It, Flog It. A brass propeller

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 10.00 LIVE Tennis. The
Monte-Carlo Masters 2.00 CHOICE
Golf — The Masters. The featured
groups on round one of the first
Major of the year. (See Critics’
choice) 7.30 LIVE Golf — The
Masters. Further coverage of round
one from Augusta 12.30-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
6.00am Serie A 6.30 A-League 7.00
Ultimate Pool 8.30 WSL — Inside
Pro Surfing 9.30 Reload 10.00
Badminton Weekly 10.15 PL Reload
10.30 LIVE AFL: Melbourne Demons
v Brisbane Lions. Bounce-up 10.30
1.30 A-League 2.00 Serie A 2.30 PL
Netbusters 3.00 PTO Triathlon 3.30
Ultimate Pool 5.00 NBA 5.30
Documentary 7.00 LIVE Uefa Europa
League: Liverpool v Atalanta. Kickoff
at 8.00 10.30 Uefa Europa League
11.45 PL Reload 12.00 NBA Tip-Off
12.30 LIVE NBA: Boston Celtics v
New York Knicks. Tip-off at 12.30
3.00 LIVE NBA: Sacramento Kings v
New Orleans Pelicans. Tip-off 3.00
5.30-6.30 Inside The NBA

Radio & Podcasts
○ Business Wars
(podcast)
In Taylor Swift Vs The
World, host David Brown
looks at her feisty
business sense — which
means nobody tussles
with Taylor. She and her
Swifties took on the
ticketing company
Ticketmaster when there
was unprecedented
demand for her Eras
tour, which features
152 shows across five
continents. Swift also
took on talent manager
Scooter Braun after he
bought the company for
whom she had recorded
her early albums — she
wanted the master tapes
but they weren’t going to
give up without a fight.
Naturally, Taylor gave
them one.

and given to families in
the US and Europe for
adoption; others were
given up by mothers too
poor to raise them.

Taylor Swift’s Eras show
includes 44 of her songs
○ The Documentary
(BBC World Service,
9.30am, 8.06pm)
Mike Lanchin, the former
BBC correspondent in
Central America, looks at
the stories of the children
separated from their
families in El Salvador’s
civil war. Some were taken

TIMES RADIO

RADIO 4 EXTRA

5.00 James Hanson With Early
Breakfast 6.00 Rosie Wright And
Calum Macdonald With Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt
Chorley 1.00 Ed Vaizey 3.00
Jane Garvey And Fi Glover
5.00 John Pienaar With Times
Radio Drive 7.00 Pienaar And
Friends 8.00 The Evening Edition
With Kait Borsay 10.00 Henry
Bonsu 1.00 The Story 1.30
Highlights From Matt Chorley
2.00 The Best Of Times Radio

5.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 6.00 The Rivals 6.30
A Charles Paris Mystery: Murder In
The Title 7.00 Second Thoughts
7.30 Dad’s Army 8.00 Cooking In
A Bedsitter 8.30 Small Pleasures
8.45 Halfway Here 9.00 What’s
The Story, Ashley Storrie? 9.30
A Piece Of Cake 9.45 Daily Service
10.00 Great Lives 10.30 Manto
— Uncovering Pakistan 11.00 The
Rivals 11.30 A Charles Paris Mystery:
Murder In The Title 12.00 Second
Thoughts 12.30 Dad’s Army 1.00
Cooking In A Bedsitter 1.30 Small
Pleasures 1.45 Halfway Here 2.00
Genius 2.30 Gilbert Without
Sullivan 3.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 4.00 Great Lives
4.30 Manto — Uncovering Pakistan
5.00 The Rivals 5.30 A Charles
Paris Mystery: Murder In The Title
6.00 Second Thoughts 6.30 Dad’s
Army 7.00 Cooking In A Bedsitter
7.30 Small Pleasures 7.45 Halfway
Here 8.00 Genius 8.30 Gilbert
Without Sullivan 9.00 The Ragged
Trousered Philanthropists 10.00
What’s The Story, Ashley Storrie?
10.30 John Finnemore’s Souvenir
Programme 11.00 The Mark
Steel Revolution 11.30-12.00
Everyone Quite Likes Justin

To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.
RADIO 4
5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45
Farming Today 6.00 Today 9.00
In Our Time 9.45 Just One Thing
10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00 This
Cultural Life. The conductor
Antonio Pappano reflects on his
formative cultural influences 11.45
Book Of The Week (R) 12.00 News
12.04 You And Yours 12.30 Toast.
The downfall of the video sharing
platform Vine 1.00 The World At
One 1.45 The Everest Obsession
2.00 The Archers (R) 2.15 Drama:
The Performer, by William Humble
(R) 3.00 Open Country. Helen
Mark explores a dangerous
footpath in Essex, which has
claimed more than 100 lives over
the years 3.27 Appeal (R) 3.30
Feedback 4.00 The Briefing Room
4.30 Inside Science 5.00 PM
6.00 News 6.30 What’s The
Story, Ashley Storrie? (R) 7.00
The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.00
The Media Show (R) 9.00 Loose
Ends. With Ruby Wax, Anuvab Pal,
Paul Hartnoll, Tiger Braun-White
and Nerina Pallot (R) 9.45 Why Do
We Do That? Ella Al-Shamahi
investigates why people so often
seem to enjoy risky behaviour (R)
10.00 The World Tonight 10.45
Book At Bedtime 11.00 The Today
Podcast 11.30 Between Ourselves
(R) 12.00 News 12.30 Book Of
The Week (R) 12.48 Shipping
1.00 As World Service

LBC
7.00 Nick Ferrari 10.00 James
O’Brien 1.00 Shelagh Fogarty 4.00
Tom Swarbrick 6.00 Tonight With
Andrew Marr 7.00 Iain Dale. Debate
10.00 Ben Kentish. Discussion
1.00 Clive Bull 4.00 Ian Payne
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.30 Essential
Classics 1.00 Classical Live.
Including John Adams’s
Harmonielehre from Paris, and
Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue from
Belfast 4.00 Composer Of The
Week 5.00 In Tune. Sean Rafferty
is joined in the studio by the
singer-songwriter Martin Simpson
7.00 Classical Mixtape. An eclectic
mix of music, including a few
surprises, featuring music by
Debussy, Laura Mvula, Vivaldi
and a traditional Venezuelan dance

○ This Cultural Life
(Radio 4, 11am)
Antonio Pappano
discusses his life and
influences with John
Wilson. Now chief
conductor with the
London Symphony
Orchestra, he recalls
growing up in London
and Connecticut, working
for his mentor Daniel
Barenboim, and his 22
years at the helm of the
Royal Opera at Covent
Garden. Pappano
discusses Mahler in the
Barbican’s Composer
Focus podcast.
Clair Woodward
7.30 In Concert. Live from BBC
Hoddinott in Cardiff, Tadaaki
Otaka conducts the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales perform
Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Grace
Williams’s Sea Sketches, and
Mathias’s Harp Concerto, with
Catrin Finch 9.45 The Essay.
Michael Goldfarb recalls The
Motive and the Cue, a play about
John Gielgud directing Richard
Burton in Hamlet 10.00 Night
Tracks. Sara Mohr-Pietsch
presents a soundtrack for
late-night listening 11.30 ’Round
Midnight 12.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
6.30 Dan Walker 9.00 Hall Of
Fame Hour 10.00 Stephen
Mangan 1.00 Anne-Marie Minhall
4.00 Margherita Taylor 7.00 Zeb
Soanes 10.00 Ritula Shah 1.00
Bill Overton 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
6.30 The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
9.30 Gary Davies 12.00 Jeremy
Vine 2.00 Scott Mills. With Girls
Aloud 4.00 Sara Cox 7.00 Best
Of Piano Room. With Delta
Goodrem, Elbow, Rod Stewart
with Jools Holland, Pet Shop Boys
and Anastacia 9.00 The Country
Show. Bob Harris celebrates a
quarter-century at the helm
of the programme 10.00 Trevor
Nelson 12.00 OJ Borg 3.00
Alternative Sounds Of The 90s
(R) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
VIRGIN RADIO
6.30 The Chris Evans Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00 Jayne Middlemiss
4.00 Ricky Wilson 7.00 Bam
10.00 Amy Voce 1.00 Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve Denyer
TALKSPORT
5.00 Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast With Alan Brazil 10.00
Jim White And Simon Jordan 1.00
Hawksbee And Jacobs 4.00 Drive
With Andy Goldstein And Darren
Bent 7.00 Kick Off: Liverpool v
Atalanta. Kickoff 8.00 10.00
Sports Bar 1.00 Extra Time

7 April 2024 49

FRIDAY 12 APRIL
BBC 1

BBC 2

ITV 1

Channel 4

Channel 5

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
9.30 Morning Live Magazine.
10.45 Big Little Crimes Police
uncover a vast haul of
dangerous weapons.
11.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
12.15 Bargain Hunt At Oswestry
Showground, Shropshire.
1.00 News; Weather Reports.
1.45 Hope Street Sly is accused
of burgling a house while
the owners were at a family
funeral. (Series 3, ep 5)
2.30 Clive Myrie’s Italian Road
Trip A visit to Saturnia. (R)
3.00 Escape To The Country
A home on the Gower
Peninsula in Wales. (R)
3.45 The Bidding Room Items
include a Black Forest-style
bear, a railway lamp and
a toy racing car track. (R)
4.30 Bridge Of Lies Quiz, with
Ross Kemp. (Last in series)
5.15 Pointless Quiz show.
6.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.30 Regional News Update.
7.00 The One Show Features.
7.30 MasterChef The second
quarter-final sees the
cooks present the perfect
sweet or savoury pie,
made of their own pastry.
8.00 Beyond Paradise When
a priest at a Catholic
boarding school goes
missing, Humphrey’s team
explores a connection
between his disappearance
and an ancient local
legend. (Series 2, ep 4)
9.00 Have I Got News For You
The professor Hannah Fry
hosts the satirical currentaffairs quiz, with two guest
panellists joining captains
Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.
9.30 Avoidance Jonathan spies
on Claire’s boyfriend and
goes on an actual real-life
date; Dan and Courtney
freak out over baby clothes;
and Spencer goes berserk
at jiu-jitsu. (Series 2, ep 2)
10.00 News; Weather Reports.

6.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)
7.15 Bridge Of Lies Quiz. (R)
8.00 Antiques Roadshow From
Pollok Park. (Signed, R)
9.00 News; Weather Headlines.
1.00 Impossible Game. (R)
1.45 The Edge Gameshow. (R)
2.30 Lose Weight And Get Fit
Demonstrating healthy
dishes full of flavour. (R)
3.00 Jay Blades’ Home Fix
How to bring a lawn back
to life. (Last in series, R)
3.45 Italy’s Invisible Cities
Alexander Armstrong and
Michael Scott explore
Florence. (Last in series, R)
4.45 The Best Dishes Ever (R)
5.15 Flog It! Selling items. (R)
6.00 House Of Games Toby
Anstis, Kerry Howard,
Evelyn Mok and Joe Sugg
take part in trivia games. (R)
6.30 Great Coastal Railway
Journeys Michael Portillo
visits the Isles of Scilly.
7.00 Grand Tours Of
Scotland’s Rivers New
run. Paul Murton explores
the Don from its source in
the Grampians, near Cock
Bridge, to Aberdeen.
7.30 Beechgrove Garden
George Anderson and
Carole Baxter plant blightresistant potato varieties.
8.00 CHOICE Gardeners’
World Monty Don plants
up a seating area filled with
night-scented plants, and
prepares to sow a new
lawn; and Toby Buckland
visits the Vann Garden in
Surrey. (See Critics’ choice)
9.00 Pilgrimage — The Road
Through North Wales
On the final stage of their
journey, the travellers start
outside Eryri national park,
and head west to the Llyn
Peninsula. (Last in series)
10.00 QI With Guz Khan, Joe
Lycett, Morgana Robinson
and Alan Davies. (R)
10.30 Newsnight Headlines.

6.00 Good Morning Britain
9.00 Lorraine Lifestyle chat.
10.00 This Morning Celebrity
chat and lifestyle features.
12.30 Loose Women More
topical debate from
a female perspective.
1.30 News; Weather Reports.
2.00 Racing Ed Chamberlin
presents day two of the
Grand National festival from
Aintree. Richard Hoiles,
Mark Johnson and Stewart
Machin provide the
commentary, with analysis
from AP McCoy, Ruby
Walsh and Mick Fitzgerald.
5.00 The Chase Quiz show. (R)
6.00 Regional News Update.
6.30 News; Weather Reports.
7.30 Emmerdale Rhona’s fate
hangs in the balance;
and Ruby is incensed.
8.00 Coronation Street Roy’s
house guest turns out to
be an impostor; Maria
catches Gary lending
Sarah a shoulder to cry
on; and Simon impresses
Leanne with his proposal.
9.00 The Twelve The Crown
raises questions about
Kate Lawson’s provocative
artwork; and a complicated
mental-health diagnosis is
revealed, which is quite
pertinent for Vanessa. (4/10)
10.05 News At Ten Bulletin.
10.50 DNA Journey Britain’s
Got Talent judge Amanda
Holden and the comedian
Alan Carr embark on
journeys across the
country as they delve into
their family histories. (R)
12.05 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 Parkinson — The Final
Conversation Another
chance to see Michael
Parkinson talking to David
Beckham, Billy Connolly,
Judi Dench and Dame
Edna Everage; with music
by Jamie Cullum. (R)
4.45-6.00 Unwind Relaxation.

6.10 Countdown Game. (R)
6.50 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
8.05 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
9.30 Frasier Sitcom. (R)
11.00 Work On The Wild Side (R)
12.00 News; Weather Reports.
12.05 Sun, Sea And Selling
Houses The search for
a home in Alicante. (R)
1.05 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (R)
2.10 Countdown Game.
3.00 A Place In The Sun (R)
4.00 A New Life In The Sun (R)
5.00 Chateau DIY Insights. (R)
6.00 A Place In The Sun
A couple search for a
holiday home in the
Mar Menor in Spain. (R)
6.30 The Simpsons Bart seeks
advice on self-defence
from Grandpa. (R)
7.00 News; Weather Reports.
7.30 Michael Mosley —
Secrets Of Your Big Shop
A couple planning their
wedding want to protect
their heart health. (R)
8.30 CHOICE Travel Man —
48 Hours In Lanzarote
Jessica Fostekew joins
Joe Lycett on a trip to the
island of a thousand
volcanoes, where they
explore its lunar landscape.
(See Critics’ choice)
9.00 Gogglebox The armchair
critics share their opinions
on what they have been
watching during the week.
10.00 CHOICE Late Night
Lycett New run of the chat
show, hosted by Joe
Lycett, featuring big-name
guests from the worlds of
comedy, TV, music and
film. (See Critics’ choice)

6.00
9.15
11.15
12.45
1.40
1.45

10.40 CHOICE The Heat Stars
Sandra Bullock and Melissa
McCarthy. An uptight,
ambitious FBI agent and
an unconventional police
detective work together.
(2013, 15; see Film choice)

11.05 CHOICE The Power Of
The Dog Stars Benedict
Cumberbatch and Kirsten
Dunst. A rancher torments
his brother’s new wife
and her son until he finds
himself exposed to love.
(2021, 12; see Film choice)

SCOTLAND 6.30 Reporting
Scotland; Weather. 12.30 A View
From The Terrace. 1.35 BBC News.

Variations
BBC1 WALES 7.30 Amy
Dowden’s Dare To Dance BBC2
WALES 7.30 MasterChef BBC
SCOTLAND 7.00 The Seven 7.30
Sportscene — Championship. Live
10.00 Still Game 10.30 A View
From The Terrace 11.30-12.00
Gary — Tank Commander STV
6.00 Good Morning Britain 9.00
Lorraine 10.00 This Morning 12.30
Loose Women 1.30 News; Weather
2.00 Racing 5.00 The Chase
6.00 Regional News 6.30 News;
Weather 7.00 What’s On Scotland

50 7 April 2024

1.05 Panorama (Signed, R)
1.35 This Town (Signed, R)
2.30-3.00 Our Flag Means
Death (Signed, R)

7.30 Emmerdale 8.00 Coronation
Street 9.00 The Twelve 10.05
News; Weather 10.35 Regional
News 10.50 DNA Journey 12.05
Teleshopping 3.00 Parkinson —
The Final Conversation 4.456.00 Night Vision S4C 6.00 Cyw
10.00 Blociau Lliw 10.05 Jen A Jim
Pob Dim 10.20 Sion Y Chef 10.35
Ein Byd Bach Ni 10.45 Octonots
11.00 Caru Canu 11.05 Olobobs
11.10 Ne-wff-ion 11.25 Dreigiau
Cadi 11.40 Dal Dy Ddannedd
12.00 Newyddion A’r Tywydd
12.05 Gwyliau Gartref 12.30 Heno
1.00 Bethesda: Pobol Y Chwarel

1.10 FILM: Crawlspace Stars
Henry Thomas. A plumber
fights for his life when a
group of violent criminals
have him trapped in the
crawlspace of a rural cabin.
Wry thriller. (2022, 15)

Joe Lycett (C4, 10pm)
1.30 Cegin Bryn 2.00 Newyddion
A’r Tywydd 2.05 Prynhawn Da
3.00 Newyddion 3.05 Cor Cymru
— Corau Ieuenctid 4.00 Awr
Fawr: Blociau Lliw 4.05 Timpo
4.15 Sigldigwt 4.30 Twt 4.45
Ne-wff-ion 5.00 Stwnsh: Cath-Od
5.10 Dennis A Dannedd 5.25
Mabinogi-ogi 5.50 Newyddion
6.00 Cymry Ar Gynfas 6.30
Garddio A Mwy 6.57 Newyddion
7.00 Heno 7.30 Newyddion A’r
Tywydd 8.00 Hen Dy Newydd
8.55 Newyddion 9.00 Nathan
Brew — Un Eiliad Un Ergyd 10.00
Curadur 10.30-11.35 Creisis

2.40 Ramsay’s Hotel Hell (R)
3.25 Come Dine With Me (R)
5.30 The Perfect Pitch (R)
5.55-6.05 Sunday Brunch
Best Bits With MC and
rapper Dizzee Rascal. (R)

You say

12.35-6.00 Joins BBC News

11.05 FILM: American Pie 2
Stars Jason Biggs, Chris
Klein and Seann William
Scott. The teen friends set
out to broaden their sexual
horizons over the summer.
Crude fun. (2001, 15)

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Jeremy Vine Debate.
Storm Huntley Opinions.
Friends US sitcom. (R)
News; Weather Reports.
Home And Away Mali is
confronted by Eden trying
to figure out what is going
on with her brother. (R)
2.15 A Deadly Invitation
Thriller, with Claire Coffee
and Lisa Berry. A young
woman decides to join a
support group called the
Sisterhood, where she is
forced to participate in
questionable activities. (R)
4.00 Bargain-Loving Brits In
The Sun Featuring a
Wigan couple who join a
team of volunteers at a
donkey sanctuary.
5.00 News; Weather Reports.
6.00 The Cotswolds With Pam
Ayres The poet visits Le
Manoir aux Quat’Saisons —
the Oxfordshire hotel and
Michelin-starred restaurant
of Raymond Blanc. (R)
6.55 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Motorway Cops —
Catching Britain’s
Speeders An officer stops
a car thought to be linked
to organised crime, and
the driver does not have a
valid driving licence. (R)
7.55 News; Weather Reports.
8.00 The Coastal Map Of
Britain Documentary
examining the rise and fall
of the UK’s greatest ports,
including a look at why
the Romans chose
London as the capital city.
9.00 Susan Calman’s Great
British Cities The
presenter is in Bath,
starting her journey at the
Roman Baths, where she
peels back 2,000 years of
history. (Last in series)
10.00 Big Fight Live coverage
of the bout between
Charlie Edwards and
Georges Ory for the
vacant WBC international
silver bantamweight
title, held at York Hall.
12.05 Police Interceptors (R)
1.05 Entertainment News
1.15 Casino Show Gambling.
3.15 Railway Journeys (R)
4.00 Casualty 24/7 — Every
Second Counts (R)
4.45 Great Artists El Greco. (R)
5.10 House Doctor Advice. (R)
5.35 Entertainment News
5.40-6.00 Children’s Shows

Clearly when the BBC or ITV plan to sell a
drama production outside of the UK, they
ensure that American phrases are in the
script. In a recent episode of Silent Witness a
character used the term “kickbacks”. In the UK
it’s “backhanders”. What next? “Cellphone”,
“elevator”, “sidewalk”? Shall we refer to
Scotland Yard as the Metropolitan PD? Let’s
stop it now — the Yanks don’t do it for us in
their productions.
John Ubsdell
Send your comments to telly@sunday-times.co.uk

An evening focused
on Amy Winehouse

Critics’ choice
Franklin (Apple TV+)
With their democracy looking
frayed at the edges, it seems that
Americans are riffling through
their back catalogue to find out
what made it so intoxicating in
the first place. Hamilton, with
its dazzling music and dust-dry
plotting, continues to bring in
audiences, so the writer and
producer Kirk Ellis (responsible
for the critically acclaimed but
also somewhat dull 2008
miniseries John Adams) turns
his attention once again to the
period. With star power in the
form of Michael Douglas as the
inventor Benjamin Franklin and
Pulitzer prizewinning source
material from Stacy Schiff’s book,
it tells of his mission to persuade
monarchist France to support
the birth of a new country.
Douglas is spry and sparkling
and rather more witty than one
might expect, even if the joke
is generally aimed at this side
of the pond.
Helen Stewart
Gardeners’ World (BBC2, 8pm)
Spring hasn’t exactly sprung
this year, so all the more reason
to take vicarious pleasure in
watching other, better gardeners
from the comfort of a dry sofa.
Plenty of nutritious horticultural
food for the couch potato can be
found in this episode. Monty Don is
thinking ahead to summer and
plants up a seating area filled with
night-scented plants before
beginning the careful preparations
for a new lawn. He’s also sowing
squash ahead of the autumn
harvest. Toby Buckland is off in
Surrey visiting The Vann Garden
designed by Gertrude Jekyll while
Sue Kent is in her own garden in
south Wales as she plants up a hot
border in Swansea. Patrick Gale,
an author, takes viewers to the
Cornish coast where he has
transformed a farmyard by the sea
into a beautiful oasis where he can
write surrounded by plants and the
sounds of nature.

On demand
○ Midsummer Night (Netflix)
The title is a possible nod to
Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 comedyromance film Smiles of a Summer
Night, and this Swedish/Norwegian
limited series about a family party
on the longest day of the year
definitely has the dreamlike
dusk-hour feel of the great
Swedish director’s 1950s comedies.
Centred on Pernilla August and
Dennis Storhoi’s aged married

Starting tonight’s BBC4 schedule
dedicated to Amy Winehouse, at
9.05pm Jools Holland looks back
at her appearances on Later, from
her first single, 2003’s Stronger
Than Me, onwards. The Day
She Came To Dingle (9.40pm)
is an Arena film documenting
her 2006 acoustic performance
in an Irish church. At the other
end of the spectrum are her
two sets at Glastonbury in 2007
(10.40pm). It’s followed by A Life
In Ten Pictures (11.40pm), a vivid
photographic record. VS
Amy
Winehouse

Michael Douglas is at the helm of Franklin, an eight-episode series

More Feelings
(Sky Comedy/Now, 10pm)
Before his role as the medical
student Max in Yorgos Lanthimos’s
film Poor Things, the comedian
Ramy Youssef was best known for
three seasons of his low-mood,
high-stakes sitcom, the
adventurously titled but culturally
complex Ramy. Performing on
stage in his home state of New
Jersey, Youssef here follows up his
2019 stand-up special Feelings,
his amiably laid-back persona
contrasting with his political bite.

Late Night Lycett (C4, 10pm)
Exhausted from exposing the
iniquities of water companies using
an inflatable toilet (the Turdis) and
squiring the UK’s comic roster
round European destinations in
Travel Man (preview, below), Joe
Lycett has returned to his home
town, Birmingham, where he can’t
resist the temptation of a second
series of his chat show. Guests are
yet to be confirmed, but last year
they included Joanna Lumley and
Joan Collins, plus Gemma Collins,
Alison Hammond and Rylan.

Ramy Youssef (Sky Comedy, 10pm)

Travel Man — 48 Hours In
Lanzarote (C4, 8.30pm)
With a stop at the volcanic location
where Raquel Welch showcased a
fur bikini in One Million Years BC,
Joe Lycett, the nouveau Cliff
Michelmore, and his guest, the
comedian Jessica Fostekew, explore
the island for the final jaunt of the
series. Sun-seeking for surrealists.
Victoria Segal

couple (Carina and Johannes) and
their decision to disclose a big
family secret, it’s a series that
explores the complexity of family
relationships with an intelligence
and wit that even old Ingmar might
be impressed with.
○ Dora (Paramount+)
No, not the original TV series
from the early 2000s, but a new,
revamped, 3D CGI extravaganza
that follows our quest-hungry
seven-year-old Latina girl and

her monkey companion on yet
more extravagant adventures.
Just as engaging and interactive
as the original series, this reboot
is also far less enervating than the
original. If you are a parent and
are wary about re-entering the
screechy primary-coloured world
of Dora, Boots, Backpack, Map
and the Singing Gate, then rest
assured: this is a far more benign
world for you and your kids to
reconnoitre.
Andrew Male

Film choice
Oppenheimer (Sky Cinema
Premiere/Now, 11.45am, 8pm)
Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus
about the father of the nuclear
bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer
(a gaunt Cillian Murphy) — a
three-hour film about theoretical
physics and political hearings and
committees — was enthusiastically
embraced by global audiences and
made nearly $1 billion at the box
office. It also won seven Oscars,
including best film, best actor for
Murphy and best director for
Nolan. And all without a single
superhero. (2023)
The Heat (BBC1, 10.40pm)
The Bridesmaids director Paul Feig
and star Melissa McCarthy reunite
for a spin on the buddy-cop movie.
Sandra Bullock is a by-the-book
FBI high achiever, McCarthy an
unkempt slob with anger issues
and a fridge full of weapons.
There’s a spiky chemistry between
the pair as they reluctantly team up
to bring down a druglord. (2013)
The Power Of The Dog
(BBC2, 11.05pm)
Benedict Cumberbatch and
Jane Campion unite to deliver a
powerful western. It’s set in rural
Montana in 1925, and Cumberbatch
excels as Phil Burbank, an
embittered rancher. Jesse Plemons
plays his younger brother, George,
with Kirsten Dunst as George’s
brittle new wife, Rose, whom Phil
instinctively loathes. (2021)
7 April 2024 51

FRIDAY 12 APRIL
BBC 3
7.00pm Top Gear Richard
Hammond experiences
the Mercedes-Benz G63
AMG 6x6 in Abu Dhabi.
8.00 Young MasterChef The
cooks recreate a recipe by
the leading chef Tom
Booton in the final.
9.00 FILM: The Martian Stars
Matt Damon. An astronaut
left stranded on Mars has
to find a way to survive
for years. Fascinating
sci-fi drama. (2015, 12)
11.15 Fleabag Claire organises
her own surprise birthday
party. (Series 1, ep 3)
11.40 Fleabag Claire takes
Fleabag to a silent retreat.
12.10 Charlotte In Sunderland
1.10 Glow Up — Britain’s Next
Make-Up Star Contest.
2.10 Fleabag Comedy.
3.05-3.50 Wreck (S2, ep 6)

BBC 4
7.00pm TOTP: 1995. Music
from Corona and Queen.
7.30 TOTP: 1992. With Curtis
Stigers and Altern 8.
8.00 TOTP: 1985. With Tears for
Fears and the Rah Band.
8.30 TOTP: 1974. Featuring
Slade and Mungo Jerry.
9.05 CHOICE Later... Amy
Winehouse. The singer’s
appearances on the show.
(See Critics’ choice)
9.40 Arena: Amy Winehouse
— The Day She Came To
Dingle. An appearance
on Other Voices in 2006.
10.40 Amy Winehouse At
Glastonbury 2007
Festival performance.
11.40 A Life In Ten Pictures:
Amy Winehouse. A journey
through the singer’s life.
12.40 BBC Sessions: Amy
Winehouse. Archive tracks.
1.35-3.40 Top Of The Pops

ITV 2
6.00pm Catchphrase Chris
Hoy, Martine McCutcheon
and Faye Tozer take part.
7.00 Family Fortunes Families
from Oxfordshire and
St Helens compete.
8.00 Superstore Garrett tries to
prove he has been in love.
(S6, ep 3) 8.30 Superstore
Garrett and Cheyenne
search for a strange smell.
9.00 FILM: Wedding Crashers
Stars Owen Wilson. Two
bachelors gatecrash
weddings to pick up
women, but one of them
ends up falling in love.
Lowbrow comedy. (2005,
15; includes FYI Daily)
11.25 Family Guy Peter grows
bored of his job. (S4, ep 13)
11.55-12.25 Family Guy
Brian appears on a TV
dating show. (S4, ep 7)

ITV 3
5.55pm Heartbeat Hippies
colonise Lawson’s holiday
cottages, causing dissent
and tut-tutting in the
village. 6.55 Heartbeat
A salmonella epidemic
grips the village, putting
Gina’s chicken pies
under the microscope.
8.00 Doc Martin New
neighbours look set to
disturb the tranquillity of
Portwenn. (Series 3, ep 3)
9.00 Shetland Perez looks into
a suspicious car accident
in which a reporter friend
chasing a controversial
story was killed. (Series 2,
ep 3) 10.20 Shetland
Evidence arrives from an
unexpected source.
11.35-12.45 Blue Murder A hip
flask found beside human
remains leads Janine to an
architect. (Series 3, ep 4)

E4
6.00pm The Big Bang Theory
Leonard is upset over a
magazine article. (S8, ep 18)
6.30 The Big Bang Theory
Leonard and Sheldon try to
meet George Lucas.
7.00 Hollyoaks Chester soap.
7.30 Modern Family Phil sends
Jay on a trip. (Series 4, ep 1)
8.00 Taskmaster’s Bleeped
New Year Treat 2022
With guests Adrian Chiles,
Claudia Winkleman, Jonnie
Peacock, Lady Leshurr
and Sayeeda Warsi.
9.00 FILM: Men In Black
— International Stars
Chris Hemsworth. The
intergalactic law enforcers
tackle their biggest threat
— a mole within their own
organisation. Redundant
fantasy sequel. (2019, 12)
11.10-12.15 Naked Attraction

Drama

Sky Arts

Sky Max

Sky Atlantic

Talk TV

6.00pm Keeping Up
Appearances Hyacinth
tries to arrange a social
event. (Series 1, ep 5)
6.40 Last Of The Summer Wine
Seymour and Clegg are
spotted climbing into a
bale of hay. 7.20 Last Of
The Summer Wine Nora
sets tongues wagging by
not wearing her stockings.
8.00 Father Brown Efforts
are made to uncover a
dark secret at Helmsley
House. (Series 8, ep 10)
9.00 Sister Boniface Mysteries
The sleuth investigates a
coven of witches after a
human sacrifice. (S2, ep 4)
10.00 New Tricks The team
reopens a murdered
teacher case. (S3, ep 1)
11.20-12.40 Spooks A team of
Chinese agents arrives in
London. (Series 9, ep 4)

6.00pm Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: The Morning
After. The mother of a
businessman’s mistress is
suspicious of him. 6.30
Alfred Hitchcock
Presents: A Personal
Matter. A desperate
financier tries to persuade
an engineer to stay on a job.
7.00 The Joy Of Painting
A misty waterfall scene.
7.30 Jethro Tull — Live At
Montreux 2003 The band
performs at the jazz festival.
10.00 Grand Ole Opry With
performances by LeAnn
Rimes, Mike Snider and
Teddy Wilburn. 10.30
Grand Ole Opry With
Johnny Russell, Faith Hill
and Emmylou Harris.
11.00-12.00 Guy Garvey
— From The Vaults
Performances from 1976.

6.00pm Stargate Atlantis
Mysterious explosions
require McKay’s attention.
(Series 3, ep 17, R)
7.00 Stargate Atlantis
The team awakens a
dormant Wraith queen. (R)
8.00 Rob & Romesh vs
Superstar DJs Rob
Beckett and Romesh
Ranganathan enter
the world of DJs. (R)
9.00 Peacemaker Tension
and mistrust build
within the team. (2/8, R)
10.00 Rob Beckett’s Smart TV
With Joel Dommett, Jason
Fox, Nathaniel Curtis and
Hermione Norris. (R)
10.45 The Force — North East
Police hunt for the mother
of a boy found alone. (R)
11.40-12.35 The Force
— North East Back-to-back
bonfire night dramas. (R)

5.45pm Boardwalk Empire
Nucky is knocked back by
a group of financiers.
(Series 5, ep 2) 6.50
Boardwalk Empire
Margaret faces a dilemma
at the bank as a result of her
association with Rothstein.
7.55 Game Of Thrones
Daenerys arrives in Slaver’s
Bay looking to form an
army. (Series 3, ep 1)
9.00 Mary & George AntiSpanish riots take hold of
the city and the Crown is
plunged into debt. (6/7)
10.00 Helgoland 513 Marek and
Silbermann are concerned
about Beatrice’s actions.
(Last in series; German
with subtitles)
11.00-12.00 The King Drama
about controversial prison
boss Bruno Testori. (1/8;
Italian with subtitles)

6.00pm The Talk Well-known
faces debate the topics
everybody is talking about.
7.00 Plank Of The Week
Mike Graham presents
the panel show.
8.00 The Royal Tea The latest
gossip, gripes and goings
on of the royal family.
8.30 Crime Suspect Shedding
light on the criminals
terrorising Britain’s streets.
9.00 The Talk Well-known faces
debate the latest topics.
10.00 Plank Of The Week
Mike Graham presents.
11.00 What Just Happened?
With Kevin O’Sullivan.
11.30-12.00 The World
According To Mike
Graham Delving into the
week’s biggest stories.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

Films

SKY CINEMA SELECT
4.45pm Oppenheimer. Biopic.
(2023, 12) 8.00 The Mummy.
A mercenary fights the spirit of
an ancient Egyptian high priest.
(1999, 15) 10.10-12.50 Gladiator.
An enslaved Roman general
seeks revenge on a tyrant for the
murder of his family. (2000, 15)

Entertainment

5 STAR
6.00pm Home And Away 7.00 GPs
— Behind Closed Doors 8.00
Casualty 24/7 — Every Second
Counts 9.00 FILM: Oblivion
11.35-1.15 FILM: Scary Movie 2

YESTERDAY
6.00pm Antiques Roadshow 7.00
Great British Railway Journeys 8.00
Secrets Of The London Underground
9.00 Abandoned Engineering 10.00
Bangers & Cash 11.00 Abandoned
Engineering 12.00-1.00 Great
British Railway Journeys. Double bill.

SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
6.00pm Barbie (2023, 12) 8.00
CHOICE Oppenheimer. Biopic.
(2023, 12; see Film choice)
11.00-1.20 Gran Turismo. A teen
beats thousands of other gamers in
a competition to sit behind the
wheel of a real racing car. (2023, 12)
SKY CINEMA THRILLER
5.50pm Hunt (2022, 15) 8.00
Stowaway. A tenacious party girl
fights to survive after three thieves
commandeer her luxury yacht.
(2022, 15) 9.40 Hounded. Young
thieves are caught by the owners
of a stately home, and then hunted
across the estate. (2022, 15)
11.20-1.40 Vanilla Sky (2001, 15)

FILM4
4.20pm Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles (2014, 12) 6.20 The Mask
Of Zorro. The ageing hero trains a
protégé to tackle an evil governor.
(1998, PG) 9.00 The Transporter.
An underworld courier ends up in
a battle of wits with his powerful
employers. (2002, 15) 10.45-12.50
Men. A widow takes a solo vacation
to the countryside, but suspects
she is being stalked. (2022, 15)

SKY CINEMA GREATS
5.20pm Zero Dark Thirty. Factbased drama about intelligence
and military operatives trying to
track down Osama bin Laden.
(2012, 15) 8.00 Elvis. The singer
Elvis Presley takes the world by
storm while his manager exerts
a grip over him. (2022, 12)
10.40-12.15 Miss Potter (2006, PG)

TALKING PICTURES TV
6.00pm Worzel Gummidge 6.30
Fireball XL5 7.05 Love From A
Stranger. A lottery winner marries a
fortune hunter, who proves to be a
dangerous proposition. (1937, PG)
9.05 Dark Prince — The True Story
Of Dracula. Historical thriller.
(2000, 18) 11.00-12.30 The Beach
Girls And The Monster (1965, 15)

52 7 April 2024

ITV4
6.00pm Monster Carp 8.00
The Motorbike Show 9.00 Auf
Wiedersehen, Pet 10.05 All Elite
Wrestling — Dynamite 12.15-2.15
Giant Lobster Hunters. Double bill.
MORE4
5.50pm The Secret Life Of The Zoo
6.55 Car SOS 7.55 Grand Designs.
In Worcestershire. 9.00 Astrid
— Murder In Paris 10.15 24 Hours In
A&E 12.20 Emergency Helicopter
Medics 1.20-3.30 24 Hours In A&E
GOLD
5.40pm Porridge 6.20 The Green
Green Grass 7.00 Dinnerladies 7.40
Dad’s Army. Two episodes. 9.00
Bottom 10.20 Bottom Live 12.40
This Time With Alan Partridge
2.00-3.00 Marley’s Ghosts
SKY COMEDY
6.00pm American Auto 6.30 The US
Office 7.00 Sort Of 8.00 Will & Grace
9.00 Curb Your Enthusiasm 10.00
CHOICE More Feelings. Stand-up,
with Ramy Youssef. (See Critics’
choice) 11.15 The Tonight Show 12.15
Insecure 1.35-2.15 The US Office

5 USA
6.00pm NCIS. Four episodes.
10.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 1.50-2.45 The Blacklist
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
Chicago Med 9.00 Chicago Fire
10.00 Chicago PD 11.00 The
Cleaning Lady 12.00 Coroner
1.00 Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit 2.00-3.00 Blue Bloods
W
6.00pm MasterChef Australia 7.30
Inside The Ambulance 8.00
Ambulance Australia 9.00 Nurses On
The Ward 10.00 999 Rescue Squad
11.00 Gavin & Stacey 1.00 Date
Night 1.25-3.00 This Is MY House
COMEDY CENTRAL
6.00pm Friends 9.00 Lee Evans:
Roadrunner 10.00 Jimmy Carr —
Being Funny 12.10 Jack Whitehall —
Comedy Central Live 12.40-3.05
South Park. Five episodes.

DAVE
6.00pm Rick Stein’s Spain 7.00
House Of Games 8.20 Would I Lie To
You? 9.00 Special Ops — Crime
Squad UK 11.00 Taskmaster
12.00 Hustle 1.15 Mock The Week
1.55-2.30 Schitt’s Creek

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm World War II — Secrets
From Above 7.00 Air Crash
Investigation 10.00 Australia’s
Hardest Prison 11.00 Air Crash
Investigation 12.00 Trafficked —
Underworlds. Mariana Van Zeller
heads to the Philippines 1.00-2.00
Ancient Bodies — Secrets Revealed
DISCOVERY
6.00pm Junkyard Empire 7.00
Wheeler Dealers 8.00 Moonshiners
9.00 Expedition Unknown

5
1

Sport on TV

Radio & Podcasts

Highlights

○ The Art Of Longevity
(podcast)
Keith Jopling’s series
features classic acts
talking about their
long-running careers,
how they keep their
creativity going, how
they got over the career
slump that many
musicians face after a
long period of success
and how veterans have
dealt with the seismic
change that has come
from streaming. Guests
on this insightful series
include John Grant,
Crowded House, OMD,
Rumer, Suede and Ben
Folds. A useful listen for
anyone planning a
music-business career, or
even for those wanting a
nudge to plough on with
other projects.

The Masters
(Fri, Sat, Sun, 2pm,
Sky Sports Golf)
The golfing world descends
on Augusta in pursuit of
the famous green jacket.

2

Liverpool v Crystal
Palace (Sun, Apr 14, 2pm,
Sky Sports Main Event)
The Reds cannot afford
to slip up against Palace
as the Premier League
race goes to the wire.

3

Newcastle v Spurs
(Sat, 12.30pm,
TNT Sports)
Spurs need to win games
such as this to keep
their Champions League
dreams alive.

4

Arsenal v Aston Villa
(Sun, Apr 14, 4.30pm,
Sky Sports Main Event)
A tricky game for the
Gunners at home. They
need three points to
keep up with Man City
and Liverpool.

5

Declan Rice
of Arsenal

IPL Cricket: Punjab Kings
v Rajasthan Royals (Sat,
3pm, Sky Sports Cricket)
Another fast-scoring match
looks likely in front of a
lively crowd.
Tim Glanfield

10.00 Expedition X 11.00 Combat
Dealers 12.00 Gold Divers
1.00-2.00 Expedition Unknown
PBS AMERICA
5.55pm Pompeii — Buried Secrets
Of The Villa Giuliana 7.05 Amerigo
Vespucci — Forgotten Namesake Of
America 8.15 Ancient Apocalypse.
The era of the Norse 9.20 Mafia’s
Greatest Hits 10.20 Pompeii —
Buried Secrets Of The Villa Giuliana
11.25-12.00 Beautiful Serengeti
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
6.00pm Urban Secrets 7.00 The
Vietnam War 8.00 The Beatles —
Eight Days A Week: The Touring
Years 10.00-12.00 Liverpool
Narcos. Three back-to-back editions.
SKY NATURE
6.00pm Carpathian Predators 7.00
Monkey Life. Double bill. 8.00 Hope
For Wildlife 9.00 Macaque Island
10.00 Carpathian Predators
11.00-12.00 Uptown Otters
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Unsolved History 7.00
Expedition Unknown 8.00
Gunslingers 9.00 Combat
Dealers 10.00 Salvage Hunters
11.00-12.00 Find It, Fix It, Flog It

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 10.00 LIVE Tennis. The
Monte-Carlo Masters 2.00 LIVE
Golf — The Masters. Coverage of
round two of the first major of
the year 12.30-6.00 News
TNT SPORTS 1
6.30am NBA Action 7.00 Ligue 1
Show 7.30 A-League 8.00 LIVE
A-League: Wellington Phoenix v
Melbourne Victory 10.00 PL Reload
10.15 Sport In Focus 10.30 LIVE
AFL: Western Bulldogs v Essendon
Bombers. Bounce-up at 10.40 1.30
PL Netbusters 2.00 PL Stories 2.30
PL — The Big Interview 3.00 FIA
Formula E 4.00 FIA Formula E
5.00 LIVE FIA Formula E World
Championship. The Misano E-Prix
first free practice session 6.00
Fantasy Show 6.30 PL Preview 7.00
LIVE European Rugby Challenge
Cup. A quarter-final match 10.15
The Grudge 11.45 Sport In Focus
12.00 WWE 1.00 LIVE WWE 3.00 PL
Preview 3.30 UFC Countdown
4.30-7.30 LIVE AFL: GWS Giants v
St Kilda Saints. Bounce-up at 4.45

jailed for perverting the
course of justice. Jason
Farrell and Liz Lane report
from Barrow-in-Furness
on why she made these
bizarre claims.

Andy McCluskey and
Paul Humphreys of OMD
○ Unreliable Witness
(podcast)
The latest season of Sky
News’s StoryCast looks at
the headline-grabbing case
of 19-year-old Ellie
Williams, who spun an
elaborate web of lies about
being trafficked by an Asian
grooming gang and was

TIMES RADIO

RADIO 4 EXTRA

5.00 Rosie Wright With Early
Breakfast 6.00 Chloe Tilley And
Calum Macdonald With Times
Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt
Chorley 1.00 Ruth Davidson 4.00
Carole Walker With Times Radio
Drive 7.00 Ed Vaizey 10.00 Henry
Bonsu 1.00 The Story 1.30
Highlights From Matt Chorley
2.00 The Best Of Times Radio

5.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 6.00 The Rivals
6.30 A Charles Paris Mystery:
Murder In The Title 7.00 Up The
Garden Path 7.30 Albert And Me
8.00 Plum House 8.30 Small
Pleasures 8.45 Halfway Here 9.00
You Heard It Here First 9.30 A
Piece Of Cake 9.45 Daily Service
10.00 Soul Music 10.30 A Brief
History Of TIM 11.00 The Rivals
11.30 A Charles Paris Mystery:
Murder In The Title 12.00 Up The
Garden Path 12.30 Albert And Me
1.00 Plum House 1.30 Small
Pleasures 1.45 Halfway Here 2.00
Whispers 2.30 Bookcases 3.00 The
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
4.00 Soul Music 4.30 A Brief
History Of TIM 5.00 The Rivals
5.30 A Charles Paris Mystery:
Murder In The Title 6.00 Up The
Garden Path 6.30 Albert And Me
7.00 Plum House 7.30 Small
Pleasures 7.45 Halfway Here
8.00 Whispers 8.30 Bookcases
9.00 The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists 10.00 You Heard It
Here First 10.30 Laura Solon —
Talking And Not Talking 11.00
Jake Yapp’s Media Circus
11.30-12.00 Weak At The Top

To get in touch with the Times
Radio studio, text TIMES plus your
message to 87222. Texts cost
your standard message charge.
RADIO 4
5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45
Farming Today 6.00 Today 9.00
The Reunion . Kirsty Wark recalls
the BBC’s consumer rights show
That’s Life! (R) 10.00 Woman’s
Hour 11.00 The Food Programme
11.45 Book of the Week (R) 12.00
News 12.04 AntiSocial 1.00 The
World At One 1.45 The Everest
Obsession 2.00 The Archers (R)
2.15 Drama: Silos 2.45 Child. India
Rakusen finds out about the
postnatal period, including the
care given to mother and baby,
the history of lying-in and
psychological support 3.00
Gardeners’ Question Time 3.45
Short Works. When Love Sucks,
by Naomi Wood. A woman turns
to an AI dating coach to mend
her broken heart — with
unexpected results 4.00 Last
Word 4.30 Life Changing. A
selection of obituaries (R) 5.00
PM 6.00 News 6.30 The Now
Show 7.00 The Archers 7.15
Screenshot. Ellen E Jones and
Mark Kermode look at the
character of the interloper on
screen 8.00 Any Questions? Alex
Forsyth hosts the political forum
from Halifax Minster in West
Yorkshire 8.50 A Point Of View
9.00 Free Thinking. Ideas shaping
modern life 10.00 The World
Tonight 10.45 Book At Bedtime
11.00 Americast 11.30 Love’s
Growth (R) 12.00 News 12.30
Book Of The Week (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service

LBC
7.00 Nick Ferrari 10.00 James
O’Brien 1.00 Shelagh Fogarty
4.00 Tom Swarbrick 6.00 Lewis
Goodall 9.00 Dean Dunham.
Discussion 10.00 Nick Abbot 1.00
Clive Bull 4.00 Henry Riley
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.30 Essential
Classics 1.00 Classical Live.
Including string music by Dvorak
from Belfast, and choral Charpentier
in Paris 4.00 Composer Of The
Week 5.00 In Tune 7.00 Classical
Mixtape. A 30-minute soundscape
of classical music 7.30 Friday
Night Is Music Night. At Alexandra
Palace Theatre, London, the singers
Louise Dearman and Graham
Bickley join the conductor Richard
Balcombe and the BBC Concert
Orchestra in a mix of music
celebrating the great outdoors

○ CrowdScience (BBC
World Service, 8.30pm)
A listener from Sierra
Leone asks why is there
still so much war in so
many parts of the world;
the programme asks
experts in psychology,
evolution, anthropology,
modern warfare and
conflict mediation for
answers. And can we learn
anything about resolving
our problems from how
monkeys do it? BBC
Sounds’ Ukrainecast is
still reporting regularly on
the country’s war.
Clair Woodward
9.45 The Essay. Michael Goldfarb
recalls understudying in K2, a play
about two climbers, having fallen
on their way down from the
summit of the eponymous
mountain 10.00 Late Junction.
Verity Sharp presents the fruits of
Susie Ibarra and Adrian Zalten
session, recorded at a church in
Germany 11.30 ’Round Midnight.
The BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter
CassKidd curates a mixtape of his
latest finds 12.30 Tearjerker. A
series of healing, emotional music
presented by Aurora 1.30 The
Music & Meditation Podcast
2.30 Through The Night
CLASSIC FM
6.30 Dan Walker 9.00 Hall Of
Fame Hour 10.00 Stephen
Mangan 1.00 Anne-Marie Minhall
4.00 Margherita Taylor 7.00
Jonathan Ross 9.00 Notes From
Italy. Freddie De Tommaso
celebrates the Verona Arena and
features the music associated
with it 10.00 Myleene Klass 1.00
Katie Breathwick 4.00 Sam Pittis
RADIO 2
6.30 The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
9.30 Gary Davies 12.00 Jeremy
Vine 2.00 Scott Mills 4.00 Sara
Cox 7.00 Michelle Visage 9.00
The Good Groove 11.00 The Rock
Show 12.00 Romesh Ranganathan
— For The Love Of Hip-Hop (R)
1.00 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Abba,
My Supergroup (R) 2.00 The
Birth Of Rock And Roll (R) 3.00
Radio 2 Unwinds (R) 4.00 Sophie
Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco
VIRGIN RADIO
6.30 The Chris Evans Breakfast
Show 10.00 The Ryan Tubridy
Show 1.00 Jayne Middlemiss 4.00
Ricky Wilson 7.00 Ben Jones 10.00
Rich Williams 2.00 Olivia Jones
TALKSPORT
5.00 Early Breakfast 6.00
Breakfast With Alan Brazil 10.00
Jim White And Simon Jordan 1.00
Hawksbee And Jacobs 4.00 Drive
7.00 Thank Friday It’s Football
10.00 Sports Bar 1.00 Extra Time

7 April 2024 53

SATURDAY 13 APRIL

Marlie Packer leads the way for England (BBC1, 2pm)

BBC 1

BBC 2

6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
10.00 Saturday Kitchen Live
11.30 Mary Berry’s Simple
Comforts Recipes. (R)
12.00 Football Focus Discussion.
1.00 News; Weather Headlines.
1.15 Bargain Hunt Curios. (R)
2.00 Women’s Six Nations
Rugby: Scotland v
England. Action from both
teams’ third match of the
championship, live at
the Edinburgh Rugby
Stadium. Kickoff at 2.15.
4.30 Final Score Results.
5.20 News; Weather Reports.
5.40 Bridge Of Lies Ross Kemp
presents the quiz, with
well-known faces playing
for their chosen charities.
6.25 The Weakest Link Romesh
Ranganathan asks the
questions as contestants
try to avoid being voted
off the team. (R)
7.10 Blankety Blank Bradley
Walsh hosts the quiz as a
panel of celebrities fill
in the blanks to help
contestants win prizes. (R)
7.45 Pointless Celebrities
Alexander Armstrong and
Richard Osman present a
star-studded version of the
general knowledge quiz.
8.35 Casualty Hospital drama
with the staff of Holby’s
accident and emergency
department as they
deal with more sick
and injured patients.
9.25 Traces The task facing
McKinven is more daunting
than ever, especially now
that his wife, Azra, is joining
the investigation; and
Kathy’s student sees more
than she should. (S2, ep 3)
10.10 News; Weather Reports.
10.30 Match Of The Day Premier
League action, including
Newcastle United v
Tottenham Hotspur,
Manchester City v Luton
Town, and Brentford v
Sheffield United.
11.55 TBA
1.50 Joins BBC News Update.
6.00 Breakfast Headlines.
7.35 Match Of The Day (R)
9.00 Sunday With Laura
Kuenssberg Political chat.
10.00 Politics Discussion.
10.30 Animal Park Insights. (R)
11.15-12.15 Homes Under The
Hammer Auctions. (R)

6.15 Children’s Shows Fun.
9.00 Gardeners’ World (R)
10.00 Operation Grand Canyon
With Dan Snow. (R)
11.00 Interior Design Masters
Alan Carr presents. (R)
12.00 Andi Oliver’s Fabulous
Feasts Cooking. (R)
1.00 FILM: Sweet Charity
Stars Shirley MacLaine.
A lonely dancer in a seedy
nightclub goes in search
of true love, but finds
instead a succession
of deceitful men who
only let her down. Brash
musical. (1969, PG)

SCOTLAND 4.30 Sportscene
Results. 11.55 Sportscene.
1.10 TBA 2.45 BBC News.

54 7 April 2024

3.25 Talking Pictures (R)
3.45 Race Across The World
Reality gameshow. (R)
4.45 Challenge Cup Rugby
League Live coverage
of a quarter-final.
7.00 Saving Lives At Sea
Documentary telling the
story of the volunteers
who sacrifice their free
time to staff more than two
hundred RNLI lifeboat
stations across the UK. (R)
8.00 Celebrity Antiques Road
Trip Famous faces embark
on the treasure-hunting
challenge, with expert
assistants helping them
unearth bargains at
shops and markets. (R)
9.00 The North York Moors
— A Wild Year An
exploration of the upland
area of North Yorkshire,
that has been shaped
both by the elements
and by its people. (R)
9.25 Kurt Cobain — Moments
That Shook Music
10.10 When Nirvana Came To
Britain Charting the band’s
visits to the UK between
1989 and 1994, with
contributions by Dave Grohl
and Krist Novoselic. (R)
11.10 Foo Fighters At Reading
2019 Huw Stephens
introduces highlights from
the headline set. (R)
1.10 Foo Fighters And More
— Live Lounge Special (R)
2.10-3.40 TBA
6.40 Countryfile (R)
7.35 Breakfast Headlines.
9.00 Beechgrove Garden (R)
9.30 Landward Rural issues.
10.00 Saturday Kitchen Best
Bites Series highlights.
11.30-2.15 MOTD — Women’s
FA Cup Tottenham
Hotspur v Leicester City.
Live, kickoff at 12.00.

ITV 1

Channel 4

6.00 Love Your Garden (R)
6.30 Love Your Weekend (R)
8.25 Katie Piper’s Breakfast
Show New run of the chat
show, with DJ Fat Tony.
9.25 News; Weather Reports.
9.30 Racing — The Opening
Show Featuring build-up
to the Grand National.
10.30 James Martin’s Saturday
Morning Food and chat.
12.40 News; Weather Reports.
12.55 Racing Coverage of day
three of the Grand National
festival at Aintree. 3.15
Racing Coverage of the
Grand National, which
gets under way at 4.00.
5.00 You’ve Been Framed (R)
5.30 News; Weather Reports.
5.45 Regional News Update.
6.00 Catchphrase Stephen
Mulhern hosts a charity
edition of the game. (R)
7.00 Saturday Night Takeaway
Ant and Dec are joined by
the Spice Girls, Ashley
Roberts, Scarlett Moffatt,
Tony Hadley, Kaiser Chiefs
and S Club. (Last in series)
9.00 The 1% Club Quiz show,
hosted by Lee Mack.
10.00 The Jonathan Ross Show
Celebrity interviews.
11.00 News; Weather Reports.
11.20 Olivia Attwood vs The
Trolls Following the reality
star as she goes on an
immersive journey into the
world of online trolling. (R)
12.20 Teleshopping Purchasing.
3.00 The Larkins (S1, ep 5, R)
3.50 The Twelve Drama. (R)
4.45 Unwind Daily relaxation.
6.00 James Martin’s Great
British Adventure (R)

6.05 3rd Rock From The Sun (R)
7.25 The King Of Queens (R)
8.40 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
10.40 The Simpsons Cartoon. (R)
1.40 Four In A Bed B&Bs. (R)
4.15 Worst House On The
Street Property. (R)
5.15 The Great Celebrity Bake
Off Culinary contest. (R)
6.30 News; Weather Reports.
7.00 Bettany Hughes’
Treasures Of The World
Exploring the hidden
treasures of Estonia, a
blend of modern and
ancient traditions.
8.00 Our Dream Farm A pair of
hopefuls are the first to
spend a night in the
farmhouse; and all of
the contenders are set a
challenge to prepare for
the arrival of beavers into
an enclosure on the farm.

6.30 FILM: Charlie And The
Chocolate Factory Stars
Johnny Depp. (2005, PG)
8.25 Katie Piper’s Breakfast
Show Morning chat.
9.25 News; Weather Reports.
9.30 Love Your Weekend
11.20-12.25 Raymond Blanc’s
Royal Kitchen Gardens

Films
SKY CINEMA PREMIERE
6.00pm Barbie. Comedy.
(2023, 12) 8.00 Oppenheimer.
J Robert Oppenheimer leads the
Manhattan Project to develop an
atomic weapon before Hitler and
end the Second World War. (2023,
12) 11.00-12.40 Sumotherhood.
Two aspiring roadmen decide to
rob a megastar — but things do
not go as planned. (2023, 15)

9.00 FILM: Free Guy Stars
Ryan Reynolds and Jodie
Comer. A bank employee
discovers that he is a nonplayer character inside a
massive open-world video
game. Stop-start comedy
adventure. (2021, 12)
11.10 FILM: Under Siege 2 —
Dark Territory Stars
Steven Seagal and Eric
Bogosian. A navy veteran
on board a train battles
hijackers who possess a
weapon with the potential
to trigger earthquakes.
Outlandish. (1995, 18)
1.10 Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares USA (R)
2.00 Couples Come Dine With
Me Parties in Liverpool. (R)
2.55 Car SOS Renovations. (R)
3.45 Hollyoaks Soap. (R)
5.45 TBA
5.55 The King Of Queens (R)
6.40 Everybody Loves
Raymond Comedy. (R)
8.00 The Simpsons Cartoon. (R)
9.30-12.30 Sunday Brunch
SKY CINEMA SELECT
5.45pm Jurassic World (2015, 12)
8.00 The Mummy Returns. A pair
of married explorers battle to
rescue their kidnapped son. (2001,
PG) 10.15 Mad Max. A cop in the
future sets out to avenge his
family’s murder at the hands of a
biker gang. (1979, 18) 11.55-2.20
White House Down (2013, 12)

SKY CINEMA THRILLER
4.40pm Hounded (2022, 15) 6.20
Hypnotic. A detective investigates
a mystery involving his missing
seven-year-old daughter and a
secret government programme.
(2023, 15) 8.00 Inception. A thief
enters a corporate heir’s mind to
implant an idea. (2010, 12) 10.3012.20 Man On A Ledge (2012, 12)

FILM4
3.40pm Cutthroat Island (1995, PG)
6.05 Midway. The story of the
Battle of Midway, one of the most
important and decisive battles of
the Second World War. (2019, 12)
9.00 Transporter 2. A chauffeur
sets out to rescue a politician’s
kidnapped son from Russian
criminals. (2005, 15) 10.45-12.35
Dredd. An uncompromising law
enforcer must fight his way out
of a tower block. (2012, 18)

SKY CINEMA GREATS
5.45pm Erin Brockovich (2000, 15)
8.00 Philadelphia. A gay lawyer
hires a homophobic rival when
he is fired after contracting
Aids. (1993, 12) 10.20-1.05 The
Fabelmans. Drama. (2022, 12)

TALKING PICTURES TV
6.00pm In Suspicious
Circumstances 7.00 Dixon Of Dock
Green 8.00 Budgie 9.00 The Edgar
Wallace Mystery Theatre 10.10
Cabin Boy. Fantasy comedy. (1994,
12) 11.50-1.45 Harriet Craig (1950)

Channel 5
6.00
9.00
9.05
9.40
12.35

Milkshake! Children’s fun.
Entertainment News
TBA
22 Kids & Counting (R)
Dogs Behaving (Very)
Badly With Graeme Hall. (R)

2.25 FILM: Richie Rich Stars
Macaulay Culkin. A superrich youngster tries to stop
his arch-rival stealing a
fortune from his billionaire
parents. Juvenile slapstick
comedy. (1994, PG)
4.25 FILM: Ocean’s Thirteen
Stars George Clooney. The
thieves need the help of an
enemy to get even with a
casino boss who has
conned one of the team.
Lacks fun. (2007, PG)
7.00 Air Fryers — Takeaways
Made Easy Alexis Conran
prepares some takeaway
favourites using the
kitchen gadget. (R)
8.00 Secrets Of The Royal
Palaces Behind-thescenes tales of royal
residences, with insights
by former staff members.
9.00 How Abba Won
Eurovision The story
behind the band’s victory
in the contest in 1974.
10.30 Most Shocking Moments:
1979. Key events. (R)
12.30 Criminals — Caught On
Camera CCTV footage. (R)
1.05 Casino Show Gambling.
3.05 FILM: Grease 2 Stars
Michelle Pfeiffer and
Maxwell Caulfield. A shy
English boy at Rydell High
starts a double life as a
tough biker to impress a
girl. Unprepossessing
musical sequel. (1982, PG)
4.50 Wildlife SOS Animals. (R)
5.40 Entertainment News
5.50 Milkshake! Children’s fun.
9.00 Entertainment News
9.00-12.00 Holidaying With
Jane McDonald (R)

Entertainment
BBC3
7.00pm EastEnders 8.00 Top
Gear 9.00 FILM: Captain Phillips
11.05 Wreck 12.30 Glow Up —
Britain’s Next Make-Up Star
1.30-2.00 Made Up In Belfast
ITV2
5.10pm FILM: How To Train Your
Dragon 7.00 FILM: Addams Family
Values 9.00 FILM: Bridesmaids.
Stars Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne
11.35 Family Guy 12.30 American
Dad! 1.25-2.10 Celebability
ITV4
6.15pm FILM: Thunderball. Stars
Sean Connery 9.00 EFL 10.30 FILM:
Nighthawks 12.35 Auf Wiedersehen,
Pet 1.40-2.40 The Professionals
E4
5.40pm The Big Bang Theory 6.10
FILM: Transformers — Revenge Of
The Fallen 9.00 Celebrity Gogglebox
10.00 Gogglebox 12.00 First Dates
2.00-4.00 Below Deck Down Under
MORE4
5.50pm Four In A Bed 7.55 Lake
District Rescue 9.00 24 Hours In A&E

BBC 4
7.00pm Rick Stein’s Long
Weekends The chef
embarks on a series of
extended culinary breaks,
visiting markets, eateries,
wineries, cafes and bars,
looking for food excellence.
8.00 Amazon The adventurer
Bruce Parry travels from
the source of the mighty
Amazon river on the
Peruvian mountain Nevado
Mismi to its mouth at the
port of Belem in Brazil.
9.00 Wisting Double bill of the
crime drama following
the work of a widowed
homicide detective in the
coastal town of Larvik.
(Norwegian with subtitles)
10.30 Tommy Cooper At The
BBC Lenny Henry
introduces a selection of
performances by the
comedian, whose
bumbling persona hid a
real talent as a magician.
11.00 The Art Of Tommy
Cooper Documentary
looking at the life and work
of the comedian, whose
demeanour as a lovable
clown concealed an often
complicated private life.
11.30 Parkinson Interviews
with Tommy Cooper
and Frankie Howerd.
12.05 To The Manor Born
12.35 No Place Like Home
1.05 Rick Stein’s Long
Weekends Culinary trip.
2.05-3.05 Amazon Insights.

Two-hour delivery (ITV1, 7pm)
11.05 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does
Countdown. Two editions 1.15-3.20
24 Hours In A&E. Documentary
GOLD
5.40pm Only Fools And Horses.
Classic comedy 9.00 Bottom 10.20
Bottom Live — The Big Number 2
Tour 12.30 Live At The Apollo 1.302.40 Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
SKY MAX
6.00pm Hawaii Five-0 8.00 There’s
Something About Movies 9.00
Freddie Down Under 10.00 A
League Of Their Own US Road Trip
11.00 Smart TV 11.45 Banshee 1.002.00 Brit Cops — Rapid Response
SKY COMEDY
6.00pm Will & Grace 6.30 The US
Office 9.00 Sex And The City
10.15 Saturday Night Live 11.30
The Tonight Show 12.30 Bounty
Hunters 1.50-3.10 Silicon Valley
SKY WITNESS
6.00pm Nothing To Declare 8.00
The Good Doctor 9.00 FBI. A federal
judge is shot 10.00 FBI — International
11.00 FBI — Most Wanted 12.00
Fire Country 1.00 The Cleaning
Lady 2.00-3.00 The Rookie

Sky Arts
1.00pm FILM: The Kid Stars
Charlie Chaplin. Silent
comedy. (1921, U, B/W)
2.10 Laurel And Hardy —
Their Lives And Magic
3.55 Cirque Du Soleil — Kooza
5.55 Close To You —
Remembering The
Carpenters A revealing
portrait of the brother-andsister singing duo.
7.15 Peter Gabriel — Taking
The Pulse: Live In Verona
A 2010 concert by the
singer-songwriter.
9.25 Phil Collins — Going Back
To Detroit A 2010 concert
by the singer-songwriter,
featuring performances of
Digging The Dirt, The Drop,
Red Rain and Solsbury Hill.
10.25-12.15 Genesis — When In
Rome The rock band
perform at the Circus
Maximus in 2007.

Sky Atlantic
8.55am My Brilliant Friend
(Italian with subtitles)
2.25 Boardwalk Empire Drama.
5.45 Boardwalk Empire The
Capone brothers recruit
Van Alden for a hit on
O’Banion. (Series 4, ep 9)
6.50 Boardwalk Empire
Sally spots evidence of
heroin being smuggled in
Nucky’s rum shipments.
7.55 Game Of Thrones Theon
embarks on a hunt as he
tries to prove his Ironborn
status. (Series 2, ep 7)
9.00 Game Of Thrones
Robb Stark discovers he
has been betrayed by one
of his closest friends.
10.05 Game Of Thrones
Tyrion defends King’s
Landing against Stannis
Baratheon’s naval assault.
11.10-12.25 Game Of Thrones
Jon proves his worth
to Qhorin Halfhand.

Drama

Talk TV

11.00am Lovejoy (Series 2, ep 2)
2.30 Pie In The Sky Drama.
3.30 The House Of Eliott
Beatrice receives a surprise
visit. (S1, ep 3) 4.45 The
House Of Eliott Sebastian
tries to charm the girls.
6.00 The Brokenwood
Mysteries Two murders
are committed at a wine
show. (Series 1, ep 2)
8.00 Judge John Deed A
doctor is charged with
murder. (Series 1, ep 5)
10.00 Whitstable Pearl A boat
ride ends in the pair
needing saving. (S1, ep 5)

10.00 Peter Cardwell The
Westminster insider scours
the news from parliament.
1.00 Nick De Bois The former
MP cuts through the jargon
and asks the big question
on everyone’s minds, with
monologues, lively debates
and plenty of time for calls.
4.00 Trisha Goddard The
broadcaster looks through
the week’s leading stories.
7.00 James Whale Unleashed
More bold opinions
and commentary.
10.00 That Was The Woke That
Was Andre Walker quizzes
an opinionated panel.
11.00-1.00 The Late Night
Phone-In Andre Walker
serves up two hours of
viewers’ opinions.
Available on Sky 522; Freeview 237;
Virgin 606; Freesat 217; YouTube,
connected TVs and smart devices

11.05 FILM: Farewell, My
Lovely Stars Robert
Mitchum. A world-weary
gumshoe searches for a
former convict’s missing
sweetheart. Mesmerising.
(1975, 15; ends at 1.05)

W
5.40pm My Family 7.00 Miranda
9.00 Gavin & Stacey. Three episodes
11.00 Emily Atack — Adulting 12.00
Wife Swap USA 1.00 Date Night
1.35-3.00 This Is My House
YESTERDAY
6.00pm Great Canal Journeys 7.00
Great American Railroad Journeys
10.00 One Foot In The Grave
12.00-1.00 Bangers & Cash
DAVE
5.00pm World’s Most Dangerous
Roads 6.20 Mortimer & Whitehouse
— Gone Fishing 7.40 My Family 9.00
Not Going Out 10.55 8 Out Of 10 Cats
12.45 Have I Got A Bit More News For
You 1.45-2.35 Live At The Apollo

Factual
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
6.00pm To Catch A Smuggler 7.00
Air Crash Investigation. Triple bill
10.00 Hitler’s Death Squad. The Nazi
soldiers charged with some of
history’s most horrific crimes 11.00
Nazi Megastructures 12.00 Area 51
— The CIA’s Secret Files 1.00-2.00
UFOs — Investigating The Unknown

DISCOVERY
6.00pm Gold Rush — White Water
7.00 Mud Madness 8.00 Salvage
Hunters 9.00 Naked And Afraid. A
photographer and an engineer take
on Limpopo, South Africa 10.00
Escape From Hell 11.00 Expedition
Unknown 12.00 Expedition X
1.00-4.00 Guardians Of The Glades
PBS AMERICA
5.35pm The Somme 1916 — From
Both Sides Of The Wire 9.25 WW1 —
Aces Falling. Documentary delving
into the story of Edward Mannock
VC and James McCudden VC
10.40-12.00 Mafia’s Greatest Hits
SKY NATURE
6.00pm David Attenborough’s
Global Adventure — Home Planet
7.00 David Attenborough’s Global
Adventure — The Rise Of Nature
8.00 Planet Shark 9.00 Extreme
Snakes — Australia 10.00 Osprey
11.00-12.00 Wild Canary Islands
DISCOVERY HISTORY
6.00pm Greatest Events Of World
War II 8.00 Treasures Of The
Terracotta Army 9.00 Atlantis In The
Andes. Exploring the Bolivian Andes
10.00-12.00 Find It, Fix It, Flog It

ITV3
12.50pm Lewis (Series 5, ep 3)
2.50 Poirot The detective
investigates when a man is
found murdered on a golf
course. (Series 6, ep 3)
5.00 Midsomer Murders With
Neil Dudgeon. As Midsomer
St Claire prepares for
storms, it appears a
murderer is using ancient
torture methods to punish
modern-day ‘sinners’. 7.00
Midsomer Murders When
a farmer is found bound to
a tree, doused in truffle oil
and mauled to death by a
wild boar, the investigation
leads Barnaby to a
tyrannical celebrity chef.
9.00 Midsomer Murders
With John Nettles. The
murder of a reclusive
couple in Dunstan awakens
memories of a fatal
road accident and the
disappearance of a
teenager 20 years earlier
for local boy DS Ben Jones.
11.05 Scott & Bailey The
investigation into Joe
Bevan progresses as the
body count rises and the
team faces the mammoth
task of identifying the
victims. (S3, ep 5) 11.5512.50 Scott & Bailey The
detective duo investigate
the death of a care home
resident; and Dorothy
becomes concerned her
grand-daughter is being
influenced by Rachel.

Thunderball (ITV4, 6.15pm)

Sport
SKY SPORTS MAIN EVENT
6.00am News 7.00 Good Morning
Sports Fans 9.00 Golf — The
Masters 12.00 LIVE EFL: Leeds
United v Blackburn Rovers. Kickoff
at 12.30 3.00 Golf — The Masters
5.00 LIVE SNF: Bournemouth v
Manchester United. Kickoff at 5.30
7.30 LIVE Golf — The Masters.
Coverage of round three at the
Augusta National Golf Club 12.30
News 2.00-6.00 LIVE Fight Night
International. Jared Anderson
takes on Ryad Merhy, in Texas
TNT SPORTS 1
7.30am PL Preview 8.00 Fantasy
Show 8.30 LIVE A-League 10.30
PL Preview 11.00 LIVE Premier
League: Newcastle United v
Tottenham Hotspur. Kickoff 12.30
3.00 Xtra Time 3.15 The Football’s
On 4.15 Reload 4.30 NBA On Fire
5.00 LIVE National League 7.45
LIVE Serie A: Bologna v Monza.
Kickoff is at 7.45 9.45 National
League 10.15 Reload 10.30
Tom Aspinall’s Fight Lab
11.15 Fight Week 12.00 UFC
Countdown 1.00-7.00 LIVE UFC

Radio
○ Great Company
(podcast)
Jamie Laing launches a
podcast in which he goes
solo and talks to celebrity
guests, beginning with
Yungblud. Future
interviewees include Jo
Brand, Trinny Woodall,
Dynamo and Elizabeth
Day. Who said podcasting
was the same people
talking to each other?
Clair Woodward
TIMES RADIO
6.00 Chloe Tilley And Calum
Macdonald With Times Radio
Breakfast 10.00 Hugo Rifkind
1.00 Henry Bonsu 4.00 Ayesha
Hazarika With Times Radio Drive
7.00 The Best Of Times Podcasts
8.00 The Story 8.30 Highlights
From Times Radio 10.00 Darryl
Morris 1.00 The Story 1.30
Highlights From Matt Chorley
2.00 The Best Of Times Radio
RADIO 4
5.30 News 5.43 Prayer 5.45 Just
One Thing With Michael Mosley
(R) 6.00 News And Papers 6.07
Open Country (R) 6.30 Farming
Today This Week 7.00 Today
9.00 Saturday Live 10.00 Your
Place Or Mine. Anita Rani tries to
persuade Shaun Keaveny to visit
Mumbai 10.30 Soul Music.
George Gershwin’s Someone to
Watch Over Me 11.00 A Dentist’s
Life (R) 11.30 From Our Own
Correspondent 12.00 News
12.04 Money Box 12.30 The
Now Show (R) 1.00 News 1.10
Any Questions? (R) 2.00 Any
Answers? 2.45 The Archers (R)
3.00 Drama: Weir Of Hermiston,
by RL Stevenson (R) 4.00
Weekend Woman’s Hour 5.00
Saturday PM 5.30 Toast (R) 5.54
Shipping 6.00 News 6.15 Loose
Ends. With Nikki Amuka-Bird;
Lesley Sharp, Nisha Katona,
Al Murray, Guy Chambers 7.00
Profile 7.15 This Cultural Life (R)
8.00 Archive On 4: 7” Of Joy —
The Single At 75. Pete Waterman
charts the history of the 7” single
since the 1940s. 9.00 Legend
— The Joni Mitchell Story (R)
9.30 Helen Lewis Has Left The
Chat (R) 10.00 News 10.15 The
Food Programme (R) 11.00 You
Heard It Here First 11.30 Round
Britain Quiz (R) 12.00 Midnight
News 12.15 Bookclub (R) 12.48
Shipping 1.00 As World Service
RADIO 3
6.30 Breakfast 9.00 Saturday
Morning 12.00 Earlier ... With
Jools Holland 1.00 Music Matters
— The Land Without Music? 2.00
Record Review 4.00 Sound Of
Cinema 5.00 This Classical Life.
Jess Gillam chats to the violinist
Jennifer Pike 6.00 Opera On 3:
Aleko And Francesca Da Rimini.
A double bill of rarely heard
Rachmaninov operas, at the
Prinzregententheater in Munich
9.30 Music Planet. Genticorum’s
set at Celtic Connections 10.30
New Music Show. A performance
of David Fennessy’s Conquest Of
The Useless, inspired by Werner
Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo
12.30 Through The Night

7 April 2024 55