Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[GaryC]

Sunset Song, from 1971, is showing in the same slot from the following week: episodes 1-3 on 31 August, 4-6 on 7 September. This hasn't been shown since a repeat in 1972 as far as I can tell, and hasn't been available on VHS or DVD.* It was BBC Scotland's first drama production in colour.

I'm looking forward to this. When the Terence Davies film came out (seven years ago now) I did wonder if this serial might get a disc release and/or be reshown, but neither happened. Davies is an admirer of this serial. The showing is introduced by Vivien Heilbron and Moira Armstrong. Armstrong, now ninety-two, has quite likely the longest career of any female director on British television, from 1964 to 2010. I don't think I've ever seen her interviewed before. It's a pity we're not getting a repeat of the two other volumes of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Scots Quair trilogy, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite (the two I haven't read), which also starred Heilbron and was written by Bill Craig though wasn't directed by Armstrong. Neither have been shown since their original broadcasts in 1982 and 1983 respectively.

*The Grassic Gibbon Centre in Arbuthnott used to sell copies of Sunset Song on VHS, but this was by special arrangement with the BBC. They don't appear to sell it any more.

[colinr0380]

Relatively quiet next week. The big news as GaryC has noted is the rare showing of the 1971 series of Sunset Song showing on BBC4 from 10 p.m. on Wednesday 31st (shhhh ). Sadly this clashes with the other big premiere of the week over on Film4 of Irish Great Famine drama Black '47 at 9 p.m. When you combine that with BBC2 showing a repeat of the 2017 film of Journey's End at 11:15 p.m., it seems like the TV has designated Wednesday evening the 'depressing period drama' night of the week!

[jlnight]

Operation Third Form (CFF), Sat 3rd Sep, Talking Pictures. (on before)
Planet Outlaws, Sat 3rd Sep, Talking Pictures.
Further Up the Creek, Sat 3rd Sep, Talking Pictures.
The Abominable Snowman, Sat 3rd Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 5th Sep. (been on Horror) Or...
Iron Eagle II, Sat 3rd Sep, Legend.

Rope, Sun 4th Sep, Sky Arts.
Last Film Show (2021), late Sun 4th Sep, Film4.

Creatures The World Forgot, Mon 5th Sep, Legend. (on before)
The Beatles and India (2021), late Mon 5th Sep, Channel 4.

Away for the Day (BTF short), Tue 6th Sep, Talking Pictures.
Eastern Promises, Tue 6th Sep, BBC2.

Vengeance Valley + The Mysterious Mr Sheffield (1935), Wed 7th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Saddle Up)
Railway Children (2016), late Wed 7th Sep, Channel 4.

A Horse Called Jester (CFF), Thu 8th Sep, London Live.
The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs, late Thu 8th Sep, Channel 4.

Maniac (1963) + Face Behind the Mask + Tales That Witness Madness, Fri 9th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Interesting next week. No other new films of note (except for a few Channel 5 TV movies) but the big news of the week is the return of Channel 4's Indian film season, which begins on Film4 at 1 a.m. on Monday 5th with Last Film Show.

This then continues on the DOG-tagged Channel 4 with The Beatles and India at 2 a.m. on Tuesday 6th, Railway Children at 2:20 a.m. on Thursday 8th, and The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs at 2:45 a.m. on Friday 9th. Only the Beatles film appears to have a BBFC rating, at least according to the RadioTimes, so that suggests that this will be the first time that any of these films have been seen in the UK, or at least outside of a film festival context. I am particularly interested in The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs which seems to have been picked up for distribution in the US by Deaf Crocodile and had a US theatrical run earlier this year. Deaf Crocodile is one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels that has recently put out such films as the Soviet era Ilya Muromets and Sampo, as well as the Shahram Mokri set, so that may be likely to get a Blu-ray release from them at some point sooner or later.

The only other programme of note next week is a 90 minute Arena film, James Joyce's Ulysses showing on BBC2 at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 7th, which unfortunately clashes with the beginning of the run of episodes 4, 5 and 6 of Sunset Song from 10 p.m. on BBC4 the same evening.

In terms of repeats as jlnight notes Eastern Promises turns up for the first time in a while on BBC2 at 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday 6th, which may be tying in with Crimes of the Future getting its UK cinema release on Friday 9th.

Also Channel 5 are currently doing a season of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films on Friday evenings at 10 p.m. - Dirty Harry was last week, Magnum Force is on the 2nd and The Enforcer is showing on the 9th. Fingers crossed for Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool to follow over the next fortnight.

[colinr0380]

Oh, and also E4 is showing the sixth series of Rick & Morty in a simucast with the US broadcast... which means it airs at 4 a.m. in the morning on Monday 5th!

It should be getting a repeat the Sunday afterwards at a more hospitable hour.

[GaryC]

After Sunset Song, the Wednesday BBC4 classic repeat will be Our Friends in the North. On 14 September, Christopher Eccleston will provide an introduction, followed by the first three episodes of nine.

[jlnight]

Mystery on Bird Island (CFF), Sat 10th Sep, Talking Pictures. (on before)
A Scandal in Paris, Sat 10th Sep, Talking Pictures.
Sammy Going South, Sat 10th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 15th Sep. Or...
Aces: Iron Eagle III, Sat 10th Sep, Legend.

Forever and a Day, Sun 11th Sep, Talking Pictures.
The Browning Version (1951), Sun 11th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 12th Sep.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Mon 12th Sep, Film4.

Private Information, Tue 13th Sep, Talking Pictures.
A Hidden Life (2019), Tue 13th Sep, Film4.

All That Mighty Heart (BTF short), Wed 14th Sep, Talking Pictures.
California Conquest + Last of the Redmen, Wed 14th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Saddle Up)

Moffie, late Thu 15th Sep, Film4. Or...
Village Rockstars, late Thu 15th Sep, Channel 4.

Meek's Cutoff, Fri 16th Sep, Great Movies Action.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) + Happy Birthday to Me + Out of the Dark (1988), Fri 16th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Great news about A Hidden LIfe. I'm terribly far behind on my Malick viewing anyway so had not checked, but has this ever received a disc release in the UK?

[colinr0380]

Excellent next week. jlnight has noted the two big films with Film4 showing A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood at 9 p.m. on Monday 12th, and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life at 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday 13th. It looks as if A Hidden Life has never received a disc release in the UK, either on DVD or Blu-ray.

Channel 4's Indian film season continues with Manusangada (Cry Humanity) at 1:55 a.m. on Tuesday 13th and Village Rockstars at 2 a.m. on Friday 16th (Village Rockstars has no BBFC rating which suggests it has never been shown in the UK before this)

Channel 4's screening of Village Rockstars unfortunately clashes against Film4's premiere of South African homosexuality drama Moffie at 1:45 a.m. in the early hours of Friday 16th. Although Moffie has had a Blu-ray release in the UK, by Artificial Eye.

BBC4's Storyville season is showing Gorbachev. Heaven at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 13th. And as noted above Our Friends In The North is continuing the BBC's centenary celebrations with the first three (of nine) episodes showing from 10 p.m. on Wednesday 14th with a ten minute introduction by Christopher Eccleston.
___
Repeat wise, The Adventures of Robin Hood is showing on BBC2 at 2:15 p.m. on Friday 16th and Braveheart is showing at 10:40 p.m. the same evening on BBC1.

[colinr0380]

Lots of changes to the schedule due to current events. All of the BBC was down for rolling news from 6 p.m. yesterday (BBC1 and 2 doing a simulcast; BBC3 and 4 were both taken off air completely. That meant a screening of This Is Spinal Tap on BBC4 was cancelled. And all of the Radio stations except for Radio 3 doing classical music, were on a single news bulletin). ITV1 was all news (though subchannels ITV2,3 and 4 continued running a normal schedule. ITV4's screening of Alien³ occurred, which was actually quite appropriate since that is a beautifully mournful film about facing death with every character, not just Ripley, approaching the inevitable in their own fashion). Channel 4 did a news schedule up until 1 a.m. but...

..and The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs at 2:45 a.m. on Friday 9th... I am particularly interested in The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs which seems to have been picked up for distribution in the US by Deaf Crocodile and had a US theatrical run earlier this year. Deaf Crocodile is one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels that has recently put out such films as the Soviet era Ilya Muromets and Sampo, as well as the Shahram Mokri set, so that may be likely to get a Blu-ray release from them at some point sooner or later.

...when Channel 4 resumed a schedule they replaced The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs with generic bland home buying and selling programmes. So unfortunately that film was not shown, but fingers crossed that it might turn up again in a few weeks time.

Today the schedule is mostly calming down. Channel 5 went from a rolling news bulletin that ran all night (when it replaced the late night live casino gambling show, that's when you knew things were important!) to back to a normal schedule now. Although interestingly they have cancelled the TV movie for this afternoon, again replacing it with bland programmes about the scenery of Iceland and railway journeys. BBC1 is still on rolling news but BBC2 has gone back to a programme schedule, albeit they have junked their schedule (which was going to have included a repeat of The Remains of the Day this afternoon) for moving across all of BBC1's usual audience pacifying afternoon schedule of house buying shows, cooking programmes and game shows instead. Then BBC2 later this evening goes to a bit of a mash up between its own schedule and BBC1s (i.e. Eastenders is moved across from BBC1, but then BBC2 has its usual Gardener's World show afterwards - all the 'entertainment' programmes on BBC1 of a sitcom and repeat of a Pirates of the Caribbean film have been dropped).

More than anything this is pointing up how much house buying programmes, game shows and cooking programmes are so bland they are the easiest fall back schedule, though it looks as if they were being used that way anyway by BBC1 even before there was a crisis!

The radio looks back to a normal schedule now (though probably with amended, 'appropriate' playlists). We will see whether BBC3 and 4 return this evening. At the moment they are on the Electronic Programme Guide as doing so.

If you want an idea of what happened last time the schedules were upended to such an extent Matthew Harris has an episode of his series showing how UK television responded to the death of Prince Philip last year, so once this is all over in about a month he might have a follow up episode on what is happening this time around.

[colinr0380]

A couple more changes to this evening's schedule: Channel 5 have cancelled the Clint Eastwood film The Enforcer for the less controversial(?) Mel Gibson film What Women Want. And Channel 4's late night repeat of the Takashi Miike film First Love has been swapped out for Brassed Off.

[colinr0380]

Changes for today: BBC1 is still rolling news. The afternoon screening of The Secret Life of Pets 2 has been moved across to BBC2, and BBC2's double bill of Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes has been, well, vanished. Other transferees from BBC1 include an episode of the Superman and Lois series and Casualty (a repeat screening of the German PoW film The Keeper has been cancelled), with BBC2 bumping a "Divas at the BBC" night off the schedule (with programmes devoted to Cher and Mariah Carey) to instead do a screening of Brooklyn. BBC2 was also due to screen the last night of the Proms as well, but while I have not checked I doubt that live event is taking place.

Everything else seems relatively normal, though Channel 5 have probably wisely cancelled one of their salacious scandal docs at 8 p.m. this evening called "Princess Margaret and the Photographer: A Scandalous Marriage" to quickly replace it with an episode of "The World's Most Scenic Railways"!

[jlnight]

Lionheart (CFF), Sat 17th Sep, Talking Pictures. (on before)
The Woman in Question, Sat 17th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 19th Sep.
The Girl with a Bracelet, Sat 17th Sep, BBC4. Or...
The Driver (1978), Sat 17th Sep, Legend. (been on TPTV)

Wherever She Goes, Sun 18th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 22nd Sep.
She'll Have to Go, Sun 18th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 28th Sep.
The Winter Guest, Sun 18th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also late Thu 6th Oct. (been on Film4)

Train of Events, Wed 21st Sep, Talking Pictures.
Magic (1978), Wed 21st Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Sat 1st Oct.

Watch Out! (CFF short), Thu 22nd Sep, Talking Pictures. (on before)

Never Take Candy From A Stranger + Nightwing + Return of the Vampire (1943), Fri 23rd Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)


Never Take Candy From A Stranger seemingly is the US title of Never Take Sweets from a Stranger. Fanatic played under the title Die! Die! My Darling! on its Cellar Club screening.

[colinr0380]

Some schedule changes that occurred over the last few days: BBC1 is still 24 hour news, though since films only rarely appear on the weekend there is nothing particularly notable that has been displaced. More disruption to BBC2 with a lot of BBC1's soap operas and so on being moved across. Keira Knightley has been pressed into service as a National Treasure of period films, with Colette replacing the crime drama Out of Blue on Sunday evening on BBC2. There was already a Keira Knightley film showing on Monday evening with The Aftermath so that stayed. And tonight's racial drama film Sus on BBC2 has been suspended for a non-threatening documentary about factories.

The only other channel that seems affected by the Queen at the moment is Channel 5. It appears that all the dark and depressing paranoid afternoon TV movies about murder are being replaced with less dark mystery TV movies. And most notably tonight's schedule of depressing murder documentaries that was going to include shock docs about Mary Gough and notorious serial killer Harold Shipman have been unceremoniously dropped and replaced with a welcome rare screening of An Officer And A Gentleman at 11 p.m.

Channel 4 resumed its Indian film season last night, so only The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs was dropped from that schedule, and hopefully will reappear at some point. BBC4 is mostly back though they had their comedy sitcom repeats cancelled for more bland fare of live Women's Cricket. But the Gorbachev film is still showing this evening, albeit at 9:30 p.m. rather than 9 p.m. Film4 does not seem to have had any major schedule changes so far, which bodes well for the screening of A Hidden Life this evening.

[colinr0380]

Quite a few interesting things next week, although the RadioTimes schedule is pre-upheaval so there may be lots of changes (particularly BBC1 still and next Monday being an impromptu Bank Holiday for the Queen's official funeral)

As noted by jlnight BBC4 is showing the French film The Girl With A Bracelet at 9 p.m. on Saturday 17th, which is apparently a remake of a 2018 Mexican/Argentinian film The Accused. The Girl With A Bracelet has had no home video release in the UK as yet, and only a DVD release in the US. BBC4's Storyville season continues with One Day In Ukraine at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 20th, which does not appear to have a trailer online but here is a link to the Babylon '13 Collective YouTube page. Here's the RadioTimes write up:

On 14th March 2014 hundreds of Ukrainians formed volunteer batallions in response to Russian military aggression. In 2017, the date was officially established as Ukrainian Volunteer Fighter Day. With the situation so much graver this year, Ukraine's Babylon '13 film-making collective marked Volunteer Day by documenting the lives of ordinary people and militias in Kyiv. With no narration and only the occasional subtitle beyond translation of conversations, it's a haunting piece, bereft of uplift.

Channel 4's Indian film season continues with Pebbles at 2:20 a.m. on Tuesday 20th, which looks like the Indian Gerry. Early in the morning of Friday 23rd there is a ten minute programme about the late playback singer Lata Mangeshkar at 2:40 a.m. followed by a repeat of the 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam at 2:50 a.m.

The film which looks most likely to change or get dropped from the schedules is the Irish film The Last Right scheduled at the moment for BBC1 at 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday 21st. Not only is it going to be during the period when BBC1s schedules are still potentially going to be completely changed just after the state funeral, but the subject matter of someone reluctantly having to transport a dead body on a road trip could go either way in being seen as very appropriate to current events or in poor taste and too soon for such material to be treated in a comic manner! (EDIT 22nd September: The film inevitably did get cancelled)

And the big TV news of the week is that Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk is back with a five part series Cunk On Earth, in which the ideologically challenged presenter with the help of interviews with dumbfounded experts tries to get her head around the concept of a series about the history of human civilisation and is sure to fail miserably. The first episode, In The Beginnings is on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Monday 19th.

"Julius Caesar was the most notorious Roman until Polanski"

[perkypat]

Colin, Shepherdess and the Seven Songs is on All4 at least, not sure how long for.

[colinr0380]

All the Indian films are on there for 30 days after their broadcast, so presumably it will be on there for thirty days from last Thursday's notional 'broadcast'. I would still like it to actually turn up on television though rather than getting "Walter Presents"-ed.

Tomorrow the screenings of The Adventures of Robin Hood and Braveheart on the BBC are both cancelled. I forgot to talk about some repeats that are more likely to occur next week. The original Michael Caine starring Get Carter is showing on ITV4 at 11:40 p.m. on Monday 19th, but I am more excited for the rare screening of the pre-Budd Boetticher team up Randolph Scott western Ten Wanted Men on Film4 at 11 a.m. on Wednesday 21st.

[colinr0380]

Changes for this impromptu long weekend. Tonight in about fifteen minutes at 7 p.m. BBC1 is inevitably showing Paddington, preceded by that five minute introduction that the Queen did with Paddington for the Jubilee a few months ago. The Sam-Taylor Johnson film A Million Little Pieces that was scheduled for 11:40 p.m. on BBC1 has been cancelled. BBC2 tonight is all change as well with the films Stan & Ollie and The Two Faces Of January pressed into service instead of a night of music devoted to Kylie Minogue. And also for some reason the first and so far only change that Film4 has done to its schedule at all during this period has been to replace a screening of the Danny Dyer gangster film The Business at 1:15 a.m. this evening with a repeat of the Matt Damon film The Great Wall!

Tomorrow, BBC1 has dropped Finding Dory (sorry Andrew Stanton!) and also the fourth episode of the How To With John Wilson series has been dropped from the 10 p.m. slot on BBC2. It will probably turn up next week.

Monday, the day of the official funeral, is the big upheaval. BBC1 is full rolling news for 24 hours except for a break off to show Paddington 2(!) at 7 p.m. before going straight back to rolling news again for the rest of the night. BBC2 is doing a simulcast of BBC1 with a sign language option until 7 p.m. when it goes back to a mostly normal schedule except the Only Connect and University Challenge programmes are showing a half hour earlier than usual; the Cunk on Earth series I mentioned above has been cancelled (presumably until next Monday) and instead of the film Pawn Sacrifice, BBC2 is instead showing The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society film instead!

ITV1 is rolling news for the full 24 hours on Monday. A bit different this time around compared to the last week is that ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 are all simulcasting the ITV1 live broadcast too on that day, through until 6 a.m. in the morning of Tuesday 20th. Nothing major is lost from any of the ITV channels in that upheaval: the only films dropped are on ITV4 with Creed II at 9 p.m. and the 1971 Get Carter at 11:40 p.m. going, but Get Carter is showing later in the week on Thursday anyway.

And Channel 5 provides some respite from the coverage during Monday, albeit with a rolling programme of children's films with The Emoji Movie, Stuart Little, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Sing running during the day, and the Jason Statham film Wild Card showing at 11 p.m.

[jlnight]

Rockets in the Dunes (CFF), Sat 24th Sep, Talking Pictures. (on before)
The Bold and the Brave, Sat 24th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 29th Sep.
Summertime, Sat 24th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 26th Sep. Or...
Convoy, Sat 24th Sep, Legend. (been on TPTV)

The Farmer's Wife, Sun 25th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Sat 1st Oct.
Wish You Were Here, Sun 25th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also late Mon 3rd Oct. (been on Film4) Or...
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Sun 25th Sep, BBC2.

The Man in the Sky, Mon 26th Sep, Talking Pictures.
Next to No Time, Mon 26th Sep, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 3rd Oct.

Five Clues to Fortune (CFF), Wed 28th Sep, London Live.

The Mad Magician + House of Gorgon (2019) + House of Mortal Sin, Fri 30th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Here's a really interesting addition to the schedules: Channel 4 are currently doing a surprise showing of the 1943 Vera Lynn film We'll Meet Again, which may be the first pre-1960 and first black and white film they have shown in the afternoon schedules for over a decade (maybe two)!

Granted it is probably due to the unprecedented circumstances of the wall-to-wall coverage of the funeral on the other side combined with Channel 4 having 'respectfully' removed all advertising slots (and therefore presumably the need to sell such slots by having 'worthwhile' house buying and selling and cooking programmes to attract said advertisers) from its channels (as I first noted with the 4 a.m. E4 broadcast of the latest Rick & Morty episode in the early hours of this morning) which has made such a thing viable for this moment only, but it was nice to be reminded of those heady days of the 1990s when Channel 4 always showed a classic film from the 1930s to 1950s in their afternoon weekday slot!

[colinr0380]

Interesting next week with one or two real surprises.

BBC3 has a couple of premieres with The Divergent Series: Allegiant at 8 p.m. on Saturday 24th. Which I think is the third(?) in the Divergent series and apparently (as with a lot of these Young Adult franchises that cannot come out quickly enough to keep their audiences from aging out of their demographic) is part of a saga that never got a conclusion. And on Friday 30th at 9 p.m. BBC3 is showing The Photograph.

As jlnight noted, BBC2 is showing The Last Black Man In San Francisco at 10 p.m. on Sunday 25th; and the latest film directed by Kasi Lemmons, Harriet, is showing on BBC1 at 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday 28th.

BBC4's Saturday night foreign language drama slot is starting the German series KaDeWe: Our Time Is Now, about "the Kaufhaus des Westerns department store and Eldorado nightclub in 1920s Berlin" at 9 p.m. on Saturday 24th. And the Storyville series continues with an updating of the Afghan Star singing contest story for the post-American evacuation of the country in And Still I Sing at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 27th. Also there is a repeat of the "Ada Lovelace: the Countess of Computing" documentary late on Monday evening, which is somewhat fortuitous since I have just finished the Difference Engine novel in which she figures as a major character, albeit a rather unsympathetic one!

Film4's one premiere of the week is the 2020 Sam Neill starring remake of the 2015 Icelandic film Rams at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 27th.

And the big premiere of the week is The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part which for some reason is tucked away on ITV2 at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday 25th.

Cunk on Earth is rescheduled for BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 27th; the fourth episode of How To With John Wilson is showing on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 28th; and remember when I mentioned that series of YouTube shorts Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared a while back? Well after a long hiatus it turns out that Channel 4 picked it up and have turned it into a six part half hour series that begins at 11 p.m. on Friday 30th with the first two episodes, Jobs and Death. That may be the first originally produced Channel 4 show that has caught my interest (and certainly the first comedy series) since Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and Man to Man With Dean Learner shows!

[colinr0380]

There are also a couple of big name stars appearing in new television series with Stanley Tucci playing a serial killer (maybe all those food shows have turned him into Hannibal Lecter?) in Inside Man on BBC1 at 9 p.m. on Monday 26th; and Channel 4 is showing Nine Perfect Strangers with Nicole Kidman and Michael Shannon from 10 p.m. on Wednesday 28th (which unfortunately clashes against both How To With John Wilson, the last three episodes of Our Friends In The North and Harriet on the other channels), but this being Channel 4 we are talking about expect them to get bored halfway through the run and put the rest on a digital channel somewhere.
___
There are also a couple of interesting programmes on Radio 4 over the next week. There is a one hour “Paul Verhoeven’s American Future” programme featuring an interview with the director at 8 p.m. on Saturday 24th; and at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday 29th there is a half hour interview with Peter Greenaway to mark his 80th birthday.

And I am looking forward to Radio 4 Extra’s repeat of the five part 2007 adaptation of John Wyndham’s The Trouble With Lichen at 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday

[thirtyframesasecond]

The YT shorts of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared are great. The songs are incredibly addictive - and now I know which colours aren't creative and which foods aren't good for my or-gans.

[jlnight]

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Sat 1st Oct, Channel 4.
The Devil-Ship Pirates, Sat 1st Oct, Legend.
Eden Lake, Sat 1st Oct, London Live.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Sun 2nd Oct, Sky Arts.
Airport '77, Sun 2nd Oct, Great Movies Action.

Beasts Clawing at Straws, late Tue 4th Oct, Film4.

Ghost of a Chance (CFF), Wed 5th Oct, London Live.

The Swordsman (2020), Thu 6th Oct, Film4.

The Mutations + The Seventh Sign + Homicidal, Fri 7th Oct, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)
All Eyez on Me, Fri 7th Oct, Film4.

[colinr0380]

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Sat 1st Oct, Channel 4.

That is actually really interesting and a bit of a seismic shift in broadcasting rights if true. As with Bond and more recently the Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts series, ITV have pretty much had complete monopoly over the rights to show the Star Wars films on television in the UK ever since the BBC balked on the $5 million cost of the broadcasting rights to showing A New Hope back in October 1982 (there's a really interesting series of videos focusing on the commercial breaks that occurred during it by Matthew Harris), and usually spend six weeks from around this time of year annually airing everything over each week leading up to Christmas.

That state of affairs has lasted until this point, including for all the prequel films as well as The Force Awakens (shown at Christmas 2018) and Rogue One (shown at Christmas in 2019), and both repeated a couple of times after that, although ominously not recently. So that suggests that Channel 4 wrestled the rights away (or maybe the Disney purchase of Fox was the reason?) and have decided to show the more recent films from the beginning starting with The Force Awakens, which further suggests they may go on to The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker after that. Maybe Solo: A Star Wars Story too, all three of which would then become the first non-ITV Star Wars premieres on UK television.