Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[jlnight]

Wham! 10 Days in China, Sat 29th Aug, BBC2. Or...
Cindy and Donna (1970), Sat 29th Aug, Rewind TV.
White Ant (2023 short), late Sat 29th Aug, Channel 4.
The Adventures of Jane (1949), late Sat 29th Aug, Talking Pictures.

Freddie Davies: A Life in Show Business (2017 doc), Sun 30th Aug, Talking Pictures.
Galaxina, Sun 30th Aug, Rewind TV.

The Gate (1987), Mon 31st Aug, Rewind TV.

Night Eyes II, Thu 3rd Sep, Rewind TV.

Harvest (2024), Fri 4th Sep, BBC2. Or...
My Tutor (1983), Fri 4th Sep, Rewind TV. Or...
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Fri 4th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Quiet next week. Channel 5 has a premiere, of Clifford The Big Red Dog at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday 30th. I wish John Cleese had been this twinkly when talking to Keanu Reeves about destroying the entirety of human civilisation in The Day The Earth Stood Still remake! (All he needs to stop destroying the world is a big hug!) Also is that the ultra-posho Jack Whitehall (in the archetypal for these live action+CG elements films equivalent role of Brendan Fraser in Looney Tunes; or perhaps more appropriately the James Marsden in Hop, role) doing an American accent? Bizarre! Plus it apparently has a role for Lars von Trier alumni Siobhan Fallon Hogan somewhere in there! Which may be as bizarrely incongruous as the actress who played Lucy from Twin Peaks turning up in Stuart Little! Or Celia Imrie piloting an X-wing in Star Wars Episode I!

The only other premiere is the other end of the tonal spectrum, with the BBC Films season continuing with 2024's Harvest, by Yorgos Lanthimos compatriot Athina Rachel Tsangari. It looks quite inspired by the recent Severin-led 'folk horror' trend, and the keywords on imdb are quite amusing (spoilers, presumably):

Spoiler

peeing on someone
woman peeing on man face
dirty nails
man eating tree
fields
man rides a big wheel
dove
looking up to the sky
ram
cutting off someone's hair
cutting off hair
cutting out someone's tongue
running away screaming
hair
playing with hair
man whispering
bagpipe
man insults a man
fat man
man slaps a man
man with a beard
grabbed by the beard
man hand on boob
high five hand slap
small frog
vomit
smoking
chess
shawl

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Repeat-wise, a lot of subtitled films are getting repeats. Compartment No. 6 on BBC2 at 1:30 a.m. in the early hours of Sunday 30th unfortunately clashes against Hope at 2 a.m. over on Channel 4

Backrooms star Chiwetel Ejiofor turns up for a surprisingly rare showing of the extremely Full Monty-influenced 2004 film Kinky Boots on Channel 5 at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday 29th (he also appears in 12 Years A Slave on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 3rd).

EDIT: On re-watching, Kinky Boots is seemingly even more of a megamix of elements than just influenced by The Full Monty, since it also contains a final act 'gruff Northerners going down South to do a pretentious stage show' climax similar to Billy Elliot; and then has a final singalong number that feels very Priscilla, Queen of the Desert-influenced! And apparently the real life factory that this story was inspired by closed down soon afterwards, which may be another reason why the film has not been repeated much over the last couple of decades, as awareness of that makes the triumphant climax ring a bit awkwardly hollow now.

The big event of the week is BBC4 showing Alan Ayckbourn's 1985 TV play starring Maureen Lipman and Michael Gambon, Absurd Person Singular at 10:15 p.m. on Sunday 30th, preceded by a new 15 minute introduction from Lipman at 10 p.m (I wonder if this is what got Lipman the British Telecom advert role later on?), and followed by the 1984 programme Alan Ayckbourn: The Levin Interviews at 12:10 a.m.

Todd Haynes' Carol is on Film4 at 11:30 p.m. (in a lesbian love double bill after a repeat of Drive-Away Dolls). Michael Bay's The Rock, which used to show on ITV a lot a few years ago, makes its first appearance on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 1st. The Gunfighter is on Film4 at 5 p.m. on Wednesday 2nd.

Not too much on "Legend Xtra", though they do have another repeat of Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways To Die at 11 p.m. on Thursday 3rd.

[jlnight]

The Specialist (1975), Sat 5th Sep, Rewind TV.

Far From Home (1989), Sun 6th Sep, Rewind TV. Or...
Tiffany Jones (1973), Sun 6th Sep, Together TV. (on C5 in '97 and '99) Or...
Let's Get Lost (1988), Sun 6th Sep, Talking Pictures. (last on BBC in 2010)

Penda's Fen (1974 BBC TVM), Wed 9th Sep, BBC4. (+ intro)

The Vicar of Bray (1937), Thu 10th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Julius Hagen season)

Peeping Tom, Fri 11th Sep, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
The Pom Pom Girls, Fri 11th Sep, Rewind TV. Or...
Club Zero (2023), Fri 11th Sep, BBC2.
Tyrannosaur, late Fri 11th Sep, Film4. (on before)



The Wife Swappers on Together TV is the 1970 Derek Ford film, confirmed.

[colinr0380]

This has been a weird weekend of 'room filling giant sized versions of usually normal sized animals being used as metaphors for struggling with issues around loving and caring for other beings'- themed films. Though the moment in Tuesday of Julia Louis Dreyfus using her MacBook Pro to beat her daughter's spirit animal talking parrot to a pulp, then whilst callously watching its gurgling, ragged breathing death throes unscrewing a bottle of vodka and taking a big swig, before pouring the rest over the parrot and then setting it alight, watching it dispassionately as it screams as it burns to death doesn't appear to have its equivalent moment in Clifford The Big Red Dog. At least so far as I am at in the film...

And Jack Whitehall does constantly make jokes about posh British accents throughout Clifford, though I do not know how acceptable it is that someone who actually has a parodically posh English accent in real life makes constant disparaging jokes to such kinds of accents throughout the film! That feels less like a knowing in-joke and more as if he is sort of throwing his culture under the bus for a quick Hollywood buck.

[colinr0380]

Very quiet for new films next week, but a lot to talk about in terms of repeats. The only new film, as mentioned by jlnight above, is in the BBC/BFI British film series with Mia Wasikowska starring in Jessica Hausner's latest film about cultish dieting trends Club Zero on BBC2 at 11 p.m. on Friday 11th. Interestingly, this is the one film in this rather socioculturally confrontational 'issues based' series that the RadioTimes appears to be having slight qualms about in its write up: "This satire boasts a striking setting but is likely to prove divisive...Hausner tugs at so many threads its unclear what her primary aim is, but the odd, calculating design is engaging". Considering they have rated highly the ones about people in an S&M relationship spitting at each other, the parrot representative of death being bludgeoned film and the Amazon warehouse critique one, which have all been painfully literal in their messages, that perhaps might suggest Club Zero may have a little bit more meat on its bones! I mean, since Hausner's most famous film was Lourdes, this already appears from its trailer to be an interesting addition to her filmography!

___

Repeat-wise BBC2 has a repeat of Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist at 1:35 a.m. in the early hours of Sunday 6th

Channel 5 is beginning to show films again after quite a few months of nothing, and has a surprisingly rare screening of Paul Greengrass's 9/11 film United 93 at 11 p.m. on Sunday 6th. It received its first showing on ITV in 2009 but has not shown on UK TV for a few years at least. In some ways, it is a better fit with Channel 5's 'true stories' vibe anyway, so it makes sense that this channel appears to have picked it up now.

Film4 has a few notable items with Criss Cross showing at 11 a.m. followed by This Gun For Hire at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday 8th. Plus a quickly scheduled showing of Steel Magnolias in tribute to Dolly Parton at 6:40 p.m. on Thursday 10th. The most interesting repeat though is straight after Steel Magnolias at 9 p.m. that evening with the David Koepp directed, Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring bicycle courier thriller Premium Rush. Which makes for a really interesting New York-set, condensed time frame setting to double bill with the (Koepp written) Panic Room. And it may be the only film to attempt to make cycle couriers into the new dangerously cool n' sexy zeitgeist job of the moment - the only other thing that comes to mind to do that is when Jessica Biel was doing it for her day job in that Dark Angel series a decade earlier!

BBC4 has an excellent 'archive television' week, with on the night of Sunday 6th Ken Russell's 1960 Monitor film Shelagh Delaney's Salford at 9:45 p.m. leading into a new introduction at 10 p.m. by actor Peter Egan of a really rare showing of not the 1961 film version of A Taste of Honey, but instead the 1984 three part (though condensed into one block for this showing) television version of the story. (it appears to have made in three parts for use as a classroom aide, so presumably it was broadcast during the day at the time as part of the BBC's "Programmes For Schools" bloc, in its English File series) That then shifts from Delaney to Dylan Thomas at 11:45 p.m. with Sian Phillips doing a new ten minute introduction to a 2014 version of Under Milk Wood at 11:55 p.m., followed by an 2003 Arena profile of Dylan Thomas at 12:55 a.m.

Then on Wednesday 9th, as noted by jlnight, BBC4 is showing after a new 15 minute introduction by actor Spencer Banks at 10 p.m., a screening of Alan Clarke's Penda's Fren at 10:15 p.m.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, they have a Peter Hyams week, with 1988's The Presidio showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 5th; and 1995's Sudden Death at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 9th. Which is a great post-Die Hard action film with a wry sense of humour about its own absurdity going for it, though be warned that once seen it makes it impossible to be able to watch any of those later over-earnest and straightly played White House Down/Angel Has Fallen films without pining for JCVD and Powers Booth to be sparring instead! (On Hyams I keep wondering what is keeping 2010 from getting UK television showings, as it has been decades since that last appeared. Similarly The Relic would be great to see turn up some time too)

Also BBC1 is repeating that 'stuck on a tower' film Fall at 11:25 p.m. on Sunday 6th. Which I really liked but until it was mentioned in the RadioTimes I had not realised it is getting a thematically-related sequel Fall 2: Deadpoint out at the cinema at the end of that week! I wonder if the premise of this one is capitalising on that "Chained Together" co-op game trend?