Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[GaryC]

Channel 5 has the only new horror-related show of the week with The Small Hand: A Ghost Story starring Douglas Henshall showing at 10 p.m. on Sunday 31st.

That's actually a repeat - it was first shown over Christmas 2019.

[colinr0380]

Ah! I must have missed it when it was previously shown. So its really all repeats of horror films next week rather than anything new (aside from Goosebumps 2 of course!), though quite a good selection. I forgot to note that BBC2 is also repeating the original Swedish 2008 version of Let The Right One In at Midnight on the 31st as well.

[colinr0380]

I spoke too soon in my earlier post, as tucked away this evening on the CBBC channel was the premiere of the 2019 South Korean animation Spookiz: The Movie (That somehow has 158 million hits on YouTube?!?!)

It is very weird to see hopping vampires and kappas appearing on the BBC!

[jlnight]

Danger on Dartmoor (CFF), Sat 6th Nov, Talking Pictures. (on before)
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Sat 6th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 12th Nov.
A Song for Europe (1985), Sat 6th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 11th Nov.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Sat 6th Nov, BBC4.

Eagles Over London, Sun 7th Nov, London Live. Or...
MacArthur (1977), Sun 7th Nov, ITV4.
I Was a Male War Bride, Sun 7th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 18th Nov.
For a Few Dollars More, Sun 7th Nov, ITV4.
Ladyhawke, Sun 7th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 11th Nov.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Mon 8th Nov, Channel 5.

Remember (2015), Thu 11th Nov, London Live.
Corpus Christi (2019), late Thu 11th Nov, Film4.

Deathdream (1974) + The Atomic Brain (1963) + Terror (1978), Fri 12th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)
Chained for Life (2018), late Fri 12th Nov, Film4.

[colinr0380]

"Filmed on location in Lincolnshire, London and Lagos"

Hmmm...I found The Last Tree well made but ultimately rather strangely conservative feeling in message, seemingly with an implied message about how the white culture briefly seen at the beginning of the film was in danger of co-opting and corrupting a young black boy placed in foster care in a rural area through vices such as indulging him with chocolate bars as treats for no good reason and general mollycoddling before his biological mother arrives to reclaim him and bring him to a world of London tower blocks, tough love and enforced chores (with a bit of corporal punishment for slacking off) and a new form of co-option and corruption through rough inner city school playground fights and drug pushing. But that comes to be seen as a good thing because it (apparently) lets Femi reconnect with his own cultural heritage that eventually culminates in the final third of a return to the 'old world' of Nigeria to meet his biological father, which lets him recognise that for all of her tough love that his mother has been his true rock all along in the face of her own adversities in life. Which is nice I guess but it leads to a strange sense of the film feeling rather regressive rather than progressive, looking back to the past of a country that one had never visited before that moment rather than forward to making the most of your life in the country that had been your home for your entire life up until that point. The moment at the beginning of the film of running along the Lincolnshire beach as the only black kid amongst a group of white friends being bookended by Femi sitting on his own on a Nigerian beach, feeling the sand run through his hands as he yells out in a similar manner to his younger self, as if he is finally feeling at peace. Albeit in a strange country with no friends nearby now. But culturally reconnected, so without need of others for validation any more?

Which I'm not sure entirely sits well with me as a viewer but, well, I have to defer on this one to probably not being the intended target audience of whatever message is being conveyed. Perhaps it has deeper meanings and resonances that just went over my head on this viewing.

Perhaps more concretely however, I think that the other issue I had with the film is that it borrows extremely heavily and blatantly from Moonlight (including the whole "three ages of man" tripartite structure of the main character being portrayed at three different ages by three different actors) but kind of inverts everything that was special and unique about Moonlight at the same time. As in it being an extremely heterosexual film (so immediately in more conventional territory than Moonlight), and perhaps as a natural follow on from that rather than the flaky unloving mother and caring but rogueish father figures instead has (again more conventional) a flaky absent father and heavy-handed but just-doing-it-out-of-love mother figure (its probably telling that in Moonlight the final section is about the main character rekindling his relationship and experiencing the exciting first sparks of mutual affection with a person of his own age and gender and moving away from his parents and turning his gaze outwards as an individual with his own needs and desires; whereas here in The Last Tree whilst there is a romance, the female love interest gets sidelined at the end of the middle London-set section for the final Nigerian set third section being more about the son truly falling in love with his mother and finally appreciating all she has done for him to make him the man he has become). Plus the falling into criminal temptation mid-section, which is just your normal conventional section that did not need to be changed too much from Moonlight.

So that's probably the biggest flaw of the film: any film would probably suffer in comparison with Moonlight, even when it wasn't so blatantly following in its footsteps! But since this one does so in such an obvious manner, it kind of shows up even more the areas where it feels as if it has stretched and re-shaped Moonlight's structure to force its new story into, rather than finding a more original way of telling its own story.

[colinr0380]

Oh my God, its only about half-way through but 2:22 is doing the same premise as a film that I'd never have thought anyone would possibly reference:

SpoilerShow

the murdered lovers in the past being reincarnated as new lovers finding each other again in the present plot from the early 90s Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson giallo-thriller Dead Again!

Will it stay that way, or will the other duelling subplot of everything taking place inside a virtual world of a Matrix-style art installation prevail? Only the next twenty two minutes will tell!

EDIT: It turns out that it is less the "12:01 meets The Survivor" film that I had imagined above from seeing the trailer, but is actually more:

SpoilerShow

Dead Again meets 12 Monkeys

And its also a paen to its pivotal Grand Central Station location, which itself feels as if it references another Terry Gilliam film in The Fisher King. Its actually a pretty good film, so eerily bonkers just by virtue of how straight-facedly earnest it is about how it deals with its cosmological reincarnation conspiracy theories of the universe working to bring two historically wronged souls back together to try and play events out differently for the better that one could easily believe that it was Richard Kelly's latest film!

(It has a great soundtrack too)

[colinr0380]

Really great next week. jlnight has noted the big things, but they're worth mentioning again.

A big week for foreign language premieres with Portrait of a Lady On Fire showing on BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Saturday 6th. That's pretty much the film of the week right there, but there is also the Polish film Corpus Christi (which apparently isn't about that place often showcased on the University Challenge show but about a really unorthodox priest) which is showing on Film4 at 1:15 a.m. on Friday 12th; and Chained For Life which is showing on Film4 at 1 a.m. on Saturday 13th.

Elsewhere premieres include Walk Like A Panther on Channel 4 at 12:55 a.m. on Sunday 6th. Stephen Graham must be one of the busiest actors around at the moment, having also appeared recently in Help (the care home coronavirus drama that I have pointedly been ignoring!), The North Water and Time for TV, along with appearing against Tom Hanks in Greyhound, in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and in The Irishman!

BBC4 has Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation at 9 p.m. on Sunday 7th. Which is excitingly followed by a rare screening of the 1993 Richard Eyre adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer starring Maggie Smith, Rob Lowe and Natasha Richardson at 10:30 p.m., which was made in that fruitful period when the BBC was doing filmed adaptations of theatrical plays and broadcasting them on Saturday evenings (If you cannot wait it is up here )

And the Christmas TV movie deluge begins to get into higher gear with seven premieres on Channel 5 over the week (including one starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Cross Country Christmas) and BBC2 again getting in on the act by contributing a further one on on Friday 12th.

Also More4 is showing Israeli series Valley of Tears in weekly double bill episodes starting from 9 p.m. on Friday 5th.
___

Lots of really interesting repeats as well. BBC4 is showing Zer0 Days at 10:55 p.m. on Saturday 6th (following Portrait Of A Lady On Fire). Channel 5 is doing an ABBA night on Saturday 6th with a documentary presumably tying in with their new album at 9 p.m., a 1979 live concert at 10:15 p.m. and perhaps the best band movie ever made (or at least up there with A Hard Day's Night) with Lasse Hallström's ABBA The Movie at 11:15 p.m.

BBC4 has another Ghost Story For Christmas with the 1972 production of A Warning To The Curious at 10 p.m. on Monday 8th (though if you cannot wait it is up here It is really nice to see how Clive Swift was a regular actor in these productions). And for some reason is showing the Clint Eastwood film The Eiger Sanction at 9 p.m. on Thursday 11th (hopefully in its full widescreen format), followed by Paths of Glory.

And Film4 is showing Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days at 1:25 a.m. on Monday 8th.

[colinr0380]

Also, I don't know if they have been doing this for a while and I only just noticed but I was really glad to see that Channel 4 un-DOG-tagged their triple bill of premieres last Sunday of Widows, The Last Tree and 2:22. That was either a fortuitous mistake or if it was a conscious decision was very much appreciated!

[jlnight]

Child's Play (1954, not CFF), Sat 13th Nov, Talking Pictures.
The Escape Artist (1982), Sat 13th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 17th Nov.
The French Connection, Sat 13th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 15th Nov.

Three Hats for Lisa, Sun 14th Nov, Talking Pictures. (been on London Live)
The Missionary, Sun 14th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 18th Nov. (last on London Live)

The Ground Beneath My Feet, late Mon 15th Nov, Film4.

Escape From Alcatraz, Thu 18th Nov, BBC4.

Triumph of the Spirit, Fri 19th Nov, London Live. Or...
Zoltan, Hound of Dracula + Creature From the Haunted Sea + Inseminoid, Fri 19th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Interesting though not spectacular next week. I think the RadioTimes have gone a bit haywire with their premiere notifications as they seem very insistent that the screening of Zack Snyder's first Superman film Man of Steel showing on ITV1 at 10:50 p.m. on Saturday 13th is the first showing on network television, though I am pretty certain that Channel 4 premiered it back in 2015 or so. That is why Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was such a strange outlier, only getting its first free to air television screening this year, long after things like Justice League and Wonder Woman had appeared. Though whilst it is not actually a premiere, I think this does mark ITV's first screening of Man of Steel, and the first showing in quite a few years, so there's that I suppose. Maybe one day I will actually watch some of these superhero films rather than just contenting myself with the Red Letter Media videos tearing them apart!

Not to be outdone on the 'faux premiere' front, the RadioTimes is also trumpeting the first showing of Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy in BBC4's Saturday night foreign language crime thriller slot. Which is technically a premiere of the extended mini-series versions of the Swedish TV versions of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (the first half of which is showing at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday 13th), The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest that starred Noomi Rapace, but all three of these have been shown in their cut down theatrical versions on Film4 in previous years. Though along with being the extended versions this will be the first time they have appeared in a 9:30 p.m. Saturday evening primetime slot rather than tucked away at 1 a.m., as had been the case with those Film4 showings!

(Although fans of the Swedes may be rather spoiled for choice as BBC2 the same evening is devoting a night of programmes to ABBA from 8 p.m. to Midnight! The highlight of which has to be the wonderfully cheesy 1979 TV special ABBA in Switzerland showing at 11 p.m.!)
___
On to the actual premieres of the week and Gerard Butler is still falling in Angel Has Fallen on Channel 4 at 9 p.m. on Saturday 13th. The straight-shooting political drama about Dick Cheney Vice is showing on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 14th (which seems to be tying into American Crime Series: Impeachment in some way, with all its eerie uncanny valley impersonations. Though they look better pulled off in Vice than whatever is going on in Impeachment!)

Of more interest is Austrian film The Ground Beneath My Feet showing on Film4 at 1 a.m. on Tuesday 16th. And BBC2 are showing the revisionist take on Hamlet with Daisy Ridley playing Ophelia at 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday 17th. Apparently Naomi Watts is playing both Queen Gertrude as well as an evil wicked witch sister who has her ear and orchestrates the King's murder(?!?!) Fingers crossed for a Daisy Ridley and Naomi Watts punch-up at the end after all the play's 'actual' characters have met their pre-ordained fates! (I'm imagining the evil wicked sister cackling with glee at the climactic tragic massacre, only for a sopping wet Ophelia to slam open the doors to the banquet hall, brushing strands of water reeds from her dress as she explains that she was faking that whole madness and suicide thing to throw the wicked witch off, then draws a sword and tells her to get her hands off of her Hamlet! Then they have a big sword fight whilst Hamlet watches agog, before the wicked sister is defeated and Ophelia sweeps him up in her arms for a big smooch!)

Capping off a week devoted to crazy dames, Film4 is showing A Vigilante at 9 p.m. on Friday 19th and there is a double bill of premieres on the Horror Channel the same evening with Bloodthirsty at 9 p.m. and Revenge at 10:45 p.m.

Channel 5 has eight Christmas TV movie premieres next week (with BBC2 contributing a further one on the afternoon of Friday 19th)
___

In terms of repeats BBC2 is showing Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman at 12:55 a.m. on Sunday 14th. Days of the Bagnold Summer (just announced for an upcoming Anti-Worlds Blu-ray) is getting repeated on Film4 at 11:20 p.m. on Sunday 14th. BBC2 is showing a series of classic musicals on the first half of weekday afternoons from 1 p.m. with On The Town on Monday 14th, Top Hat on Tuesday 15th, The Band Wagon on Wednesday 17th. Film4 is showing Hilary and Jackie at 1 a.m. on Wednesday 17th. Channel 4 is showing Charulata at 3 a.m. on Friday 19th.

And after showing The Eiger Sanction this evening, BBC4 seem to be doing a Thursday night Clint Eastwood season with Escape To Alcatraz at 9 p.m. on Thursday 18th. Which amusingly ends just in time for Magnum Force to start on Channel 5 at 11 p.m.!

As jlnight noted Channel 5's repeat of The Naked Gun last Monday, it would seem right to note that The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear is showing on Channel 5 at 11 p.m. on Monday 15th. Which features the late Anthony James as a musically inclined assassin!

ITV4 are showing arguably the best (certainly my favourite) Jean-Claude Van Damme film with Sudden Death at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday 16th, which beats out all the later Olympus Has Fallen/ White House Down-type hostage thrillers by having a wry sense of humour about its antics, where the most tongue-in-cheek (but strangely touching!) thing of all is that it is trying to make ice hockey into a major US sporting event! Powers Booth does some great scenery chewing as the villain, and the no holds barred brutal fight in the kitchen against the person in the penguin mascot suit is a great set piece!

BBC4 is showing another in the Ghost Story For Christmas series with 1973's Lost Hearts at 10 p.m. on Monday 15th (though if you cannot wait it is up here )

[colinr0380]

There's also another TV series of interest starting on BBC1 on Monday 25th at 9 p.m. - The Outlaws directed and co-written by Stephen Merchant (with the writer of the Mayans MC series!) and featuring the bizarre image of Christopher Walken being forced to do community service on the streets of Bristol! (I am a little worried that the series will get 'easily topical' by having one of the young offenders forced into their community service after having vandalised a local statue!)

Christopher Walken reportedly paints over a specifically created Banksy artwork to complete his character's community service in the finale of the series! Which is better than the street art getting sold off to go into an auction and from there into a private collection at least!

(Is that going to turn the last episode of The Outlaws into an NFT now? )

[jlnight]

The Big Catch (CFF), Sat 20th Nov, Talking Pictures. (on before)
The Queen of Spades, Sat 20th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 24th Nov.
Silent Running, Sat 20th Nov, Horror. (on other channels before)
French Connection II, Sat 20th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 25th Nov.

Tickle Me, Sun 21st Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 26th Nov.
Saturn 3, Sun 21st Nov, Horror. (last on London Live) Or...
A Man Called Horse, Sun 21st Nov, Great Movies Action. Or...
Murder Inc (1960), Sun 21st Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 24th Nov.

The London Nobody Knows, Mon 22nd Nov, London Live. (on before)

Maurice (1987), Tue 23rd Nov, Film4.

Xtro, Fri 26th Nov, Horror. Or...
Island of Terror + Tormented (1960) + Secret Rites, Fri 26th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Very quiet next week. The main premieres of the week are both on Sunday 21st with BBC2 showing The Man Who Knew Infinity at 10 p.m. and Channel 4 showing The First Purge at Midnight. Also on Sunday BBC4 has a half hour interview with Kenneth Branagh to tie in with the release of his latest film, Belfast.

The Christmas TV movie toll raises to eleven over the next week (or twelve including the BBC2 addition on the afternoon of Friday 26th).
___

Other than that it is mostly repeats, but a lot of foreign language films get shown again: BBC2 is showing The Midwife at 1:20 a.m. on Sunday 21st. Channel 4 is showing And Then We Danced at 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday 23rd, Jallikattu at 2:20 a.m. on Wednesday 24th and Fire Will Come at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday 25th (and Film4 will be showing the first un-DOG-tagged version of Sauvage following its premiere on Channel 4 last year at 1:10 a.m. on Friday 26th)

As jlnight has noted, Film4 is repeating Merchant-Ivory film Maurice at 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday 23rd. And Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult is on Channel 5 at 11 p.m. on Monday 22nd. ITV4 is showing Mad Max, Mad Max 2 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome at 9 p.m. each night from Monday 22nd.

And BBC4's repeats of the Ghost Story For Christmas series continues with The Treasure of Abbot Thomas from 1974 at 10 p.m. on Monday 22nd (which is up here )

[colinr0380]

Unfortunately I missed noting this earlier, and hopefully it will get repeated, but Channel 5 is right at this moment showing Victorian Britain: The Lost Films, which is a collection of colourised early films interspersed with talking heads, including Ian Christie! The episode has material such as Annie Oakley performing marksmanship feats on stage.

[jlnight]

Mystery on Bird Island (CFF), Sat 27th Nov, Talking Pictures. (on before)
An Innocent Man, Sat 27th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 8th Dec. Or...
Parasite (2019), Sat 27th Nov, Channel 4.
The Columnist (2019), late Sat 27th Nov, Film4.

Resurrected (1989), Sun 28th Nov, Talking Pictures. (been on Film4)

The Last Hard Men, Mon 29th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 7th Dec.

The Amazing Howard Hughes part 1, Tue 30th Nov, Talking Pictures.

Death of a Gunfighter, Wed 1st Dec, Paramount Network.
The Amazing Howard Hughes part 2, Wed 1st Dec, Talking Pictures.

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Thu 2nd Dec, Paramount Network. (last on in 2016)
The Conversation, Thu 2nd Dec, BBC4. (on before)
Vivarium, Thu 2nd Dec, Film4.

Captain From Castile, Fri 3rd Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 9th Dec.
The Blood on Satan's Claw + Carnival of Souls + The Screaming Skull, Fri 3rd Dec, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)
Lapsis, Fri 3rd Dec, Film4.

[colinr0380]

In another reason to keep an eye on Channel 5's deluge of Christmas TV movies, I had a brief period of confusion this afternoon when the premiere of Letters From Christmas Past turned out to be an alternative title for USS Christmas, directed by Steven R. Monroe who is probably better known for directing the 2010 remake of I Spit On Your Grave and its sequel!

[colinr0380]

Really good next week with a mix of dystopian social satires, discriminatingly targeted murder and more ambitiously aspirational upper middle class ladies running amok all over the place and ruining their haute couture suits in the process than it would be wise to cross at one time. The biggest news is probably Channel 4 premiering Parasite at 10 p.m. on Saturday 27th. Which clashes against BBC4 getting to the first part of the mini-series version of The Girl Who Played With Fire at 9.30 p.m. the same evening. Film4 premieres Dutch horror film about the average life of a newspaper reporter The Columnist at 1.50 a.m. in the early hours of Sunday 28th.

BBC4 is showing The Vasulka Effect at 10:15 p.m. on Sunday 28th.

Film4 have a couple more premieres over the week with Vivarium showing at 11:15 p.m. on Thursday 2nd and Lapsis at 11:15 p.m. on Friday 3rd. I have been curious about the former for a while and did not know anything about the latter until seeing that trailer, but both look dystopically amusing!

And the other big film of the week is on BBC1 at 11:55 p.m. on Friday 3rd with Isabelle Huppert wanting to be best friends for ever and ever and ever in Greta.

Channel 5's Christmas TV movie premiere toll is eleven again this week (BBC2 is showing snooker next Friday afternoon so no add-on Christmas TV movie from them on the 3rd) including Every Christmas Has A Story directed by Ron Oliver (who wrote Prom Night II and made his directorial debut with Prom Night III: The Last Kiss) as well as another Ron Oliver directed film with a repeat of the Danny Glover starring Christmas Express (aka The Christmas Train) on Sunday afternoon; The Road Home For Christmas, directed by Peter Sullivan (who has directed a couple of horrors with 2017's The Sandman, starring Tobin Bell) and starring Marie Osmond(!); Dashing Home For Christmas, directed by Amy Force (who also did that Olympians At Heart TV movie that CBBC aired a couple of months back); and the excruciatingly punning Check Inn To Christmas, which is another film from Sam Irvin whose first film was the amazing looking Guilty As Charged, which looks like an American remake of House of Whipcord! When is Arrow going to release an edition of that film!
___

In terms of repeats jlnight has already noted BBC4 showing The Conversation at 9 p.m. on Thursday 2nd. Channel 5 continues its Clint Eastwood season with Sudden Impact at 11 p.m. the same evening.

BBC4 is continuing the Ghost Story For Christmas series with The Ash Tree at 10 p.m. on Monday 29th (or here if you cannot wait ). And Channel 4 is showing Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar/The Big City at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday 1st.
___

TV-wise I am tentatively curious about the 23 years since it went off the air return of Gamesmaster to E4 at 10 p.m. tonight, with Trevor McDonald replacing Patrick Moore as the giant floating partially cybernetic godhead. And I see that it now takes a Top Gear-style three presenters to tag team the show instead of Dominik Diamond's singular presence in the original series. Will there be as many just plausibly deniable enough borderline explicitly graphic innuendos about telling kids to get in their bedrooms and start waggling their joysticks as there was previously? Will the nostalgia for looking back on the days of James Pond on Amiga and Street Fighter II on actual arcade machines be able to match up to Cuphead and whatever is out on PS5? I suppose however it turns out we will always have the 1990s era series to look back on!

[colinr0380]

Another nice surprise amongst the deluge of TV movies was finding out that today's film on Channel 5, Rock and Roll Christmas (aka The Christmas Comeback) has a recent role for Catherine Mary Stewart, best known for her string of roles in the 1980s with the notorious musical The Apple, one of the run of 1950s nostalgia films in the wake of American Graffiti in Mischief, The Last Starfighter and the lead in that great sci-fi horror Night of the Comet. Plus she was in the film adaptation of a non-Game of Thrones George RR Martin tale with Nightflyers.

And I also just found out she voiced a character in Red Dead Redemption II!

[jlnight]

Tim Driscoll's Donkey (CFF), Sat 4th Dec, Talking Pictures.
Down to the Sea in Ships, Sat 4th Dec, Talking Pictures.
Crash Dive, Sat 4th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 8th Dec.
Blood and Wine, Sat 4th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 9th Dec. (ex Moviedrome!) Or...
Psycho (1998), Sat 4th Dec, Horror.
First Love (2019), Sat 4th Dec, Film4.

Spring (2014), Sun 5th Dec, Horror.
Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM transmissions and Throbbing Gristle, Sun 5th Dec, BBC4. (edited version?)

Cry of the City, Mon 6th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 16th Dec.
Topsy-Turvy, Mon 6th Dec, Film4.

Hard Labour (Play for Today), Tue 7th Dec, BBC4.

Donovan's Reef, Fri 10th Dec, Film4.
The Maids (1975), Fri 10th Dec, London Live. Or...
A Candle for the Devil + Vampire Circus + Funny Man (1994), Fri 10th Dec, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)
Wild Nights with Emily, Fri 10th Dec, Film4.

[colinr0380]

Pretty interesting next week. jlnight has noted the big film of the week in Takashi Miike's First Love showing at 11:15 p.m. on Saturday 4th (Blade of the Immortal is getting repeated on Film4 at 1:15 a.m. on Monday 6th). And the other premiere is Wild Nights With Emily at 11:10 p.m. on Friday 10th.

Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM transmissions and Throbbing Gristle (NSFW), Sun 5th Dec, BBC4. (edited version?)

It does look as if this is an edited version as it only runs for an hour from 10:35 p.m. on Sunday 5th, compared to the 81 minute running time stated by imdb. BBC4 is also showing Nick Cave: Idiot Prayer at 9 p.m. on Friday 10th but that is similarly edited down from the 118 minutes noted on imdb to 85 minutes. The BBC seems weirdly blase at times towards editing its material down, less for censorship than for run time reasons. For instance I love the We Bare Bears show so much that I ended up importing the 7 disc DVD edition of it from Australia (the only territory where it had been released) and keep finding that the CBBC channel has made lots of edits to the fifteen minute episodes. Sometimes for censorship reasons (for instance Ice Bear wielding his axe keeps getting edited out. As imitable behaviour?) but also entire scenes are sometimes dropped, completely missing the point of an episode just to end it more quickly seemingly to be able to do more interlude skits with the presenters between the progammes. (Also it was wonderful to find that the We Bare Bears series has an episode that seems a reference to the premise of Clive Barker's In The Hills, The Cities, just with a warren of cute hapless rabbits merging together to form one giant flesh rabbit to fight off some crows!)

BBC4 also has a half hour interview with Mike Leigh at 8 p.m. on Sunday 5th in their "This Cultural Life" season. As jlnight says this serendipitously links up with Film4 doing a rare repeat (it does not appear to have been shown on UK TV since 2007) of Topsy-Turvy at 11:25 p.m. on Monday 6th (Channel 4 is also showing Another Year at 1 a.m. on Thursday 9th), and BBC4 itself is showing Leigh's 1973 Play For Today drama Hard Labour at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday 7th which stars Liz Smith and is preceded by an hour long interview with the actress at 9:30 p.m. BBC4's Ghost Story For Christmas season continues with The Signalman at 10 p.m. on Monday 6th.

Channel 4 has a couple of premieres too with Sonic The Hedgehog at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday 5th and its tonal opposite Farming at 1:55 a.m. on Tuesday 7th, which is the feature directing debut of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje based on his earlier short.

Channel 5 turns up the heat on its Christmas TV movies with 13 premieres next week (14 if you include BBC2's Friday afternoon addition on the 10th. 15 if you include the one hidden away on E4 at 8 a.m. on the morning of Sunday 5th)

In addition to the premiere of Spring at 9 p.m. on Sunday 5th that jlnight has noted, the Horror channel also has perhaps the most important film of all showing next week with Aquaslash (NSFW), aka the slasher film which keeps finding ways of sending people down a water slide to their doom, which I only really know from its Red Letter Media review. That's at 9 p.m. on Friday 10th.
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Repeat-wise, in addition to the above Mike Leigh love and the ongoing interest in Clint Eastwood (Channel 5 is showing The Dead Pool and ITV4 Gran Torino next week), Film4 is showing My Life As A Courgette at 2:40 a.m. on Tuesday 7th, ITV4 is showing A Fistful of Dynamite at 11:45 p.m. on both Saturday 4th and Tuesday 7th, the Horror Channel is showing Dead Ringers at 9 p.m. on Thursday 9th, and BBC4 is showing the original Manchurian Candidate at 9 p.m. on Thursday 9th.

[colinr0380]

Well Film4 was in a bit of a shambles yesterday evening. The premiere of Vivarium was cancelled (replaced with Cuban Fury) and earlier on in the evening a repeat of Charlotte Gray was replaced with the 2005 US remake of Fever Pitch which appears to have happened so suddenly that even the EPG listings for the channel were still listing it as the Cate Blanchett film!

Fingers crossed for the premiere of Lapsis this evening to go smoother!

[jlnight]

Cry Wolf (1968, CFF), Sat 11th Dec, Talking Pictures.
Charlie Chan at the Circus, Sat 11th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 15th Dec.
Cattle Empire, Sat 11th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 14th Dec.
The Man From Snowy River, Sat 11th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 14th Dec.

Daisy Kenyon, Sun 12th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 17th Dec.
Bus Stop, Sun 12th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 17th Dec.
Anywhere But Here, Sun 12th Dec, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 14th Dec.

Lone Wolf McQuade, Mon 13th Dec, Paramount Network.
The Desperados (1968), late Mon 13th Dec, Film4.

The Gay Divorcee, Wed 15th Dec, BBC2.

Canyon Passage, Thu 16th Dec, Paramount Network.
The Color Purple, Thu 16th Dec, BBC4.

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle + Virgin Witch + Shadows of Fear (ep: Did You Lock Up?), Fri 17th Dec, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Whilst the premiere of Lapsis came off last Friday, Film4 is in turmoil yet again with tonight's screening of Topsy-Turvy cancelled and replaced at short notice with a repeat of James Cameron's The Abyss.

[colinr0380]

Pretty good next week. The big blockbuster film of the week is the premiere of Spider-Man: Far From Home on BBC1 at 7:30 p.m. on Friday 17th. The same evening BBC1 is also showing the Emma Thompson film Late Night at 11:25 p.m. I presume this is marking the start of the Christmas film season.

Film4 is showing We Summon The Darkness at 11 p.m. on Saturday 11th, Peppermint at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 15th, and the most interesting film of the week in South Korean film The Beast at 11:40 p.m. on Friday 17th.

BBC2 is showing Run at 11:10 p.m. on Sunday 12th.

Lots of interesting things on BBC4 as they seem to be fully committing to their status as an 'archive channel': they are showing an hour long programme of new animated short films at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday 12th. The Ghost Story For Christmas season continues with Stigma at 10 p.m. on Monday 13th; and there is a documentary about the Comedy Playhouse series that piloted new sitcoms between 1961 and 1974 at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday 14th followed by screenings of Impasse from 1963 at 10 p.m. (with Bernard Cribbins and Leslie Phillips) and No Strings from 1974 (with Rita Tushingham and written by Carla Lane) at 10:25 p.m. As jlnight notes there is a really rare repeat of The Color Purple at 9 p.m. on Thursday 16th, which is preceded with a 2006 interview with Spielberg at 8 p.m.

The Horror Channel is showing Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell starring horror The Darkness at 9 p.m. on Saturday 11th, the Midsommarsploitation film Sacrifice (with Barbara Crampton from Re-Animator and From Beyond!) at 9 p.m. on Sunday 12th and The Young Cannibals at 9 p.m. on Friday 17th.

Not to be outdone ITV2 shows the pantswettingly scariest film of the week that may induce spontaneous screams of terror amongst those unprepared for the all-out assault of Nativity Rocks! at 6:50 p.m. on Sunday 12th.

Channel 5's Christmas TV movie toll for the week is 12! (13 with BBC2s contribution on the afternoon of Friday 17th) Including Memories of Christmas from director of The Gate, Tibor Takacs (that reminds me that A Royal Christmas Engagement, directed by Fred Olen Ray, is showing tomorrow afternoon! "Start thinking outside the chocolate box" indeed ) Though the biggest film amongst these TV movies is probably the Dolly Parton starring Christmas At Dollywood.
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Repeat-wise, Film4 are showing Mike Leigh's Mr Turner at 1 a.m. on Monday 13th and Peterloo at 12:50 a.m. on Thursday 16th. But after what happened with Topsy-Turvy yesterday evening, that may not happen!

The most exciting repeats are those noted by jlnight with Film4 showing 1969 Jack Palance western The Desperados at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday 14th (perhaps most notable for getting a late night/early morning scheduling slot), and BBC2 showing The Gay Divorcee a 1934 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical at 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday 15th.

[colinr0380]

Well, I got hold of the Christmas fortnight RadioTimes that runs up to New Year's Eve and there are quite a few big films showing, though very few older films (Bringing Up Baby is the notable exception) and next to none foreign language films as usual (just three repeats, all on Film4, with Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire at 1.20 a.m. on Tuesday 28th, what seems to be becoming a dystopian Christmas tradition of Snowpiercer at 11:35 p.m. on Tuesday 28th and Monos at 1:50 a.m. on Thursday 30th). Otherwise it is an extremely Musical-themed Christmas.

The biggest premiere of the fortnight (at least in my opinion having gushed about the film and the source novel, and the source novel's sequel at length on the dedicated thread) is Ready Player One on BBC1 at 10:35 p.m. on Thursday 30th.

The first week of the fortnight is a Henry Golding turning from BBC Travel Show anchor into Hollywood leading man week with Crazy Rich Asians on BBC1 at 10:35 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd and Last Christmas on BBC2 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 23rd (which impressively means that Henry Golding, Emma Thompson and Michelle Yeoh each feature in two film premieres apiece in less than a week!)

Christmas Eve has the premiere of Abominable on BBC1 at 3 p.m. followed immediately by the Robert Downey Jr version of Dolittle at 4:30 p.m., which manages to get an amazingly rare for a Hollywood film one star "Poor" rating in the RadioTimes, which is quite a feat! Normally they at least give a big production four stars for its premiere and then surreptitiously tick the star rating down for repeats. So to go directly for the one star rating means that something has to be particularly bad about it! Do the animals get beaten up or perform racially insensitive acts? Anyway, the final premiere of the evening on BBC1 is Lost At Christmas at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Christmas Day.

BBC1 is showing The Secret Life of Pets 2 (which gets two stars more than Dolittle!) at 1:10 p.m. on Christmas Day, along with Mary Poppins Returns at 3:10 p.m. - BBC2's Christmas Day film is a Ron Howard directed documentary of Pavarotti at 9:35 p.m., followed by a 1991 concert at 11:30 p.m.

Boxing Day BBC2 is showing Anything Goes: The Musical with Robert Lindsay and Felicity Kendal (and 80s Children's TV presenter Gary Wilmot!). ITV2 is showing Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw at 8 p.m.

Monday 27th Channel 5 is showing the gritty (and presumably laddish) Guy Ritchie take on King Arthur at 8 p.m. - I may just pull out Excalibur again instead.

The film other than Ready Player One that I am most excited about is showing on Channel 5 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 28th, with Jason Statham versus a killer shark in The Meg. I may double bill this with Deep Blue Sea (the non-Terence Davies version).

On Wednesday 29th BBC1 is showing the sequel to A Dog's Purpose with A Dog's Journey at 3:30 p.m., in which the poor dog cannot catch a break and keeps dying over and over again trapping in an endless purgatory of having to tug human heartstrings for eternity. The 2018 remake of A Star Is Born is showing at 9 p.m. the same evening, in which the poor characters cannot catch a break and keep dying and re-meeting again over and over in an endless purgatory of having to tug each other's heartstrings with songs that capture the zeitgeist of the times in which they were made.

Channel 4's (and by extension Film4's) one solitary premiere of the fortnight is John Cena in Playing With Fire at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday 29th.

On Thursday 30th along with the premiere of Ready Player One on BBC1, BBC2 is showing Judy at 9 p.m., followed by a repeat of the 1954 A Star Is Born straight afterwards on BBC4

On New Year's Eve ITV1 is showing Smallfoot at 12:30 p.m. (so there are two abominable snowman films showing over the fortnight!) and BBC2 is showing The Aftermath at 9 p.m.

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Repeat-wise, BBC2 has a Madonna night on Saturday 18th with surprisingly rare repeat screenings of Desperately Seeking Susan at 10 p.m. and Truth or Dare (aka In Bed With Madonna) at 11:40 p.m.

Film4 has more Mike Leigh with Career Girls at 2:10 a.m. on Monday 20th and Happy-Go-Lucky at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday 21st

BBC4's Ghost Story For Christmas series continues with The Ice House from 1978 at 10:30 p.m. on Monday 20th. The big Ghost Story At Christmas event is on Christmas Eve with BBC2 showing the latest Mark Gatiss directed version of MR James' The Mezzotint at 10:30 p.m., which is followed straight afterwards on BBC4 by the 2009 version of The Turn of the Screw (starring Dan Stevens) at 11 p.m. and following that the 1961 Michael Hordern version of Whistle And I'll Come To You at 12:30 a.m.

Amusingly BBC4 is showing a production of La Bohème at 9 p.m. on Boxing Day followed by a repeat of Moonstruck at 11 p.m., in which a concert of La Bohème figures prominently!

Monday 27th BBC2 is showing West Side Story at 4:35 p.m. and then BBC4 is showing a night devoted to Stephen Sondheim including a prom concert, a programme of archive performances, the 1990 Omnibus documentary Sunday In The Park With Stephen, and the 1995 Face To Face interview. Tuesday 28th BBC4 is showing the 1961 version of West Side Story again at 9 p.m. followed by the 2014 Into The Woods film at 11:20 p.m.

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So its not a huge Christmas for rare films but there is at least a greater range of more adult-oriented films and programmes showing this year compared to previous recent Christmas seasons when it has all been about the CGI family animations, mostly from Disney. In fact I don't think there is much Disney to be seen at all this year, aside from the mandatory BBC1 Christmas Day Disney premiere of Mary Poppins Returns and The Aftermath which I guess qualifies due to being a Fox Searchlight film. Maybe all of the rest of the content has disappeared off to Disney+?