6 - 12 APRIL 2024

I’m sure that many (younger) viewers feel that TV drama has never been better; certainly, the budgets are higher; it often has actors of real quality, and it is more detailed (and nuanced?) in its adult content. But is the updated Shogun more absorbing than we found Richard Chamberlain’s? Do we really need a TV drama based on the Emily Maitlis/Prince Andrew interview? (And why make it? Chasing ratings, I suppose.) I do watch (and have made a study of) series from the 1950s and 1960s, and many of them hold up – whether for younger viewers (the 13-part The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe from 1964) or adults (Manhunt, from 1970, currently on Talking Pictures).  The latter has some fine acting, too!  
EVERYTHING WENT FINE (2021) Saturday 6 April 9.00-10.50pm BBC 4    P             
We have usually found François Ozon’s films to be rewarding – Frantz, for example. He tackles different subject matter in this sensitive drama – Sophie Marceau’s father has suffered a stroke and he asks that she help him with his assisted suicide.
ON CHESIL BEACH (2017) Sunday 7 April 10.00-11.45pm BBC 2             
Most members probably prefer Ian McEwan’s novella, but Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle are good casting and the locations are bound to please.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1952) Thursday 11 April 5.35-7.20pm TP (Ch 82)             
Legendary director Luis Buñuel’s reputation was built on surrealist fare such as The Exterminating Angel (1962). So, making a restrained version of Defoe’s novel might seem odd – but it works. Indeed, Daniel O’Herlihy was nominated for an Oscar. The colour and print quality are usually below par, though.
LOVE FROM A STRANGER (1936) Friday 12 April 7.05-8.50pm TP (Ch 82)             
This is a rarely seen – and early – adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. Ann Harding wins a small fortune and marries Basil Rathbone, little realising that that he likes to murder wealthy women . . . amazingly, Joan Hickson (later to play Miss Marple) has a small role. Two years later, Rathbone worked again with director Rowland V. Lee on Tower of London in which he played Richard III.