Members, it is that time of year – the 2024 Oscar ceremony is this weekend. ITV 1 has the transmission rights this year, so tune in on Sunday at 10.15pm to watch the show. Stamina will be required, though – it will end at about 2.30 the next morning! Failing that, there is a highlights show Monday at 10.45pm. It will be interesting to see how the ones on our questionnaire (including American Fiction and The Holdovers) will do. There are also two film premieres on Sunday evening, so you will have a range of options available to finish the weekend in style!
THE SOUVENIR: PART II (2020) Sunday 10 March 10.00-11.40pm BBC 2 P Ideally, you will have seen The Souvenir (released in 2019) to best re-engage with the story arc. Film student Julie has still to recover from her break-up with an older man, but hopes that including it in her graduation project will help. Director Joanna Hogg is much respected but, as with Aftersun and Tori and Lokita, her work might not be to all tastes. MOTHERING SUNDAY (2021) Sunday 10 March 11.15pm-1.15am Channel 4 P In contrast to the above, this drama is more likely to appeal to members. It is adapted from a Graham Swift novel, is set in the 1920s, and the central character is a housemaid who is having an affair, in secret, with a neighbour of her employers. THE CARD COUNTER (2021) Wednesday 13 March 9.00-11.15pm Film Four P This clever psychological thriller isn’t ever so well known which is a shame. Oscar Isaac plays an ex-army veteran trying to put his Iraqi ghosts to bed. Now a civilian, his phenomenal memory is a useful tool at the poker tables. THE RAILWAY STATION MAN (1993) Wednesday 13 March 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4 Here we have a splendid BBC film that paired Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland for the first time since their seminal Nic Roeg thriller Don’t Look Now (1973). It is a much gentler affair, though – literally, as they fall in love during the time they spend together in an Irish village. LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM (2019) Thursday 14 March 10.50pm-12.35am BBC 4 P Tell your friends, everyone – this season’s big success (the current leader on 94%) makes its debut on terrestrial TV. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer for a year.
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‘STAND BY FOR ACTION’ – the first prize I won ever was a Stingray Painting by Numbers kit and I haven’t won too many others in the sixty years since then! So, well done – again – to Talking Pictures as, following on from Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds, they bring back Captain Troy Tempest and his doughty crew (plus Oink, of course) from the Gerry Anderson back catalogue. It was the Andersons’ first series in colour and it is a good example of how mogul Lew Grade was not afraid to give strong financial backing to a project – the allotted budget was in the region of £800,000. Two more enormously popular series from the 1960s also make their debuts on TP this week: The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza. The former went to no. 1 in the US in just three weeks which might still be some kind of record for a series.
TRUE THINGS (2021) Sunday 3 March 10.45pm-12.20am BBC 2 P BBC 2 premieres a recent UK drama that focuses on a toxic and uncomfortable relationship between Ruth Wilson’s benefits officer and an ex-con who is manipulative. BULLET FOR A BADMAN (1964) Monday 4 March 2.15-4.00pm 5 Action This is the last decent western made by war hero Audie Murphy towards the end of his career. It is still relatively standard fare but Darren McGavin is a particularly good foil. He was a good actor and always a welcome sight in TV movies and series – particularly the cult classic Kolchak the Night Stalker. OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN (2022) Tuesday 5 March 11.10pm-1.15am Film Four P It is a shame that this sensitive, beautifully-acted French drama is on so late. Rachel is a 40-year-old teacher in a stable relationship – but it is newly established, and her partner has a daughter. If things do go wrong, Rachel fears that she will not cope with the break-up of her new family. COLD COMFORT FARM (1995) Wednesday 6 March 10.15-11.55pm BBC 4 This is a very good adaptation of the popular novel with a fine cast that includes Eileen Atkins (currently in new release Wicked Little Letters) and Ian McKellen. Plus cast member Miriam Margolyes gives a new introduction at 10.pm. SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (2023) Thursday 7 March 11.15pm-1.05am Film Four P Come on Film Four – give these interesting, quality films an earlier transmission time! Should it have been on the questionnaire? Quite possibly, and it is certain to say more about the human condition than half-a-dozen Hollywood blockbusters. But, it is a documentary set in an Estonian sauna so it might not appeal to all members. THE CABINET OF CALIGARI (1962) Friday 8 March 9.05-11.20pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82) Anyone who knows anything about film will be aware that the 1921 Cabinet of Dr Caligari was a landmark of expressionist cinema. Despite being written by Robert (Psycho) Bloch, this version isn’t any such thing – but it is shown very seldom, and so it is one to add to the viewing list! This week, it is a warm welcome back to Scandinavian drama and a new 6-part drama on BBC 4: Prisoner starring Sofie Grabol as a prison warden. I am expecting it to be gripping, compulsive viewing with a fair measure of violence – I think we can guarantee it absolutely will not pull its punches. The BBC’s archive also comes up trumps again with a Tolstoy adaptation that I don’t think has been transmitted in over 60 years, although BFI Southbank does programme TV drama from this period, from time to time.
QUO VADIS, AIDA? (2020) Saturday 24 February 11.00pm-12.40am BBC 4 P No, not the 1951 epic with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr; rather, we have a Bafta-nominated drama new to Freeview. The year is 1995, the Bosnian War is ongoing, and UN translator Aida is torn between duty and family. The TV premiere of the 1951 Quo Vadis was my first entry when I started to keep viewing lists (Tuesday 2 September 1975). A lot of films have flowed under the bridge since that memorable evening . . . THE RESCUE (2021) Sunday 25 February 9.00-10.45pm BBC 2 P The Rescue is a tense, absorbing, quite brilliant documentary, even though everyone knows the outcome. Broadcasters all over the world followed the desperate attempt to save, in 2018, the Thai youth football team trapped in caves as heavy rain fell. You might also remember the unsavoury comments on Twitter that followed it. TIME LOCK (1957) Wednesday 28 February 11.00am-12.35pm Film Four To start the day, we have a good little B-movie that generates a fair amount of tension. A small boy is locked accidentally in a bank vault, and then it is a race against time before his air runs out. Director Gerald Thomas and screenwriter/producer Peter Rogers were soon making the Carry On films; lead actor Robert Beatty the TV series Dial 999 (which still holds up due, in large measure, to its location filming in London); Sean Connery – here billed as welder number 1 – went on to James Bond and superstardom. ANNA KARENINA (1961) Wednesday 28 February 10.15pm-12.05am BBC 4 Wow! Not a film, really – but equivalent to a TV movie and as rare to view as gold teeth, so I have to include it. It was a BBC production that was based on an adaptation for the stage. Claire Bloom plays the title role (and does an introduction at 10pm), and Sean Connery and Frank Williams (Captain Pocket in The Army Game and, later, the vicar in Dad’s Army) are also in the cast. |
By David JohnsonChairman of Lyme Regis Film Society Archives
March 2024
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Updated 27.3.2024
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