Friday’s TV tips
Alison Steadman has been a busy woman of late, hasn’t she?
This year alone, she’s explored the Shetland Islands’ rugged coastline for a documentary over on ITV, and appeared in one episode of last week’s drama The Secrets, but it’s for this heart-warming comedy about retired 60-somethings that has meant 2014 has already been a great year for her.
However, Boomers ends its six-part run tonight – with the group looking forward to their annual trip to a sixties weekend at a seaside resort.
However, Alan’s in the bad books when he messes up the booking and the group of six are left with just two rooms between them.
Meanwhile, John tackles the climbing wall in an attempt to prove he’s not old, and Carol bumps into an old friend which could spell trouble for her relationship with Trevor.
Here’s hoping there will soon be an announcement that it’s returning for a second series.
The guests are set to arrive. The bride is getting ready. But the best man has lost the groom!
When three friends get together for one last weekend-long bachelor party in Vegas, they think they had a good time.
But it's very hard to remember, and they are suffering the dreadful after-effects of girls, party and alcohol.
And then they realize they have somehow lost the groom!
Now, they must struggle to retrace their wild weekend to find their friend and deliver the bridegroom to his wedding -- even as they suffer from one killer Hangover!
Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Jeffrey Tambor
79%
John Barrowman is beaming from ear to ear and is so happy he looks like he could burst into song with jazz hands any minute.
This means only one thing – it’s that time of year again in which he pays tribute to the work of those involved in lottery-funded projects across the UK.
And this year marks the 10th anniversary of the awards ceremony, so actually there is plenty for John to be smiling about.
As always, there are seven categories and each one of them needs a winner, who will then be handed £2,000 to mark their achievements. However, there is also the ’biggie’ – the in augural special achievement award.
There will be plenty of music on the night – courtesy of Ella Henderson and Pixie Lott, who will no doubt have had to have juggled any rehearsals around her dancing practice for Strictly Come Dancing. Meanwhile, presenters include Jade Jagger, Larry Lamb, John Torode, Tinchy Stryder, Chris Packam and Ade Adepitan.
Televsion is so good lately, that it’s easy to become so absorbed in the latest gripping fantasy drama and you don’t mind admitting you’ve imagined yourself in once or twice. Game of Thrones, anyone?
That’s why this latest comedy from Tom Rosenthal and Naz Osmanoglu has done so well – it’s relatable. Slightly.
The series has followed Tom and Naz as they’ve grown frightened of the outside world and all the responsibilities that come with it, they’ve escaped to a television-based imaginary place – and the glue holding it all together is ’flat news’, which often includes life-changing top stories such as Naz eating some of Tom’s cereal.
Tonight, though, the six-parter comes to an end, and for one last time the boys pretend that the flat, and the television programmes they busy themselves with creating about it, is all there is to life.
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is found guilty of slandering a prominent industrialist and is sentenced to prison.
With six months until his incarceration, Mikael accepts a job from the reclusive Henrik Vanger.
The old man is still haunted by the disappearance of his daughter and hopes that the discredited journalist will be able to deduce, once and for all, who abducted and possibly killed the teenager.
Taking up residence in a cottage on the Vanger estate, Mikael begins his investigation and he is soon joined by computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, who has valuable insights to the case.
Together, the unlikely sleuths follow a trail of secrets and lies, trusting no one as they search for a killer in their midst.
An exquisitely paced piece of genre filmmaking, distinguished by the sharpness of Neils Arden Oplev’s direction, Nicolaj Arcell and Rasmus Heisterberg’s script and fearless performances from the two leads Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.
Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube, Lena Endre, Peter Haber
86%
It’s a fantasy horror offering from Andre Ovredal, about three film students making a documentary about bear attacks. They stumble across a well-armed poacher, who explains that although he’s been sworn to secrecy, he is a government-sanctioned monster slayer, who’s duty is to kill the trolls roaming the wilderness. He agrees to let the film crew document his work, a venture which puts all their lives in danger.
You’ll need to pay attention to the subtitles, but this is a fantastic piece of work, least of all because of the two leads, Otto Jespersen and Glenn Tosterud, who are perfectly cast.
The vampires/werewolves/zombies thing has been done to death so this new focus makes quite a pleasant change. Plenty of special effects and a decent plot are sure to hold viewers’ imaginations.
Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud
82%
