Sunday’s TV tips
It’s more than 100 years since London’s Coliseum Theatre – designed to be the largest and finest music hall – opened its doors to the public, and there has been no end of fine acts to perform on stage since then.
From opera, to ballet and beyond, the place has become synonymous with high art, but occasionally it also plays host to more mainstream offerings.
The latest big name to tread its boards is the eponymous, tousle-haired, occasionally giggly, floor-pacing host of this show – a sort of relocated Live at the Apollo, with extra bits.
Aside from having our collective ribs tickled by the assorted comics, there are also top tunes from music superstars and some ’Britain’s Got Talent’-style offerings from speciality acts. Naturally our dapper host will also be lending a hand with the laughs.
Settle back with a cuppa, a chocolate egg and enjoy.
It’s the final leg of Simon’s journey, and he travels from the coast of Nicaragua, north through Honduras and finishes his journey in Jamaica.
Naturally there are plenty of picture postcard sunset shots, but also stuff that you often don’t see in travelogue shows. Reeve explores a coral kingdom at night, and in the deadliest city on the planet, he witnesses the brutal results of gang warfare.
His journey ends on one of the world’s most beautiful beaches.
But, as viewers need to be grabbed from the word go, his proper journey starts on a speedboat en route to a village called Monkey Point, where he meets some of the locals, descendants of tribes who inhabited the coast for thousands of years, and former slaves taken there by the British.
It also boasts some of the best seafarers in the region, so naturally our host decides to test his own fishing skills.
You can run, but you can’t hide from the West family at the moment – not that many of us would want to.
While actor Samuel West has been busy featuring in Mr Selfridge and plugging the DVD version, his folks Timothy West and Prunella Scales have been seen in this rather compelling strand.
The final episode of series two features some of central Scotland’s most glorious countryside, as Timothy and Prunella travel along the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal.
The journey starts in Edinburgh and ends in Glasgow, taking in Scotland’s highest aqueduct and longest canal tunnel.
Along the way we witness some monumental sculpture, and discover a history that stretches all the way back to the Romans, and a Scottish love affair from long ago.
The canals are also a fine tribute to 21st-century engineering, and illustrate the potential for the restoration of the nation’s waterways.
Boasting an outstanding all Irish cast including Golden Globe nominee Cillian Murphy, this gripping, award winning film gives a sympathetic look at Republicans in early 20th century Ireland, and two brothers who are torn apart by anti-Brit rebellion.
Cillian Murphy, Liam Cunningham, Padraic Delaney.
After Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) emerged dripping from a lake in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice 20 years ago, TV makers have been desperate to capture that moment which drove millions of viewers wild.
They finally managed it the other week when Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) stripped off and spent a sun-kissed few minutes scything away while flame-haired love interest Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) drooled from a distance.
It was TV gold, and fans are hoping for more of the same this week when Ross sets about forming an alliance with his fellow mine-owners to build their own smelting company and break Warleggan’s grip on copper prices.
Alas, Francis (Kyle Soller) owes George (Jack Farthing) a fortune, and it doesn’t help that he’s spending so much on gifts for ambitious prostitute Margaret (Crystal Leaity).
Meanwhile, Demelza resolves to lift Verity’s (Ruby Bentall) spirits by reconciling her with her lost love, Captain Blamey (Richard Harrington).
Many people believe they were born the wrong sex, and as adults decide to have gender reassignment surgery. The average age for a man going under the knife is 42, with very few in the UK being carried out on patients under 21.
Of course things are very different across the Pond as the eponymous reporter finds out this week.
Louis travels to San Francisco, where medical professionals are assisting children who say they were born in the wrong body to transition from one sex to the other.
On a typically hilly California street is the Child and Adolescent Gender Centre at UCSF Hospital.
There, Louis meets youngsters who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and who are undergoing medical interventions. They include puberty blockers, hormone-replacement therapy and eventually gender-reassignment surgery.
Theroux chats to the clinic’s patients and their families as they traverse this emotional and life-altering journey.
A special forces soldier returns home to London from a stint in Afghanistan, but he isn’t a well man.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress, he tries to make a fresh start by assuming another man’s identity, but only ends up landing himself in more trouble.
Before long, he’s embroiled in the city’s underworld, where he can sell his military skills to the highest bidder while plotting revenge on the man who murdered his girlfriend.
If you’re not looking for emotional depth or anything that breaks new ground, this is the film for you. Jason Statham takes the lead, so you know the action sequences will look convincing.
Jason Statham, Agata Buzek, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wong
Will Proudfoot has lived a sheltered life with his family, who are members of the strict Plymouth Brethren church.
He isn’t allowed to watch TV or films, so one day, he’s forced to stand outside the classroom while the teacher puts on a documentary, he bumps into Lee Carter, the school’s worst-behaved pupil.
The pair strike up an unlikely friendship which culminates in them collaborating on their own, unusual take on the Sylvester Stallone movie First Blood.
This film is utterly terrific, an inventive, low-budget gem that lives long in the memory. You’ll particularly enjoy it if you remember the 1980s, an era when leg warmers, Rubik’s cubes and Bucks Fizz were the talk of the town. The two young leads – Bill Milner and Will Poulter – are superb.
Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jessica Hynes.
