Thursday’s TV tips
There was a time when The Great British Sewing Bee sounded like a tongue-in-cheek pitch from Alan Partridge.
However, as Strictly has proved, Claudia Winkleman’s comedic pieces to camera can breathe life into the most generic Great British Bake Off-style format.
With Blighty boasting tens of thousands of home sewers, little wonder series one was such a hit. Over this latest six-week run, more than 100 garments will be produced by the competing stitchers.
This week, the nine remaining contestants scale down items and make children’s clothes. Waistcoats, plain T-shirts, hand-me-down dresses and a fancy-dress costume are all on the to-do list.
Judges May Martin, from the WI, and designer Patrick Grant decide who goes.
On the strength of this winning format, surely just a matter of time before the BBC launches ’Philately Gets You Anywhere’, a contest devoted to stamp collectors, or ’The Great British Hake Off’, involving fishing.
Every couple plans the flowers, the food, the perfect venue – but, does anyone really plan for the marriage?
Then Comes Marriage? gives three couples the opportunity to prepare for their future life together at the ultimate relationship skills crash course. This pre-marriage bootcamp tackles everything from personal finances to family planning.
This is a fun and practical relationship show in a time of fast love and celebrity culture, where marriage can be viewed as disposable.
There is much marital research that points to the fact that marital success is not a matter of luck, nor is failure a matter of mystery – it’s preparation, preparation, preparation.
One of the reasons this comedy drama has been so successful is it’s that winning mix of sunshine, great stories and much loved character actors like Don Warrington.
“All kinds of people love it; it spreads right across the nation, which is great,” he explains.
So what was it about Selwyn Patterson that attracted him to the role?
“I thought he was a lovely character; he was very interesting – a man who loves his island; who loves the fact that it’s a divided island and he stays resolutely on his side of the fence.”
In the latest offering, Saint Marie celebrates getting through to the final of the Inter-Island Volleyball Championships.
However, when one of the players is stabbed through the heart, DI Goodman (Kris Marshall) and the team have to solve the crime asap, while Commissioner Patterson faces off against old enemy Anton Burrage, the governor-elect of the rival volleyball team’s island.
Joe Absolom and Colin McFarlane guest star.
Given the success of documentaries like Educating Yorkshire and more recently Educating the EastEnd, it’s little wonder programme-makers have realised there’s such a wealth of reality gold to be mind from what are supposed to be the happiest days of our life.
This latest one charts life at Gascoigne Primary School in Barking, east London, following the pupils, parents and staff.
With such a high turnover of often vulnerable pupils, this inaugural episode looks at how the staff cope.
It is up to the staff to settle them in and create what could be the only calm in their lives.
It’s hard for many of us not to sympathise with Viktor, a 10-year-old who has just arrived from Bulgaria and cannot speak English.
Lee, is the same age. Following the death of his mother, he moved from Norfolk after is getting attention by disrupting classes.
We also meet Kevin McNally, a newly qualified teacher who has to cope with a constantly changing class.
If you can cope with the seemingly endless ad breaks, Thursday night schedules on E4 have long been compelling, especially if you like comedy.
New helpings of Two Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Marry Me have made for must-see viewing in recent weeks, while E4’s most hyped series in years, Banana, is also good fun.
For newcomers, it’s an original drama exploring the passions and pitfalls of 21st-century gay life: witty, heartfelt and unique stand-alone stories covering different aspects of LGBT life.
In this fourth episode, Helen (Bethany Black) gets tough with her ex, Eddie (Andrew Knott).
However, her birthday turns into a disaster when Eddie takes revenge.
As with most projects from the Nicola Shindler, Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner stable, it’s a cut above the average, and on a channel seemingly obsessed with (great) US imports, it’s good to see homegrown talent getting a chance to shine.
Life is a struggle for single father Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Evicted from their apartment, he and his young son (Jaden Smith) find themselves alone with no place to go.
Even though Chris eventually lands a job as an intern at a prestigious brokerage firm, the position pays no money.
The pair must live in shelters and endure many hardships, but Chris refuses to give in to despair as he struggles to create a better life for himself and his son.
Will Smith, Thandie Newton, Jaden Smith
The staff at GTX Corporation discover that many of them are about to be made redundant as the company attempts to improve its balance sheet during the recession.
Among them is Bobby Walker, who loses various status symbols, moves his family in with his parents, starts working for his brother-in-law and finds his self-confidence suffering.
However, hope is on the horizon in the form of a former GTX executive who favours hard work over profit.
It’s not the most enthralling movies ever made, but the all-star cast makes it worthwhile. Probably not the film to watch if your own firm is going through financial issues at the moment though.
Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Craig T Nelson
Brandon is a handsome thirty-something office worker who is never short of bedfellows.
Anonymous pick-ups temporarily sate his cravings for physical pleasure but at night, he hungrily scours adult sites on the internet.
Brandon’s routine of soulless couplings and seedy hook-ups is thrown into disarray by the arrival of his needy, younger sibling, Sissy, who is carving out a career as a singer.
Michael Fassbender delivers a fearless, emotionally raw performance as a sex addict wrestling with his myriad demons in artist-turned-director Steve McQueen’s follow-up to the critically feted Hunger. But viewers beware – it’s not one for the prudish or faint-hearted.
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie, Elizabeth Masucci
Nicolas Cage’s character Ben hits the bottle big time in Mike Figgis’s look at love and life as seen through the bottom of a vodka glass.
Ben is the burnt-out screenwriter who sets off for Vegas to pickle himself in alcohol but, when he meets hooker Sera, played by Elisabeth Shue, there’s two for the road and an unlikely love affair begins.
Dark, depressing and laden with despair, this is only for the particularly stout hearted.
However, the first half is worth a look if only for Cage’s Oscar-winning performance as a man determined to destroy himself.
Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Valeria Golino.
