John Byrne’s TV choices for the week ahead (Jul 27-Aug 2).
Pick of the Week
London Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony (Friday, RTÉ Two and BBC ONE)
If you’re not into sport, this could be a tedious few weeks. Today (July 27th) sees the Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony take place, and this will probably be the only event non-sports’ fans will watch. Coverage on RTÉ Two begins at 8.30pm, while host broadcaster BBC ONE starts at 7.00pm with Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony Countdown before the event itself begins at 9.00pm. The BBC team will be in place from 7pm to capture the atmosphere around London and the UK. They're joined by some of the biggest names in Sport as they reflect the activity around the Olympic Park see the dignitaries and crowds arrive to take their seats and look forward to 16 days of world-class sporting competition. Bill O’Herlihy hosts on RTÉ Two.
Film director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) is set to produce a stunning cultural show ahead of the athletes parade - over 200 countries are expected to be represented - the official opening, the arrival of the torch and the lighting of the cauldron.
The show, two years in the making, will have an estimated audience of more than a billion people.
The bar is high: Beijing's 2008 spectacle, also directed by a filmmaker, featured more than 15,000 performers over four hours and cost over $100 million to produce. It was a much-loved production that many consider the greatest of its kind.
The 2012 ceremony, says Boyle, is “a wonderful way to start again. Beijing was beyond compare. It was on a scale that is unimaginable, I think, almost anywhere else in the world at the moment... We are very grateful to Beijing that it brought to an absolute climax the scale of the Opening Ceremony.”
Boyle is basically aiming to create a live film. “The way you experience it on television, will feel, I hope, much more immediate and visceral than you normally get. And there'll be more close-ups, for instance, which is a way of conveying emotion.”
Paul McCartney has confirmed that he will be participating and, as Boyle notes: “Something that's very important in our [British] culture is music... and our history of music for such a small place really, popular music is extraordinary. The most obvious example to begin [with] are The Beatles, obviously.”
New this week
Vexed (Wednesday, BBC TWO)
This extremely daft but oddly compelling comedy returns for a second season, with Detective Inspector Jack Armstrong (Toby Stephens) paired with a new partner, in the shape of fast-tracked rookie detective Georgina Dixon (Miranda Raison). In this first episode the pair get thrown together to investigate the death of car salesman found dead in the boot of one of the showroom’s finest vehicles. Fingers crossed this is better than the first season, which suffered from some truly awful scriptwriting.
Supernatural (Wednesday, Sky Living)
Returning for a seventh season, brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are still killing the paranormal evils polluting the universe in this far-fetched-but-fun fantasy drama. The premiere opens amid a new regime change. Angel Castiel (Misha Collins) is all-powerful after opening Purgatory and absorbing the soul of its inhabitants. Crowning himself as the new god of the world, he threatens Sam, Dean and their sidekick-cum-father-figure Bobby (Jim Beaver) to stay out of his way. Dean tries to stop Castiel in his tracks by summoning Death.
Ending this week
Awake (Friday, Sky Atlantic)
Sad to see a show as good as this go under while something as dull as Blue Bloods continues to bore. Jason Isaacs has been brilliant as Michael Britten, the cop who lives two lives in the aftermath of a fatal car crash. Britten is the target of a man-hunt in this concluding episode of the hypnotic US drama. His mind is at its most fractured and surreal hallucinations haunt him in both of his worlds, yet he’s never seen the truth so clearly. While Britten sits in his cell, falsely accused and desperate, his fellow detective Bird (played by Steve Harris) busts into the storage unit to find things just as his partner promised. Captain Harper (Laura Innes) is then triggered by trepidation to take lethal measures to mask her duplicity. Meanwhile, in Michael’s parallel life, the case is on the verge of collapse. As he lies shot in an alley, corrupt cop Hawkins and his accomplices appear to have defeated him. Rallying his strength, he manages to resume the quest for evidence but his mission takes a disastrous and distorted course. Betrayed by everyone he trusts and trying to bridge the growing gap between reality and fantasy, Britten is at crisis point.
Smash (Saturday, Sky Atlantic)
The big night is finally arriving as Bombshell officially opens. But with Rebecca Duvall out of the production, Derek must make a decision that will change the lives of Karen and Ivy forever as one of them must step up to play Marilyn. Who will the temperamental director choose? Ivy is the obvious choice and an experienced Broadway performer, but the inexperienced Karen has something special that has caught Derek’s imagination. Meanwhile, Tom and Julia must put their problems to one side as they race against time to write a new ending to the show and when Ellis reveals his true colours, Eileen wastes little time in firing him.
Documentary of the week
We Love The Monkees (Monday, UTV)
Set to a soundtrack of songs such as I’m a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, Daydream Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday, We Love The Monkees tells the story of this much-loved boy band’s rise to international stardom during the 1960s. This hour-long special features brand new interviews from producers of The Monkees TV show, The Monkees’ songwriters, photographer, families, fans. Although Mike Nesamith didn’t contribute, the other two surviving members - Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork – are included, as well as rarely-seen footage of the late Davy Jones. Summing up their time in the band, Micky Dolenz says: “It was just fun. We were too busy singing to put anybody down.”
Sex Story: 50 Shades of Grey (Sunday, Channel 4)
From visiting a spanking class, where novices are trained in the art of a good caning, to exploring the world of an S&M couple who have written sex contracts with each other and have honed their more extreme practice to perfection, this documentary uncovers what the Fifty Shades of Grey craze says about its readers. Psychologist and sex columnist Pamela Stephenson and Brooke Magnanti, who wrote Belle De Jour, share their reactions to the phenomenon.
Repeat of the week
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (Wednesday, UTV)
It may be a repeat but it’s not the Olympics. In this version of The Clocks, the Belgian sleuth (played by David Suchet) is summoned when Colin Race is distracted from an investigation into a spy ring by the discovery of a murder victim surrounded by stopped clocks. The body was found at the home of blind former teacher Millicent Pebmarsh, but when a second death is reported, Poirot realises the man was killed elsewhere and brought to the scene. Also: a recent edition of Agatha Christie’s Marple gets a second run on Saturday, as Marple investigates the murder of a farmer found in an ancient stone circle.
John Byrne
