British Telly

Simon Schama’s new show is, the BBC press blurb says, a “major” series, and it bears a grand and sweeping title, the Story of Us. One always wonders to whom such weighty first-person plurals refer – the answer here is the British people, in terms of how our postwar arts and culture have shaped who we are. But the picture of us is subjective, somewhat vague and limited to just three episodes. Major series are not what they used to be.

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Simon Schama’s Story of Us aired on BBC Two and is available on iPlayer.

Will the guest dragon invest in a ‘gym in a bag’ training kit? Plus, Colin Firth is on a relentless mission in Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, BBC One
Joe Wicks may seem far too nice to be cut-throat in business – but this is a self-made man whose fitness empire is worth millions, so maybe he will fit in well as a guest dragon (future guests in the 22nd series will include Trinny Woodall and Emma Grede). First in the den: a family man who created a “gym in a bag” training kit for his own mental health. Wicks is interested enough to try a quick workout with it, but will he invest? Hollie Richardson

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Patience is Channel 4’s crime drama set in beautiful York. Plus: more trouble with Claudia Winkleman in The Traitors. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 4

Patience (Ella Maisy Purvis) is an autistic woman who works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire police, but whose true talent is in criminology (self-taught since she was a child). When a series of apparent suicides are thought to be linked, detective Bea Metcalf (Laura Fraser) realises Patience is an asset to the case and asks for her help. But by the end of this slow-burn opener, we learn that one of the victims is familiar to Patience, and the story gets going. Hollie Richardson

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Channel 4 are set to premiere a new three-part Marilyn Manson series next week.

Airing between Tuesday, January 14 and Thursday, January 16 at 10pm each night, Marilyn Manson: Unmasked will, according to a synopsis, unravel “the shocking story of one of rock music’s most polarising figures”, from his rise to the “chilling abuse allegations that have engulfed his career”.

The opening episode details Brian Warner’s emergence and early days as Manson, as well as the Columbine massacre – which he became a scapegoat for – and his general “influence on American youth”, with “early fans, collaborators and musicians” all reflecting on that time.

Then, episode two – which is entitled Allegations Of Abuse – examines the allegations of abuse against him, including testimonies from Evan Rachel Wood and other survivors (“I told my story,” says Evan. “But I was still just so terrified to name Brian because he still felt like he had all the power, and I had none”).

“This episode explores the patterns of control, manipulation, and violence that accusers say lay behind his public persona,” reads a description.

The third and final episode of Marilyn Manson: Unmasked is set to detail “the fallout from the allegations and their implications for the entertainment industry”, looking at lawsuits and investigations, police raids, and the #MeToo movement as a whole.

Trailer

Looking for some good comedies. I looked at the top shows on Brit Box (streaming channel in the US), and most of them are police procedurals! I think the first comedy is Gavin & Stacy, which I haven’t seen but isn’t there something newer? My wife and I have enjoyed Coupling and Inbetweeners. Any suggestions?

Former Strictly star Pete Wicks volunteers at Basildon’s Dogs Trust. Plus: the most extraordinary Digging for Britain find yet. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, U&W

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A chilling documentary reveals how investigators tracked a murderer’s online activities. Plus: a rousing biography of Sir Alex Ferguson. Here’s what to watch this evening

10pm, Channel 4

“If there’s narcissism, they’re going to post things.” This chilling two-part documentary from the US tells the wild story of Todd Kohlhepp, a serial killer whose Amazon reviews foreshadowed the crimes he committed. It begins with Kala Brown, a woman who had been missing for two months, being found chained inside a container on Kohlhepp’s property – using a chain lock connected to his online review of padlocks. This triggered the unravelling of what had Kohlhepp had been doing online and in real life before then. Hollie Richardson

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Niamh Algar also stars in gripping new series Playing Nice. Plus: a brilliant documentary about the 7/7 London bombings. Here’s what to watch this evening

Sunday, 9pm, ITV1

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North Shore is a promising drama from the man behind Cold Feet. Plus: it’s the fabulous return of The Masked Singer! Here’s what to watch this evening

9.30pm, ITV1

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A touching documentary celebrates the end of the popular crime drama. Plus: Lucy Worsley unpicks our true crime obsession. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, ITV1

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Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman had the longest of mistiest paths to becoming a TV show, three decades after the DC Vertigo comic’s debut. The hesitation was down to the fantasy author resisting several awful movie attempts, and too much could have gone wrong in adapting the infinitely layered fantasy story, but Netflix brought a lugubrious and stunning spectacle to screens (full of Life Amid Death) as the first three graphic novels were initially adapted.

The second season has taken years to come together, which isn’t unheard of for a Netflix fantasy series with heavy VFX. Sadly, this could also conceivably be the final season, given that several Gaiman projects (like Amazon’s Good Omens) have been cut short, cancelled, or apparently indefinitely paused in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against the author (as initially reported by Tortoise Media). Those accusations do make the show’s bonus “Calliope” story hit differently than when the episode first surfaced, but that’s not a discussion for today. The Sandman‘s second season is still coming, so let’s (awkwardly) sift through what we can expect.

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How many episodes will we see? The first season brought 10 initial episodes and a bonus hour, but Netflix has not offered a count for the second season. However, Redanian Intelligence has passed on the rumor that we could see 12 new episodes of The Sandman when the show returns. This seems too good to be true, so we will await official word on that note, but the second season will leap headlong into Season Of Mists, the fourth graphic novel (considered the favorite volume of many The Sandman fans).

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22173199

The UK's biggest ever dinosaur trackway site has been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire.

About 200 huge footprints, which were made 166 million years ago, criss-cross the limestone floor.

They reveal the comings and goings of two different types of dinosaurs that are thought to be a long-necked sauropod called Cetiosaurus and the smaller meat-eating Megalosaurus.

The longest trackways are 150m in length, but they could extend much further as only part of the quarry has been excavated.

"This is one of the most impressive track sites I've ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of the size of the tracks," said Prof Kirsty Edgar, a micropalaeontologist from the University of Birmingham.

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This summer, more than 100 scientists, students and volunteers joined an excavation at the quarry which features on the new series of Digging for Britain.

The team found five different trackways.

Four of them were made by sauropods, plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four legs. Their footprints look a bit like an elephant's - only much much bigger - these beasts reached up to 18m in length.

Another track is thought to have been created by a Megalosaurus.

"It's almost like a caricature of a dinosaur footprint", explained Dr Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate palaeontologist from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

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One area of the site even reveals where the paths of a sauropod and megalosaurus once crossed.

The prints are so beautifully preserved that the team have been able to work out which animal passed through first - they believe it was the sauropod, because the front edge of its large, round footprint is slightly squashed down by the three-toed megalosaurus walking on top of it.

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The future fate of the trackways hasn't yet been decided but the scientists are working with Smiths Bletchington, who operate the quarry, and Natural England on options for preserving the site for the future.

They believe there could be more footprints, these echoes of our prehistoric past, just waiting to be discovered.

The excavation is featured on Digging for Britain on BBC Two at 20:00 on Wednesday 8 January. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer on 7 January

The actor plays Jim Swire, whose daughter was on Pan Am Flight 103. Plus: a bumper quiz from Jimmy Carr. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky AtlanticColin Firth stars in this drama about the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb that exploded over Lockerbie in 1988 and killed 270 people. Firth plays GP Jim Swire whose daughter was on the plane and who leads the search for justice – dedicating his life to finding out what happened. It’s gripping, well crafted and sensitively told, but there’s no escaping the palpable dread in this opening episode, which starts with the night of the bombing. Hollie Richardson

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22137422

On British telly in half an hour.

The US subtitles are indeed a thing:

Sparrows Can’t Sing attempts to represent the diversity of characters and cultures that were prevalent in the East End during the early 1960s, including those typically found in the local pub, as well as local tarts, Jewish tradesmen and spivs. Consequently the dialogue became a mix of rhyming slang, London Yiddish and thieves cant. It is no surprise that it became the first English language film to be released in the US with subtitles.

Also on the Internet Archive.

Claudia Winkleman has put her mittens on to welcome the faithfuls and traitors. Plus: celebrities get rough in Gladiators. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, BBC One

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The glitter queen brings in 2025 with style. Plus: the Hootenanny is back with Boomtown Rats, Marc Almond and Roger Taylor. Here’s what to watch this evening

11.30pm, BBC One

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22061871

His first stop is to witness the ancient practice of tar-barrelling in Ottery St Mary, Devon, where on 5 November every year the townsfolk run through the streets with flaming barrels of tar hoisted on their shoulders. It is a tradition centuries old, its origins lost in the mists of time; it could be something to do with Guy Fawkes, with purging the streets of evil, or with fumigating the thatch of the village cottages. Or it could have arisen from a warning given at the approach of the Spanish Armada. As with all the best folkloric traditions, there is room for all these possibilities and more.

Cooper stays to the very end (“I saw the midnight barrel!”) and is enchanted. “There was a look in their eyes by the end like they’d been somewhere ordinary people have never gone.” Later, when he is investigating morris dancing, he sidesteps all the usual mockery of what is, let’s face it, one of our more easily derided traditions, and says simply and without guile, “Looks like a pure thing, doesn’t it?” Maybe it’s the season we’re in but I almost felt tears begin to prick my eyes.

By the time he was earnestly thanking the Boss Morris group for letting him join in their winter solstice dance – “It uplifted my soul. The most connected I’ve ever been to nature” – the tears were definitely there. God bless you, Charlie/Kurtan, whichever and however much of each you are.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23718537

Let's chat about it. Beware of spoilers in the comments.

Diane Morgan’s big thinker asks what the point of life is. Plus: what did 2024 look like from space? Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two

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The Defoe family head to Barcelona for a wedding in this special two-parter. Plus: the story of Maria Callas, ahead of Angelina Jolie’s biopic. Here’s everything to watch this evening

9pm, BBC One

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Steve Wright, Edna O’Brien and Sven-Göran Eriksson are also remembered in Lives Well Lived. Plus: a night of Oasis. Here’s what to watch this evening

6pm, BBC Two

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Chris McCausland and Katherine Ryan are some of the comedians ready to win. Plus: the Beyond Paradise festive special. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 4

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I have never understood the association of ghost stories with Christmas. Is it because it is still a part-pagan festival? Is it because we don’t like to let ourselves be too happy? Or is it because the whole family is likely to be home and you need to remind yourself that there could be more malevolent forces out there than in here, whatever the toxic dynamics? Perhaps it’s just because it gets dark so early.

Whatever the reason, here is another half-hour shiver from Mark Gatiss, adapted this time not from the output of his beloved MR James, but from a more unexpected source. A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone is based on a short story called Man-size in Marble by E Nesbit. Yes, that E Nesbit! The Railway Children E Nesbit! She was a prolific writer of novels and short stories, for adults as well as children; Man-size in Marble was published as part of her Grim Tales collection (for grownups) in 1893.

Gatiss frames his version around Nesbit, played by Celia Imrie, in bed and suffering from the lung cancer that would kill her in 1924, but still the glamorous, sociable and mesmeric figure she always was. “I rather like lying in bed smoking Old Virginia and making phantoms in the air,” she says to the young Dr Zubin (Mawaan Rizwan), making his daily visit. He has read only The Railway Children, so she tells him one of her other tales and puts him in it. “Every ghost story should have a rational medical man to offset the nonsense …”

After eight years, the Brockmans are back and on fine form. Plus: a turkey crown and Christmas cracker battle it out. Here’s what to watch this evening

9.40pm, BBC OneIn news guaranteed to make you feel old, Sue and Pete Brockman (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) are now grandparents. Eight years after we last visited the family, the whole gang are back together. However, the course of family Christmas never runs smooth, and this one is no exception, with celebrations menaced by neighbours, hyenas and that old festive favourite, the replacement bus service. Phil Harrison

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Merry Christmas! It’s time for another adventure with our cheese-munching inventors. Plus: Gavin & Stacey returns for the big finale. Here’s what to watch today

6.10pm, BBC OneFeathers McGraw is back and that spells trouble for Wallace and Gromit in this eagerly awaited return for the claymation legends. But what has the villainous penguin got in store for our heroes? When Wallace invents a “smart gnome” that seems to have a mind of its own, he finds himself in trouble. But who is really controlling Norbot? As ever, Aardman’s work is effortlessly charming and the fine voice cast includes Reece Shearsmith, Peter Kay and Diane Morgan. Phil Harrison

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