Tonight’s TV tips
School Around The Corner is back for a new series. Ray D’Arcy meets schools from all over the country and tonight children from St Patrick’s National School, Drogheda and Lurga National School, Gort take centre stage.
Through the eyes of the youngsters, Ray finds out what cow poo really tastes like, what happens when you fall in love, the modern way kids make up with their best friends and is put on the spot when challenged to a bit of one on one Taekwondo – needless to say it doesn’t go well.
Every week will also feature a celebrity going back to their old school and this week it’s chef Rachel Allen who returns to her old alma mater, where we find out it was a case of ‘could do better’ as she nearly got chucked out of her Home Economics class. There’s also an old school classic performed by talented young Blues guitarist and singer Melina
Du-Vivier Keane.
BBC Two’s 50th anniversary has given the channel a brilliant excuse to raid the archives and bring us clips of some of its best-loved shows.
This programme is slightly different, as it brings us some rarer gems, including footage that never actually made it to air.
So, just when you thought that thanks to the combined efforts of BBC Two and Dave, there couldn’t possibly be a second of QI that you hadn’t already seen, this programme unearths the pilot so we can see Stephen Fry’s very first stint in the quizmaster’s chair.
However, not all pilots went on to launch such successful runs _ this programme also features a clip from a sitcom starring the band Madness.
We’ll also get a look at the prototype Borat, as Sacha Baron Cohen is seen in the guise of an Albanian called Christo, and there are also clips featuring Spike Milligan, Pete and Dud, Rik Mayall and Billy Connolly, as well as a few celebrity talking heads to put it all in context.
We know zombies are after our brains – but should we also consider giving them our hearts?
That’s one of the issues raised by this inventive supernatural drama, looking at how suffers of ’Partially Deceased Syndrome’ are integrated back into society.
Not everyone is in favour of such tolerance though, as in the second episode of this second series, Maxine imposes an undead travel ban, along with stringent new measures designed to make people with PDS pay back their debt to society. But while it may put a stop to Kieren’s plans of escape, he discovers that the Give Back Scheme does have some benefits...
Elsewhere, 19-year-old Jem gets a popularity boost at her new school when it’s revealed she’s a former war hero. So, when a terrifying rabid is released on to the corridors, her classmates expect her to step up and protect them.
And Amy is worried about her health, but tries to drown her troubles in sheep’s brains. We’ve all been there...
Sorry cynics, there’s no doubt that singer-songwriter Emeli Sande was a huge fan of Frida Kahlo, long before ITV came calling with this documentary – she had the Mexican painter’s face tattooed on her arm four years ago.
At the time, Sande had just taken the brave step of leaving medical school to work on her first album, and she hoped that Kahlo’s own triumph over adversity would inspire her.
It clearly worked – Sande’s album went on to become Britain’s biggest selling record of 2012 – and now she’s repaying the favour with a pilgrimage to the painter’s native Mexico.
The singer achieves her ambition of visiting La Casa Azul (’the Blue House’) where Kahlo grew up, and also learns more about her battle against childhood polio, and the horrific injuries she sustained in a bus crash when she was 18.
But Sande gets even closer to her heroine when she’s given the chance to try on one of the artist’s own dresses.
In the second programme of the new series Gay Byrne talks to Rory O’Neill, better known as Panti Bliss.
Mayo’s famous drag artist, whose parents are devout Catholics, is full of surprises, including his willingness to go the barricades to defend his Christian critics’ freedom of speech.
(2011) Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed in Fast Five.
In this instalment, additional returning favourites Jordana Brewster, Chris Ludacris Bridges, and Tyrese Gibson, assemble for a high-stakes race that places an unlikely alliance of cops and racers in from Rio de Janeiro.
In Brazil they must defeat a corrupt businessman who wants them all dead.
Dwayne Johnson joins the cast as the dogged federal agent whose strike team tears through South America in hot pursuit, but soon has a difficult time determining the good men from the bad.
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese
Gibson
77%
Fresh from winning the Best Actor Oscar for his turn as Maximus in Gladiator, Russell Crowe stars as brilliant mathematician John Nash.
Tracing 50 years of his life, the film centres on Nash’s struggles with paranoid delusions and schizophrenia, which threaten his chances of enjoying a promising career with the CIA. But, despite his mental illness, he’s able to win a Nobel Prize for economics.
Although the film was criticised for sanitising certain aspects of John Nash’s life, Ron Howard does a great job with this classy biopic.
Crowe thoroughly deserved his second Oscar nomination in a row, and was unlucky to lose out to Denzel Washington, who picked up the gong for his performance as a bent cop in Training Day.
The supporting performances are decent too, with the Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly, Adam Goldberg, and Ed Harris all on impressive form.
Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Paul Bettany
76%
[media=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8CAdm_1gZA[/
media]
Small-time crook George is released from prison and turns to his old boss for a job, but is annoyed when he’s assigned as a chauffeur and bodyguard to high-class prostitute Simone.
She’s not too happy about the arrangement either, but despite getting off to a bumpy start, George gradually finds himself falling for her.
So when Simone reveals she’s trying to rescue a teenage prostitute from the clutches of a sadistic pimp, George agrees to help – and in the process lands himself in danger.
It’s one of the best British films of the 1980s, a taut thriller that also tackles class and racial issues without ever becoming heavy-handed.
But it’s the performances by Michael Caine, Cathy Tyson and the late Bob Hoskins that will really stay with you.
Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Robbie Coltrane, Kate Hardie, Sammi Davis
96%
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