IF there are any nervous horses in the vicinity, please ask them to leave while we discuss Picnic at Hanging Rock (BBC2, Wednesday, 9.05pm). Then again, horses played a key role in this daring reimagining of Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel, so maybe they should stick around. In, out, whatever, shut that barn door and let us crack on.
You were in for a surprise if Peter Weir's starchy movie was your only experience of the tale of four young ladies who vanish while on an outing from their boarding school in Australia. This adaptation oozed grooviness, with Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer as the sunglasses-wearing, secrets-hoarding owner of the school. When she strutted her stuff, rock music played. Even when she was not strutting, it played. The style recalled Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola’s achingly trendy film about the French queen which featured New Order and Bow Wow Wow on the soundtrack.
Episode one was stuffed with portent, with a lot of sighing going on, strange noises occurring, and horses sweating and snorting all over the shop. I think sex was in the air, or maybe it was just awfully hot.
Sharp Objects (Sky Atlantic, Monday, 9pm) was sheer class from start to finish of the first episode. Perhaps it was the obvious amount of money spent bringing to the screen Gillian Flynn’s novel about a washed-up reporter returning to her hometown to investigate the disappearances of young girls. More likely it was Amy Adams, genuine movie star, playing said reporter. Between her character’s taste for swigging miniatures and her general to heck with the world attitude, Adams is a long way from her princess days in Enchanted. It suits her.
Boosting the class factor further is Patricia Clarkson playing mommie dearest. Think Blanche Dubois with a switchblade. Show creator Marti Noxon has a clever way of blending past and present in flashbacks, which might become irritating in time but for now is mesmerising, like the rest of this drama.
The third drama offering this week – anyone would think schedulers were trying to make up for the wall to wall football lately – was Keeping Faith (BBC1, Thursday, 9pm). This story of a missing husband hailed from Wales and first aired there before becoming an iPlayer hit.
The central character was called Faith (see what they did there?). She and her husband were solicitors, they had two wonderful daughters and a new baby boy. Life looked sweet, so you knew something was off.
There has not been a happy family on TV since The Waltons, and Faith’s brood was no exception. Her husband, whom she called “Mr Reliable” – another clue there – was prone to going into corners and looking pensive. I’d have diagnosed trapped wind myself.
Faith, who prided herself on being a bit of a “larf”, did not notice, so busy was she pulling faces, going out with the girls and generally mucking about like Norman Wisdom in a Seasalt raincoat. She was, in short, a borderline pain in the neck. Perhaps she will grow on us.
Business is home to many a great tale, such as the one told in The Rise and Fall of Nokia (BBC4, Tuesday, 9pm). By the 1980s, Nokia ruled the world of mobile phones, but by 2013 the Finnish firm was out of the business. The reasons were many and varied, but seemed to come down to the company growing too big, too fast, and forgetting its roots.
We heard from former employees who recalled the days when Nokia felt like one big family. The footage told its own story of the fast moving phone market, which went from the first “bricks” costing £3000 to cheap as chips models.
The researchers had found an inventor who had come up with an early version of the iPhone. He offered it to Nokia, who turned it down, arguing that touch screens were just a gimmick. Oops.
Eat Well for Less (BBC1, Thursday, 8pm) was back for a fifth series. Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin’s consumer programme works on the “if it ain’t broke…” principle. The format has not changed, beginning with Gregg and Chris ambushing a family on the supermarket shop. The family are shown how to swap unhealthy choices for healthy ones, brand names for cheaper supermarket versions, and how to cook some simple dishes.
The Atkinson family from Blackpool were spending £400 a week on food, with takeaways accounting for a large part of the bill. When dad heard the total he shed a tear, as well he might.
The biggest result was not the savings achieved but the way dad and the two adult sons discovered this cooking lark was not too bad really. Mum, sick of being the chief cook in the household, beamed as dish after dish was put before her. Bon appetit Mrs Atkinson.
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