The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 54

16 DEC 18-25 2000 XThe 2Horninot 3jcralb the guide december nnoviesdouganderson tvpreviews 7 1 goons, he decides to act. Justice prevails and poetic justice is the vehicle. Sean Connery, in his third picture, and Jill Ireland are among the supporting cast in this serviceable thriller. The Gaucho (1 964) SBS, 12.30 pm A troupe of Italian film industry r-r-g bods, led by a voracious PR hack, E2S3 arrives in Buenos Aires for a film festival junket. They do the rounds and experience the abundant hospitality of an expatriate Italian businessman, Mr Marucchelli, who suffers from an excess of money and an extravagant nostalgia for the old country.

While Mr Marucchelli is squiring the junketeers about town, the PR man busies himself getting to know Mrs in an intimate fashion. Pretty tired. Nobody Runs Forever (1 968) aka The High Commissioner ABC, 1 .20 am (Thursday) The Australian High VjTr Commissioner in London seems jreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) Mine, 8.30 pm Robert Towne, using the nom de plume P. H. Vazak, attempts 231 to breathe new life into the apeman saga.

He, and almost everyone involved, fails as Hugh Hudson's film -or what's left of it can't make up its mind where (if anywhere) it's going. The first half recounts the familiar Greystoke legend in rather more detail the synopsis that begins each issue of Phantom comics. And it's decently done. The heir apparent to the Greystoke title returns to the family's sstate in England where he encounters a dotty old uncle, Ralph Richardson, and chances upon his ape mother locked in a dark room. Naturally, there is the aristocratic young woman (Andie MacDowell) to educate him in the ways af the toffs, but his romantic desires and culture shock are pitifully reduced to incoherent pomposity.

Not even a crackerjack cast, trying hard, can elevate it from the depths of absurdity. A sort of Edwardian Planet of the Apes with Glenn Close dubbing the voice of Ms MacDowell. Even the dubious distinction of being Richardson's last screen role (discounting the Paul McCartney lozenge Give My Regards To Broad Street) is of slender consequence. A pity. It could have been quite good.

Hell Drivers (1957) ABC, 11.35 pm Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) Var-jr gets a job driving trucks and soon discovers various lurks are in train most of them conducted by a chap named Red (Patrick McGoohan) and his offsider, Cartley. It's an old scam: create "phantom" drivers, put them on the payroll and draw down their pay while getting real drivers chaps like Tom to do the extra shifts and carry the freight. Work is hard to get and intimidation is par for the course. But when one of Tom's mates is "fixed" by McGoohan's Pillow talk: Cushion Kids is strictly for the littlies. Judging Amy Nine, 7.30 pm Alas, poor Marlee Matlin.

After a stupendous Academy Award- tragically killed children coming back to do drivers a good turn. However all the spooks in the world or the next can't stop this from being a dull, imitative piece of television. If you want to see the original, stayed tuned to Ten for The Essential X-Files at 9.30pm Christmas Glory from Westminster Abbey ABC, 8.30 pm to have bumped off his good lady wife as a prelude to entering into a new and more shall we say -satisfying marital arrangement. And while it is not unusual for the government of the day to appoint the worst kind of time-serving hacks and lags to such positions, offing mother just isn't on even if the events in question occurred 25 years ago. So Scobie Malone, a gritty detective (superbly played by Rod Taylor), arrives in London to have a quiet chat with Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer).

Sir James is tremendously helpful and Malone finds him most obliging. He saves the ambassador from an asassination attempt and is rewarded with a night in the arms of Madame Cholon (Daliah Lavi). He cops a flogging and again save Quentin's life. It turns out Madame Cholon is up to no good and an explosive tete-a tete between her and Mrs Quentin concludes proceedings. Awful tripe.

You can't beat Westminster Abbey for regal Christmas fare and if winning debut in Children of a Lesser God, her deafness means that this eminently watchable actor has been confined to doing guest appearances as The Deaf Character in forgettable television shows such as this. Tonight our resident judge, the gorgeously bland Amy (Amy Brenneman), ponders the custody case of an African-American boy. Meanwhile Amy's social worker mom, Maxine Gray (Tyne Daly), tries to sort out the custody of a profoundly deaf seven-year-old. While the court-appointed guardian (Marlee Matlin) is concerned that the boy no longer uses American Sign Language and is missing out on deaf culture, the bossy Maxine reckons he should stay with his older brother who loves him. Mysterious Ways Ten, 8.30 pm Cushion Kids Nine, 4 pm rx If I were aged one.

Cushion Kids would probably look like super viewing. It's a relentlessly colourful and up-beat puppet show. Set in a magical land beyond the clouds called Cushion Country, this place is populated by walking, talking cushions. There's the grumbling storekeeper Grumpy Lumpy, the peppy twins Pippa and Cosmo, the vain cafe keeper Polly Posh, the baby Bub who can't talk properly and wears a nappy and Cushion Country's very own Diver Dan, the laid-back Baz. I'm sure very small kids would adore Cushion Kids.

The cushions have big bulging eyes and little squeaky voices, the costumes are exquisite, the colours are psychedelic and the sets are licorice-allsorts cute. I personally found it almost unbearable to watch and wanted to throw up every time the girl cushions started giggling and going on about being best friends and looking after their dollies and their bows, while the boy cushions were out surfing and inventing stuff. But the publicity tells me that the show is all about difference and the importance of letting people be who they want to be, "the importance of individual choice and individual The show comes from Kids Like Us productions, Helena Harris and Posie Graeme Evans, best known for H1-5. paytv pickoftheweek you've got something else to do, like wrapping presents or a summer pedicure, this program might make pleasant background viewing. HRH Prince Philip introduces the Abbey, touching lightly on its incredibly ancient history and pointing out that he was married there (even if Madonna wasn't, nyah, nyah, nyah).

Then we launch straight into a program of Christmas music as well as festive readings from Poet's Corner, delivered by the likes of Joan Plowright, Richard Griffiths and a radiantly beautiful Greta Scacchi. The choir whips through the carols with soloists who include Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel and an excmciatingly over-trained Charlotte Church. The highlights come in the readings, particularly Griffiths's rendition of Scrooge and Frederick Coleman's evocative recollections of Christmas Day in the trenches in 19 14. Jane Freeman Following the success of The X-Files, many US programs tried to Chris Isaak: Baja Sessions Music Country, 9 pm What better gift could you ask for at Christmas than a handsome man with a glorious voice celebrating iummertime with lots of great songs sung against a backdrop of palm trees, golden sunsets, hibiscus, smiles and laughter, perfect surfing waves and sweet romance? In 1996 Chris Isaak, he of Wicked Game fame, travelled down to the Baja region of California to record an album, do some surfing and soak up the summertime ambience. This unpretentious documentary captures the trip, the fun, the easy times and, of course, all the songs.

Give yourself a classy Christmas present. Watch and swoon. Bruce Elder jump on the same bandwagon. Mysterious Ways is one of these derivative programs and has almost nothing going for it. The uncharismatic Peggy and Declan are our fearless investigators into the paranormal and tonight they encounter the spirits of amradio I.

00 Instrumental Bach. Bach, J.S. Sonata No 2, French Overture 2.00 For Smaller Forces. Paganini, N. Variations On Carnival In Venice.

Hummel, J. Sonata In Flat, Op 13. Weber, CM. Five Songs: My Lieder, My Song: Lament; Little Fritz; Wnat Magic Draws Me Into Your Soul; He To Her. Spohr, L.

Quintet No 6 In Minor, Op 129. Salieri, A. Triple Concerto. 4.00 Keeping You Company. Chot)in, F.

Waltzes: In A Flat, Op 42 In Sharp Minor, Op 64 Sullivan, A. Excerpts From The Gondoliers. Falla, M. De In The Gardens Of The Sierra Cordoba. Charpentier, G.

Naples, Heuberger, R. In Chambre Separee. Glazunov, A. Summer, From The Seasons. Catalani A.

Prelude To Act Mi; Andro Lontani, Wood, H. Variations On A Once Popular Humorous Song. Slovak. Manfredini, F. Christmas Concerto In Op 3 No 12.

Wolf-Ferrari, E. The Camorrists; Intermezzi 1 And 2, From Jewels Of The Madonna. Williams, J. If We Were In Love. Puccini, G.

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Strauss, R. Don Juan. Op 20. Mahler, G. Songs Of A Wayfarer.

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West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Incl. MacCunn: Land of the Mountain and the Flood, Overture, Op Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in 503; Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op 56 (Scottish).

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