The Independent from London, Greater London, England • 118

H1LBIISB0M WmO Jfflt 3WK 1 TV CHOICE FILM CHOICE The serious treatment of a serial killer Poetry Arena TonightlCL4Spm bbq Monster channel 4 Mm Get intoxicated: Pete Doherty doing the rock star thing In 'Arena' between Wuornos and her teenage girlfriend, Selby (Christina Ricci). Selbywasift the girlfriend's real name, by the way, and she didn't look much like RiccL (In fact, to my rnind she bore an odd resemblance to Hustle's Robert Glenistet) After Wuornos meets Selby in a bar and Selby runs away with her, the two end up on the road, staying in a succession of truly depressing cheap hotels while Wuornos tries to keep themboth in food Since she has no job skills to speak of her efforts to come across well at interviews are unspeakably painful she drops backinto prostitution. But one of her clients turns violent, and so she shoots him Other murders follow, half motivated by not very weU buried rage, halfby the realisation that it's a tragically easy way to steal a wallet and a car. We knowhowitall turned Jenkins doesn't take it that far, endj ing with the triaL The point isn't the plot, anyway: if the quite extraordinary performance by Theron, whose famous "ughing up" for the role was in fact aided by little more man weight gain and some prosthetic teeth. The rest the ungainly posture, the lumbering movements, the grotesque expressions is all just Theron.

What she captures is theun-selfconsdousness of a woman who never bothers with a mirror and has no idea what she looks like in any given moment, which, ironically, gains a slight edge of studied self-consciousness when it comes from Theron, who presumably isn't like that at all But the cartoonish quality is true to Wuornos, who pulled bizarre faces and to whom Theron somehow manages a strong resem- When Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos, executed in 2002 for shootings seven men she'd picked up on motorways in her work as a prostitute, was first brought to public attention, quite a few people spotted a quick buck. As filmmaker Nick Broomfield showed in his 1992 documentary Aileen Wuornos: the everyone she knew tried to grab themselves a few moments of fame on the back of knowing hen her mother, the police, even her lawyer, who wanted to advance his rock musk career The guy that ran the bar that Wuornos had frequented wasted no time in renaming her favourite hot sauce "Crazed Killer Hot Sauce" and Sell-ingT-mtsthatbilledhispubas" woridfknoiishoineofice-coldbeer and killer women" So, everyone wantedapieceofher; and to be fair she was trying to flog her side of the story too, Murderers can be celebrities these days It's terrrptingtoseethis2003iilm, written and directed by Patty Jenkins which won ChariizeTheron an Oscar; as part of this whole culture: an effort to exploit Wuornos's life so the beautiful leading lady can win the big award and the little-known director can make her name. Fortunately for all concerned, it's very much better than that Essentially, the film is a two-han-der, the bulk of it an exploration of Strictly Confidential Thursday, 9pm nyi that you may not be A. the martyr ed slaves of n. timeYou must get in-y toxicatedGet intoxi-catedand never pause for restwith wine, poetry, or virtueAs you choose," That's the quote from Baudelaire which kicks off tonight's Arena documentary on what's happening in the life of Babyshambles frontman and tabloid favourite Pete Doherty.

And this is pretty much how he has always styled himself, I guess: poetjunkie libertinebohetnian. The quote's also spot on in that if Doherty's done anything with his life so far it's embrace Baudelaire's advice. And yet, if you want my frank opinion, linking Doherty with a classic French poet is a bit much. Is he really that interesting? For my money, he's a spotty kid who's written a few songs, some of them passable, gone out with a famous model and taken a lot of drugs. And failed to turn up to gigs a lot.

That doesn't make him Baudelaire. Alright, so I'm stuffy then, and -to be fair willing to admit that Fye deliberately not taken an interest, due to a dislike of the tabloids. And Doherty's fans, of which there are not a few, obviously wouldn't agree, judging by the shrieking that greets his every appearance on stage throughout the documentary. And it is also true that he likes poetry and actually reads it Emily Dickinson, Rimbaud which is a point in his favour, As is the fact that he likes Hancock's Half Hour, which some might feel rates as a kind of poetry. (Okay, not really.

But it's nice to know that he's fond of it.) Scsfed free to tdl me that rm wrong. The documentary, which was directed by Ashtar Alkhirsan, was filmed over the course of a few months, andhas a rambling and ar-Htrary but engaging feel to it, which I suppose you'd expect, given its subject matter, Wearing a succession ofbig caps that make him look like a pale, overgrown toddler, Doherty downs what looks like chocolate milk and discusses what's on his mind drugs, art, spells in Pen-tonville: "well I don't want to sound daft but, really, it is what it is, it'sa prison" (you don't say). He's articulate enough there's a brain in there that's not quite yet been scrambled completely by his drug habit but you have to work pretty hard sometimes to pick that up through, the rushed sentences and the mumbling. No mentions of Kate Moss, either, for those hoping otherwise. All in all, not bacL TV" screenwriter Kay Mellor is, or used to be, something of a force for good, withBandpGoId-al995 drama about a group of prostitutes still the most admired work she's done so far.

Her latest project is Strictly Confidential, starring former Coronation Street actor Suranne Jones as policewoman turned sex therapist Linda Nelson and Christian Solimeno from Footballers' Wives as her husband Richard. It's not long before Linda is looking into two violent deaths that seem linked to a local swingers' club: but is Richard involved? Strictly Con-fidential, dealing as it does with Sex and death, certainly has a harder edge than most ITV drama. And that can only be a good thing. Cathy Pryor the relationship film the quality it needs to lift it above the level of exploitation; honesty. CP RADIO CHOICE DVD VIDEO Just My Luck DVD retail rental The Break-Up DV0 retail rental Desperate Housewives series 2 retail irentat When series one ended, there were those who said that Desperate Housewives would fizzle out once the truth behind Mary Alice's suicide was Following some horribly believable arguments, Jennifer Alston's art gallery manager dumps Vince Vaughn's motor-mouthed Chicago tour guide.

Lindsay Lohan plays a Manhattan PR girl who's blessed with astounding luck: whenever she steps out of her apartment building, rain clouds Wilfred Owen Week Throughout the week BBCRADJ03 All this week following Remembrance Day, Radio 3 celebrates the life and work of First World War poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), beginning with an edition of The Choir (Sunday 630pm) in which A led Jones introduces a performance of Britten's War Requiem, whose text includes poetry by Owen. Other highlights of the week include the premiere of a new choral work by Judith Bingham, commissioned by Radio 3 and based on Owen's letters (Performance on 3, Thursday 730pm) and a poetry reading in which serving soldiers read favourite verses of Owen. That's in Between The Ears The Soldier's Saturday at 10.15pm. Jenny Gilbert vanish and taxis appear, Butthatall changes when she kisses a stranger at a masquerade, ball and swaps his foul luck for her good fortune. You wont be shocked to learn that Just My Luck not a profound meditation on the significance of chance in our lives, Its just a snappy premise which the five credited writers fail to.

spin into a workable story, And to make matters worth, pop Irritants McFly are In it Nicholas Barber Luckily, tfiey were wrong. Not that all of the new storylines worked: call me a cynic, but Gabrielle's volte-face over the baby never did quite ring true, Bree's battle with the bottle was likewise faintly unbelievabland the secret that the new neighbours, the Applewhites were hiding in the. cellar was, shall we say, overwrought But who cares? Like, its characters, Desperate Housewives is simply too witty and engaging for its flaws to really matter. CP But neltherwill move out of their apartment so, while they're waiting for the property to be sold, they live in separate rooms and do their best to torment one another, ft works well as a loose compilation of sketchesand If a pleasure to see Vaughn gabbing away with his old Swingers buddy, Jon Favreau, But ultimately most viewers, male and female, will conclude that Aniston was dead right to jilt the slob who's been taking her for granted, NB.