ST PEPPER’S MUSICAL REVOLUTION – WITH HOWARD GOODALL, BBC2, Saturday, 9pm
THIS show celebrates the 50th anniversary of this famous record which “changed the rules of what a pop album could or should be”. “Nothing like it had been seen or heard before,” enthuses presenter Howard Goodall.
He walks us through the songs, explaining what made them so special, and his joyous and excitable words are supplemented by candid footage and audio snippets of The Beatles at work in the studio.
When the band became idolised and adored, their music was drowned out at concerts by screaming fans, so they decided to stop touring.
“We can’t develop when no-one can hear us!” said Paul McCartney.
No longer needing to make music which could be performed live, they were able to experiment with multiple instruments, and to layer notes on top of notes, creating “a kaleidoscope of sound”.
So we partly owe this great album to annoying teenage girls, but also to the weird genius of The Beatles, which is celebrated here.
CARDINAL, BBC4, Saturday, 9pm
AN old man who looks like Santa realises someone has broken into his frost-covered shed. Poking around and grumbling, he finds some frozen fingers pushing up out of the snow. It’s the body of a child, Katie Pine, who has been missing for years.
Oh dear, not another Scandi-crime drama? No, it’s not, actually. This one is Canadian, though it’s getting harder to tell them all apart. The main difference is that this one doesn’t have subtitles. Cardinal is a maverick detective who previously worked on the Katie Pine case, but was demoted and removed because of all that cheeky maverickness! Now that her body has been found, and his previous troublesome hunches proved correct, his superiors bring him back on the case which was once his obsession.
And of course this type of story demands that our cheeky maverick cop has a complicated personal life, and a boss who wants to keep him in line.
If you love snow-bound crime, you’ll like this. Otherwise, don’t bother. There’s nothing new here.
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THE HANDMAID’S TALE, C4, Saturday, 9pm
I’M in awe of this series. When a new episode pops up in my inbox, I drop whatever I’m doing and sit down to watch it. Tonight, a van calls at the door for Offred, but thankfully it’s not black.
If a black van comes for you, then it means you’re being taken away to torture and death. Instead, this van is red, and it arrives to collect the local handmaidens so they can attend a birth. Janine, who had her eye plucked out last week, is in labour. Will she do her duty to Gilead and produce a healthy baby?
A crowd of handmaidens assist at the birth, chanting “BREATHE!”
and “PUSH!”, showing how a woman’s function is restricted to creepy rituals in this horrible new world.
Back at the house, Offred is told to attend a secret, late-night meeting with the Commander, and she is terrified by what he might demand.
No-one is allowed to enter a Commander’s room, not even his wife. He already receives sex from Offred so what could he possibly want?
PAUL HOLLYWOOD’S BIG CONTINENTAL ROAD TRIP, BBC2, Saturday, 9pm
SOMETIMES when you hear a weird statistic, you’ll shake your head, thinking it must be wrong.
That happened to me when I watched this episode and I had to rewind it back to make sure I’d heard correctly but, yes, it’s true: Volkswagen produce more hot dogs than cars.
You can feast on these sausages in Wolfsburg, a city devoted to the car maker, where almost everyone is employed by Volkswagen and nearly everyone owns one. When you come to collect your new car in Wolfsburg it’s delivered to you from a huge “vending machine” where thousands of shiny cars sit waiting in a glass tower, with levers reaching up and in to scoop them out.
Paul Hollywood goes on a road trip across Germany, trying out some of their most famous cars, such as Porsche, Mercedes and BMW.
He ends at the notorious Nurburgring race track where he zooms round with Al Murray, and both seem quite scared and nauseous.
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