The short tenure of Brian Clough (played by Martin Sheen) as Leeds manager is explored in The Damned United
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TV Choice: Wossy, Celeb Masterchef & The Damned Utd
By Mike PyleJuly 15, 2010
Every week our square-eyed reporters take a look at what’s on TV – the highlights and the lowlights – and pick what they think you should watch or avoid.
Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
, BBC One, Friday, 10.35pm
Tonight Wossy winds up his career with the BBC and, to celebrate, he has arranged for some of the world’s biggest stars to come and join him.
There were rumours that his final guests would be Russell Brand
Except that’s not true either.
What we’ll get is the three of them taking it in turns to sit on Jonathan Ross’ sofa while the host acts like an idiot.
Tonight’s the Night, BBC One, Saturday, 8pm
Remember Jim’ll Fix It? The BBC obviously does and they’ve tried to bring it up to date with this new series.
The premise is excellent – find worthy people and make their wildest dreams come true. Well, not their wildest dreams (although that could make a more fun, if fairly debauched TV show), but the dreams that involve meeting minor celebrities.
The series kicks off with a Walsall boy who gets to perform with street dancers Diversity and a mum of three who wants to sing with Dionne Warwick.
One of the best things about Jim’ll Fix It was presenter Jimmy Savile. A wild haired man in a tracksuit, dripping with bling and smoking a cigar while telling kids he could ‘fix it for them’, was brilliantly sinister.
John Barrowman, with his unbridled wide-eyed enthusiasm for absolutely everything, is equally unsettling in my book and makes the perfect replacement for Savile.
The Damned United, BBC Two, Sunday, 9pm
This is the film version of the book about the greatest manager in the history of football’s short-lived and ill-fated time in charge of Leeds United.
Brian Clough changed football forever when he led Nottingham Forest to the European Cup in 1979 and 1980, having previously guided unfancied Derby County to league success earlier that decade.
In between the triumphs he was appointed manager of Leeds United – but his tenure at the Yorkshire club only lasted 44 days and this is an adaptation of a book written by
David Peace about that month-and-a-half.
It’s worth stressing that Peace’s book is a work of fiction – and the Clough family condemned it for portraying Brian as being irrational, paranoid and spiteful.
In the film, Michael Sheen plays Clough so well that he brings across the great manager’s charisma and charm in a way that the printed page doesn’t.
The Damned United is followed by a documentary called Brian Clough: The Greatest Manager England Never Had.
By the way, I am a Forest fan. It’s been hard not to let my bias show through but I think I have done so admirably.
A brilliant film for both football and non-football fans alike.
Celebrity Masterchef, BBC One, Wednesday, 8pm
TV’s shoutiest hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace return for the fifth series of the celebrity version of the show that gives famous people the chance to pit their culinary skills against each other and get bellowed at in the process.
Actor Neil Stuke, javelin chucker Tessa Sanderson and DJ Nihal Arthanayake (that’s a mouthful before they’ve even started cooking) are among the contestants.
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