Film and TV

David Mitchell, Rob Brydon and Lee Mack attempt to pull the wool over each other’s eyes in Would I Lie To You?
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TV Choice: Liars, The Mask and an undercover council boss

By Hugh Fort
July 22, 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.

Undercover Boss, Channel 4, Tonight, 9pm

High-flying company exec-types no doubt skilled in the art of meaningless business jargon head back to the shop floor to find out if the cogs that run their company are turning smoothly.

In this episode, Kevan Collins, chief executive of Tower Hamlets council in London, goes to work with his frontline staff.

He has to make £50 million worth of cuts over the next three years and is spending time with the drones to find out who is expendable.

This is a cheerful sounding show.

Surely people will know who the chief executive of the council is and what he looks like?

Also, when a man they’ve never seen before turns up in an expensive suit followed by a camera crew, their suspicions must surely be aroused?

Would I Lie to You?, BBC One, Friday, 10.35pm

New series of a popular comedy panel show, yet it’s on at the time a lot of people will be going to bed.

Rob Brydon, David Mitchell and Lee Mack are back for the excellent game where celebrity guests reveal amazing stories about themselves and the other team have to work out whether the stories are real or totally made up.

David Mitchell is joined by former This Morning host Fern Britton and thesp Richard E Grant; Lee Mack welcomes Sanjeev Bhaskar and Martin Clunes.

The Mask, Five, Sunday, 8.30pm

Rubber-faced funnyman Jim Carrey was clearly put on this earth to star in this comic bookesque movie, which was – perhaps unsurprisingly – based on a cult comic book series.

It was made 16 years ago, but the special effects turning Carrey’s mild-mannered bank clerk
Stanley Ipkiss into the crazy, wacky Mask cartoon-like character are still pretty good and
stand the test of time.

Paying tribute to the Warner Brothers cartoon characters of years gone by, Ipkiss finds an ancient mask, which he puts on and turns into the super-cool character.

The film provides an ideal excuse for Carrey to show off his main talents – silly voices and pulling stupid faces – which in my book is a winner.

It’s also the film debut for Cameron Diaz, who unsurprisingly plays a super-hot love interest.

The Men Who Jump Off Buildings, Channel 4, Wednesday, 9pm

A Cutting Edge documentary team meet some lunatics who like jumping off some tallish buildings around Britain.

To me, a self-confessed abject coward, this is up there with cave diving in terms of the
Things-I-Would-Not-Do-Even-If-Someone-Was-Holding-A-Revolver-To-My-Head category.

The jumpers will no doubt say what an adrenaline rush it is, but to me jumping off Blackpool Tower, Nelson’s Column, Wembley Stadium and the Millennium Dome is nuts.

These aren’t that high, but surely you’d break your legs when you land?

Or am I missing something?

Also, if your parachute doesn’t open, you’re a goner.

Not for me thanks very much.

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