Film and TV

Stephen Hawking
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TV Choice: Stephen Hawking, dinner parties & Outlaw

By Mike Pyle
September 16, 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.

Outlaw, Five, Today, 10.10pm

Somehow director Nick Love managed to get two good films – Football Factory and The Business – out of Danny ‘dire’ Dyer and came close to making it a hat-trick with this 2006 effort.

The premise is promising.

A rag-tag bunch who have all been left disillusioned by the authorities’ inability to deal with violent crime take matters into their own hands.

Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins star alongside Dyer. With a couple of other comrades, they form a guerrilla group and take on the thugs who ruined their lives in violent confrontations.

On the plus side there are some good performances, notably from Danny Dyer who plays a surprisingly mild-mannered character, and the issues at stake feel topical, heartfelt and relevant.

But the whole thing is suddenly debased when the film’s simple but compelling morals get a bit blurred.

The gang’s leader claims he wants to hand out justice to “paedophiles, dealers, bullies, junkies…” fair enough, “…and c***s.” Oh, right.

With that one line the entire point of the film gets chucked out of the window and it’s hard to take it seriously from there on.

Never mind, eh.

Come Dine With Me, Channel 4, Friday, 8pm

You're never more than half an hour away from the start of an episode of Come Dine With Me. I don’t know if that’s true, but its how it feels.

I do like the show but it has got to the point where I hear Dave Lamb narrating my meals in my head and my girlfriend says she won’t cook for me any more if I hold up a score card after dinner again.

For example today, on various channels, there are episodes of Come Dine with Me starting at 2.20pm, 5pm, 6pm, 8pm and 9pm.

The one I want to draw your attention to is on Channel 4 at 8pm, because it’s the start of a new series.

The four contestants are from Saaafend.

The first hosts a musical-themed evening and guests are intrigued by her collection of religious memorabilia.

Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Channel 4, Saturday, 8pm

We've all spent time in the pub discussing whether aliens exist and if they’d be friendly ET-style creatures or monstrous, slathering beasts like the ones from Aliens (it’s on Channel 4 tonight at 11.20pm, while you can catch so-so sequel Aliens vs Predator Requiem , also on Channel 4 on Saturday at 11.10pm).

Everyone’s got a view but most of us generate them from half-baked stories about funny coloured lights in the sky and old episodes of The X-Files.

Stephen Hawking, however, knows his stuff and what he thinks really matters. The only problem is that he’s so clever I can’t understand what he’s on about most of the time.

In this new series Stephen explores the mysteries of the universe – from where it all started to whether we’re alone in it or not.

Watch it, memorise what he says then repeat it to X-Factor watching friends and confuse them. Just remember to change the subject before they can ask questions.

Lost Land of the Tiger, BBC One, Tuesday, 9pm

This series is on over three consecutive nights and is about a team of scientists who go to the jungles and mountains of Bhutan to save the near-extinct tiger.

The group also looks for snow leopards and clouded leopards as part of an ambitious project to save species from extinction.

For one member of the expedition, biologist Dr Alan Rabinowitz, the trip is all the more poignant as he has been diagnosed with incurable leukaemia.

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