Tonight: Time to get cultured

Posted by Remote Control on May 26, 2007 9:33 AM | Permalink

Programmes which talk about doing 'culture' tend to lose my interest because they often become just a bit too broad in their remit.

But the Culture Show (BBC 2, 7.15pm) appears to be making a virtue of such a broad brush.

Tonight, Mark Kermode, the host, flies to Cannes to see both sides of the film festival. He meets seasoned film makers Joel and Ethan Cohen but also digs a bit deeper to see how an amateur film mkaer, a horror film buyer and an unknown actor get on in the capital of glitz.

Deep breath because it doesn't stop here. There's also a report on the changing role of pubs in British culture, while the Scissor Sisters will also be discussing their work - so that's bound to be colourful.

Bizarrely, art critic Graham Dixon will be reviewing his 'favourite land art' from the air - which presumably means it has quite a narrow audience normally. Talk about bringing culture to the masses.

I might also give Casualty (BBC 1, 9.05pm) a try tonight. It's won a Bafta after all, so it must be doing something right.

I had drifted out of it a bit - largely because it is rather 'tick box' each week (does one of the patients die, YES, does one of the patients have a comedy element, YES, does management get portrayed in a bad light, YES) and therefore can be a bit samey.

Maybe that's a downside of having to be on 52 weeks of the week, rather than in the old days, when it actually had seasons. Although we called them series in those days.

But one programme certainly worth keeping an eye out for tonight is over on Channel 5. Angela's Eyes (11.05pm) is a new FBI series to come over from America. It has been showing on one of Five's sister digital channels, and is about FBI Angela Henson (attractive, feisty etc etc) solving cases with her knack of twigging when a person is lying.