Weekend TV: John Adams - James May's Big Ideas

Published on Sunday 28 September 2008 19:42

SCHEDULING is a funny thing. You would have thought, perhaps, that the mini-series that just last week won more Emmy awards in a single year than any American TV show ever before (13 in all), including for its two movie-star lead actors, would have been given a more prominent showing than 5:30pm on Saturday, on a digital channel at that.

John Adams, More4, Saturday

James May's Big Ideas, BBC2, Sunday

It's hardly a time when many people are up for watching anything other than family adventure shows, reality contests or dopey home video compilations.

Oh well: the downside to having a strong TV industry of our own is that the best offerings from across the Atlantic do sometimes get squeezed into off-peak slots. If the alternative was that every piece of big budget US tosh was gobbled up British prime time, perhaps it's not so bad to have to hunt out the quality imports, like Mad Men or The American Office.

The few sad geeks like me who did tune in to the Emmy-laden John Adams found Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney acting their historical socks off in an intelligent drama about one of the founding fathers (and second President) of the United States. Now, for those of us without a grounding in early American history, it was admittedly a little hard at first to follow as the story plunged right in to its setting of pre-revolutionary Boston. Giamatti's Adams, a lawyer and descendant of Puritan immigrants, was called on to defend British soldiers who'd fired on a crowd of protestors, which he did with enough fairness to win him respect from both sides.

Admittedly, I may have missed some of the finer points of the trial by being distracted by the opposing lawyer, played by the main executive from the mobile phone cinema adverts – you know, the ones where Hollywood stars pitch him ideas for serious films and he insists on inserting phones. As Adams passionately argued his case, I was too busy giggling and expecting his opponent to jump up and shout: "No, no, no – not malice aforethought, malice a-phonethought! We don't want taxation without representation, we want text messaging!" Poor mobile phone guy; his career is forever ruined.

That aside, the rest of the 1770 setting and locations were immensely convincing, as were the performances. Giamatti plays Adams with a mixture of self-doubt and pomposity. It's not a million miles away from his career-making role in Sideways, but his mannerisms and quiet, almost mumbling voice are precisely judged.

As his clever, loyal wife, Laura Linney is as good as always. She would make, incidentally, a rather interesting Sarah Palin in the inevitable biopic.

There are many hugely popular things whose appeal totally passes me by: the music of Oasis, the looks of Brad Pitt, the taste of pasta. It's okay, you'll all come round one day. The presenters of Top Gear are firmly in this category, though clearly many find them charmingly cheeky, not irritatingly juvenile.

There's nothing offensive about James May, he's just a bland sort of fellow who likes boys' toys. James May's Big Ideas is really just a vehicle (ho ho) for him to present himself as an amiable idiot while trying out wacky gadgets, like a flying car – well, more of a hovering car, really – and a rocket belt fuelled by hydrogen peroxide, which lifts him about a foot in the air. He could get higher on a pogo stick.

It might have been interesting if he cut out the patronising twaddle about people being "brainy" and actually engaged with the science behind this stuff.

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES

BBC1, 4:35pm

With The Doctor living it up in Stratford for a while and Torchwood being, well, a bit rubbish, Lis Sladen is carrying the torch for Who geeks of all ages as Sarah Jane Smith, investigative reporter and adoptive mother of an alien clone. Unlike its occasionally patchy sister series, this never disappoints, and here Sarah Jane and the gang face up to a menace that we all thought had been dealt with by Doctor Dave earlier this year, and who is one of SJ's oldest enemies.

DISPATCHES: CAMERON'S MONEY MEN

Channel 4, 8pm

Although Dispatches is well past its radical and investigative late-1980s glory days, it can still occasionally do some good legwork to get the real story. With a Tory victory looking likely at the next election, Antony Barnett pokes around to find out just who is paying for the campaign to shove David Cameron into Number 10, and how that money is being used to influence marginal seats.

FIFTH GEAR

Five, 8pm

Yes, even the title is a knock-off of the genuinely entertaining Top Gear but it extends the remit a bit beyond cars, this week with Jason Plato trying his hand at army helicopters. Vicki Butler-Henderson tries out a new Honda but this week's big treat is that Face from The A-Team, Dirk Benedict, will be trying out a Mercedes. I love it when a plan comes together.

THE ICE STORM

Film4, 9pm

Director Ang Lee certainly made sure he couldn't be stereotyped when he went from the lush Sense and Sensibility to this bleak drama set against the backdrop of Nixon's downfall. It concentrates on the relationships between two families, the Carvers and the Hoods in suburban New England, headed by Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver – all playing well against type. The supporting cast is also good, and includes Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood

THE SIXTH SENSE

ITV2, 11:30pm

A truly creepy story about a child psychologist (Bruce Willis) trying to understand what's going on in the head of a child who "sees dead people". Haley Joel Osment, perhaps the least irritating child actor ever, plays the part with assurance and Willis puts aside his usual macho wisecracking. There are a couple of nasty shocks, but the horror is all in the atmosphere and, of course, director M Night Shyamalan's celebrated "twist".

Craig Naples

1001 NIGHTS OF THE LATE SHOW

BBC4, 9pm

Although it was a great showcase for the arts, The Late Show was quietly killed off in 1995 after only six years. This series looks back at some of the highlights including, of course, that Stone Roses performance.