Radio Times 20-26th November 2021

WE SHOULD BE used to Peter Jackson working wonders with our national culture. Twenty years ago the New Zealand-born director brought Tolkien’s supposedly unfilmable Lord of the Rings to the big screen. Then, in 2018, he gave miraculous life to long-dead Tommies when he took black-and-white newsreel footage from the First World War and re-worked it in vivid colour for They Shall Not Grow Old. Now he’s taking on arguably Britain’s greatest 20th-century cultural totem – the Beatles. Jackson has edited down over 57 hours of long-abandoned film footage shot over the first weeks of the band’s final year together in 1969 and re-purposed it as landmark television. The result, three two-hour documentaries, is a day-by-day diary of what happened in January 1969 when the youngest Beatle, George Harrison, was…

WE SHOULD BE used to Peter Jackson working wonders with our national culture. Twenty years ago the New Zealand-born director brought Tolkien’s supposedly unfilmable Lord of the Rings to the big screen. Then, in 2018, he gave miraculous life to long-dead Tommies when he took black-and-white newsreel footage from the First World War and re-worked it in vivid colour for They Shall Not Grow Old. Now he’s taking on arguably Britain’s greatest 20th-century cultural totem – the Beatles. Jackson has edited down over 57 hours of long-abandoned film footage shot over the first weeks of the band’s final year together in 1969 and re-purposed it as landmark television. The result, three two-hour documentaries, is a day-by-day diary of what happened in January 1969 when the youngest Beatle, George Harrison, was still…

WHAT I’M WATCHING… SATHNAM SANGHERA I’ve been enjoying the new series ‘of Antiques Road Trip on BBC1,” says the journalist. “It’s my go-to show for relaxation. The subject matter has nothing to do with my work, it teaches me things and nothing bad ever happens on it. Soothing.’ The legacy of the British empire — page 20 CRYSTELLE PEREIRA I’ve been watching La Casa de ‘Papel [Money Heist] on Netflix,” says the Bake Off contestant. “It’s a Spanish crime drama and I watch it in Spanish, so I tell myself it’s educational. I can only watch it in small doses because I become too emotionally invested in the characters!’ Bake Off — page 14 PETER JACKSON Like everyone ‘else in the world I recently watched Squid Game,” says the filmmaker. “Last night I watched the Stanley Tucci series…

WHAT I’M WATCHING… SATHNAM SANGHERA I’ve been enjoying the new series ‘of Antiques Road Trip on BBC1,” says the journalist. “It’s my go-to show for relaxation. The subject matter has nothing to do with my work, it teaches me things and nothing bad ever happens on it. Soothing.’ The legacy of the British empire — page 20 CRYSTELLE PEREIRA I’ve been watching La Casa de ‘Papel [Money Heist] on Netflix,” says the Bake Off contestant. “It’s a Spanish crime drama and I watch it in Spanish, so I tell myself it’s educational. I can only watch it in small doses because I become too emotionally invested in the characters!’  Bake Off — page 14 PETER JACKSON Like everyone ‘else in the world I recently watched Squid Game,” says the filmmaker.…

IN 1979 THE COVER of the Radio Times Christmas issue featured a beautifully snowy postbox that looked like Santa; the neat and resonant visual metaphor was about the postbox as the receiver and distributor of gifts, the Christmas cards that the wise men and women of that year would be writing and sending in their millions. In the years since then the handwritten Christmas card has slipped down our Yuletide agenda to such an extent that the Financial Times recently suggested we don’t send cards but give the money to charity instead. That’s a shame, I think, because I come from a family of Christmas-card writers. Around this time of year my dad would get his address book and his box of cards out and begin the annual ritual of what he…

IN 1979 THE COVER of the Radio Times Christmas issue featured a beautifully snowy postbox that looked like Santa; the neat and resonant visual metaphor was about the postbox as the receiver and distributor of gifts, the Christmas cards that the wise men and women of that year would be writing and sending in their millions. In the years since then the handwritten Christmas card has slipped down our Yuletide agenda to such an extent that the Financial Times recently suggested we don’t send cards but give the money to charity instead. That’s a shame, I think, because I come from a family of Christmas-card writers. Around this time of year my dad would get his address book and his box of cards out and begin the annual ritual of…