FREE TO AIR
Madam Secretary, Ten, 8,30pm
Tea Leoni as US Secretary of State? The former star of The Naked Truth certainly isn’t the first actress who springs to mind when thinking of someone able to convey the gravitas, steeliness and sheer political will the job requires. But, let’s face it, this fairly lightweight US series is more concerned with the – how to put it delicately – peripheral issues of a woman in power. An innocent Google search of ‘‘Tea Leoni, Madam Secretary’’ automatically inserts the search term ‘‘wardrobe’’, which sums up the domestic slant of her fictitious Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord without explaining why she spends so much time inside wearing a coat. And, to be fair to Leoni, she does a fair approximation of world-weariness behind the power dressing, this week dealing not only with the revelation her daughter is dating her much older boss, but a murderous religious cult in Bolivia (cue scenes of llamas in the snow) is threatening the lives of US citizens as well as her own husband, who makes the political strikingly personal when he tries to intervene.
Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery, ABC, 9pm
The rather wonderful Julia Zemiro, owner of the best head of hair on Australian television, takes her sweet little show Home Delivery to Britain, this week hooking up with comic extraordinaire Jo Brand. Best known in Australia for QI and her phlegmatic sitcom Getting On, Brand and Zemiro’s hair meet up to travel in a classic Austin to her Kentish home town of Benenden, where they reminisce about her socialist parents, her bell-ringing escapades and how her former career as a psychiatric nurse helped prepare her for the evil brutality of comedy show hecklers. It’s not a show of great revelations but there’s plenty of heart along with Zemiro’s perfectly balayaged locks.
Bob’s Burgers, Eleven, 10pm
A host of comedic luminaries including Sarah Silverman, Kristen Schaal, Zach Galifianakis and Kevin Kline provide voices and star power for this winningly off-kilter animated series. This week Bob decides to boycott Thanksgiving but his wife and children are put in mortal danger at the First Annual Fischoeder Turktacular Turkey Town Festival, when aggrieved turkeys go on a murderous rampage.
Larissa Dubecki
PAY TV
Fear Thy Neighbour, CI, 7.30pm
Another American true-crime series that’s all blood on picket fences and knowing narration straight out of Desperate Housewives. Tonight’s instalment recounts how a common driveway caused a feud between a doctor and a lawyer that left two people dead and a third in prison for life.
Brad Newsome
MOVIES
Mr Denning Drives North (1953), Gem, midday
In this very Georges Simenon-like drama about the difficulty of hiding or processing guilt, Mr Denning (John Mills) is involved in a car accident and, rather than report himself to the police, drives north. But his anguish travels with him. Forgotten for more than half a century (but just last month restored for DVD), Anthony Kimmins’ haunting little film is a minor treasure.
The Perfect Storm, (2000) Go!, 8.30pm
Sebastian Junger had a best-seller in 1997 with his non-fiction account of a fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, which headed out from Gloucester, Massachusetts, in September 1991. The weather turned sour and the boat sailed into a confluence of two massive weather fronts. Near the Grand Banks, it battled 12-metre waves before encountering a rogue wave of unknown magnitude. The book was filmed — and fictionalised — by German director Wolfgang Petersen. His films are handsomely shot and polished but also a bit empty and silly.
In a wonderfully atmospheric opening, an excited Christina (Diane Lane) runs downstairs from her room in the Crow’s Nest on the Gloucester pier and along the wooden jetty to embrace her beloved Bobby (Mark Wahlberg). It is an exhilarating sequence but, hold on a minute, Christina reaches Bobby after the Andrea Gail has sailed across the vast harbour, docked and the crew disembarked. This is really dumb storytelling. Christina lives on the pier and would have been waiting by the water long before any boat disembarked. As usual, Petersen has gone for visual and visceral dazzle over narrative believability.
Still, the cast is the best he has ever assembled, from George Clooney as an irascible sea captain to John C. Reilly as the loyal best friend. While there is more credible human drama here than Petersen usually musters, it remains dramatically underwhelming.
42nd Street, (1933)TCM (pay TV), 8.30pm
All-time classic musical from director Lloyd Bacon and legendary choreographer Busby Berkeley about a producer making one last attempt at a Broadway hit and an ingenue who has an unexpected chance at stardom. With stars including Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers and classic songs such as Shuffle Off To Buffalo and the eponymous 42nd Street, it is utterly irresistible and has remained so for decades, which is why it spawned its own Broadway musical in 1980.
Scott Murray
