The Week’s best film, TV, book and live show on this weekend, with excerpts from the top reviews.
TELEVISION: Sports Personality of the Year 2019
Jack Seale for the Radio Times
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“An odd-numbered year means no Olympics or major men’s football tournament to provide a ready flow of sporting heroes, but 2019 had its moments. This year’s glitzy round-up, hosted in Aberdeen by Gary Lineker, Gabby Logan and Clare Balding, has the usual variety of trophies – including a team award for which England’s women footballers must be strong contenders – leading up to the main individual prize.”
On BBC One at 7pm on Sunday 15 December
MOVIE: The Kingmaker
Peter Debruge at Variety
“‘Perception is real, and the truth is not,’ announces Imelda Marcos in The Kingmaker, a jaw-dropping documentary in which director Lauren Greenfield exposes just how effective the wounded peacock has been in reshaping her status. Once world-famous for her shoe collection, Imelda benefited enormously from husband Ferdinand’s two-decade dictatorship over the of the Philippines, until being forced to flee to Hawaii in 1986.”
In cinemas from Friday 13 December
BOOK: Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens (paperback)
Francesca Steele in The Times
“Delia Owens’s debut novel opens in 1952 when six-year-old Kya’s beloved Ma leaves their marshland shack in faux alligator heels without so much as a wave goodbye. Fast-forward 17 years and the body of the local heart-throb Chase Andrews is found buried in the swamp near the little town of Barkley Cove on the North Carolina coast… A Hollywood adaptation seems inevitable. Yet it will be hard to match on screen the delicacy of Owens’s exploration of the natural world. Kya and her magical little world are a rare achievement.”
Out in paperback on Thursday 12 December
STAGE: Nativity! The Musical
Lorelei Reddin at the Bournemouth Daily Echo
“It delivered the promised ‘sparkle and shine’ in spades. But, more than that, Nativity! the Musical was a show with a real heart. Based on the famous film franchise, this upbeat and exuberant production follows plans for a festive show in a run of the mill primary school… Funny, feel good and full of joy.”
Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London, from 11 to 29 December, following a UK tour
