What’s on this weekend? From The Kingmaker to Sports Personality of the Year
Your guide to what’s worth seeing and reading this weekend
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
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