IMAGINE: LISTEN TO ME MARLON, BBC2, 9pm
MARLON Brando was Hollywood’s gorgeous 1950s bad boy and was lauded as one of the greatest actors but “by the 1960s the inner turmoil and eccentricities which fuelled his talent began to destroy his career”.
He became known for his scandals rather than his skill, and created an uproar when he refused an Oscar for The Godfather as part of a stunt to highlight the treatment of Native Americans.
He “spent a lifetime denying his own significance” but this award-winning documentary makes his tremendous significance clear via access to taped conversations which the actor made throughout his life. These tapes “reveal the man and the actor like never before”.
The tapes are candid and honest and are played to an eerie flickering blue image of Brando’s face.
The documentary also shows us some of Brando’s home movie footage and offers clips from his greatest scenes, so we can try to understand an actor who was prickly, brilliant and utterly unpredictable.
TABOO, BBC1, 9.15pm
WHEN this new series began last Saturday, I wasn’t really prepared for how good it was going to be. The simple fact that it was going out on BBC1 on a Saturday evening was enough to switch me on to snob mode, because we all know this is a televisual wasteland. BBC1 on Saturday nights is the natural home of ballroom dancers, talent contests and the never-ending Casualty, so why would you plonk something good in the midst of all that?
Well, they have. And not only is this a promising drama, it’s also full of big names: Tom Hardy, Jonathan Pryce and, tonight, a cameo from Mark Gatiss.
Delaney is back in town and the toffs of London aren’t happy. They’re suspicious of this moody adventurer who has been absent for so long.
He’s keen to attain his legacy and make a new life in London but when his father’s will is read tonight an unwelcome guest bursts in and is intent on making things difficult for our hero.
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