Broadcasting
Telly Today: From fake forensic evidence and winter 1981 to a subterranean chapel
TV Highlights for Saturday, December 9th…
LOCKERBIE
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The series continues with episode three. The FBI case against the two suspects is strong but circumstantial – they need eyewitness testimony. In an unprecedented move, the CIA hand over a Libyan double agent who was working at Malta airport at the time of the bombing – his code name is ‘Puzzle Piece’.
In an interview on a US warship in international waters, Puzzle Piece tells Phil Reid he saw the two suspects with a brown hard-sided suitcase, matching a description of the bomb suitcase, in the airport the day before the bombing. With this key evidence in their pocket, US and UK authorities indict the two Libyans. Colonel Gaddafi refused to give them up for trial abroad.
Dr Jim Swire, desperate to see justice done for his daughter, travels to Libya to negotiate personally with Gaddafi for their release from Libya. Nine years later, the two men are given up for trial on the neutral territory of the Netherlands. All is set for an open and shut case, but Puzzle Piece crumbles on the stand, shown to be a liar and a fantasist, and Bollier, the Swiss timer maker, says the key piece of forensic evidence, a fragment of his timer, is a fake…
Sky Documentaries and Sky Showcase at 9 pm
THE FAMOUS FIVE
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The Famous Five follows five daring young explorers as they encounter treacherous, action-packed adventures, remarkable mysteries, unparalleled danger and astounding secrets.
In the first episode, ‘The Curse of Kirrin Island’, George’s life is turned upside down when she learns that her cousins are coming to stay for the summer. But when Julian, Dick and Anne arrive, George finds herself including them in what turns out to be the most exciting adventure of her life so far. When a body washes up on the beach, apparently the victim of a local curse, the cousins and Timmy the dog set sail to the source of the problem – an uninhabited island that belongs to the family.
In a subterranean chapel protected by a deadly booby trap, they discover a goblet whose engraving strongly suggests that a lost hoard of Knights Templar treasure is waiting to be discovered. But the Five are not the only ones looking for treasure. Ruthless antiquarian Thomas Wentworth and his right-hand man Monsieur Boswell are also on the hunt, and they’re one step ahead.
Will the kids reach the cursed treasure before Wentworth does? And if their nemesis is right about its true power – what then?
CBBC, 5.25 pm The episode will air on BBC One later in December
THE GREAT WHITE CHRISTMAS OF ’81
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It’s something we all dream about but rarely see: a white Christmas. But in 1981, Britain experienced the whitest Christmas of the 20th Century with over half the country blanketed in snow.
Featuring unseen archive and celebrity anecdotes, this show tells the untold story of this spectacular weather event. While children revelled in time off school, sledging, having snowball fights and building snowmen that stayed for weeks, adults struggled to get to work, and farmer’s livelihoods were devastated.
Entire communities in the West Country and Wales were cut off from civilisation for weeks as up to a foot of snow lay on the M4. Local councils struggled to deal with the never-ending snow, spending their entire year’s snow-clearing budget in a matter of a days, while Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insisted local councils had to foot the enormous bills themselves. At the same time, millions found themselves out of work as manufacturing industries were closed down.
Nobody was immune from the disruption; even the Queen got stuck in a snowstorm on her way back from Gatcombe Park and was forced to shelter in a two-star hotel in the Cotswolds. Amid some of the snowiest conditions on record, British Rail decided to launch the Advanced Passenger Train that tilted from side to side for extra speed. On its maiden journey from Glasgow to London it froze in Crewe, and remained there, signalling its ultimate demise. In December 1981 the busy Christmas football programme was also frozen out, in the days before undersoil heating pitches remained covered in snow for weeks.
Channel 5, 9 pm
Lockerbie on Sky Documentaries
