New on
BBC Entertainment this December, 2011:
Live at the Apollo 2Premiere date: Tuesday, 6 December 2011 at 20h00
(Six episodes)
ZenPremiere date: Monday, 19 December 2011 at 20h00
(Three episodes)
A series by the creators of Wallander, starring Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen. Set against the decaying grandeur of Rome, the series is about deception, subterfuge, kidnappings, cover-ups, organised crime… and that’s just in the police force. But as Aurelio Zen discovers, bending the rules doesn’t always have to mean immoral standards… and sometimes it’s best to let the heart rule the head.
With a recent marriage break-up and a drifting career, Venetian-born Zen is reaching the end of a bad part of his life. A formidable detective, he’s always put honesty before advancement. As admirable as this may be, it’s made him enemies and held back his career.
The arrival of clever and ambitious colleague Tania sees Zen’s vigour reawakened. Clearly there’s an attraction, but to win her, he knows he’s got to be a bit more ‘flexible’ in his approach to work. It’s a technique that serves him well.
Driven by romance and re-energised by a high profile assignment at the instruction of the ministry, Zen decides to take it. If he’s to make a name for himself for all the right reasons, it’s now or never.
The NativityPremiere date: Tuesday, 20 December 2011 at 16h30
New episodes air weekdays at 16h30(Four episodes)
A take on the story of the Nativity by TV writer Tony Jordan. The series explores the troubled times of turn-of-the millennium Judea, bringing legend to life but rooting the action in a world we recognise and understand.
Doctor Who 6Premiere date: Monday, 26 December 2011 at 16h10
New episodes air daily at 16h10
The Doctor returns, alongside newlyweds Amy and Rory, to face monsters and mysteries and adventures across time and space.
Together they find themselves in 1960s America, battling the invasion the world forgot, then journey on the high seas of 1696 aboard a pirate ship, to solve the mystery of the Siren. In a bubble universe at the very edge of reality, the Doctor meets an old friend with a new face, and after crash-landing in 1930s Berlin encounters the greatest war criminal in the Universe.
The travellers also find themselves trapped in the shifting corridors of a nightmare hotel, and visit a deadly hospital before the Doctor embarks on a personal journey to save the Earth and all of mankind.
Can even the truth about River Song save the Time Lord's soul? Only two things are certain. Silence will fall. And a good man is going to die...
SPECIALS
Doctor Who: A Christmas CarolOn: Sunday, 25 December 2011 at 16h05
(Once-off special)
The 11th Doctor and newlyweds Amy and Rory feature in a festive story guest starring veteran actor Michael Gambon and Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins.
It’s the deepest part of winter, the exact midpoint; Christmas Eve. Amy and Rory are trapped on a stricken space liner that’s plummeting through banks of thick icy fog to the surface of the planet below.
Only one man is in possession of a machine that can clear the fog and let them land safely. That man is Kazran Sardick, a rich but lonely old miser who rules Sardicktown with a sky-mast of iron.
The Doctor’s only chance of rescuing the ship’s 4,000 passengers is to save Kazran’s soul and show him that life is worth living. For this he needs to go back, way back, to when Kazran was a boy with a life full of promise. But can the Doctor put a song in Kazran’s heart and love in his life, in time for Christmas? Can he bring him out of the dark?
BBC Entertainment is on DStv, channel 120.