this is a much warmer, jollier and ultimately frothier film than its predecessor, replacing the sometimes piercing truthfulness of the sublimely morose star with a more amiable but less memorable feel—good factor. miranda richardson and wayne blair make the most of broadly written supporting roles while neil and caton last of the challenge of characters whose beardy silence often speaks louder than words. it's all entertaining enough, but if you want the real deal, check out hakonarson�*s original, along with his follow—up, the county, both of which are available on disc and streaming services. now, for viewers of a certain vintage, the name robert lloyd holds special significance. the front man ofjohn peel favourites the prefect and the nightingales, lloyd is something of a folk hero — a musician whose lengthy career has been untroubled by fame and fortune but still touched by greatness.

so this pub, the eagle, in balsall heath, that was the offices of vindaloo records... it was, yeah. so you had an office above it or in the back? no, it wasjust — the back bar was where... you mean, you were in there a lot? in director michael cummings�* affectionate and insightful documentary king rocker, comedian and friend stewart lee draws a parallel between lloyd and nicholas monro�*s giant statue of king kong, both of which were rejected and then later reclaimed by the city of birmingham and the wider world. i thought, "right, i'll make a song out of that," which i did... capturing lloyd in his natural surroundings — be it a pub, a curry house, ora gig, king rocker does a brilliant job of exploring what makes lloyd so special and why his music is beloved by die—hard fans while still remaining unknown to so many. but i begin to worry that what if i peg it and they still don't buy the record! now, i have said many times that the true test of a documentary is whether it engages you in a subject in which you had no previous interest. but for me,

the idea of a documentary about rob lloyd presented by stewart lee was always going to be a slam dunk. but the real triumph of cummings' anti—rockumentary is that even if you've never heard of lloyd, i guarantee you'll come out of this wanting to track down his back catalogue. eschewing the talking heads clips and interviews format, king rocker is closer to an andrew cotting—style collage, and apparently chaotic happenstance making connections that are more intuitive and emotional than factual and historical. then you go, "no, that's not true! "who told you that?" you did at an earlier date. it held that both lloyd and lee are masters of witheringly self—deprecating humour. neither seem set on winning any popularity contests, a quality that simply makes the stock of this doc all the more likeable. like the real—life tragi—comedy anvil: the story of anvil, king rocker has its spinal tap moments, not least when lee takes the subject to visit some standing stones with which lloyd is impressively unimpressed. you seem to want the nightingales

to be remembered in some way — maybe not unlike this! i hope they're remembered more fondly than this! like that statue of a giant cinema ape, king rocker finds beauty, heroism and even a whiff of transcendence in the most unlikely places. i loved it. king rocker premieres on sky arts on saturday at 9pm with subsequent screenings and catch—up options and even hopes for a cinema release later in the year. in french: no. laetitia dosch was the mesmerising star ofjeune femme, aka montparnasse bienvenue, a portrait of a young parisian struggling with the fractured shards of her personality. dosch is equally impressive, although dramatically less well served, in simple passion, aka passion simple.

she plays helene, a literary scholar and single mother involved in an obsessive and somewhat self—destructive affair with a married russian embassy official played by ballet bad boy sergei polunin. what are you doing? i'm just filming you so i can remember you when you're gone. their relationship is almost entirely physical with aleksandr, who has a wife and family in moscow, giving little of himself other than his heavily—tattooed body, while helene wants more, even travelling to moscow just to be able to breathe the same air as the object of her obsession. adapted from an early 90s novel by annie ernaux and directed by french—lebanese film—maker danielle arbid, this is heartfelt but also rather hackneyed fare, a film that requires us to care about a doomed relationship between two people who have apparently nothing in common and neither of whom does

anything of interest other than behave badly — to themselves, to each other, to theirfamilies and ultimately to us the audience. while dosch, who carries the movie, can breathe inventive life into any character she takes on, polunin just seems to be playing himself as a boringly mono—dimensional, heavily tattooed, macho putin fan. what helene sees in him other than his pert backside is a mystery. add to this a soundtrack full of perky pop covers that might be ironic but mayjust be plain bad, and simple passion — or passion simple — left me longing for this dreary relationship to be over. you canjudge it for yourself on curzon home cinema. for something altogether more invigorating, let me point you in the direction of greenland. no, not the country, but the apocalyptic disaster movie which pits gerard butler against an approaching comet that threatens to wipe

out life on earth. on radio: this is | an emergency alert. small molten debris expected to fall in upstate new york... | isn't that where we are? yeah. seek shelter immediately. do not stand in the open. explosion. butler isjohn garrity, an atla nta—based structural engineer attempting to rebuild his broken marriage to estranged wife allison, played by deadpool�*s morena baccarin. the couple's young son nathan is thrilled by news stories of clark, a cluster comet due to make the closest flyby in history. but whenjohn receives a presidential alert on his phone announcing that his family have been chosen for shelter, it becomes clear that bits of clark are headed straight for earth. while fans of butler's action movies may be expecting him to just punch the comet out of existence, greenland instead casts him as just another ordinaryjoe caught up in the same

chaos as everybody else — trying to save his family whilst facing trafficjams, angry neighbours, and failing phone signals with surprisingly nail—biting results. despite the spectacular scenes of destruction you'd expect from a film that looks like a relative of deep impact or armageddon, what makes greenland special is the degree to which it trades on tension, anxiety and a really palpable sense of rising panic. yes, the fire falling from the sky is scary, but not as scary as the sight of terrified crowds running riot, or ofjohn getting separated from his wife and child, leaving them to fend for themselves in a hostile world. i'm going to get my family into that bunker. based on a sharp script by chris sparling, who wrote the stripped down horrorfilm buried, and directed by angel has fallen helmer ric roman waugh, greenland is a real treat. a grippingly—executed genre pic that punches well above its mid—budget weight to deliver top drawer popcorn thrills. it's available now on amazon prime. i'll leave you with news

of a glitch in the matrix, the new documentary from director rodney ascher, whose room 237 took a deep dive into the mysteries of stanley kubrick's the shining. there are fundamental metaphors about reality waking up from a dream. we have this cognitive experience of shifting between realities. there's another world behind this world. ok, so, this is going to set the tenor for everything. investigating simulation theory and its relationship to the wachowskis' hit movie franchise, ascher�*s latest asks whether we are all living in a computer—generated reality, with clips of writer philip k dick who asserted that reality was an illusion back in the 70s, and elon musk, who argues that the speed of technological progress makes simulation theory much more than a fantasy. if you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality.

we also hear from professor nick bostrom, author of the 2003 essay "are you living in a computer simulation?", along with a collection of gamers and internet philosophers who appear as 3d fantasy avatars. for the most part, this is breezily conceptual fare — an engaging riff on modern what—if theories illustrated with clips from movies and minecraft. but there's a darker side, too, asjoshua cook recounts how his own obsession with simulation theories played into his ongoing mental health problems with fatal consequences. at the heart of a glitch in the matrix is a simple question. even if you do believe that reality is simulated, which i don't, would that actually change the way that you behave? and if so, how and why? you can ponder the answers to those philosophical questions at dogwoof.com and on other streaming platforms. that's it for this week.

thanks for watching the film review. stay safe, and i'll see you next week. whistling: fine ram, all right. what do you mean? we have already had some wintry areas across scotland, and through the weekend and beyond we have colder weather on the cards for all parts of the uk. there is further disruptive snow on the forecast. not all parts will be seeing it. particularly heavy snow on sunday across eastern england, and that's because we are going to see low pressure established across the south—east of the uk, opening the doors for these really cold easterly winds to pailin from scandinavia, bringing not only that very cold weather but also some significant snow and some strong winds as well. for the here and now, the heaviest of the snow is across parts of

scotland, where there's a number warning across saturday. 20 to 30 centimetres of snow, perhaps 50 across the highest grounds. we've seen disruption across parts of scotland, and that will continue, easing later on saturday. but increasingly that snow will fall to lower levels across parts of scotland and over the higher ground of northern england as well. further south across england, heavy rain showers with milder air in the east. some sunshine for wales, south—east england and northern ireland at times as well, but then, through saturday night, that's when that really cold at piles right across the uk. the cold plunge of our, and we're starting to wave goodbye to the blue colours, the rain showers, and say hello to the snow showers, the white colours on the map, through sunday morning. some icy stretches around. really heavy snowfall lately from the word go on sunday, particularly across parts of south—east england and east anglia, there could also be snow showers across other eastern parts of the uk. temperature is only a couple of

degrees above freezing at best on sunday when you add on that cold easterly wind, it will feel much colder than that. there's a number warning across parts of norfolk, down towards kent. five to ten of snow here, up kent. five to ten of snow here, up to 20 centimetres over the higher ground, enough to cause significant disruption through sunday into monday as well. moving through into monday, we've still got the easterly wind bringing further snow showers to many eastern areas, perhaps a heavier, more prolonged spell of snow once again for east anglia under south—east of england as well. temperatures on the thermometer only a degree or to either side of freezing, but when you add on that easterly wind, it's going to feel bitterly cold. look at that — it will feel around —8 in norwich on monday. moving through into tuesday know, and no great changes. we've still got the easterly wind. looks like the heaviest of the snow would be further north by tuesday. four the likes of parts of yorkshire of the eastern scotland, and further south, cloudy and cold

with temperatures struggling to get above freezing, particularly where you see the lying snow. disrupting lying snow. disru pting conditions lying snow. disrupting conditions into the middle part of the week. wednesday, once again, heavy snow showers were eastern scotland and eastern england. some changes in the forecast about the exact distribution and timing of these, so a good idea to keep an eye on the forecast, but certainly into the middle of the week. towards the end of next week, the jetstream looks like it will still be towards the south of the uk, but later it looks like it could start to drive more from a south—westerly direction. there will be a battleground by the end of next week. it looks like cold air will be pushed towards the east is this milder air tries to work in from the south—west. but certainly for the here and now, try to keep up—to—date with all the warnings. goodbye.

this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: "an existential threat and dangerous" — president biden on his predecessor as he calls for donald trump to lose access to intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents. ijust think that i just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefing. what value is giving him an intelligence briefing? what impact does he have at all other than the fact he may slip and say something? russia expels diplomats from eu countries accusing them of taking part in protests against the jailing of alexei navalny. german prosecutors charge a 95—year—old woman who worked at the stutthoff concentration camp with complicity in the murder of 10,000 people