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Telly Today: from Chevy Chase to Frank Gardner

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Telly Today: from Chevy Chase to Frank Gardner

Telly Today highlights for the first night of lockdown#2, November 5th.

Telly Today highlights for the first night of lockdown#2, November 5th.

Comedy star turn

From early roles in National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase rose to become one of the biggest stars in comedy during the 1980s.

Known for his roles in the National Lampoon Vacation films, Fletch, Caddyshack and Three Amigos, Chevy’s career seemed to stall somewhat in the 1990s. However, a memorable role in the cult sitcom Community as the unstable mature student Pierce lifted him back into the limelight, ensuring him further work well into his seventies.

Comedy Legends: Chevy Chase, Sky Arts at 9pm


Tasks

The brand new series of Taskmaster, the comedy game show, continues on its new home of Channel 4.

Taskmaster Greg Davies and his miniature assistant Alex Horne set more inventively pointless tasks for their ever-willing cast of comics – Daisy May Cooper, Johnny Vegas, Katherine Parkinson, Mawaan Rizwan and Richard Herring.

Daisy flirts with a security guard, Richard is surprised by some chickens and Johnny convinces Alex to wear sparkly shoes while operating heavy machinery.

Taskmaster, Channel 4 at 9pm


Being Frank

In June 2004, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner was shot six times by Al-Qaeda gunmen whilst reporting on growing terrorist activity in Saudi Arabia. The bullets damaged his spinal nerves, and at the age of 43 Frank was left partially paralysed and has used a wheelchair ever since.

Sixteen years later, Frank has never fully got used to being disabled. In this deeply personal film, he talks candidly about the effects his injuries have had on his life, work, relationships and the way he views himself. He also meets others responding to life-changing injuries to explore the impact of a sudden disability.

Frank tells the story of how he became a BBC correspondent in the 1990s and the film includes never-before-seen footage of the last report that Frank and cameraman Simon Cumbers were making just prior to the attack by Al-Qaeda, during which Simon lost his life, and Frank very nearly didn’t make it.

The Frank Gardner Story, BBC Two at 9pm


Lifesavers

The second series of 999: Critical Condition continues with Helen who has a life-threatening aneurism in her brain which could burst at any time. This would lead to her death within minutes. For her doctor, Sanjeev Nayak, there are no second chances as he embarks on an extraordinary operation to cure her.

Also this evening Michael’s life is on a knife-edge after collapsing with a cardiac arrest. A neighbour initially saves him with CPR, but now doctors face two major medical issues if he’s going to survive.

After a fall at home, Melanie has lost almost half of her body’s blood from a huge gash. Staff have little time to save her as the blood drains from her vital organs.

Elsewhere Betty is rushed to the hospital with a ruptured spleen. However, the operation she requires could also kill her. Dr Chris Pickering must quickly weigh up the risks of her treatment options.

999: Critical Condition, Channel 5 at 9pm

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