Major new four-hour U.S. Houdini bio-pic, airing on British TV tonight. It would be interesting if Lovecraft & Eddy were to make an appearance as his anti-spiritualist assistants. Apparently there is a substantial treatment of Houdini’s dogged attempts to combat the evil of spiritualism — a morbid and deceiving cult which preys on and feeds off those in mourning for a loved one. So I guess there’s a chance for a Lovecraft character…

The magician’s late crusade to expose psychics and mediums, which alienated him from his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (David Calder), a devout spiritualist, slows the biopic to a crawl.

Sadly the advance reviews from America are dire (“unwatchable”, “pure biopic cheese”, “leaden script”, “boilerplate”, “biopic clichés, awkwardly strung together”), so be warned. Download, and then skip through, seems to be the likely best option for saving yourself a few hours of tedium.