Poor Syd’s had his chips
ALARMING news, you might imagine, for the producers of THE REAL MARIGOLD HOTEL, the Indianbased reality-type show in which an assortment of seasoned British celebrities are co-habiting.
“We’re all rubbing along really nicely,” reports Selina Scott in tonight’s episode (BBC1, 9pm). “We’re all getting along really well.”
But then of course, this isn’t Celebrity Big Brother. The aim here is really not to have these people yelling and bawling or throwing random kitchen implements at one another.
The aim is for them to sample an altogether different way of life; to discover whether, once they’ve overcome their initial culture shock, they can come to appreciate India’s many wonders; discover new elements of their own personalities at a time in their lives when maybe they have been inclined to stop looking; delight in sharing the wisdom of their years; experience a quiet joy amid the hustle and bustle; sail into an ocean of serenity hitherto uncharted; experience a profound inner calm and yet at the same time feel a sense of reawakening, of rejuvenation. That’s the intention. Something along those lines. Plus Syd Little gets to eat chips.
Oh yes, he does like his food does our Syd.
Remember him competing on Celebrity MasterChef a few years back? He actually did rather well, I seem to recall. He just needed to be a wee bit more adventurous in his culinary tastes. He still does, one might politely suggest.
Tonight a lady called Shashi is demonstrating some popular Rajasthani dishes to him and that chap from the Krankies. These include stuffed naans with garlic, cheese and tomato.
“Garlic, cheese and tomato?” Syd replies, nervously. “Do you have to have garlic in it? I’m not a big lover of garlic.
“Would it make a big difference if you didn’t have the garlic in it?” He’s told it would. Poor Syd. He seems altogether happier when Shashi fries up a nice big pan of chunky chips. “Ooh, chips!” he exclaims. “Just like our chips!”
But they’re not it later transpires. When he and the Krankie chappie bring their assorted tuck back to the others, fellow guest Stephanie Beacham pronounces these chips appalling. “They don’t travel well,” Syd concedes.
A little earlier, ORANGUTAN JUNGLE SCHOOL (C4, 8pm) takes us to Borneo, to a remarkable rescue centre for orangutan orphans.
The facility takes in these creatures from all manner of troubled backgrounds and lovingly trains them up, teaching them the crucial life skills they’ll need when they eventually leave school and return to the wild.
Tonight’s lessons include how to crack open a coconut.
Valentino, who’s become known as the class clown, is amusingly hopeless at it, bashing away in vain, with mounting frustration, until eventually he gives in and persuades his human foster mum Letha to do it for him.
Not that Letha seems to mind one bit. “I nurture them like my own children,” she readily admits. Somehow I doubt Valentino is in any rush to graduate.