An odd train of thought
TONIGHT and tomorrow at 9pm, BBC1 is repeating David Nicholls’ romantic two- parter THE 7.39, starring David Morrissey and Sheridan Smith. And very good it is too. In fact, it’s so good that when it was first shown, in January 2014, more people tuned in for the final part than for the first bit ( according to statistics quoted on Wikipedia, that is).
Part one – on a morning train to Waterloo – sees Morrissey’s character Carl, a stuck- in- a- rut office worker, meet Smith’s character Sally, the manager of a health club. It apparently drew an audience of 5.66 million.
Part two is where these fellow commuters, one of whom is meant to be happily married to Olivia Colman, the other half- heartedly engaged to Sean Maguire, struggle to fight their feelings for one another. It was reportedly seen by 5.77 million. Unless I’m being particularly dim, that means 110,000 viewers happily sat through the final hour of a drama they hadn’t seen the rest of.
That’s rather odd, don’t you think? Either that, or the system for measuring TV ratings is somewhat flawed. Or the Wikipedia page was edited by a ninny.
Or, quite conceivably, all three. Anyway, whatever the explanation, there are clearly still plenty of viewers who won’t have seen this fine drama the first time it was shown.
Those viewers are in for a treat. As indeed are those who did see it the first time but who, like me, struggle to remember TV
storylines from six weeks ago, let alone six years.
Elsewhere, it’s curry night, sort of, on JAMIE: KEEP COOKING FAMILY FAVOURITES
( C4, 8.30pm).
Specifically, Jamie is showing us his clever take on butter chicken, making his version a bit less fiddly, a bit less spicy ( so his kids can give it a go without their mouths catching fire) and a bit less washing- uppy.
Key to this recipe’s appeal, it seems, is the way Jamie’s chicken ends up “charred on the outside but juicy on the inside”. Mine can often do that too, but in more of a 24 Hours in A& E kind of sense.
Also tonight, haunted- house comedy GHOSTS, starring Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell SmithBynoe and a whole bunch of Horrible Histories folk, is back for a second series ( BBC1, 8.30pm).
I’d be making more of a song and dance about this, were it not for the fact that in Wales and Northern Ireland I’m afraid it isn’t, at least not until Wednesday and Friday respectively.
But however long you have to wait, I hope you’ll agree it’s worth it.
Infectiously silly yet ingeniously crafted, it’s just the kind of escapism we need right now.