Number’s up for Frank
DENISE Simpson has a problem on her hands in episode two of THE SYNDICATE (BBC1, 9pm). Come on, you must know Denise Simpson. She’s the cheery soul from the lottery company, Mercury Millions, who on last week’s episode congratulated Neil Morrissey’s slippery Frank on winning the jackpot.
Denise’s problem is that cashstrapped kennel worker Keeley and her fellow syndicate members are pointing out tonight that she’s been hoodwinked – that the £27 million is theirs and that Frank is “a big fat fraud”. Unfortunately, as Frank cunningly kept the ticket, then did a runner to Monaco with Duke (Duke is his dog, remember – I can’t help suspecting he’s going to be pivotal to all this), the syndicate has no proof.Will they have to hunt the rotter down?
Elsewhere tonight, another wrong-doer fears the law will soon catch up with him in episode two of Channel 5’s thriller INTRUDER (9pm). I’m talking, of course, about the killer, Smug Sam – selfsatisfied, coke-snorting, leftie phone-in host (you can tell I’m a big fan) – who we now find in rather a panic.
Admittedly, Smug Sam was panicking a fair bit already, knowing his fatal attack on one of the kids who broke into his house last night could get him put away. But he’s also now panicking a bit more, because he realises the other kid made off with his precious laptop.
On top of all that, he’s fretting further still because the woman he’s been having an affair with, his wife Rebecca’s alcoholic colleague Angela, is proving considerably more booze-addled and bonkers than she hinted at in episode one, suggesting now she’ll spill the beans – or, more likely, shpill the beansh – if Sam doesn’t end his marriage and pledge his future to her. (To be honest,Angela and Sam are welcome to one another: if I were Sam’s wife, I’d actively encourage it.)
Meanwhile, Sally Lindsay’s character, the Police Family Liaison Officer whose name I’ve forgotten, isn’t doing a lot more at the moment than wandering around with a quizzical look on her face. I do hope she’ll be making a more valuable contribution in the remaining two episodes, ideally one that includes nudging Angela and Sam off the nearest cliff.
Elsewhere this evening, I see there’s a 20-minute gap between the end of this week’s REMARKABLE PLACES TO EAT (BBC2, 8pm), with Fred Sirieix, and the return of SNAC KMASTERS (C4, 9pm), with Fred Sirieix.
Twenty whole Fred-less minutes to fill, eh?
I might watch the start of BRITAIN’S TIGER KINGS: ON THE TRAIL WITH ROSS KEMP (ITV, 9pm), if only to see the man with 36 snakes.