More of the same please
CALL ME a sentimental ninny if you must but I can’t quite believe we’re about to see the last of DOC MARTIN (9pm, ITV). All right, technically there’s still a Christmas special to come, but as far as the regular episodes are concerned, tonight’s the night we must bid farewell to the Doc, Louisa and Co.
This makes me genuinely sad. “Oh, but that show’s run out of new storylines,” superior types will no doubt inform me, as if running out of new storylines were of the remotest significance here.
Let’s be honest, Doc Martin ran out of new storylines at roughly the same time that Clement Atlee came to power.
Who cares? Half the point of the show has been its comforting level of predictability.
Besides which, television is packed with stuff that’s pretty much the same from one year to the next – MasterChef, Strictly, Bake Off, the soaps, The Repair Shop, the Premier League, Minor Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, you name it.
And that’s fine by me.
In an increasingly unpredictable world, there’s a lot to be said for some reassuring sameyness.
Although, actually, talking of The Repair Shop, tonight’s episode does break the mould just a wee bit because its official title is THE REPAIR SHOP: A ROYAL VISIT (8pm, BBC One).
And, yes, it’s a little bit special. Since the regular episodes are filmed in Sussex, I guess the team might have panicked at first, fearing it meant they’d be meeting, you know, Him and Her of said county. Goodness me, can you imagine? If I were one of the repairers, I’d have had to throw a sicky. Or, if not a sicky, then whatever else was closest to hand. But it’s OK, no need for alarm, it isn’t them. Phew!
No, it’s proper grown-up royalty, in the form of Prince Charles, as he was at the time this episode was made.
In footage filmed several months back, Jay Blades and the team actually head to Dumfries House in Scotland, to meet some of those on The Prince’s Foundation’s Building Craft Programme.
It’s a thing where talented young people learn heritage skills such as stonemasonry, blacksmithing, thatching and wood carving, possibly in the hope they’ll get signed up for that nice Sky Arts crafting show with Vic Reeves, although no-one actually says this.
Jay and the team then take a couple of Charles’s most cherished items back to the barn to get them mended.
One is an 18th century clock, the other a vase made for Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Once that’s done, Charles then travels down to Sussex to collect these precious items in person.
Wise move, as frankly the Royal Mail (no disrespect, sir) is rubbish right now.