Marooned on an island? You need a policewoman, not Man Friday!

EVen on the far side of the world, on a distant Pacific outcrop, hotel Mum & dad never closes. It is always there to provide a roof over the heads of the Millennium generation.

and if the youngsters are shameless enough, they can even grab a lie-in while the oldies boil a morning kettle. tea in bed — smashing!

The Island (C4), which started on Sunday with a second part yesterday, transports the Generation Gap to the South Pacific — challenging two groups of adventurers to live on what they can scavenge on their rocky outcrop.

It took just over one episode for the junior party, the 18-to-30s, to decide that they’d pitched their camp in the wrong place, and that life looked much snugger at the other end of the beach with the veterans (youngest 35, oldest 66).

So they packed their soggy belongings and turned up unannounced with the words: ‘We’re gonna come and join you.’ eight middle-aged faces greeted them with dismay and the words every parent of grown-up children must sometimes utter: ‘that’s lovely, dears . . . will you be staying long?’

the young team seem to be selected by Bear Grylls for their bone-idleness. the girls do yoga and go skinny-dipping instead of hunting for fresh water, while the boys divide their time between boasting and sulking. ‘I get the impression sometimes people don’t think we’re pulling our weight,’ complained 24-year-old Kaggy.

the truth is, though, the older team are so efficient that nothing slows them down, not even some over-privileged snowflakes bursting into tears every time anyone raises their voice.

two of the survivors are retired coppers, Jane, 49, and Jacqui, 50. neither of them brooks any nonsense, and personality clashes within the group are expertly defused. these women can handle football crowds and Boxing day shoppers — a bunch of stroppy castaways are no problem.

Finally, Bear’s show has delivered a really useful tip: if you’re going to be marooned on a desert island, forget Man Friday. take a policewoman. For viewers hoping to see chaos, breakdowns and rampant egos, as in previous years, this is a disappointment.

the group had no trouble finding coconuts or trapping birds and snakes for supper.

By contrast, when Bear aban- doned a gaggle of celebrities on his island last year, the emergency medics had already flown in three times by this stage.

however, there was a kerfuffle at 4am in one tent, all captured on night-vision videos. are the cameras running all night, or was this incident pre-arranged, a little bit of scripted drama?

Little Boy Blue (ItV), the dram- atised story of the hunt for 11year-old rhys Jones’s murderers, had the feel of a scripted documentary. each scene was like a Crimewatch reconstruction.

though this occasionally felt stilted, it was the most respectful and truthful way to tackle the appalling tragedy in Liverpool ten years ago, when a child on his way home from football practice was caught between rival teenage gangs and shot dead.

Stephen Graham plays Supt dave Kelly, the detective met with a wall of silence as he hunts for evidence against the yobbos who he believes, but cannot prove, killed rhys.

Sinead Keenan was heartbreakingly good as the boy’s mother, Mel, and writer Jeff Pope trod a fine line — revealing the impossible task faced by police, while criticising some of their handling. the scene in the morgue when Mel, beside herself with grief, was threatened with arrest for kissing her son’s body, rang awkwardly true.

this story is not a natural tV drama, but it needs telling.