Dignity, chivalry and two jobs — someone give this lad a break
By the time you read this, unless there’s truly no justice in the world, someone who watched The Young
And Homeless (BBC1) will have offered 18-year-old Josh a mechanic’s job.
Any employer ought to be glad to have the teenager on his roster. Josh had nowhere to live: his mother kicked him out after moving her new boyfriend in. It was a cruel blow for a lad who had been studying to be a motor mechanic since he was 16.
he was determined to work, despite the fact his current job on the night shift at a Blackpool pizza takeaway meant he couldn’t queue up for a bed at the homeless shelter.
he had his dignity: when his manager offered to pay for a room in a bed-and-breakfast, he politely turned her down.
Josh’s chivalrous streak was so strong that even on nights that he did get a place in a shelter, he’d volunteer to sleep in the doorway, rather than leave a girl to rough it outside.
his determination earned him the keys to a rented flat of his own — and instead of relying on housing benefit, he took a second job valeting cars to meet the payments.
Stacey Dooley chose her subjects well for this portrait of four teens without a roof of their own. two female friends in Manchester, who had been chewed up and spat out by the child care system, both had strong artistic streaks — one busked for spare change, singing acapella with a voice the equal of any you’ll hear on tV talent contests.
And another girl, Mollie, just 14 when she ran away from her home, was studying medicine three years on and hoping to be a doctor.
She had been saved by a kindly Samaritan who took her in — a reminder of how often kindness as well as hardship goes unnoticed.
this documentary was part of the build-up to Children In Need, the BBC’s grand fundraiser on Friday. Stacey kept out of the picture most of the time: if you know her only through the razzmatazz of Strictly, it’s a surprise to see how low-key her interview technique is.
her silence, with a sympathetic smile, is more effective at coaxing people to talk than bombastic questions.
the one mis-step came when she took a bed in a hostel for the night, to try it for herself, and then forgot to tell us what the experience had been like. that’s a bit too low-key.
No one could call football pundit Chris Kamara or comedian Julian Clary low-key. they were two of the players on I’ll Get This (BBC2), the Beeb’s attempt to replicate the success of taskmaster — the Dave channel’s blockbusting gameshow that clocked up another triumphant series finale last week.
taskmaster sees celebs falling over themselves, often literally, to complete silly games. the BBC, naturally, has come up with a terribly metropolitan version, where five people you’ve vaguely heard of have dinner at a restaurant while setting riddles and playing parlour games. the loser picks up the bill.
taskmaster works because an intense sense of competition builds up over each eight-week run. I’ll Get this, by contrast, flops because we never get the time to start rooting for our favourites.
And the games (such as, ‘this is the answer, now guess the question’) made dull viewing. even the celebs didn’t seem to be having much fun.
At the end, they grabbed their coats and headed for the door — always a bad sign.