on last night’s telly
Pothole Wars, ITV ★★
The people behind this documentary probably felt a certain kinship with the contractors responsible for fixing Britain’s potholes.
You’ve got a massive hole to fill so you pack it as best you can and hope it will do the job – but you know full well you’ll be repeating the process fairly soon.
I’m not saying this was the worst example of lazy primetime filler I’ve ever seen, though it was a bit like a two-minute local news report stretched out to an hour.
I should have known what was coming from the start. The breezy narrator seemed to be attempting to convince everyone – including herself – that it was a big story. “Potholes are driving Britain crazy!” Well, I could think of quite a few things that are, but potholes would not be on that list.
“There’s a pothole war raging on Britain’s roads!” No there isn’t.
“For the workers on the frontline it’s like going into battle!” No it isn’t, and none of them claimed it was.
Of course, if you love to see velocity spray injection machines in action or you get excited about whether a contractor in Kent will finish all of its jobs on time, this was the show for you.
To be fair, the producers did find some interesting people, such as Devon retiree Reg who fills potholes for a hobby.
Reg’s wife is fully behind his secret tarmac-laying exploits: “He’s done some really nasty ones that could have caused accidents.”
I was less interested, however, in the online campaign group Fill That Hole. With a name like that I certainly won’t be Googling their website.
‘‘ If you love velocity spray injection machines this was for you