on last night’s telly

The Real Marigold On Tour, BBC1 ★★★★

Over on BBC1 last night, Miriam Margolyes was sitting in a Russian health farm yelling, “What a horrid little bastard!”

No, her fellow OAP traveller Stanley Johnson hadn’t invited his son Boris along for a surprise cameo.

Miriam was merely expressing her displeasure at the medicinal leech that was gorging merrily on the varicose veins in her right calf. Boris will no doubt be relieved to hear that he did get a mention last night, though.

On first meeting Stanley, Miriam threw this potential grenade into the mix: “What does your son do in the Government?”

Sadly, the conversation moved on before Stanley

could answer – although that was probably a relief for the poor guy who, presumably, had simply come to Russia to get away from his woes. Luckily, Stanley found a far more agreeable companion in darts legend Bobby George.

Within minutes of arriving in the utterly beautiful city of St Petersburg, Stan and Bob decamped to a bar and got royally stuck into the cheap and plentiful beer and vodka. From there,

the group took a five-hour drive to the health farm where Miriam and Bobby tried a dry carbonic bath. This involved their bodies being engulfed by powerful gases, which – as anyone who has watched Miriam parping her way through three previous Marigold adventures knows – wasn’t that new an experience for her.

As for Stanley, the first thing he wanted to know from the doctor doing his health check-up was whether she wanted him to take his trousers off.

So you can kind of see where Boris gets it from.

‘‘ Stan and Bob got royally stuck into the cheap beer and vodka