WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
THE thing I like about 100-YEAR-OLD DRIVERS
REBOOTED, which finishes tonight (8pm, ITV) – and the thing that’s stopped me wanting to give its makers a punch in the face, which at first I thought I might – is it really doesn’t set out to take the Mick out of old people.
OK, it shows us plenty of their erratic driving – mounting kerbs, pootling down the wrong side of the road etc. – but that’s just the thread that holds the show together. Really it’s a celebration of those in their 90s and beyond who stubbornly refuse to give up on life.
The only grumpiness comes from the young/middle-aged road-users it speaks to, who mostly seem to reckon these older motorists are an unacceptable hazard.
Try telling that to the likes of 96-year-old Charles, one of the brilliantly gutsy guys we meet tonight. Charles needs his car for his trips to the gym, where he’s working towards breaking the 60-metre world record for veteran athletes (over-95 category). SINCE LONG LOST FAMILY began, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell have brought us plenty of heart-rending stories. But few have been as moving as the one we hear tonight (9pm, ITV). Vanda James, 57, from Norfolk, has seen her brother Kenneth just once, over 50 years ago, when he was a baby. Their mum had fallen pregnant with him while having an affair with a married man – seen as shameful back then – so he was given up for adoption.
But when the team tracks Kenneth down, there’s a further surprise, because Kenneth is now Debbie. “So basically,” Davina tells Vanda, “you’ve got a sister.”