WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
CATHERINE Tate has a confession. “I’m so animalcentric, I think a lot of people worry about me,” she admits during a programme she’s presenting tonight on BBC1. “Because I certainly like animals, and dogs, much more than people.”
I’m not sure I entirely blame her, to be honest. And it’s because of this devotion of hers that she’s made this documentary, SAVING
THE BRITISH BULLDOG (9pm). This beautiful, iconic breed (and, for once, that slap-worthily overused word “iconic” is actually justified here) is in big trouble right now, plagued with major health problems. There’s the much documented flat-nosed business, of course, causing it all kinds of breathing problems. On top of which, there are alarming issues these creatures often develop with their spines.
And how’s it come to this? An expert explains how the breathing problems in particular come down to the way they’ve been bred over the years.
“For some reason, people thought that the shorter and shorter the nose got, the cuter the animals became,” he says. “That’s created a huge number of knock-on effects. It’s a purely man-made disease.” So what Catherine wants to know is whether the problem can be fixed. If so, is everyone in agreement as to how? HAVE they accidentally bumped off Lisa Dingle in
EMMERDALE (7pm, ITV)? Last night the poor woman (I mean, seriously, she rarely has much to chuckle about, does she?) went into cardiac arrest, having accidentally supped on the ketamine cocktail meant for Daz. Tonight we find guilt-wracked Liv close to cracking. Mike’s exclusive online column is at www. dailystar.co.uk/columnists. Follow him on Twitter @mikewardontv and at www.telly.click