BEST OF THE REST
BACK IN TIME FOR THE CORNER SHOP
BBC2, 8PM
THIS whizz through the last hundred years in the life of the corner shop has been a fascinating journey from horse and cart to self service.
Now finally in the 21st century, there’s a look at how the corner shop coped with competition in the early Noughties when the supermarkets moved in nextdoor.
These days, independent shops use extra services like key cutting and bakeries to pull in the customers.
Presenter Sara Cox also talks to the Ardern family about how contactless payments are beginning to render shopkeepers redundant.
Jo and Dave discover how being at the centre of the community is helping local shops survive.
Meanwhile, the kids investigate dramatic changes in packaging – from loose goods to everything being wrapped in plastic. Then the whole family joins Sara to celebrate the corner shop’s ability to adopt the latest crazes, fads and gadgets.
But can corner shops live on to remain a hub for the local community?
MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE
ALIBI, 9PM THIS crime drama about the first female detective sounds like a plot from Cluedo.
As it begins, it turns out to be Miss Scarlet in downtown Victorian London with a stolen glass eye.
Peaky Blinders star Kate Phillips plays the headstrong Eliza Scarlet, who is a bit of a rebel.
She’s much more interested in her father’s detective work than the marriage proposals that regularly come her way.
When her father dies, he leaves her penniless. But she has an ace up her sleeve – she’ll take over his detective agency.
The only problem is this is considered a job most unbecoming of a lady, and she’ll need a partner in this man’s world.
Watch out for Downton’s Kevin Doyle as her father, appearing in her hallucinations.
It all builds towards an inevitable partnership with the dashing Detective Inspector William Wellington of Scotland Yard (Stuart Martin), aka ‘The Duke’.
A pacy plot with plenty of humour, this is well worth a watch.