BEST OF THE REST
MONKMAN & SEAGULL’S GENIUS GUIDE TO BRITAIN BBC2, 9PM THE unlikeliest of television stars, best friends Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull shot to fame on University Challenge.
Two super-intelligent beings with a thirst for knowledge, they have teamed up for this historical tour through the Industrial Revolution and Victorian Britain. They occasionally even wear costumes as they take in their favourite scientific breakthroughs.
Londoner Bobby is ever-enthusiastic and keen to please, while Canadian Eric looks largely uncomfortable (or perhaps unfazed?) by his unexpected transformation into a TV personality.
They meet some interesting people along the way, but the best bits are when they are alone, making small talk. Although it’s not exactly weather chat.
“What would happen if humans were the size of rats?” muses Bobby, who later begins a chat about the philosophy of science. They are mostly dumbing things down for us, no doubt, but this is still a charming nerds’ guide through history that always seems to teeter just on the brink of comedy.
THE BIG FLOWER FIGHT NETFLIX JUST when you thought there wasn’t a skill left in the world to be given the reality show treatment, this Bake Off-style floristry contest proves us wrong.
Ten teams fight to win the prize of designing their own sculpture at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
But this is no gentle gardening show, quite the opposite. An eccentric group of hopefuls create gigantic garden showstoppers that are extraordinary.
Hosted by Vic Reeves and Natasia Demetriou, spouting endless words for ‘big’, this has been given the American treatment. Everything is bigger, better and more dramatic. Talking of which, the judge is ‘US florist to the stars’ Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht, who loves the big fake out – ‘I don’t like it, I LOVE IT!
Challenge one from this super-sized show is to create enormous 8ft insects.
Watching it all come together before the big reveal is epic, mammoth and huge amounts of fun… you get the gist.