The race is on, and it’s a different world
R(BBC2, Sunday) is now a nostalgic travel show. I didn’t see a single frazzled contestant reach for a bottle of hand cleansing gel throughout. Indeed, it looked like another world, or was I the only one who didn’t fancy a road trip through Guatemala?
In this, the second series, they were travelling the length of Latin America – were they all escaping the bailiffs? – with no internet, no help and, apparently, no coronavirus.and all of this enjoyment for the cost of a single airfare, which worked out at £26 a day.you’re right. Did they not read the fine print?
The first series was rather compelling but the age of this cohort seems too young.what I really want is a bunch of old hippies buying a bad old jalopy for £100 a la “old” Top Gear and running through a road-block or border control.
Perhaps next series.we’re not interested in callow young people asking for directions from other young types who are holding mobile phones.what’s the point of doing that? Apart from winning. Play up, play the game.and did I hear someone order a lasagne? In Belize? Served in a wrap, of course.
The last series was actually won by two older people so the latest one seems ageist.we also have another parent and child combination, a mother and son, who too closely mirror the father and son in the last series. Little bit of variety wouldn’t go astray, BBC producers.
Hard-of-hearing Robbie and Jen appeared to have an uphill battle, not least because early in the piece Jen revealed improbably: “I’d really like to go to Tasmania.” At least you could speak English to the drug cartels. Keep watching? Well, there is enough stupidity to give us entertainment value but excitement value might be waning.
Would it be unreasonable to think that TV executives enjoy commissioning Miriam Margolyes because she can’t help being sweary? “Let’s get Miriam on. She always says **** !” Insert your preferred option.
But in Miriam’s Big Fat Adventure (BBC2, Tuesday), the actress and performer appeared to have reformed her ways. It was not until 17 minutes into this otherwise interesting analysis of the morbidly obese, that mother very superior from Call The Midwife rediscovered herself with “I’m 78 and **** ed, basically.”
Why can’t the BBC just bleep these words, and edit them out of dramas? Why are they now saying that it’s acceptable, especially when children are watching (albeit increasingly less)? Or do they leave them there cynically to attract younger viewers?
That said, the show was a useful analysis of just why the chronically overweight are unable to sustain weight loss. It may well be depression.as one said, “When I’m eating, I’m not thinking about anything else.”
And the “evil” takeaway was in the frame again.the incredible availability of these foods, particularly burgers and pizzas, allows those who want to binge eat to do so. Can you imagine any of these young people actually making all the food they want to eat. It just wouldn’t happen.
So well done, Miriam. You unearthed the sad truth of the situation here but quite how anyone tackles mental health/ depression is another question. It’s far from obvious. Now the good news.
The plot has finally arrived in
STEPHENSON’S ROCKET
Who doesn’t love BBC daytime TV? Bucolic scenes, antique motor vehicles and quaint sale rooms. Well, forget all that. Now there’s gritty Saved On Camera (BBC1, Tuesday) to accompany your morning coffee. Watch three balaclava-clad men invade a bungalow through the French doors and set about the man of the house. Who won? By the time I switched to something more upbeat like the corona figures, it was a score draw, save for the knife one gangster had just produced. What a treat.
(BBC1, Sunday) after rooftop protests across the land. The drama is now like a hybrid episode of Escape To The
Country and Homes Under The Hammer as Anne Reid finally got her builders to work on her impressive new kitchen.we were on tenterhooks.
The kitchen development has been the most exciting thing in the series to date so we’re totally investing in the nuances of this project, just in case it’s the sum total of all the entertainment.
Interesting that she went for an independent builder rather than large company because, spoiler alert, by the end of the episode, most of the team had done a runner. Poor Celia. She will probably conceive a new garden room in the final episode tonight so they can end on a cliffhanger.
The weird urchin, who looks like a well-fed extra from Oliver! and has attached himself to Derek Jacobi’s Alan, is now living in the garden shed. He’s someone’s love child – take your pick. For most comedy potential, please make it Tony Gardner’s drunken John before he accidentally walks in front of a bus. His ex-wife-turned-lesbian Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) is no longer interested in him, or is he pushing for a bisexual arrangement from her? Isn’t it complex now? But Caroline will, we fear, be drawn to another drunk – Ronni Ancona’s boozy author, Judith, who now says she fancies her. Oh, and by the way, it wasn’t a Banksy on the side of a barn but it indirectly caused Gillian’s sheep to rampage through someone’s petunias.
How do they fit it all in one episode?