BEST OF THE REST
SHAKESPEARE AND HATHAWAY BBC1, 2.15pm
A SHAKESPEARE INSPIRED comedy drama for your daytime viewing pleasure – and this one is worth recording for later if you’re out.
EastEnder Jo Joyner is hairdresser Lu Shakespeare and Early Doors’ Mark Benton plays ex-cop turned private detective Frank Hathaway (geddit?), who are thrown together as an unlikely chalk and cheese crime-busting duo.
Everything takes place in Stratfordupon-Avon of course, home of the famous bard, and each episode is loosely based on a Shakespeare play, so bonus points if you can spot the references.
This episode shows how the partners come to meet, as a sobbing Lu hires Frank to find out if her fiancé is cheating on her with his secretary. Frank doesn’t usually lower himself to chasing adulterers, but he’s strapped for cash.
Much ado about nothing? Hardly – the whole sorry saga somehow spirals into murder.
This charming addition to the daytime schedules is on every week day.
CLASSIC MARY BERRY BBC1, 8.30pm
MARY BERRY is all at once classy and sophisticated, and yet not above licking the spoon.
She also doesn’t mind if we cheat a bit. “Life is too short to make your own puff pastry,” she declares. Hear, hear!
Upon meeting a Swedish fire-chef, she smirks: “I quite like cooking with a caveman.”
This is why we love her so much. The 82-year-old even breaks into a long remembered Girl Guides’ chant at one point. Fanny Cradock would never have done that.
Celebrating home comfort dishes, Mary talks us through some mouth-watering classics. Eggs Benedict Florentine (why have bacon or spinach when you can have both?) and some chocolate truffle pots to die for.
Of course, you will hang on her every word. If she praises a gadget, we’ll run out and buy it. If she tells us prawn cocktail is back in fashion (she did), then we’ll eat it.
A glorious, fuss-free foodie show.