MISTER WINNER

GROWING UP GIFTED

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Three years ago, this compassionate series introduced viewers to six talented British teenagers from low-income backgrounds.

Now we catch up with them for the final time.

With GCSE’S fast approaching, they’re at a crucial turning point in their lives. It begins with the boys, who excel in maths, science and music.

University beckons, but the competition is fierce.

Narrated by that excellent egg Maxine Peake, it’s a valuable piece of candid social commentary in which children struggle to overcome the rank injustice of a society where the odds are stacked against anyone who wasn’t born with antique silver stuffed in their gobs.

You only have to look at Downing Street to see where that’s got us.

Wednesday, BBC Two, 10pm

Don’t be put off by the unpleasant acupuncture sequence which opens this new sitcom; once you get past that, the show reveals its charms.

Written by Russell Brand’s drywitted radio sidekick Matt Morgan, it’s a pleasingly traditional farce starring comedian Spencer Jones as a wellmeaning yet terminally unlucky clod.

In episode one his attempt to get rid of that slapstick comedy staple, the self-playing upright piano, results in him getting a job as a pianist in an Italian restaurant.

He can’t actually play, of course, and Morgan milks this simple premise for all it’s worth.

Mister Winner is proof that, in the right hands, there will always be comic mileage in simple misunderstandings with ridiculous consequences.

BORN TO BE DIFFERENT

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

Like Growing Up Gifted, this exceptional project has chronicled the lives of children over the space of several years.

Now aged 19, they were all born with different disabilities. The latest series follows them as they make their first forays into the adult world.

Zoe is starting university and has declined support from a care team: “Eighteen years of trying to fit into the social norms, I don’t see the point of doing that anymore.” Paralympics trainee Hamish has moved into a student house.

William, whose life will be tragically short, has a new flat. Shelbie, who wasn’t expected to survive beyond her teenage years, eventually returns to school.

This is beautiful television, tender, warm, unflinching and true.