An entertaining spin around driverless-car technology
If I hear the phrase “driverless car”, my Tv-addled brain immediately goes to that episode of The Likely Lads when Bob and Terry are trying to get through the day without learning the Bulgaria v England football result, so they can watch the highlights. They end up driving down the street, hiding in the footwell so they don’t inadvertently see a one-legged news vendor’s placard – as he looks agog at the seemingly self-driving Vauxhall Viva pootling past.
Horizon: Dawn of the Driverless Car (BBC Two) was somewhat more contemporary than this 1973 sitcom scene. This lively film looked at technical advances which mean we could soon have self-driving cars on our roads, whether we like it or not.
The likes of Google, Intel, Uber and Facebook, along with conventional car companies, are in a multi-billionpound race to be first to market. Some of the tech, from adaptive cruise control to parking sensors, is already in use. Ford plans to have a fully autonomous “ride-share” vehicle in service by 2021.
The real bump in the road to full autopilot is foolproof Artificial Intelligence to replace human drivers. At the University of California, though, a bot called BRETT (pleasingly, this stood for Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks) was learning fast. However, do we really want this futuristic development? Driverless cars might reduce emissions and fatalities but would also remove the pleasure of driving and put millions out of a job.
This thoughtful documentary wore its knowledge lightly and was sufficiently in-depth without lapsing into technobabble. The producers made the smart decision to feature a high ratio of female experts and journalists, to stop it all getting too blokey and Top Gear-ish.
The tone was further lightened by tongue-in-cheek touches: red-strobing graphics in homage to the Eighties cult TV series Knight Rider, comedian Sara Pascoe’s gently sarcastic narration and interviews conducted in a scrap yard, while obsolete cars got crushed in the background.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about that football match: it was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and replaced in the schedules by figure-skating. C lothes-free dating show Naked Attraction (Channel 4) tried its damnedest to appear relevant in the age of apps such as Tinder, crowbarring in phrases like “fake online profiles, fancy filters and sexed-up social media accounts”, and selling itself as “the world’s most honest dating show”. See, it’s not just an excuse for gratuitous nudity.
This second series of stripped-off matchmaking show saw host Anna Richardson – think Bake Off’s Mel Giedroyc for a different kind of buns – guiding two singletons through the tricky process of choosing a partner naked.
First up was 21-year-old Dom from Hampshire – who, in a further humiliation, had been put forward by his mother. Really, mum? You reckon parading your son naked on national television is wise parental guidance?
His six potential matches were revealed one body part at a time. This meant he examined them rather like livestock or pedigree pooches at Crufts, pointing out “perky boobs… rotated kneecap… ooh, you could rest a tray of brandies on that bottom”. Dom was a physiotherapy student and rejected one woman because her posture “could cause a lifetime of back problems”. How romantic. He even smelt their breath to check for gum disease. Chivalry’s not dead, after all.
Second into the studio was bluehaired pansexual Izzy, 22. She was open to dating anyone but with so much on offer – two transgender people, short-haired women, longhaired men and a man tattooed with pictures of women – her selection was slightly confusing. She plumped for dancer Eve but dashed to the loo halfway through their date to throw up. Not what you’d call a ringing endorsement.
All the navel-gazing and fleshprodding was broken up by informative segments about breast size, piercings and vocal register (cue an unlikely cameo from Mrs Thatcher). This was a relief, frankly, because staring at body parts in isolation could make a viewer feel distinctly queasy.
Naked Attraction is tailor-made to be a Twitter talking point and could prove titillating for younger, more giggly viewers. I’ll stick to its fullydressed stablemate First Dates. Just as long as maître d’ Fred keeps his trousers on.