What to watch
Child Genius CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
Back for its fifth year, the contest for gifted children remains as problematic but irresistible as ever. There are, of course, the hothousing parents who won’t let their children answer a question and bask a little too readily in the reflected glory of their offspring, but there are also the children themselves – ambitious, precocious and not all of them seeming to spout lines drilled into them by the aforementioned mothers and fathers.
This year sees 20 children involved, with tonight’s opening rounds designed to test spelling and memory, weeding out three before tomorrow’s next stage. Richard Osman remains a reassuring presence in the chair, handling the nerves and boggling at the appropriate moments when one of the children plays a blinder.
The pick of those featured tonight are 12-year-old Rahul, whose father reckons him “as clever as Stephen Hawkins” (sic) and who wears a tie while talking about “long-term gratification”, and Oscar, 11, one of the apparent few not to be entered by his parents, whose potential could be marred by a family emergency the day before the contest. The series will run throughout the week. Gabriel Tate