Earthy laughs up north
THEY’RE meant to be giving their relationship another go, but poor Karen has caught Mike cheating on her. It was karaoke night at The Ship. Jack had just called the pair of them up to do Everlasting Love, but Mike was nowhere to be seen.
So Karen popped outside to look for him, and you’ll never guess what. Turns out he was behind the crab stall opposite, snogging that Hayley Cox.And we all know what Hayley Cox is like, right? Proper piece of work.
But, hey, that’s Scarborough for you. Possibly not for real, but certainly the SCARBOROUGH we
visit tonight (BBC1, 9.30pm) in Derren Litten’s latest comedy.
Derren is probably best known for writing Benidorm, which ran for more than a decade on ITV, and it’s interesting to see this new show has drawn comparisons both with that and with Still Open All Hours.
Interesting, that is, because I’m no great fan of either, and yet I can tell I’m going to like Scarborough an awful lot. Like the others, it’s very much a character-driven affair, but on first impressions the characters here seem less cartoony and two-dimensional.
The dialogue, too, has a familiar earthy quality and yet crucially feels less forced.And there’s a satisfyingly edgy tone at times.
Karen is played by Corrie’s Catherine Tyldesley, Mike by Jason Manford, and there’s a whole bunch of other reassuringly familiar faces to drive the story along.
All it really needs is Stephanie Cole to turn up, playing Stephanie Cole – and, as if by magic, there she is, doing precisely that, albeit technically in the role of Karen’s mum.
Elsewhere tonight, the final episode of MORTIMER & WHITEHOUSE: GONE FISHING (BBC2, 8pm), takes Bob and Paul to the Yorkshire Dales.
“I was born in Yorkshire,” declares Bob, proudly, “and I’ll die here.”
“No, you won’t,” Paul chuckles. “You’ll die in Tunbridge Wells with your hedge fund mates.”
For this concluding leg, Bob has also arranged a touching if somewhat bizarre reunion with the surgeon who carried out his life-saving heart op three years ago. Paul is invited to tag along.
“Don’t you be rude to him,” Bob warns.
“Don’t you start going, ‘Suit you, sir. Suit you, surgeon…’”
They meet this chap, Chris, in a local pub – where he’s persuaded to re-enact the operation (well, up to a point) on one of the tables. Paul is a somewhat alarmingly willing assistant.
Meanwhile, to progress any further in CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF (BBC1, 9pm), our celebs must avoid poisoning Rylan Clark-Neal, Phil Vickery and Angellica Bell, returning to do the guest-judging bit.