Let’s drink to our pubs

WHEN he set out to make SAVING BRITAIN’S PUBS WITH TOM KERRIDGE ( 8pm, BBC Two), Tom will have had a rough plan in mind. Episode one would set things up, introducing the struggling hostelries to which he’d bring advice and inspiration. Episode two would see the project hit the inevitable hurdles. And episode three would leave us with a happyish ending. Job done.

That’s pretty much the formula for this kind of series. But then, of course, along came Mr Covid, and the planning went straight up the swanny. Not only were Tom’s chosen pubs facing a threat they could never have anticipated, but he wasn’t even sure his own would survive ( although you sensed they probably would, because he’s Tom Kerridge).

The series ends tonight on as optimistic note as it can. That, and with Tom issuing a plea. “When you feel safe, please get out there,” he urges us, “and save our pubs”. Try stopping me, Tom.

Elsewhere, in a somewhat different vein, I’m afraid it’s not looking terribly promising for Henry VIII’s second wife in the final part of THE FALL OF ANNE BOLEYN ( 9pm, Channel 5).

( Spoiler alert: the episode’s full title is The Fall Of Anne Boleyn: Execution – rather than, say, The Fall Of Anne Boleyn: 100 Hours’ Community Service.)

Historian Tracy Borman, who’s been retracing the ill- fated Queen’s last days ( and making a throughly enthralling job of it, it has to be said), picks up the story on the morning of May 19, 1536, with Anne languishing in the Tower of London.

She’s been found guilty of adultery, incest and treason ( Anne has, I mean, not historian Tracy Borman), and so the only aspect of her future that remains in doubt is the means by which her execution will be conducted.

Strictly speaking, treason earns you either ( a) a burning at the stake, or ( b) a hanging, drawing and quartering. Neither sounds fun.

But Anne hasn’t abandoned hope that Henry will save her.

And she’s right to be optimistic. The King does indeed intervene, sparing her either of those grisly fates. He arranges instead to have her head chopped off.

For this specialist task, Henry hires an expert swordsman all the way from France ( this, remember, is in the days before he could have found someone local through Checkatrade).

But historian Tracy has examined the paperwork and smells a rat.

It seems this swordsman chappy was booked to carry out Anne’s execution before her trial verdict had even been delivered.

It’s almost as if the trial was an absolute stitch- up.

Henry married Jane Seymour 11 days later.