Life on the breadline
PICK DAY
Simon is furious with Peter Marlon’s plot to get DNA from Bear Wolf CORONATION STREET
STV, 7.30pm & 8.30pm When Simon finds out that Peter is taking Abi sailing, he’s absolutely furious. In the end, Peter says he can come instead and that Abi means nothing to him. But someone overhears his comment.
Shona finds out that Clayton has been beaten up in prison and rushes to hospital.
elsewhere, Roy is too tired to concentrate on anything. And Gemma’s plan of making tea for Chesney and Joseph goes badly wrong when she has an accident in the kitchen. Partially blind David’s been told he must work THE REAL MARIGOLD ON TOUR BBC1, 9pm The Marigold franchise continues apace as the pensioners experience what it’s like to grow old in Russia.
Darts pro Bobby George, The Three Degrees singer Sheila Ferguson, former politician Stanley Johnson and actress Miriam Margolyes are keen to investigate what Miriam believes is “a closed, slightly scary place”.
This fun episode does go some way to cracking that stern image. Miriam, of course, is brilliant value, managing to offend a local INVASION By the Real Marigold crew within five minutes of arriving. She’ll tell anyone who will listen: “I don’t like Putin”.
Later in St Petersburg, Miriam and Sheila find themselves at odds with Stanley’s pro-Russian standpoint. Stanley has more luck bonding with Bobby over some vodka.
Watch out for an entertaining visit to a Russian sanatorium, where Stanley swims in a mineralrich lake, Sheila gets a massage with a high-powered hose and Miriam has leech treatment.
“It was a bit too violent,” she says, before conceding: “But it’s not Russia’s fault.” SKINT BRITAIN: FRIENDS WITHOUT BENEFITS
C4, 9pm TEENAGER Tamsyn is hoping that her drumming skills might be a way out of living in poverty.
Meanwhile, unemployed Nathan and Abbey take their dog hunting for moles, rabbits or squirrels to eat because it’s a free meal.
And a cancer survivor who may have the disease again and needs to be on a special diet, can’t get any financial help from the Government. It’s a devastating and bleak insight into the realities of life for those on the breadline.
This eye-opening series visits the residents of Hartlepool, who were used as guinea pigs for the roll-out of the new benefits system Universal Credit.
The aim of UC was to get people on benefits back to work, but with a five-week wait for the first payment, the results were catastrophic.
Spiralling crime, homelessness, loan sharks, hunger and evictions hit the town as claimants struggled to survive and queues at the food banks grew.
“I’d rather go back to selling drugs – I had money every day,” says one man. Another describes Hartlepool as “Beirut”. Partially blind David has his payment reduced, leaving him just £5 to live off for the entire month after his disability is reassessed and he’s told he must now look for work.
Single mum Terri’s job hunt in the town – which has the UK’s highest number of jobless households – isn’t looking promising.
And elsewhere, cancer survivor Tracy’s finances are further strained with bad news about her health.
She says: “There is no future for the young’uns. There are just no jobs.” CLEANING UP
STV, 9pm SURELY an office block cleaner can’t pull off a massive insider trading scam, fooling a network of dodgy dealers? Well that’s what we’re about to find out.
As this drama concludes, everything is building up for Sam (Sheridan Smith) to either have a big win and save her home and keep her kids, or we will see her downfall.
It’s hard to pick which way it will go, but we’re on her side, despite the small Tamsyn looks for a way out of poverty matter of her endless criminal activity and we pick up the plot as Swanny (Lloyd Owen) wants to know where Sam is.
Meanwhile, back at home, Bashra the landlady (Shobu Kapoor, who used to play Gita from EastEnders) throws a spanner in the works and Dave (Matthew McNulty) wants the girls. Elsewhere, the penny drops for Swanny when he meets up with Blake.
Sam’s in big trouble now – the only way out is to concoct a brand new, and no doubt dangerous, plan.