EXTREME RAILWAY JOURNEYS, C5, 9pm
I SEEM to mention an increasing amount of Channel 5 programmes these days. What can it mean? Is the channel improving, or are my standards slipping? Well, let’s not answer that question as it reeks of snobbery. Let’s just say, hey, this show looks good!
Chris Tarrant (remember him?) is the opposite of Michael Portillo in this railway series. Portillo is dapper and genteel, taking in culture and history, whereas Tarrant is a bit more gung-ho.
In the first of this new series, Tarrant isn’t sampling fine wines in a Mediterranean square. Instead he’s slapping on the sunscreen and journeying by rail across Morocco, and his mission is to find whether a rail line ever existed across the Sahara desert all the way to Timbuktu.
He stops at Morocco’s famous cities of Casablanca, Fez and Marrakesh, and starts off wary of African trains, some of which have been dirty and dangerous.
THE GANGES WITH SUE PERKINS, BBC1, 10.45pm
IN this last episode, Perkins starts in the great and expanding city of Patna, which was once home to “the imperial drug lords” of the British Empire who ran the opium trade here.
She visits a school where young women are studying engineering, and are hard at work learning to drive trains and build bridges. “Back off, lads! I know how to do this!” says Sue, exulting in how strong and ambitious these girls are. She says they demonstrate how much India has changed in one generation. But she moves on to a place which reminds us India is not all about ambition and advance. She visits a children’s shelter in Kolkata where the city’s many street kids hope for a scrap of safety. “I just want a good sleep at night in a safe place,” says one.
Sue ends her journey at the Bay of Bengal where she learns about efforts to save the Bengal tiger, and we wonder why the street children don’t get the same level of effort and attention.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here