TWO DOORS DOWN, BBC2, 10PM
I’VE written before on these pages about my distaste for Elaine C Smith's TV persona, which is loud and boisterous, but she is stealing the show in this new series. The qualities which normally make me wince have been put to perfect use here in her comic playing of Christine.
Christine is horrendous, her head forced upright by her stiff neck brace so she is perfectly positioned to look down her nose at everyone else and miss nothing.
This week, her daughter is subjected to her harsh treatment. Sophie had dared to entertain a gentlemen caller whilst Christine was at the doctors getting her ears syringed. “It’s not pot pourri we need on the half landing,” she sneers, “it’s a bowl of peppermints and a selection of johnny bags!”
Their row literally brings the roof down so Christine moves in with Beth and Eric. She obviously can’t stay at home as it’s “like f*****g Pompeii! I’m picking bits of Artex oot ma teeth!”
But when the rest of the street turn up, the house is witness to yet more chaos.
BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN, BBC4, 7.30pm
For a middle-brow and supposedly sophisticated channel, BBC4 relies far too much on music clip shows, packaged up as some kind of nostalgic tribute, but here they turn their attention to a different kind of music altogether: forget celebrations of Cilla, Hot Chocolate or ABBA; instead we have a contest to find the best young musician, by which we mean a talented person who can play an instrument, not someone who can imitate Whitney Houston or pluck a banjo on the Britain’s Got Talent stage.
This is the first of eight shows and they’ll each cover various categories, tonight’s being the keyboard. Five young players have made it this far and we’ll hear them perform a variety of pieces, taking in Chopin and Beethoven. We’ll also have profiles of the players to find out more about them and how they’ve managed to get so far and cope with the stress and incredible level of dedication their craft requires.
One of the players, Harvey Lin from Berkshire is only 13 which is remarkable, and the eldest is 19 year old Yuanfan Yang from the Royal College of Music.
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