A GRANNY’S GUIDE TO THE MODERN WORLD, C4, 10.30pm
“WE are the mature generation who grew up in that other world called the past.”
That sounds like a very sombre introduction but this is a jaunty, light-hearted programme, presented by Barry Humphries, which sends elderly people out into the world to engage with trendy, modern types to see if the auld yins can understand the young – and vice versa.
One elderly participant aged 94 says: “Well the problem I have is describing people who’re not white. It’s very difficult!” Another topic on which generations differ is swearing. A genteel old lady decides to investigate the matter, announcing, “Today I’m going to meet some builders.”
An especially strange segment occurs later in the show when a trio of elderly women head to Amsterdam to get high and play on some swings.
MAN DOWN, C4, 10pm
THE sinister “Daddy” gets his feet nicely under the table tonight so Dan feels he has no option but to leave home. He tries to retreat with dignity, saying he’ll only take what he owns – but this means he’s left with nothing: his coat was a hand-me-down and “Daddy” takes great pleasure in pointing out that his car is registered in his father’s name. And so Dan marches out into the street with nothing but a tiny blue chair and, throughout the episode, he clings to it.
Homeless and alone, he’s increasingly keen to emigrate to America, but the severe officials at the US Embassy are not impressed when Dan fills out visa forms unwashed, unshaven, and with that little blue chair.
You must enter an address, they command, but he has none and so sneaks into the local all-night gym and starts living there. But this only makes things worse when he returns to give his address as “The 24 Hour Pump Zone”.
Poor Dan. At least he has his little blue chair.
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