BACK IN TIME FOR THE WEEKEND, BBC2, 8pm
THE last episode in the series asks what the future holds for us in terms of leisure.
In the 50s leisure was almost impossible for women as housework demanded too much time. It got better when Hoovers and washing machines came along but when women were finally liberated by domestic technology, and free to share some leisure time with their families, they found that the husband and children had all bolted: they were occupied with technology of their own: not Hoovers but iPads, laptops, mobiles and Kindles. So much for family time!
So will the future divide families even further, sending us all into our own little electronic worlds? Giles Coren presents the gadgets of the future and asks the family to try them out and the verdict is surprising. The “housewife” of the family isn’t impressed with the automatic window washer and the “father” doesn’t like the idea of a remote control lawnmower. He misses the feeling of “satisfaction” he apparently got from being astride an old, oily machine and doing it himself. And the children go to the park to try out drones and hoverboards and find it brings them back to the old notion of playing outside.
THE ALIENS, E4, 9pm
“WE all know aliens crash-landed here 40 years ago which is a long, long time.” A teacher takes her pupils on a school trip and hands the talk over to a Border Guard who explains in a childish, playful voice that it’s wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. “Know what though? Some people do!”
In this new fantasy drama aliens landed in Britain and have been shoved into a ghetto. They’re fenced off by a border which is made to look like the guarded entrances to the Channel Tunnel.
Barbed wire is everywhere. Cars are being searched and Alsatians strain at their leads. “No Unauthorised Aliens Beyond This Point” say the signs, and it was here that I stopped to wonder what type of programme this is. Surely it’s a comedy, making a satirical point about our handling of the migrant crisis? But if so, must they do it with such a heavy hand?
“These aliens may look like us but there are some big differences!” the children are told. So is this a crass drama written by UKIP, or one which is deliberately crass to make fun of the UKIP mindset?
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