ROVERS, SKY1, 10pm
EVEN if you don’t enjoy this new sitcom, you can have great fun identifying all the famous faces who star in it.
You’ll find Craig Cash and Sue Johnston of The Royle Family, Diane Morgan, better known as Philomena Cunk, and countless other naggingly recognisable faces from TV comedy.
The show is about the lowly football club Redbridge Rovers, who play in the dismal Evo-Stik First Division North. Hopes are high because they have a new Hungarian player; he “works on the buses but he’s got a real eye for goals!”
But the comedy isn’t about the game. It’s about the sad characters who work for the club and spend their days in its miserable, draughty bar where they gossip, sing songs of pretended glory and fantasise about promotion to the top league: “Imagine … playing the likes of Nantwich!”
THE QUEEN MARY: GREATEST OCEAN LINER, BBC2, 9pm
THE Titanic sucks up oceans of attention, so here comes the Queen Mary – “bigger and more powerful than the Titanic … taller than the Eiffel Tower” – trailing war, luxury, celebrity and Scottish shipbuilding genius in her wake.
The massive Queen Mary was built on the Clyde and began her maiden voyage in the summer of 1936, a time when the world was recovering from the Depression and ready to embrace luxury and good times again yet, simultaneously, the shadow of war was lengthening in Europe.
The Queen Mary took her passengers across the Atlantic, “luxuriously cocooned in a floating palace”, but in a few short years would find herself hard at work transporting armies across the seas, and acting as the “Churchillian equivalent to Air Force One”.
During the war Hitler offered a reward to any U-Boat commander who could sink her, but she outsmarted them all.
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