THE PAPER THISTLE: 200 YEARS OF THE SCOTSMAN, BBC2, 9pm
THE Scotsman has a famous name and a great history, but now its circulation is falling hard.
This affectionate documentary gives a history of the Edinburgh paper and tries to see where it went wrong.
There are lots of fascinating anecdotes here. The paper’s first front page announced that “Edinburgh now had a paper of principle”, which led to a duel between the editor and the insulted chief of the rival Caledonian Mercury. “Both men missed.”
And Andrew Marr recalls travelling to Scotland on the Sleeper for an interview with the paper. He was young and rather intimidated by the big guy in his cabin who fed him fags and Special Brew. A hungover Marr, stinking of booze and smoke, turned up at The Scotsman and was relieved to find the staff looked and smelled even worse than him.
MEET THE TRUMPS: FROM IMMIGRANT TO PRESIDENT, C4, 10pm
THIS colourful programme tells the story of the Trump family, starting with his great grandfather, who made money dealing in horsemeat to feed the hungry Gold Rush men of Washington State. He was “literally flogging a dead horse.”
The Trumps then branched out into housing, but were not fond of renting to black people. They were, however, fond of scooping huge government grants to build affordable homes and then keeping a bit for themselves. Trump’s dad, Fred, used the Father Ted excuse that the money “was just resting in his account.”
Fred groomed his second son, Donald, to take over. (The elder son died an alcoholic and had no interest in business.) The proud parents would visit Donald at military school each weekend, bringing a different beauty each time so his son could “promenade” in the school grounds with her. Then he launched himself into Manhattan and garish celebrity.
Trump seems somehow softer and nicer in the archive interviews here. Maybe his current abrasiveness is a deliberate distraction technique and we’re all falling for it?
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