WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?, BBC1, 8pm
WARWICK Davis doesn’t uncover any horrendous scandals, but that’s no criticism. Instead, he digs up lots of little details that remind us history needn’t be all about drums and trumpets. It is made not just on the battlefield, but in modest streets and houses.
Davis traces his great grandfather and then is confused: the census shows him residing at two different addresses. Further investigation proves he was supporting two different families and was married to the women at both addresses.
This made him a bigamist, a criminal offence, but we learn bigamy was relatively common in the Victorian era given that divorce was almost impossible. When a marriage broke down and a partner found a new love, they could either wait for the original spouse to die or indulge in a bit of quiet law-breaking.
On the other side of the family, Davis finds a relative who lost his mind and died in an asylum.
THE REAL MARIGOLD HOTEL, BBC1, 9pm
WHAT a blast from the past! Rustie Lee? Remember her? And curly-haired Paul Nicholas? And eternally cheery Lionel Blair?
They’re joined here by Amanda Barrie, Bill Oddie, Miriam Stoppard and Denis Taylor in the new series of this jovial travel show, which sends a bunch of famous pensioners off on an exotic holiday to India.
Paul Nicholas, though? Can he be a pensioner? Surely it was only a few years ago when he played Vince in Just Good Friends, with that golden hair and cheeky grin? But Google tells me he’s 73 years old now, and this show says he has pale, limp hair. Those blonde fluffy curls are all gone.
Age is cruel, I wailed, but this series is all about proving me wrong. It shows the gang as adventurous as they tackle the region of Kerala, sizing it up to see if it’d make a nicer retirement prospect than Eastbourne.
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