Jimmy Doherty et al opened this new series last night with what felt like a somewhat apologetic explanation that they were going to be looking at all things pertaining to the Natural History Museum. I can only assume that everyone involved felt that it was going to be tough attracting viewers with an interest in the subject matter.

Anywho, the museum is an imposing edifice with no less than five miles of corridors and 70 million specimens, but I was rather disappointed to hear that the famous Diplodocus skeleton that sits at the museum’s entrance is actually a plaster cast. I think that’s a bit of a swizz.

However, Jimmy Doherty, most recently seen exploring the world of food production, is charming and he makes for an enthusiastic host, even though his interviewing skills could perhaps be improved by a class or two in Interviewing 101… Read more & comment »

In this often rather bizarre episode of Cutting Edge, we took a look behind the covers of The Lady; a magazine as quirky and doggedly eccentric as the – few – Britons who read it.

Founded around 125 years ago by Thomas Gibson Bowles, The Lady was once ‘the’ magazine to be seen reading. It was where one found one’s butler or discovered riveting tea party conversations starters about the history of the cucumber. And it’s apparently the Queen’s favourite magazine.

Now, under the ownership of Bowles’ great-grandson Ben Budworth, readership has declined to an all time low and his family have been propping it up financially. So he decided to hire Rachel Johnson – sister of the buffoon Boris – to turn around its fortunes… Read more & comment »

This series just gets better and better. It hasn’t dropped the ball even once, and each human interest story is told in such a way as to make us viewers feel we know the main protagonists.

Last night, we met Shelagh and Richard as well as Penny and Ben, and what a lovely pair… of pairs, they were!

Shelagh was having her first baby, and told with a refreshing honesty how, although the baby isn’t biologically Richard’s, the couple were going to raise the baby together as though Richard was… Read more & comment »

Since his brush with death following that horrific high speed crash, I’m just very grateful to be seeing Richard Hammond at all. I’ve always had a bit of a crush on him, though I must confess, his post-accident hairstyle has dampened my ardour somewhat…

However, girly hair aside, if Hammond’s in a thing, you can pretty much guarantee it’s going to be entertaining, and there’ll be explosions. And you might even learn something.

But though this show was without doubt entertaining, what it actually was was a tribute to the capabilities of high speed, high tech cameras. It was a show-and-tell of what the BBC’s investment in state of the art technology can do. Read more & comment »

I should start this piece by saying that I like Raymond Blanc; he’s charismatic, charming, French – and let’s face it, few of us ladies of a certain age can get our knees to gel while a bloke’s being all French all over the shop – and he’s enthusiastic.

But even his enthusiasm for his subject matter surely had to be stretched to breaking point to create this dullest of dull shows?

The things is, vegetables are a yawn fest, and despite the narrator trying – and failing – to sound interested, the sight of a beetroot salad with smoked salmon as a lunchtime “treat” failed to ignite even the tiniest spark of interest in me… Read more & comment »

One might, at first glance, have assumed this was yet another travelogue during which we get to see some lucky person being paid to travel some route or other and show us pretty places…

However, on further inspection, and as it was fronted by journalist Simon Reeve, it was actually a serious bit of journalistic endeavour that just happened to include some pretty places. It also included a lot that weren’t.

Simon is, justifiably, held in high regard by journo types since he was one of the first to truly understand and convey the danger that al-Qaeda posed to the world, and especially America. Read more & comment »

Ordinarily, I find this show to be as dull as ditchwater, and only tune in occasionally to have a Through The Keyhole nosey at the contestants homes, but last night’s offering was, by any standard, worthy of the word ‘classic’.

Epic might be another description; it was just that good. And why? Because of Kim Woodburn.

She spent the entire episode being wholly inappropriate, and it made for fantastic viewing. She even got as tired and emotional as a newt at Claire Sweeney’s house and inbetween bouts of discussing celeb skidmarks – Kim used to be a cleaner to several stars – she managed to be very insulting to the food on offer too. Read more & comment »

Mark Rossiter set out to find the black nanny who he described as “a second mother” for this Channel 4 film.

He left South Africa when his parents became worried about the family’s safety as riots and protests against apartheid reached their peak, and it seems that Mark’s been yearning to find Susan, his nanny, ever since.

He said in the film that he wanted to thank her for the contribution she made to his life and for the love she showed him, but with only a grainy picture and her first name to go on, it seemed an impossible task to find her.

We followed as his efforts were initially futile, right up to the tissues-out moment when he did indeed find Susan. But that reunion voyeurism was bittersweet for me… Read more & comment »

This Cutting Edge film followed the fates of three children who were all competing for a place at the hallowed and revered Harrow School…

However, these were children whose families couldn’t afford the astronomical fees of nearly £29,000 a year, so they were chasing two places offered by benevolent ex-Harrovian Peter Beckwith, who funds those places for two “exceptional” boys per year.

And while it is of course incredibly kind of him to do so, the children are put through gruelling hoops to be judged worthy of that benevolence. And perhaps it’s just the liberal parent in me, but I don’t really approve of competitiveness among those less than 4ft high.

I believe it sets a child up for failure, and for one of the children we followed in this film, that’s exactly what he got… Read more & comment »

I must admit that to me, a good meal in a restaurant is one that is a) well cooked b) well presented and c) leaves me feeling like I’ve actually eaten something…

Therefore, I’ve never understood the fascination with two or three tiny offerings on a very expensive plate that wouldn’t fill a sparrow. And much less, I’ve never understood why someone would pay the equivalent of a weekly wage to eat at a restaurant where five courses could be served on a saucer.

But I’m common; I freely admit it, I just am. I’m working class – and proud of it – so when I saw this show advertised, I thought I might end up understanding what this obsession with Michelin is all about. And frankly, it’s analogous to drug use for those who give a toss about it… Read more & comment »

My mother used to love shopping at John Lewis, and M&S, but personally, I’m a Primark girl, so I can’t claim to be overly familiar with the JL brand, and while this show wasn’t the most earth-shatteringly entertaining thing I’ve ever watched, it was mildly interesting.

However, it was made that little bit more watchable by the input of John Lewis’s managing director, Andy Street. His PA branded him ‘unorganisable’ and he sweetly agreed wholeheartedly that he is.

He also explained why it is that he’s happy to exist on a mere 75 times the wage of their average employee; “We’re not paid as much as colleagues running other organizations, but I put it to you that this is a far more fulfilling job.” Read more & comment »

This was the first time I’ve ever encountered Rhod Gilbert, and I’ll certainly be watching out for him in future; he’s very funny and that’s kind of a plus in a comedian.

For this series, Rhod will be trying out various jobs – his next outing is as a babysitter – but last night, he joined refuse collectors in Wales, and I have to say, it gave me a new respect for bin men.

I don’t know if calling them ‘bin men’ is PC or not, but it’s too much faff to type refuse collection operatives every two minutes… Read more & comment »

I suspect that fact that Catherine Tate narrated this show was a nod to the fact that the sidekicks of the title weren’t going to be taken terribly seriously…

There was no in-depth analysis of the socio-political implications of thespian hierarchy or potential PTSD from being the second-in-line, and it was therefore a pleasant – if not compulsive – watch.

One real treat came in the form of the late, great Ian Carmichael’s last ever TV interview during which he talked mellifluously about his role as Lord Peter Wimsey. What a loss and what a lovely man he was… Read more & comment »

Telly bosses are awfully fond of taking celebrities and plonking them among the proletariat to see how they get on being ‘real’ people for a while. Sometimes, it works well – Tower Block of Commons – and at other times, it fails miserably.

Famous, Rich and Jobless, judging by last night’s first episode, falls firmly into the latter category.

Aunty Beeb took Larry Lamb, Emma Parker Bowles – who frankly, I’d never heard of, and without the famous link her surname attracts, never would have done – Meg Matthews and Diarmiud Gavin and gave them the remit to live as the plebeians do.

So, did it offer valuable insight into the spectre of long-term unemployment? Were we left having greater knowledge of just how tough it all is? No, and here’s why… Read more & comment »

I should preface what follows by saying that I find David Cameron to be an odious, hypocritical, chinless wonder. In short, I don’t like him. So this perhaps coloured my views of the man at the centre of this film by political journalist, Andrew Rawnsley.

You may best recall Rawnsley as being the author of the controversial book ‘The End of the Party’ in which he was far from complimentary about Gordon Brown, so perhaps this televisual foray into investigating ‘the real’ Cameron was by way of balancing the critical scales.

And as it turned out, Rawnsley didn’t have to do much critical finger pointing himself; Cameron’s ‘supporters’ managed to do that all by themselves. Notably, MP Ed Vaizey, who, in either a moment of candidness or – more plausibly – stupidity, announced that he suspected Cameron’s wife, Samantha, was a closet Labour supporter… Read more & comment »