One to Watch: Doctors, 1.45pm, BBC One
Midland soap Doctors says ho-de-ho to two of the key actresses from holiday camp sitcom Hi-De-Hi! today as Ruth Madoc and Su Pollard are reunited on screen. Ruth plays Jean Marsh while Su features as Mary Dunlop with the pair joined for the plot by ChuckleVision ‘Chuckle Brother’ Paul Harman-Elliott who plays Ronnie Hislop, a man whom has been a little naughty to say the least.
One of the Doctors regulars, Sid, from The Mill medical centre visits a sheltered housing unit to see Ronnie whose gallbladder problem is playing up again. Fellow residents Mary and Jean turn up and aren’t best pleased when Sid asks them to come back later. It’s clear that Ronnie is having a fling with both women. As Sid gives Ronnie a painkilling injection he spots a skin tag on Ronnie’s leg but he refuses to let Sid look at it. In the communal area, Sid puts up a poster about the new minor surgery service offered at the Mill. Mary and Jean look very intrigued.
Later on, a minibus full of old people, including Mary, Jean and Ronnie turn up at the Mill with various ailments they want treated at the minor surgery unit. However the poster forgot to mention they needed to pre-book. Mary and Jean start to kick off in reception, and Ronnie can’t understand how they have found out he’s been ‘entertaining’ each of them.
Later Mary and Jean admit that they have known about each other all along and were trying to teach Ronnie a lesson and to be fair; there isn’t much else to give them a giggle these days. Ronnie apologises to both women, he’s enjoyed their time together and he’s sorry to see it end. Jean and Mary look at Ronnie with a twinkle in their eyes; who says it has to end?
Armchair Britain, 11.45am, BBC One
 Sticking with BBC One daytime and a series which also, like Doctors, has a link to Midland soap opera. Miriam Margolyes, who made an early television appearance in Midland motel saga Crossroads narrates this series which digs through the archives to discover what filmmakers found when they turned their cameras on our green and pleasant land…
Armchair Britain takes a nostalgic, panoramic and unpredictable turn around the stranger corners of the UK, serenading bygone Brits and their lost worlds via archive footage. Each episode will focus on a specific area of Britain rich in local history, whimsy and tradition. Every corner of the country is featured via an archive full of surprises – with great characters captured on film, revealing a lost world that is both unique and curious. Celebrating all that is quirky, Armchair Britain takes a most special look at our distinctive country.
Lending her distinctive voice to the series, Miriam takes Beeb viewers through some of the extraordinary footage from our recent – and not so recent – past. Miriam is the viewers’ armchair guide around Cornwall, Liverpool, the Yorkshire Dales, London’s East End, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Newcastle, Bristol, the Welsh Valleys, Blackpool and Brighton.
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The Real Housewives of Cheshire, 10pm, ITVBe
I quite often focus on the highbrow, after all I don’t think the world makes for a better place having too much Jeremy Kyle, Loose Women or Big Brother in anyone’s life. But when it comes to trashy television ITVBe have it covered with TRHoC. The show which looks at the “glamorous lifestyles” of some of Cheshire’s most rich and well-oiled returned recently for a brand new series filled with highs, lows and a lot of champagne.
Tonight we’re half way through the series and the divide between Dawn, Rachel and Tanya grows even further as Hanna’s intentions are questioned more and more. Ester and Zdenka go in search of the perfect face whilst the ladies join Nermina for some horsing around. |
Mo Amer: The Vagabond, streaming from today on Netflix
Arab-American comedian Mo Amer brings his worldly experiences to his debut Netflix Original stand-up special, Mo Amer: The Vagabond.
Filmed at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, Amer enlightens audiences about the truths of his first-hand experiences as a refugee. From the American immigration policy and touring internationally without a passport to the time he went viral for sitting next to Eric Trump on a flight, this is Amer like you have never seen before.
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Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, 9pm, Channel 4
The programme returns to follow a three-month experiment at Lark Hill retirement home on the outskirts of Nottingham, with the classmates’ ages ranging from just three to 102.
Inspired by the show’s previous project in Bristol, the pensioners this time are much older and the nursery runs for twice as long, stretching the older group’s stamina with excursions, dancing and a daily timetable of nursery activities. In this series viewers will meet Victor, a 97 year old who has been missing his wife since her death in 2011. They’d been wed 66 years. There’s also at the other end of the spectrum 4-year-old Phoenix who loves the London Undergound.
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Return to TS Eliotland, 9pm, BBC Four
Well as we’ve had the lowest brow on ITVBe, we should really reach into a little sophistication this Monday, and it comes courtesy of BBC Four. AN Wilson explores the groundbreaking poetry of TS Eliot, tracing the personal and literary journey he took through works including The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land.
The critic travels to the places that inspired some of Eliot’s greatest works, visiting his family’s holiday home on the Massachusetts coast, following his footsteps to Oxford, where he met and rapidly married his first wife Vivien Haigh-Wood, and on to London, where he made his home and his name.
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This has to be the best-ever guest casting Doctors has even given its BBC One daytime viewers, today at 1.45pm.
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