Over the years the Beeb have done a good line in gentle all's eventually right with the world drama for Sundays. I'm going back to the 70s here when we used to get a decent children's serial adaptation at teatime and then watch All Creatures Great & Small after our baths, smelling of Palmolive soap and Silvikrin shampoo.
I never really took to Call the Midwife, which is a kind of human equivalent to Christopher Timothy in a barn helping cows calve. My Mum grew up in a very happy and not at all deprived East London family in the 50s and I find vaguely offensive the implication that all East End women were poorly educated simpletons, probably beaten by their husbands, just waiting for a jolly midwife or nun to come along and sort their lives out for them.
Miranda pretending to give birth had me cringing. Not because of Chummy's placental haemorrhage (and that's easy for you to spell) but because she's ,well, Miranda. Although I'm not surprised she burst things trying to wear that girdle. I was out of my comfort zone there.
The lead girl 'the main one' Jenny is distant, unremarkable. Then we have The Plain One and The Tarty One, stock characters, alongside the Head Nun (Jenny Agutter) who is always sensible and the Nutty Nun (Pam Ferris).
Oh no! They want to knock down the nunnery! What a cliff hanger !
Maybe they should send some of this lot across to Downton Abbey where they need nurses and midwives. Every time a baby is born a member of the immediate family pops their clogs. Might take a while to get there on a bike though.
This weekend we were served with a slice of The Lady Vanishes (BBC1). Now I always thought that this was an Agatha Christie story but apparently not. Although the cast on a train and a mystery with lots of posh Brits fibbing awfully to protect their own interests was pretty much standard Christie plot.
Now on a Sunday I really can't be bothered to concentrate too much. I like the company of Father Ted on More4 at bedtime for that very reason;I know all the words. Watching The Lady Vanishes post-Sunday roast glass of rose or two was like watching a panto that was based on A Famous Five novel.
"Miss Froy was there!" says our very lipsticked heroine (or words to that effect).
"Oh no she wasn't!" declare all the other cast members, and the audience all hiss at Keeley Hawes. For no good reason other than her character looked like she deserved it.
At least the hero & heroine stopped short of singing 'The Song That Goes Like This' to each other.
Not a great success - glossy yes, but no, it didn't keep me interested; I simply stopped caring pretty quickly.
I stayed up to watch the mildly anticipated It's Kevin (10.30pm Sundays BBC2).
I was surprised by the scheduling of this series; it should have set off alarm bells.
Heck I don't mind a bit of eccentricity. I was brought up on repeats of Monty Python, and the Q series. At one point in my formative years I was confused if the comedy show I was watching actually had the end credits at the end and not in the middle.
But this show served irreverence up in dollops so cumbersome it hampered my enjoyment. I felt like Mr Eldon - whose work as supporting artist in many many comedy shows over recent years I have enjoyed- felt he had to throw everything at this, and it was all bit too much.
I will be watching again next week though.
Ta for reading this far by the way. See you next time.
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