Channel 4, 9pm
With Britain having the longest working hours in Europe, this one-off programme contends that this country is fast becoming a nation of workaholic parents.
Lester Adams is part of Britain’s growing army of self-confessed overachievers, an entrepreneur whose dream business demands his full-time attention during every waking, and sleeping, hour. But he seems to have forgotten something. He’s also a father and husband, and although home and family are a mere six miles from work, he’s almost a stranger to them. Worse still, he’s oblivious to how unhappy he’s making them and, when he starts sleeping at the office, thinks they should accept it as the norm.
But the kids are about to adopt hardcore tactics of their own. Desperate to get their dad back into their lives, eight-year-old Ross and 12-year-old Maddie have had enough of never seeing him and decide to take action. In an unusual sting, they kidnap their unsuspecting father from work in front of his entire staff and force him to be a dad again. They impound his laptop and drag him to the wilds of Wales where – phone and e-mail-free – Lester is forced to confront the reality of his children’s needs and live by their rules.
And it doesn’t stop there. Stripped of his work fix, Lester returns home to a family still sceptical about his ability to change, and realises he has to convince them that he can. After 10 days’ cold turkey, will he finally put his family first, or revert to the lifestyle that will inexorably pull them apart? One wonders how,
in the current economic climate, he could afford to ignore work altogether.
Scotland’s Secret Serial Killer
BBC 2, 9pm
This programme charts the police investigation of the rape and murder of two Edinburgh teenagers, Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in 1977, which featured a dramatic DNA breakthrough leading to the trial of the convicted killer and child rapist Angus Sinclair. The trial sensationally collapsed in 2007 before the jury got a chance to decide his fate.
Reporter Mark Daly secures unprecedented access to detectives, witnesses and
video interviews with Sinclair. With double jeopardy laws under review, the programme investigates whether Sinclair could ever take the stand again.
Wonderland – Alzheimer’s: The Musical
BBC 2, 9.50pm
Ted’s wife Hilda doesn’t know who he is any more. Ted, her husband of 50 years, calls her his “lovely little stranger”. But she has not forgotten the tune to Que Sera, Sera.
Both are members of Singing For The Brain, a group of singers made up entirely of people with Alzheimer’s and their spouses. This film aims to show how lyrics learned long ago spring back to life, transporting the singers to a world of clarity, joy and even love.
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