LOOK at that chest, the sheer power of it. The flowing hair. The proud forehead. As for those fetlocks, for the love of a Cornish cream tea! Yes, it was the hotly anticipated first glimpse of Seamus the horse, for some the real star of Poldark (BBC1, Sunday, 9pm), making its return this week. Aidan who? Oh yes, scruffy looking fella, emerged from the sea with his shirt off like a cross between James Bond and a wet spaniel. He was all right, s’pose. But Seamus, now there’s a sight for Sunday night eyes.
As series four opened it was 1796 and rising grain prices were causing a kerfuffle. Greedy merchants were sending the stuff abroad to the highest bidder, leaving the poor to go hungry. Ross was upset about this, but enough to enter politics? That was the question we were meant to be interested in, but as ever it was affairs of the heart, not state, that grabbed the attention. Ross was treading softly around Demelza on account of her becoming a tad too interested in drippy Hugh’s poetry; Elizabeth was being nice to her dastardly husband George Warleggan; and the vicar’s wife was wafting around with her hood up, lovesick for another. There will be flaring nostrils and quivering hindquarters before summer’s out, mark my words. One hopes this is reflected in Seamus’s oats order.
The BBC Scotland documentary Fight Like a Girl (BBC1, Monday, 7.30pm) was the story of Kimberly Benson, aka Viper, “Scotland’s hottest female wrestler”. If you ever wondered what it was like getting paid to travel the world and bodyslam people, and let’s face it we all have that dream sometimes, the amiable 26-year-old could fill in the details. As we saw in Katy Bird’s breezy half hour film, even a wrestling whirlwind gets the blues now and then when they miss their home and dog.
TV loves an entrepreneur. All those hopes and dreams, all the things that can go wrong. It’s great entertainment for the rest of us, sitting smugly at home. In How to Start an Airline (Channel 4, Wednesday, 10.30pm) we met one such ideas man, Kazi Shafiqur Rahman, who wanted to start Britain’s first Sharia-compliant service. The airline game, and long haul routes in particular, have tested the most experienced business brains down the years, so the chances of Firnas Airways making it looked slim. But Rahman, who styled himself as “the Halal Richard Branson” and whose first job was cleaning airport toilets, had built a successful perfume company, he had youth, enthusiasm, and energy to burn. What could go wrong? Between Rahman and learning about the airline business, the hour zipped by, unlike the last few seasons of The Apprentice.
It was wise to stay seated and keep your seatbelts fastened while watching the documentary Germaine Bloody Greer (BBC2, Saturday, 9pm). Woman alive, but the writer and broadcaster is a turbulent sort. Director Claire Beavan made the mistake of asking her what she was trying to say in The Female Eunuch. “That’s a silly question,” replied Greer. “I’m not going to answer it. You know what I was trying to say. It’s what I ****ing said.” No chance of a cup of tea then, love?
Beavan was not to be outdone, though, coaxing revelations from Greer and the assembled talking heads. Her archive footage was terrific, giving a real sense of the giddy times in which the women’s movement flourished.
Greer turned out to be the shy, retiring type when it suited her. When asked if she had ever slept with any rockstars, she bit back: “I don’t tell those tales.” She had no time either for modern feminists. “Me Too, Time’s Up, all b******. None of it is going to happen.” Dear Dr Greer. Never change.
The women on the special edition of Take Me Out (ITV, Saturday, 8pm) were even more redoubtable than Ms Greer. Why was this a special edition? Because they had let the over-50s out to play the dating game. Or as host Paddy McGuinness put it: “It’s grab a granny night everyone!”
This could have been cringe-worthy stuff if anyone was daft enough to take it seriously. Fortunately, they weren’t. At one point, McGuinness was joy-riding a contestant’s mobility scooter. It was that kind of night. The winners looked genuinely delighted to be heading off to the legendary island of Fernando’s for a date, and they were polite about each other afterwards. In keeping with the company, Paddy wheeled out the vintage gags. “The place we’re sending you is buzzing,” he said. “There’s a hornets nest in your room.”
It was such a giggle one was left thinking that ITV should ditch the youngsters and make the show over-50s only every week. With Germaine Greer as Paddy’s co-host, naturally.
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