DOLLY Parton’s favourite joke about herself? “It costs a lot to look this cheap.”

She tells this gag, and several others at her own expense (“Maybe I haven’t aged that much but I’ve certainly aged my plastic surgeons”), during the celebration concert shown in Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry.

Parton (above) made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry show on January 4, 1969. We see a picture of her in those days. Big hair. There’s another of her in 1975. Big hair. 1985, big hair, 1995, 2011, and so on to the less bouffant Dolly of today. As an homage to her style, some members of the audience can be seen wearing long, blonde and curly Dolly wigs. All are men.

Being able to laugh at herself and play along with the phenomenon that is Dolly, is part of the singer’s many charms. This is one lady, though, who has always approached her career with the utmost seriousness. You don’t go from being one of 12 children living in a cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee to winning Grammys, earning millions, and even having your own darn theme park, without having your head screwed on the right way, big hair or not.

It was in honour of her long reign as the queen of country that the Opry held “Dolly Week”, during which a range of performers from Lady Antebellum to Candi Carpenter came to pay homage by singing some of Parton’s classics.

While the guest artistes are uniformly terrific, no-one does Dolly better than Dolly. As she goes through her repertoire, from 9 to 5 and Jolene to I Will Always Love You the audience sings along, word perfect. The fans range from youngsters sitting on a parent’s knee to ones of an age with Parton herself (74 in case you were wondering).

There is many a kiss exchanged between partners as each song ends, showing what a special place her work holds in people’s lives. After the concert BBC2 is showing Dionne Newton’s film, Sisters in Country: Dolly, Linda and Emmylou, which features interviews with the titular Parton, Ronstadt and Harris. Later still, you can see how Parton wowed the hipster crowd at Glastonbury six years ago.

At first glance, Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter, looks like yet another show in which someone traces their family tree. Between Who Do You Think You Are?, now 17 series in, and Long Lost Family, there are a lot of such programmes about. Who Do You Think You Are must be running so low on celebs they are going to have to move on to famous people’s pets soon. Yeah, Tiddles, who do you think you are?

Lottie Gammon’s film is anything but run of the mill, however. This is a must-see documentary because of the strength of the story at its heart and the individuals involved.

The restaurateur, cook, and Great British Bake Off judge adopted a baby from Cambodia in 1974. Li-Da was among the last children to make it out of the war-torn country before the murderous Pol Pot seized power.

Growing up in a big house in the Cotswolds, Li-Da wanted for nothing. But she always felt there was something missing: a sense of where she came from.

Leith acknowledges she took a long time to understand her daughter’s need to know about her past, and wonders whether she could have done more to find out about it.

For her part, Li-Da speaks for many an adopted child when she talks about balancing her need to know with the desire not to do anything that might hurt the mother and father who welcomed her into their hearts.

According to the story Leith and her husband were told, Li-Da’s birth mother was killed in a rocket attack on a hospital in Phnom Penh. Her father, an injured soldier, had to give the extremely poorly and starving infant up for adoption.

Mother and daughter travel to Cambodia to find out how much of that story is true. “It is opening up a Pandora’s Box,” says Li-Da, as she contemplates the chance that her parents, or other family, might still be alive.

More than 40 years, on how does one even begin such a search in a country where many records have been destroyed, and a lot of those who might be able to fill in the blanks are aged or dead? While Leith and her daughter have the services of a researcher and translator the odds are very much against them.

Leith is a thoroughly likeable sort, as is her daughter. The two clearly adore each other. You get a sense of Leith on Bake Off as a jolly hockey sticks sort of gal who doesn’t let much get her down. “I don’t go scratching the surface, looking for problems,” she says.

But there is many a tear shed by both women as their search progresses. You might very well join them while watching this intensely moving piece.

Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry, Easter Monday, BBC2, 9pm. Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter, Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm.