Television THURSDAY
THURSDAY 9 MAY
GAME SHOW
8.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming
NEW SERIES
Here’s a Ronseal reality series. Pairs of contestants are given a wad of cash that they must double in 36 hours. Those who manage to do it go through to the next episode, those who come up short will be eliminated. As the pairs are handed £250 and asked to return in a few days with £500, they can use any means necessary to turn a profit.
The business exploits all stay disappointingly above board. Sue Perkins strives to inject jeopardy into bake sales, cocktail-making, car-washing and flogging sunglasses at a market. Although do look out for the couple who set up a fortune-telling stall — the snatched moments are sketch show-worthy, complete with catchphrase (“I’m not changing it”).
With all the shambles of an Apprentice task minus the slick edit or production values, this instead leans into the human stories of why everyone wants to take part, from fathers and sons aiming to reconnect and burgeoning romances hoping to be strengthened.
Continues tomorrow.
SOAP
7.30pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer An affair between old flames George and Cindy seems inevitable, but EastEnders has been restrained in not throwing them straight into bed together. That’s not to say the pair aren’t drifting closer, as tormented George leans on his ex for support while he processes the revelations about his adoption. Elaine’s nose is put out of joint to learn her fella has shunned her sympathetic shoulder in favour of Cindy’s, and her rival knew about George’s dangerous hobby of illegal underground fighting.
Tension mounts for this emotional trio when Cindy issues George with an ultimatum — if he continues to put his life at risk by beating seven bells out of burly extras in dimly lit warehouse locations, there will be consequences.
COMEDY DRAMA
9.00pm BBC2 Full series: iPlayer The final crime drama
LAST IN SERIES send-up of the series is less a whodunnit and more a “can-they-catchhim?”, as it’s obvious from the opening scene that Lee Mack (in oddball glasses and anorak) is this week’s homicidal maniac. He’s toying with Terry (Johnny Vegas) and Gemma (Sian Gibson) in much the same way as the Scorpio Killer did with Dirty Harry, except Mack’s cheery sadist — for reasons soon explained — finds inspiration in the lyrics of a children’s rhyme.
It’s gleeful, grisly stuff — to the extent that the next time you’re called upon to sing this particular song to a child, the blood-red tableaux featured here may just flash through your mind.
COMEDY
9.00pm C4 Catch up: C4 streaming Everyone needs a win — even well-paid comedians
