As a double act, Dame Judi Dench and Jay Blades are not going to be treading the boards with a song and dance show at the Palladium anytime soon. But honestly, don’t bet against it, having watched their doc on Channel 4, Dame Judi & Jay Blades: The Odd Couple (C4, Sun). For one, they really know how to tug at the heartstrings. If you weren’t moved by anything in this show, ask the nurse to take your pulse because these two national treasures were welling up for Britain in this show.
It was a stroke of genius to bring them together to talk about their respective pasts which are completely dissimilar. Dame Judi is the daughter of a York doctor with a middle-class upbringing, while Jay Blades is the son of Windrush immigrants with 26 half-brothers and sisters.
Not to take anything away from her brilliant career as an actress, it could be argued that his life has changed more dramatically than Dame Judi’s. The boy who used to frequent Ridley Road Market now revisits his “manor” in a sporty little Aston Martin, perhaps bought from the proceeds of his highly successful TV career on The Repair Shop. Indeed, he is The Repair Shop!
After a brief stopover at Ridley Road, where Dame Judi – tempted by thermals and string vests – took to market trading like Ian Beale, they swung by the Old Vic where both read Shakespeare, dyslexic Jay tackling Hamlet’s famous speech, To Be or Not To Be. Then on a visit to his old youth club, run by his passionate mentor Janet, he confessed that had it not been for Janet and her extraordinary work at the club, he would either “be dead or in prison”. Blades is very lucky there was someone there for him.
In a rare moment, Dame Judi spoke very affectionately and emotionally about her late husband Michael, before donning her “M” Bond persona to take the helm of a launch on The Thames, and admitted: “I’d like to go back and do it all over again.” Always the trooper.
The word “documentary” can mean many things. In the case of The World’s Biggest Cruise Ship (C4, Sun), it meant a 60-minute ad for a Finnish shipping company. This was not a Channel 4 documentary as we’ve come to know it. I would also imagine the accolade of “biggest cruise ship in the world” has a new recipient every month, such are the numbers of cruise ships being launched on to the world.
It was a show littered with sugary compliments and stunning statistics. Here are some; it had 2,600 crew; it had 2,800 cabins and it cost $2 billion to build. Thankfully, it only cost me 10 minutes of my valuable time to realise I was watching a corporate video.
Congratulations though to the “influencer” family of four who landed a trip of a lifetime which, for the children, meant jumping around on the bunk beds endlessly to the delight of the camera crew.
Good luck to all who sail on Icon of the Seas – and all who slide their way around its dazzling water park. Just what you need on a cruise ship – more water!
On a completely different note, the American Walking Dead franchise is as stubborn as one of its hideous zombie creatures. In short, it just won’t lay down and die.
The latest irritation, sorry iteration is called The Walking Dead: Dead City (Sky Max, Thurs), and featured lead characters Maggie and Negan trying to negotiate an ivy, and moss-clad Manhattan in this post-apocalyptic world that it inhabits.
From the other side of the Hudson River, it looked quite nice. Maybe we’re too pessimistic about the post-apocalyptic world.
Surprisingly, I was mostly amused by this new spin-off, just as soon as I got used to the awful slushy sound as one of these corpses comes up behind you.
I’d like another version to be set in Surrey, so polite chaps on the golf course could go, “Hi Jerry, I see you’ve gone over to the other side, too. It suits you. Give my best to Margo!” – slush, slush.
Of course, the real evil in the show doesn’t lay with the undead but with evil humans – or the marshals – that remain behind.
If only the undead could assemble in a large choir, conducted by Gareth Malone. They’d be enriched with a new hobby, and go quietly.
Finally, have you noticed that when a new quiz show arrives, it doesn’t just turn up in a series of merely six episodes but one of 20, in a display of admirable confidence on the part of the producers.
The Answer Run (BBC One, Mon) is built around swiping. Yes, the BBC’s relentless slide downmarket continues.
As likeable Jason Manford told his contestants, “We give you a 50 per cent chance….” And there’s a 100 per cent probability that quite a few viewers will switch off within minutes!
