CAMPING, SKY ATLANTIC, 10pm
THIS is becoming my favourite show currently on TV. It’s almost a shame that Sky Atlantic have compressed the series, showing a double-bill of episodes each Tuesday night, making the six-part series finish in just three weeks.
A three week window is very short so it’s less likely that viewers will stumble across it by accident or hear about it through word of mouth, so if my little previews here have any influence, let me use it to direct you to this strange, awkward, funny sitcom.
Episodes Three and Four go out tonight. Although Vicki Pepperdine has stolen the show thus far as the brittle and sour Fi, the star tonight is Tom (Rufus Jones).
He’s so desperate to please his new girlfriend that he wears the absurd new clothes she buys him: unfortunately, she has bought him spectacularly tight lederhosen. He ventures a slight worry: he might look a bit like the Nazis, only for his airhead girlfriend asks who the Nazis are. With perfect comedy timing he pauses, then says: “Oh, just….some guys.” In that short line all his desperation is summed up. He’s dressed like a Hallowe’en Nazi, all to impress a girl who’s so dim she doesn’t know who the Nazis were and Tom, poor Tom, can’t even make the effort to explain. Because where would he begin? Especially when crammed into tight shorts. Ah, the Nazis: just some guys.
Meanwhile, hen-pecked Robin manages to escape Fi for one day by going on a fishing trip which threatens her plans to visit Monkey World.
FIERCE, STV, 8pm
“THE fangs! Pushing right into its head! Awrrrgh!”
That’s the kind of breathless dialogue you’ll get in this new series which explores the world’s most fierce creatures.
Steve Backshall is the brave presenter who’s getting close to the most angry, vicious, poisonous creatures on Earth. He isn’t interested in nature being clever or pretty; he just wants the bad dudes and “the wilder the better.”
He starts tonight on an island in Southern Indonesia which is home to toxic stonefish. Villagers describe taking a stroll on the beach and stepping on one: it inserts a thin spine into the foot and starts pumping its poison. It is “unbelievably painful” and yet Backshall is brave enough to fish one out of the sea and gently handle it, though only whilst wearing thick leather gloves.
Then he goes into the forests to approach a komodo dragon, hauling a lump of meat behind him on a rope to get its attention.
And if you’re still thinking Backshall is some kind of softy, he also confronts a giant king cobra in the dusty road.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here