OUR EX-WIFE, BBC2, 10pm
THIS is a pilot and it’s screamingly obvious. If this sitcom wants to be given a series then it needs to tidy itself up. There are scenes which are ridiculous, yet some comedy promise does lurk. With drastic nipping and tucking, it could work.
Until that day, we’re left with a bitterly divorced couple who fantasise about killing, slashing and decapitating one another. These scenes of daft cartoon violence are an embarrassing blot on what could be a good story.
Jack and Hilary are divorced but still loathe one another. Five years on, Jack (Robert Webb) is remarrying, this time to a sweet, naïve American woman, but he quakes at the thought of her meeting his ex.
His fiancée soothes his fears and assures him: “Your ex-wife is my ex-wife” and Jack is forced to play nice and invite the “psychotic whore” to Sunday lunch.
SCOTLAND’S GAME, BBC1, 9pm
CALLED “The Perfect Storm”, the second episode in this social history of Scottish football looks at the changes brought to the game in the late 1990s by the media and money.
In 1998, the SPL struck a deal with BSkyB to televise their games. This brought Scottish clubs greater exposure and a whole lot of cash, “but the money came at a price”. The scheduling of games was now determined by TV, not common sense, and this led to the infamous Old Firm game, set for 6pm on a holiday weekend, where tempers rose, red cards were dished out and the referee was struck on the head and left bleeding on the pitch. One manager recalls a TV exec observing the chaos and being “gleeful because it was great television.”
This sudden influx of cash and fame also led to the sport being hijacked by “mavericks with money and ego-driven illusions”. There are contributions from Martin O’Neill, Alex McLeish and Stuart Cosgrove.
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