PETER KAY’S CAR SHARE, BBC1, 9pm
THE new series starts tonight of this award-winning sitcom, which gained much praise but which I found underwhelming, and even a tiny bit dull.
John is driving to work alone these days as Kayleigh is living with her sister and getting the bus to work, but they still have their chirpy commuting chats as John phones her – on handsfree, of course – and fans will be glad to know their meandering, fruitless conversations continue. As they repeatedly get cut off and the signal drops, John listens to old 90s tunes in his empty car, gets melancholy, and indulges in romantic daydreams involving Kayleigh, stetsons and monster trucks, only to be jolted out of it by a road rage incident with a cyclist who looks like Jeremy Corbyn.
It’s all as gentle and warm as the last series and, as before, the remaining episodes can be found on iPlayer after tonight’s broadcast.
A FAMILY DIVIDED, BBC2, 9pm
"THIS is just one family, and look at the mess."
The Clark siblings were born in the 1950s in Greenock but were taken from their mother and "scattered all over Scotland and lied to for years." This powerful and angry documentary tells us their story, and how they managed to find one another again.
The children were removed in 1956 after accusations of neglect. Newspapers recorded the court case and spoke of the children living in “a drinking den”, with a baby in a "foul-smelling pram” and the flat in “a disgusting state." The mother was jailed. Living in poverty with no solicitor, she had little hope of winning the children back. “They crucified her,” the children say. "It was through being poor that she lost us."
Two were fostered by a woman who would “run after us with a poker”. Others were sent as cheap labour to the Highlands. Now they are reuniting, and finding they may have 17 siblings. There are tears, anger and swearing – and who can blame them?
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