TODAY
BEING THE BRONTES, BBC2, 10pm
CHARLOTTE called her pupils fat-headed oafs and Anne tied hers to a table leg. Emily stayed at home to keep house and bake bread, occasionally breaking off to fire her dad’s gun in the garden and get involved in dog fights.
The latter is my favourite anecdote about Emily Bronte. Her bulldog was attacked by local mutts and she jumped in to break up the fight, getting bitten in the process. Fearing rabies – although did Emily “fear” anything? Let’s say she didn’t want to be inconvenienced by it – she went into the kitchen, put a poker into the fire then sizzled it against her arm to sear and cleanse the wound.
These were not your typical Victorian ladies and they wrote spectacular novels which scandalised and engrossed Victorian society and yet we still think of them as timid, shy, Victorian spinsters, wandering on the moors.
This documentary tries to tell the true story of the Bronte sisters who were fearless and bold in some ways and yet stricken by paralysing shyness.
SHAKESPEARE’S TOMB, C4, 8pm
IT was only when I saw this programme in the TV listings that I realised I had no idea where Shakespeare us buried. I had a vague notion that he might be tucked away somewhere in Stratford Upon Avon, but perhaps his resting place is under some glossy slab in Poets’ Corner or maybe, like Hardy his ashes lie in one place and his heart in another?
Shakespeare lies in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford Upon Avon with the tombstone displaying a curse: Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear/To dig the dust enclosed here/Blessed be the man that spares the stones/And cursed be he that moves my bones.
Now a team of archaeologists have been given special permission from the church to examine the site using radar technology so they can see what lies inside the tomb – without actually touching it and invoking the famous curse.
There will be some “unexpected surprises” but nothing like a sequel to Hamlet or a parchment containing his Top Ten Tips For Writing Plays.
TOMORROW
PAUL O’GRADY: THE SALLY ARMY AND ME, BBC1, 6.05pm
PAUL O’Grady’s childhood ambitions were to play the drum in The Salvation Army and work in a dry cleaners. Thankfully, he dropped his desire to dry clean – it wouldn’t have made particularly good telly – but his fascination with the Sally Army has endured and this new series explores the work of the volunteers as the organisation nears its 150th birthday.
Most of us see The Salvation Army only at Christmas when their festive brass bands occupy wintry street corners, but they work year-round to help people in need, and O’Grady joins them as a “volunteer cadet” to see what they actually do – and it seems they do everything, from helping the homeless, assisting victims of domestic violence and working with people with addictions.
O’Grady tells us that to join the Sally Army you need “godliness, humility and the ability to put other people’s needs before your own – so you can see why I’m nervous!” and he’s very frank in admitting he’s not quite sure he believes in God, and saying if he ever dared confess his sins he’d need a team of priests and an exorcist working flat out through the night.
THE NIGHT MANAGER, BBC1, 9pm
THIS is the final episode of The Night Manager and I admit this series hasn’t gripped me. Indeed most of the fuss which surrounds it seems to be concerned purely with the star, Tom Hiddleston, who’s clearly the man of the moment, appearing on ITV just now in another drama, Doctor Thorne, and in the newly-released film, High Rise. He is the latest hunk! He could be the new James Bond! The hype has threatened to drown out the drama.
And does the show deserve to be swept away by Hiddleston-mania? Perhaps. It never seemed to find its level, trying to make itself palatable as a Sunday night drama but also pretending it’s James Bond with its girls, guns and speedboats.
In tonight’s finale Pine finds himself back at the Nefertiti Hotel where the drama first opened, and where he was initially made aware of the ugly arms trade Roper was involved in.
But being back in his old workplace presents the risk of meeting former colleagues and having his cover blown.
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