DUST STORM, BBC4, 8pm
IT’S only a bit of dust. What harm can it do? Every year, five billion tons of dust, mainly dry soil, is lifted into the air to be carried by the wind.
If you’re caught in its path you could find yourself choking from an asthma attack, confined to intensive care, or even suffocated. The Middle East is the area worst affected by these nightmarish clouds and this programme explains how the dust storms are created and how human activity is making them worse.
We see tremendous pictures of these vast storms, where swirling brown clouds slowly advance on a city.
The cloud looks so insubstantial but when it descends, its victims can scarcely see or breathe, and the dashcam footage of an approaching storm looks like something lifted from a Hollywood disaster movie.
It’s not all bad news: the storms lift soil and deposit it elsewhere, allowing crops to be fertilised, but there must be less terrifying ways of planting?
ALL ROUND TO MRS BROWN’S, BBC1, 9.15pm
FORGIVE me for mentioning this awful programme again. After last week, I swore I’d had enough and would never deign to include it again.
But one of the guests tonight is Kevin Bridges and he’s bringing his mum, Patricia, along. My advice is to watch this on catch-up so you can scoot through all the noisy nonsense and just watch the Kevin Bridges segment.
When Mrs Brown prompts Kevin to tell us about his plans, he says he’s due to go on tour in Australia and the pair reminisce, saying this is where Kevin first met Agnes Brown. She was “standing at the urinal beside me,” he quips.
When the proud Mrs Bridges comes on stage she tells Mrs Brown about her son’s generosity. Not only did he pay off her mortgage, he also bought her a Scottie dog ornament from a jumble sale.
They’re joined on the sofa by Ross Kemp, although it’s hard for Mrs Brown to interview him as she’s still furious that he cheated on Tiffany.
I’ll grudgingly admit I liked this section of the show.
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