Magazine


Your essential TV viewing selection

by Rachel Broady
9/ 6/2005

CAN you imagine our Delia Smith doing anything dodgy? No, neither can I. So how do you think the Americans felt when their kitchen goddess was sent to prison?

It'd be like seeing Nigella Lawson sent to Bad Girls, Fern Britton doing a stint in Prisoner Cell Block H or even Jamie Oliver being forced to paint the exterior walls of the local community centre.

Well, Martha and Me ( Monday, BBC2) tells the story of jailed Martha Stewart, the woman who taught the country how to cook. No, that's not why she was sent to prison!

Ms Stewart - who has written 34 books selling more than ten million copies and has a popular television show and best-selling magazine (think Oprah with food) - was jailed for five months after a financial scandal. A scandal that had people more excited than even her chocolate brownies could manage.

Now a Louis Theroux-type called Jamie Campbell has looked into why she had such an impact on the nation and why they were so intrigued by her being sent down for perjury.

He says: "The corporation was selling the "perfect" Martha but the image didn't tally" and runs around with his camera showing us what the multi-millionaire was really about. It's fascinating stuff and us Brits do like to see people brought back down to Earth, especially when they deserve it.

Speaking of people who need to be brought back down to Earth. At last we're questioning the point of the monarchy.

Britain's Greatest Monarch ( Monday, Channel 5) will look at kings of queens over the years and - with dramatic reconstructions and archive footage - and discuss who's the best according to their leadership, policies and achivement.

It all seems a bit subjective to me (forgive the pun) but Tory MP Ann Widdecombe and comedian Al Murray will decide which of the last 12 kings and queens was the most influential. I, personally, think they're all about as useful as a chocolate teapot and as reliable as Martha Stewart and will, hopefully, also experience her downfall.

So, with that in mind, I'll be watching The Strangest Village in Britain ( Thursday, Channel 4), a social experiment that sees how people with learning difficulties cope in a community based on free-thinking principles.


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