Saturday night television

Why the broadcasters insist on filling Saturday evenings with such a load of rubbish will forever remain a mystery to me. For the last few weeks, one of the (minor) channels has been broadcasting repeats of a series called Rosemary & Thyme which the Old Bat has enjoyed. The plots revolve around two female landscape gardeners (Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme) who unwittingly stumble upon a murder at each of their jobs and set out to solve them. Frankly, the story-lines are so implausible that I have treated the series as a comedy both when it was first aired and now that it has been repeated. Yesterday, however, that channel devoted itself to a Poirot day, with repeats of various Agatha Christie-based dramas starring Hercule Poirot. These ran from 11.20am until 1.10 this morning. Poirot is something I can do without, although I enjoy Miss Marple. It's a pity that Joan Hickson is no longer with us. She was by far the best actress to play Jane Marple. Geraldine MacEwan followed her and, to my mind at least, was badly cast in the role. We now have Julia MacKenzie, who is better but not as good as Hickson. I don't recall seeing Margaret Rutherford in the role, but she was probably excellent.

Agatha Christie has the distinction (although she might not be aware of it) of being the author of the world's longest-running stage show, The Mousetrap, which is at St Martin's Theatre in London. The play is now in its 58th year, which is quite staggering. That show has been running nearly all my life! I suppose it is a bit of an exagerration to say 'nearly all', but it is a large part of my life.

But to get back to last night's television. The Old Bat and I watched a programme that we had recorded a couple of weeks ago. David Dimbleby has written and is presenting a series of programmes entitled The Seven Ages of Britain in which he introduces the art and culture of the country linked to specific periods of our history. The first of the series dealt with the 1500 or so years leading up to the rule of William the Conqueror. He showed, for example, some of the Saxon treasures of Sutton Hoo - exquisite, just look at this shoulder clasp made of gold, amethyst and blue glass - and the mosaic floor of the Roman villa at Bignor - absolutely marvellous. This is a place only a few miles away and one which I am ashamed to say I have never visited, an omission which I really must put right as soon as possible.