Now in its second series, the Reading-based family drama is based on the childhood memoirs of real-life window-dresser extraordinaire, writer and fashionista Simon Doonan, who dreamed of escaping the grey gloom of the suburbs to live among the beautiful people. He has now been at Barney’s in New York for 20 years, and once said he’d built his whole spectacular career on “being inappropriate”.
Tonight’s penultimate episode features guest star Dannii Minogue, and sees the Doonans enter the world of Brit-art when they meet rabble-rouser Stacey Bile near the Kate Winslet memorial roundabout.
Debbie – young Simon’s bottle-blonde mum – becomes Stacey’s muse when they meet in Jo Ho Yo’s hairdressing salon – but Debbie recognises Stacey as the woman whose reckless driving round the roundabout led to a broken arm
for her Irish husband Andy and – horror of horrors – scuffed trainers for Simon.
Meanwhile, Debbie’s absence means that Simon and Kylie – who also dream of moving to London but recognise they first have to “wade through their teenage years” – can learn Indian dance moves from Auntie Hayley, whose cooking results in some urgent trips to the hospital.
Not quite as good as Shameless, but not far off.
Beautiful People, BBC2, 10pm
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