Thursday 5th November

CLASS OF ’92: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE, BBC1, 9pm

Poor old Salford City have tumbled down the league table and sacked their manager in favour of a ruthless management team, Jonno and Bernard, who’ve been labelled as “thugs” and “fearless”. “They’re very aggressive and close to crossing that line,” warns Ryan Giggs.

They win a game but Jonno still bawls at his players in the dressing room. “I felt embarrassed watching that!” he yells, raging at the striker. The aggression spills onto the pitch, too, with players banished to the stands for brawling on the pitch. Can this boyish hot-headedness be funnelled into the game and transformed into passion and spirit?

Off the pitch, the club’s volunteers still turn up in the rain every week to keep things ticking over. The new millionaire owners have given the ground a makeover and nice lick of orange paint but it doesn’t seem their largesse stretches to paying the volunteer staff – but then such an arrangement might dent the spirit which drives the club: these people turn up each week out of loyalty not for a wage.

But whether the Man Utd players’ millions goes on new toilets and fences or on cash bonuses for the loyal staff, a large amount has indeed been spent and the question posed in this final episode is: has it done any good? Can money buy success?

 

DETECTORISTS, BBC4, 9pm

The episode opens with a typical scene: Andy and Lance are patiently scanning gentle English fields with their metal detectors and suddenly the conversation shoves everything onto a different track: they’re not talking about football or the weather, but about a dead friend whose grave has been plundered by fellow detectorists. “They came in the noight an’ dug ‘im up. Poor old Bob. Bet ‘e never thought he’s end up on that end of a detector.” Their rambling, eccentric chats are a joy.