Friday 6th November
GORDONSTOUN: A DIFFERENT CLASS, SKY1, 8pm
We might question why Gordonstoun allowed this documentary to be made: why is a famous and secluded school suddenly inviting Sky One inside to film? It might be entertaining for those of us curious as to how the toffs learn the three Rs, but it does often feel like an eager advertising film for the school. Are they so short of posh pupils that they have to hock their wares on Sky TV? Perhaps, because many of the students who feature are from an ethnic minority or have a foreign accent. Times must be tough for the home-grown British toff.
Cameras film the activities at Gordonstoun, near Elgin, for one year and, over six episodes we get to see how the little darlings fare. One of them isn’t doing well at all: Kelly is 18, quite pretty but doesn't seem very bright. She says she didn’t get enough qualifications to get into “a good university” so Mummy and Daddy have pushed her back to school to try again. She now won’t be leaving school until the age of 20: a dazzling prospect for that “good university” to which she’s apparently entitled.
And of course there are hordes of gawky boys saying farewell to Mummy for the first time. Interestingly, they’re shown to their dormitories which seem furnished by IKEA: bland bunkbeds and plain wardrobes and the walls seem to be coarsely painted with whitewash. Spartan indeed but perhaps this is to help them realise they’re no longer being pampered at home.
BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL, BBC4, 10pm
Cover versions of our favourite songs just cannot win. If it’s too close to the original then we mock the singer for imitation but if it’s too different we get ruffled: how dare they tamper with a classic?
This documentary celebrates “the joy of the cover version” and, blasphemous though it may sound,
claims that sometimes the cover is better than the original. It compiles a Top Ten of the best cover versions and tells the stories attached. Marc Almond, Gloria Jones and Faith Evans contribute.
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