WE always knew Ken Bruce was a smart cookie, but he deserves a tip of the hat all the same for his classy departure from the BBC. He didn’t just clear the biscuit jar as he left Auntie’s for the last time, he snaffled the cake too.
While at the BBC, Bruce had taken care to trademark the name of PopMaster, his long-running, hugely popular, sometimes fiendishly difficult quiz. So not only did it go with him to his new perch at Greatest Hits Radio, he is now bringing it to television.
PopMaster TV (More 4, Monday to Friday, 8pm) promises new rounds just for television, including a guess the video game.
With filming taking place in Glasgow, the new show also brings the 72-year-old back to the city of his birth.
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One event definitely best enjoyed from afar is Glastonbury (BBC2, Saturday and Sunday, times and channels vary). I know, going there is meant to be the experience of a lifetime, tickets are sold out every year, many would trade their last friendship bracelet for a weekend at Worthy Farm, we all know the song. But the smell of that stale, baked mud? Queuing for toilets? Haud me back indeed.
There is plenty to see over the weekend, with highlights including Lewis Capaldi and Lizzo (BBC1, Saturday, 9pm) and Guns N’ Roses (BBC2, Saturday, 10pm). The star attraction for most viewers this year will be Elton John (BBC1, Sunday, 9pm) appearing at what is his first and last Glastonbury. Elton more or less invented stadium rock so he should at home in front of the Glasto crowd. His only problem should be what to leave out from his long list of hits.
At another time, Kanye West could have looked forward to a Glastonbury welcome as warm as Elton’s is set to be. But now? As we see in a new documentary, The Trouble with KanYe (BBC2, Wednesday, 9pm), the rap superstar/fashion designer/presidential hopeful has had an eventful few years. Once lauded as a genius, a series of anti-semitic and other hateful rants has turned a once bestselling brand toxic, with sponsors and fans dropping him in droves.
Filmmaker Mobeen Azhar sets out to find the story behind “Ye’s” spectacular fall. “I want to know how this once loved artist became a megaphone for hate and division,” says Azhar, setting the satnav for Cody, Wyoming, where the formerly LA-based rapper is now thought to live.
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It’s all here, told in clips and explored in interviews with some of those who knew the performer in his early days. While his rants are ridiculous they are also distributed to millions worldwide via social media (or they were until his accounts on various platforms were suspended). At one point he had 30 million followers on social media.
Azhar, in best documentary fashion, sets himself the goal of bagging an interview with his elusive subject. At one point he resorts to writing letters, hoping they might be passed on. It’s a practically prehistoric way to do business in the internet age, but might it work?
See for yourself in what is a fascinating, if alarming, look at celebrity, US-style.
As the much-missed Succession confirmed, you can’t beat fights in the family for drama. Like the HBO hit, Riches (STV/ITV1, Friday, 9pm) has a patriarch at its core, and just like Logan Roy, Stephen Richards (Hugh Quarshie) likes to keep his warring brood on their toes.
The owner of a fabulously successful hair and beauty empire, Richards has not one but two families. In the first, his son and daughter, successes in their own right, want nothing to do with him and accuse the mogul of “stealing” their mother’s ideas. The second family, wife plus spoiled children, want nothing to do with the first lot. Confused? You won’t be. Entertained? Definitely.
Riches brings glamour to the 9pm Friday slot on STV, switching back and forth from London to New York. If the drama is sometimes OTT and the dialogue slightly cheesy, the whole adds up to a soapy treat over six episodes.
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It’s that sad time of the year again when we come to the end of another series of Scotland’s Home of the Year (BBC1, Monday, 8.30pm). And what do series endings bring? A finale of course.
Picking a winner was always going to be difficult this year. After last year’s prize went to a croft house in Stornoway the competition has seemed more open than ever before. It is no longer the case that the biggest, most lavishly decorated homes hold sway over the judges. Saying that, the Glasgow flat featured last week was a jaw-dropper.
But one of the joys of the final is that we get to see the regional winners again. There are some strong contenders there, so remember Glasgow, it’s not over till the judges, Anna Campbell-Jones, Michael Angus, and Banjo Beale, sing the name of the winner.
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