Sir Cliff Richard - 60 Years In Public And In Private, UTV, Monday at 9pm
For all his efforts to keep his private life private over a 60-year showbiz career, Cliff Richard has been exposed in the most torturous way in the last four years.
It’s impossible not to feel sympathy for the ordeal the singer has been through since the BBC hired a helicopter to bring us pictures of detectives searching his home while he was out of the country.
Cliff was never arrested and the threat of sex abuse charges disappeared, but he says he will never be able to put the events behind him.
His successful privacy case against the BBC cleared the way for his return to the stage and this programme - which obviously was always going to be with ITV - was in essence a relaunch.
In previous times, ITV used to do this kind of PR stuff in front of an live audience of celebrities but to be fair, there was a bit more heft to this film.
It weaved together Cliff recording his new album, a celebration of his career from the 1950s and the story of the potential case against him.
His celebrity friends were there to support him - Gloria Hunniford, Janet Street Porter, members of the Shadows and Sinitta.
Porter comes up with the best line from the film, describing Cliff as a musical and sexual enigma akin to the “Mona Lisa of pop.”
We got to hear some of the new songs, with a 78-year-old Sir Cliff thrilled to tell us it was the first time in over a decade that he had recorded new material.
No prizes for guessing the inspiration for the title track, Rise Up.
“Yesterday the clouds were darkest,
“I could not see the end of it,
“But something inside of me never learnt to quit.
And the chorus:
"Rise up, They're never gonna break me down
"Rise up, They're never gonna take me down
"Rise up, You know I'm gonna rise up feeling stronger
"Rise up, Even when the night is long
"Rise up, The light of love was burning strong
"Rise up, You know I'm gonna rise up even stronger
It’s awful stuff, but who’d begrudge him a Christmas number one.
***
Hot Right Now, BBC 1, Wednesday at 10.40pm
To be honest, I had a fair idea before I even turned on that I wouldn’t like Hot Right Now.
This column has a problem with the BBC using our money to make the kind of fluff that minor commercial channels churn out for free.
But what surprised me was how confused the format was. Surely the point of bubblegum TV is that you don’t have to think too much.
Panel shows aren’t about who wins, but the keeping of score gives a bit of purpose to the 30 minutes.
Rather we had presenter Vinny Hurrell (of the Stephen Nolan show) tells us that “the girls your mum told you to avoid” - Gemma Garrett, Orlaith McAlister, Rebecca Maguire and Ashleigh Coyle - would look “at what is happening around the world and decide whether it’s hot or not.”
In episode two this meant sitting the transfer test, being Belfast bus tour guides, trying out as an actor for a BBC NI comedy and playing one of those locked in a room games.
So which were “hot?” No one had any idea.
Rather we had lots of forced hilarity and, to be fair, a mildly amusing duet between former Big Brother contestant Orlaith McAlister and former X-Factor finalist Eoghan Quigg to close the show.
At least they got some timing right. It was a turkey for Christmas.
