Gold Digger, BBC 1 Tuesday at 9pm
Gold Digger is heroically of its time and zeitgeist, telling the story of a 60-year-old woman having an affair with a 30-year-old man.
Julia Day (Julia Ormond) is betrayed by her husband and finds herself in a new relationship almost by accident after the divorce.
But her boyfriend, Benjamin (Ben Barnes), brings all kinds of complexities and awkwardness.
She quickly introduces him to her three children and it goes spectacularly wrong.
Her two sons (one older than Benjamin who himself is on the verge of an affair with a work colleague) are appalled at the age gap and immediately suspicious. Her daughter is nervous for her mother but more understanding.
Before rewinding 12 months, the first episode opens with Julia fleeing from her wedding, her dress dragging through the muck and catching in the slammed car door, so we know that things don’t go well.
But whose fault is it? Do we blame the sons, who conditioned by society refuse to accept that a woman with a bus pass can be attractive to a man just out of his twenties? Is Benjamin a gold digger who is after Julia for her money? Or is it all the fault of her ex-husband Tom who couldn’t keep his hands off her best friend?
Then there’s the flashbacks. The children remember something sinister which happened when they were little. That must be significant.
In truth, I didn’t care enough about the characters to want to find out.
Gold Digger is trying so hard to please people that it forgot about creating interesting characters and dramatic plots.
Perhaps there’s a good twist on the way but I won’t be around to see it.
***
The Young Offenders, BBC 1, Monday at 10.45pm
After what seems like an age, the Cork comedy is back with a second series.
Young Offenders is not quite in the Fawlty Towers category but it is impressive that such buzz has been created by just seven episodes before this series.
Because it’s in collaboration with BBC Three, all six episodes of series two are already on the iPlayer but you can watch it the old school way if you want.
Just remember that means 10.45pm because annoyingly the RTE screening at 9.30pm is geo-blocked. (Btw - what is the point of blocking the RTE screening when all the episodes are already on the iPlayer?)
Anyway, the second series opens with an angry Siobhan, waiting in the hospital for Jock. He’s too busy trying to steal a Garda pushbike to remember he’s supposed to be at the hospital for their baby’s first scan.
If you haven’t seen it before, two households are at the centre of the Young Offenders sitcom, which developed from a budget 2016 movie.
Conor and Jock are young petty criminals but with hearts. They both live with Conor’s mother Mairead after she took in Jock who had an abusive father. Mairead is in a relationship with the boy’s sworn enemy, Sergeant Healy, the local garda.
Conor and Jock are in relationships with sisters Siobhan and Linda, the daughters of their school principal Barry Walsh.
After Jock lets Siobhan down at the hospital, Barry proposes a test to prove that he can be responsible or else Barry and his wife will adopt the baby to allow Siobhan and Jock their childhoods back.
Jock has to mind a hen’s egg - “Jock Junior” - for a month.
Meanwhile, Conor tries to have sex with Linda for the first time in principal Barry’s office.
Just another day for Cork’s Young Offenders.
