Is there a lovelier bunch of people on television than the gang on The Great British Sewing Bee (BBC1, Tuesday) ? The Bake Off lot would sell their granny’s soul for a Hollywood handshake and The Traitors are not to be trusted, obviously. But for sheer above and beyond niceness, it has to be the Bee team, led by judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant and new host Kiell Smith-Bynoe (him off Ghosts). The show has been going for 10 years now and it still doesn’t seem a series too long.
Maybe it’s the joy that comes from being able to run up a dress in an hour, or knowing what a godet is: whatever the reason, it is working. Among this year’s intake are an 84-year-old and a 74-year-old. Together with Young, “about 75” says Google (I love that Esme is giving the tech behemoth the runaround), Bee has one of the oldest demographics on telly.
Whether it’s Don the retired physicist with his socks and Birkenstocks combo, or Esme and her statement necklaces, the older DDF (dedicated followers of fashion) always come off well. Bee is one of the few programmes to cotton on to the fact that people over 50 don’t dress like their grans and grandpas any more. As we saw in Imposter: The Man Who Came Back from the Dead (Channel 4, Monday-Wednesday) , Nicholas Rossi often favoured a three-piece suit and cod Churchillian hat for his many Scottish court appearances fighting extradition to the US.
Due in large part to Rossi’s determination to give everyone the runaround for as long as.
