Catch Up TV review: Flirty Dancing S2, For the Love of Dogs, Terms and Conditions Apply
David Farnor | On 10, Nov 2019
What’s available on-demand on Freeview? Keep up-to-date with our weekly catch-up TV column, including reviews of shows on ITV Hub, new releases on All 4 and a guide to My5.
(For BBC TV reviews and round-ups, see our weekly Best of BBC iPlayer column. Or for reviews of the shows on All 4’s Walter Presents, click here.)
Flirty Dancing: Season 2 (All 4)
Whoever came up with the title “Flirty Dancing”, Channel 4’s improbable dating reality series, deserves a medal. Whoever made the accompanying programme just as wonderfully joyous deserves a blank cheque to make whatever TV show they like. The show has a beautifully unlikely premise: two strangers, paired up by the programme’s producers, are taught the corresponding part of a custom-choreographed dance, and then meet on their first date to run through the thing properly. They don’t talk, they don’t go for a pint; they just dance. The theory is that by pretending to be in La La Land, that old-school sense of romance, coupled with some tentative physical contact and a need for blind, wistful trust, can make sparks fly. The thing is that, well, it does seem to be right. That’s thanks in no small part to Ashley Banjo, whose earnest enthusiasm for the whole project is irresistibly heart-warming and downright charming. Episode 1 sees Nifé swept off her feet by Shaun in Stratford’s stylish Roof East surroundings, and country music fan Kerry cross hands and toes with Jordan, who only lives a stone’s throw away, despite them never having met. Their excited reactions to what ensues never fails to make you smile and well up. What a delight this series is.
Available until: 19th January 2020 (Episode 1)
For the Love of Dogs (ITV Hub)
It’s a feel-good double-bill this week, with Paul O’Grady back on our screens for another documentary series about man’s best friend. Except, of course, we don’t always treat them like that, and Paul’s show sees the ever likeable presenter and comedian help a pointer cross who may have been shot at and some Staffie pups who need to learn manners, as well a dog who went missing over a decade ago. It’s adorable, moving telly that manages to be both just restrained enough to go down smoothly and yet sincere enough to provide a perfect dose of comfort telly.
Available until: December 2019
Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply (UKTV Play)
The absence of Modern Life Is Goodish on our screens remains a great disappointment, so it’s something of a treat to see him back on TV once more. Now, though, he’s not on stand-up form, but playing panel show host, as he invites a trio of comics on with him, where they discuss the oddities and eccentricities of our modern world, from technology to social conventions. If Modern Life Is Goodish ended because of the effort and toll it required, Terms and Conditions is evidently a less laborious affair for the comedian. Contributions from guests such as Richard Osman, Phil Wang, Sally Phillips and Desiree Burch are entertaining enough, but it’s in the brief glimpses of Gorman at his best that the programme excels, when he’s unearthed a genuinely unseen gem of a TV clip, such as an advert for shovels. You wish he was just dissecting such things on his own with a PowerPoint screen, but if that’s not humanly sustainable for one man, this will do for now.
