The Final Quest (ITV1)

My Shakespeare (C4)

LET'S hope the makers keep their word and The Final Quest means this really is the last of the teenage antics of Dave, Ronno and Charlie.

Enough is enough. These nostalgic antics of three lads trying to get their leg over in the 1960s are flimsy and wearisome the third time round.

Once more they're in pursuit of a pretty girl. Once more they're caught with their trousers down. Once more the soundtrack is packed with old songs and fashions to make older viewers sigh, "Oh, I remember that" or "I had a pair of those".

David Jason directs efficiently enough and, along with Roy Hudd and Hywel Bennett, shuffles around as the older Dave, Ronno and Charlie but has little to do but provide cues for the flashbacks.

The trainee electricians enter a coffee bar talent contest - as The Sparkies - with the help of pretty waitress Annabelle (Rachael Stirling) and end up at a posh mansion for her wedding to a rock star. "It's a jolly good match, he's very rich," she says romantically.

As the three lad set off on their motorbikes to mix with the posh folk at Westcott Manor, we don't need a parent to say, "It's got disaster written all over it". We know from previous encounters with them that it's going to go horribly, if comically, wrong in a Confessions Of An Electrician kind of way.

Greg Faulkner, young Dave, is uncannily like Jason. He can be assured of future work when ITV decide to film The David Jason Story.

My Shakespeare also had teenagers on a quest - to get to grips with William Shakespeare. Actor Paterson Joseph wanted to pluck a couple of dozen people who'd never acted before off the streets and, in four weeks, mount a production of Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet in a London West End theatre.

This was a reality TV talent show - think C4's Operatunity and Musicality - with the competitive element removed. The prize was the satisfaction of achieving something. Joseph himself had never directed before so he faced a big challenge as well, getting help over an Internet link from Australian director Baz Luhrmann, who filmed Romeo And Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

Joseph grew up in the north-west London area of Harlesden, described by some as a ghetto and certainly "one of the unlikeliest places to have Shakespeare". Most of his cast, gathered through open auditions, had never been to the theatre, let alone acted.

As nerves took hold and confidence faded away, the project looked doomed. Several cast members proved bad timekeepers. Muska, the 18-year-old student playing Juliet, didn't want to kiss her Romeo. All grappled with understanding Shakespeare's words.

Most of all, they found difficulty tapping into emotions and expressing them in public. They wasn't what they were used to. They had more personal experience of hate and violence, which made those aspects easier to handle than Juliet finding love.

This was all absorbing stuff, the tension increasing as opening night drew ever nearer. Even Joseph succumbed to a lack of confidence. There was real doubt that it would be all right on the night. After days of tinsel-trimmed and goodwill to all men shows, it was refreshing to find a programme with the ring of real life instead of forced jollity

Published: ??/??/2004