TV review

Megastructures: Channel Tunnel (five)

Dispatches: Spiked (C4)

AH yes, we remember them well: lesbians invading the BBC newsroom, Boy George appearing in The A-Team and the Prince Edward-organised It's A Royal Knockout.

At least we were spared Blue Peter's piddling elephant as Greatest Embarrassing TV Moments recalled 50 cringe-making occasions, even if we had seen it all before. The same clips are going round and round from one Greatest TV Moments show to another.

But it gave failed Eurovision duo Jemini the chance to give a catalogue of excuses as to why they received no points. They seemed unable to except that they sang flat and the song was rubbish.

I could have done without a reminder of comedian Richard Blackwood sifting through his excrement after colonic irrigation and Victoria Aitken attempting to rap on Young, Loaded And Posh (or Young, Loaded And Untalented in her case).

For real embarrassment, we were advised to watch Richard and Judy, who figured several times in the list. He came second with his impersonation of Ali G, just one place above Judy accidentally baring her bra-covered breasts at an awards ceremony.

Talking of Megastructures - a cheap link but I couldn't resist it - this programme recounted the Channel Tunnel construction, which was fascinating stuff as British and French tunnel-building teams attempted to meet in the middle under the sea. Had they deviated by more than two-and-a-half metres it would have been catastrophe. That they were a mere 35 centimetres off target was a testament to the surveyors and engineers plotting the course under the sea.

The hard work was done by the tunnel boring machines - TBMs - specially developed for the job. The length of two football fields, these weighed as much as a Second World War destroyer. Once they'd completed the job, they were dumped.

What with flooding and an escalating budget finally topping £10bn, this was a gripping story and one that didn't end with the tunnel's opening. Lack of passengers made it financially wobbly and a fire that tested safety and rescue facilities to the full, contrived to keep it in the news.

Spiking and drug rape is a headline-making subject, although Dispatches revealed that the authorities are nowhere near on top of the problem.

Hundreds of women have claimed date rape after having drinks spiked but only half a dozen men have been convicted. If these facts seem vague, that's because there were no figures available until Dispatches rang all 52 police forces in the first national survey into drug rape. The conclusion was worryingly simple: it's widespread, it's easy and its perpetrators tend to be older men.

Proof is a problem. Some drugs leave the victim with fragmented memories of what happened, while other drugs stimulate the victim's libido. Several women who'd been drug raped spoke bravely of what they did remember.

Lack of a national approach means only a handful of police forces are sufficiently trained and equipped to deal with alleged drug rapes. Often, basic procedures of taking urine samples are not carried out or the accusations are not taken seriously.

The Dispatches documentary provided a valuable insight into the crime and will, hopefully, prick a few consciences into tackling it at a national level.