Inside The Mind Of Liza Minnelli (C4)

Bollywood Star (C4)

INITIALLY, the evidence suggests that Liza Minnelli is following in the footsteps of her mother Judy Garland - not only as a performer but in her private life with drink, drugs and fluctuating weight problems and marriage to a bisexual man.

But, as someone pointed out in this tabloid-style account of Liza's life, the comparison isn't strictly valid. Garland had no choice, she was manipulated by a studio eager to get the most out of the child star. Minnelli hasn't been subjected to that sort of pressure and appears to have a self-destruct button.

"She's just been unlucky," suggested her stepfather Sid Luft. Maybe. No one doubts her talents. It's choices in her private life that have let her down.

When the Minnelli circus comes to town, as it did with her marriage to the decidedly odd David Gest, it's difficult not to look in a car crash sort of way.

Everyone likes a good gossip and Minnelli's life has been packed with outlandish occasions. Her wedding to Gest was dubbed the Night of a Thousand Facelifts. More like a visit to Madame Tussaud's, considering that the main guests included Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor.

That the marriage lasted only 16 months should have come as no surprise. After all, the programme pointed out, Minnelli wasn't used to long runs.

She's quoted as saying that "reality is something to be overcome". There's certainly a feeling that she's at her happiest when she's wowing an audience. Off-stage, she can't keep away from booze, drugs, food and unsuitable men.

Her mother's fragile health and mind hardly cut her out to be the perfect mother, although she tried to dissuade Minnelli when she said she wanted to go on stage by cutting off financial aid. Garland didn't want her to repeat her mistakes.

Garland's death, after 20 suicide attempts, in 1969, tipped Minnelli over the edge into a downward spiral. She has pulled herself out of the pit, only to fall back down again. Marriage to Gest was an unfortunate and costly detour on the road to recovery.

If Minnelli's future is uncertain, the winner of Bollywood Star can look forward to headlining Indian movies. Six finalists will be sent to Bombay, although the UK auditions started so badly it seemed as if the search was hopeless.

Judges had to find 20 people - a hero, heroine, aunt, mother, father or comic character - to go through to the next round. Early contestants were dismissed with comments such as "I was in pain watching him" and "you remind me of my old dinner lady".

Then there were the mother and daughter contestants. Usha, 56, only entered after seeing her daughter rehearsing for the competition, and then won through to the next round. Her daughter was knocked out.

Usha returned to give the judges a piece of her mind, and demanded a second chance for her daughter. What really bothered her, of course, was having to reveal that she'd got through and her daughter hadn't.

Unfortunate as it was for them, this mother and daughter drama provided the programme with a gripping finale.

London Suite, Darlington Civic Theatre

IT'S not often that names like Kevin Costner and Sir John Gielgud are mentioned on the same stage, let alone the statement that "a play with a big name star never made it out of Darlington". But such is the comic genius of Neil Simon that the four headliners of John Challis, Sue Holderness (the Boycie-Marlene double act from Fools And Horses), Mark Curry and Sara Crowe are verbally equipped for four scenes from a London hotel room.

Before the interval, Curry plays an angry author catching up with his fiddling financial advisor Billy (Challis), who has invested unwisely in a certain play. Then Holderness and Crowe are American-accented mother and daughter with the older woman only able to remember famous actors by a system of clues: "the one that sounds like beer" (Alec Guinness) or "the good one" (Gielgud).

Later, Holderness and Challis flesh out a bitter-sweet plotline of successful TV star Diana gradually realising that her ex-husband Sidney is dying from cancer. Wordplay switches to slapstick in the finale, with Curry putting his back out searching for precious lost Wimbledon tickets and a growing sense of panic over Kevin Costner waiting downstairs to take possession of suite 402-404. As one of the few to regularly laugh out loud during all four "suite surprises", I can heartily recommend one night's stay at the Civic this week.

Viv Hardwick

l Runs until Saturday.

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