There are some things worth forgetting

Fallen (ITV1)

Building The Ultimate... Racing Car (five)

I CAN'T remember the last time TV screened a good amnesia thriller. Only joking, I recall it very well. It was the other week and, with startling originality, was entitled Amnesia to ensure that you didn't forget.

In that John Hannah played a policeman who couldn't remember if he'd killed his wife. Before that there was Donovan, with Tom Conti as a police pathologist who'd forgotten if he'd murdered someone.

Which brings us back to Fallen and I echo amnesiac copper Jason Shepherd's comment that "none of this makes any sense". He has burn marks on his body, as if he's been tortured, and blood on his hands that isn't his own.

Tests show he's fired a gun, but that's not the reason his wife tells him to sleep in the spare room. "We're separated," she reminds him.

He says he'll change. She's not convinced. "You don't know what you were, how can you tell me how you're going to be," she comments.

Exactly. He may be a womanising, coke-snorting killer selling nuclear warheads to Muslim extremists for all she - or, for that matter, he - knows. The clues suggest something along these lines.

Various familiar actors popped up from time to time just to test your memory for faces, including the governor from Bad Girls, Charlie the randy builder from Coronation Street, a nurse from Where The Heart Is and a squaddie from Soldier Soldier.

"What if I've done something so bad my mind has just wiped it out?" he wondered. Easily done, TV reviewers have to do it all the time, removing all traces from their memory of rotten programmes.

Building The Ultimate... was equally baffling as the second series returned with the story of racing cars. This took us inside the world of underbody aerodynamics, chain drive, rear engine revolution, magnetic particle inspection and CFD simulation. All the sort of things that it doesn't take amnesia to make you forget.

I'm happy to accept that today's Formula One racing car is the world's most engineering racing machine and leave it at that, without being informed of the whys and wherefores.

The statistically minded might like to know that the 2004 racing car can go from 0 to 100mph in under four seconds and reach a top speed of over 200mph.

"How did we get here?" asked the narrator, not pausing for an answer before giving details of sliding skirts (not clothing used by street girls but something that created a terrific amount of down force) and the weight-saving benefits of carbon fibre composite.

The most fascinating fact for me wasn't that technical - that if you got racing cars going round fast enough, you could get them driving round on the ceiling.

Allegri Diversi, Dante Sonata, Elite Syncopations, Gala, Durham

PART of an initiative to bring Birmingham Royal Ballet to new, smaller venues, its visit to Durham's Gala marked a first for the company usually associated with the Sunderland Empire. As the Empire is currently closed for refurbishment, there was a ready-made audience keen to get its ballet fix, and all three shows were sold out.

The Gala's intimacy served the three, very different pieces well. Rather than observing from afar, the audience was able to watch at close quarters and pick up on some of dancers' expressions which otherwise, would have been missed. This was particularly beneficial in the second and third pieces, both of which depended heavily on characterisation.

Dante Sonata, created by Sir Frederick Ashton in 1940 to express the futility of war, saw a dramatic shift in mood from the opening movement, the light and airy Allegri Diversi. Two distinct groups of dancers represented goodness and evil; their flowing white costumes and straps of bondage set against a stark background. The sense of struggle and suffering was effectively conveyed in this emotionally-charged piece through repetitive jerking movements and crucifixion imagery.

The final movement provided welcome relief, with its gaudy costumes reflecting the jazz music. Having the orchestra sit on stage dressed as outrageously as the dancers was a nice touch, but the real show-stealers were the diminutive Kosuke Yamamoto and the statuesque Silvia Jimenez, who made a delightfully comic pair.

Overall, an entertaining and engaging show, highlighting BRB's versatility.

Sarah Foster