Twelfth Night (C4); Growing Up And Up (BBC1)

THE mention of asylum seekers in the synopsis of this contemporary, multi-cultural take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night made you expect a grittier, social document than director Tim Supple served up.

This was a fresh, funny and romantic adaptation that wasn't afraid to update and take what some would call liberties - I prefer interpretation - with the original. Whatever your opinion on mucking about with Shakespeare, no one could deny that this was a very well-spoken production that never resorted to the la-de-da-de-da recitation that can blight classical shows.

Twelfth Night contains some familiar Shakespearean ingredients such as loss, grief, mistaken identity and broad humour. This one also has twins separated not at birth but during a storm at sea. The girl Viola (Bend It Like Beckham's Parminder Nagra) pretends to be a boy, whose job is to woo the grieving Olivia (Claire Price) on behalf of Duke "If music be the food of love" Orsino (Chiwetel Ejofor).

This agreeably-played trio contrasted with the boozy high jinks and low humour of David Troughton's Sir Toby Belch, Maureen Beattie's Maria and Richard Bremner's lanky Sir Andrew Aguecheek. They got their kicks playing loud music and tricks on sober and serious steward Malvolio. He was splendidly played by Michael Maloney, avoiding the over-the-top excesses in which some actors feel obliged to wallow when the poor chap is conned into wearing cross-gartered yellow stockings and smiling non-stop.

All in all, a refreshing May Day Holiday alternative to soaps and celebs being showered with creepy crawlies in the jungle.

Somalian-born Hussain Bisad is a bit of a celebrity too. At 7ft seven-and-a-half inches, he is Britain's tallest man. The makers of Growing Up and Up put a hidden camera in his glasses to show the rest of us his view of the world. All very amusing, but the documentary was equally keen to show the serious side to being taller than average (that's 5ft 9ins for a man, and 5ft 4ins for a woman).

Many extra-tall people suffer from potentially-fatal conditions that cause their excessive growth and threaten their overall health. Travel, clothing and other people's attitudes are all problems for tall people. At 16, Adam Cooper is 6ft 6ins, and understandably fed up with people calling him lanky and asking if it's cold up there.

He had testosterone injections to stop him growing. The side effect was early puberty. He shaved his hairy legs to stop fellow pupils taking the mickey. "Apart from running around like a dog on heat for two years", the treatment has slowed down his growth. But his condition is still a cause for concern. His father and his sister also suffer from this genetic disorder that not only causes growth but can cause heart problems.

Hussain, a refugee who came to this country 18 months ago, has problems just walking as his height and weight (33 stone) put a terrible strain on the rest of his body. His knees literally buckle under him. When doctors needed to scan his body, they couldn't find a machine in this country capable of taking him. They had to send him to Holland to use a scan normally used for horses.