Last Night's TV

This Model Life (C4)

A Night Out with the Girls (ITV)

ANNA was just 11 and crossing the road with her mum when she was spotted by a scout from a model agency.

The agency kept her under wraps for four years, not because of her tender years but because she was 'so special' they didn't want anyone else to steal her. Now at the ripe old age of 15, Anna is trying to get work and This Model Life followed her on her quest to be supermodel.

Anna tottered on high heels as she was told she had to practise every night to get a model swagger and she looked tearful when she had to spend a day in uncomfortable high fashion instead of her favourite jeans.

But the most uncomfortable scenes were when Anna met a sculptor who wanted to turn her into an angel statue.

Worryingly, he said he had butterflies when he met her and that his heart beat faster. He seemed to forget he was talking about a child as he enthused that he would love to sculpt Anna for the rest of his life. His motives may have been purely artistic but there was something disturbing about the whole situation.Elsewhere, 21-year-old Ruth headed off to New York to try to get some international modelling work. She was put up in a dirty apartment with no sheets on the bed and only one pan to cook with.

Already in debt and all alone, Ruth naively asked the camera crew if she should splash out on a new outfit for a casting and looked like a naughty schoolgirl when she admitted she had missed an appointment to get some pension advice.

Any young girl with dreams of becoming a catwalk star should be made to watch this programme - proof that beauty and brains don't go together and that modelling is anything but glamorous.

There was also a lack of glamour on ITV with an invitation to join A Night Out With The Girls. The ladette culture was shown at its worst with groups of girls drinking, smoking and taking their clothes off at different venues around the country.

There's nothing wrong with having a laugh but watching girls baring their bums and boobs to win a £25 prize was hardly funny, especially when we heard about a young woman who woke up to find her comatose mate dead beside her after one too many big nights out on the town.

Fiddler On The Roof, York Opera House

THE accent may be Russian-Jewish by way of north London, but Paul Nicholas pulls out a crowd-pleaser in this commercial musical that has become the staple diet of amateur operatic societies.

For once, Nicholas leaves his producer's prayer shawl at home and concentrates on becoming Tevye the dairyman and one of the leanest singers to have pulled the village of Anatevka's world famous milk cart. While some of the supporting cast lack individual singing clout, a touring company that numbers 30-plus ensures this emotionally-powerful plot touches the heart.

It may be 100 years since the Russian pogroms, but the appalling shadow of ethnic cleansing remains one of the world's greatest challenges. The sinister fate awaiting a small Jewish community is the backdrop as Tevye explores our lives with dreams of riches, good marriages for our children and the realisation that 25 years can pass almost unnoticed.

Sara Weymouth is effective as Tevye's nagging wife Golde and older daughers Tzeitel (Lucy Thatcher), Hodel (Selina Chilton) and Chava (Sarah Louise Day) work hard to make us believe they are girls rebelling against arranged courtship. Highlights are Tevye's dream sequence and the essential "bottle balancing on head" dance during Motel's (Tim Laurenti) wedding to Tzeitel.

Behind a peasant-quality coat, trousers and boots, Mr Nicholas is no longer the flash harry known to millions. He could never topple Topol in the role of Tevye, but he does give him a cheeky dig in the ribs.

Viv Hardwick

Fiddler runs until Saturday. Box Office: (01904) 671 818.

Sunderland's Empire Theatre hosts Fiddler for the week of May 19-24. Box Office: 0191-514 2517

Reunion, Durham Gala Theatre

NEVER go back, playwright John Godber advises, and backs up his statement with this surreal parody of a TV gameshow, Reunion.

The very talented Hull Truck Theatre Company, of which Godber is Artistic Director, did full justice to the cleverly-scripted play. The audience didn't do too badly, either, since audience participation is vital to the atmosphere.

Successful author Jack Wesley is secretly nominated to take part in the gameshow by his wife Stephanie, partly because his book is based on his experiences at college and the people he met there. He's invited by ghastly presenter Martin Garvey, skilfully played by Zach Lee, to meet friends and acquaintances from his younger days, some of whom are genuine, some played by actors.

To add to the 'fun' Jack's wife is secretly installed in a video room where she can see and hear everything that goes on. The audience can see her reactions but Jack, of course, is totally unaware as he meets Heather, his teenage crush and goes through the pangs of first love all over again.

The upshot of all this is that Jack's marriage ends in ruins and the audience has to help him out in his tearful Karaoke rendition of Unchained Melody. Encouraged by Martin Garvey, we waved our arms about and sang along as Jack and his wife sobbed. For a fleeting moment I was aware that this was an inappropriate response to Jack's tragedy, but the whole evening was such a hymn to bad-taste TV that I shrugged it off.

Godber's script is amusing, sometimes very funny, and the sharply-observed characters can be seen daily on shows like Trisha and Jerry Springer.

Sue Heath

Until March 22