On TV

The Gunpowder Plot (ITV1)

C4's new money-making venture takes BBC2's excellent Dragon's Den a stage further.

In that, would-be entrepreneurs pitched ideas to three millionaires in a bid for financial backing. In Make Me A Million, three pairs of budding businessmen/women are each mentored by millionaires Chris Gorman, Emma Harrison and Ivan Massow.

They may come to regret the people they selected from the dozens of aspiring contestants. Massow, in particular, is having a nightmare with Carol and Leila.

Worth more than £130m, he told us at the start that he needed another challenge. It's his own fault as the two women didn't actually have a business plan to begin with. More importantly, single mum Karen, who lives with her parents in Ireland, didn't have any child care. Leila left son Troy with her boyfriend in Oxford while she worked in London during the week.

Karen was notable by her absence. More and more, Massow was having to fulfil her duties in the organic hair products for children that they were marketing. Crisis meeting followed crisis meeting as the women's friendship was put under strain and Massow found himself spending more and more time on the C4 project instead of his own business.

It was interesting to see the different styles of the mentors. While Massow was hands-on, Chris Gorman (worth £45m) kept in touch with business and personal partners Brayley and Todd from his homes around the world. They're developing an Internet healthy living business, offering bespoke diet and fitness plans.

Emma Harrison (worth £55m) selected best friends Fergus and Kate, who want to market a ventilated bed invented by her father. It kills dust mites and regulates body temperature. This sounds mad enough to actually work.

Unlike Dragon's Den, where aspiring entrepreneurs can be swiftly dismissed, mentors are stuck with their choices for a whole year.

The first episode passed predictably enough, with mentors losing patience with the often disorganised, sloppy business habits of their couples. They'll need a lot more patience to survive the year as personal problems threaten the stability of the relationships of all three couples in coming weeks.

Of course, if they do end the year a million pounds richer, all problems will quickly be forgotten - unlike Guy Fawkes, long remembered despite his plan failing.

ITV decided to see if he'd have succeeded if the fuse had been lit. "We're going to light the fuse that Guy Fawkes didn't," said presenter Richard Hammond in The Gunpowder Plot.

This involved building a full-size replica of the Houses of Parliament. "It is big, very big," he said to emphasise that the model was, well, very big. Then off he went to find some gunpowder to blow it up.

When they used a computer to find out the effect an explosion would have had on the building, I couldn't help wondering why go to the trouble of constructing an expensive model when they do the whole thing on the computer anyway?

Robert Plant, The Sage Gateshead

THE smell of joss sticks throughout the concert set the tone as the audience got into the hippy-rock mood.

Judging by the age range, half the crowd were reliving their misspent youth while the rest were still enjoying it.

There was real feeling of excited anticipation in the build up to the arrival of the former Led Zeppelin frontman to the stage.

We were treated to fast dance music with samples of Plant's former musical incarnation stitched in, setting the scene for an evening that was to mix old with new. He was joined by guitarists Justin Adams and Skin Tyson, drummer Clive Deamer, keyboardist John Baggot, and bassist Billy Fuller.

There were bound to be comparisons with the group that were known for their 'hammer of the gods' style that split eardrums and speakers in the seventies.

But they are a tremendous talent in their own right and, led by the now wrinkly 57-year-old rocker, they belted out a set that thrilled.

The new material is still psychedelic rock, but Plant brought it into the 21st century. It was, of course, the classics, like Black Dog and Thank You, that really energised people and the crowd at the Sage head-banged, clapped their hands and tapped their feet.

Whole Lotta Love for the encore was stunning and started off really slowly before launching into the familiar gritty guitar licks, with Plant proving he has not lost his voice or his passion.

Gavin Havery