On TV

A who believes soaps don't reflect real life would've been surprised to find this documentary in The Trouble With Old People season mirroring events in Coronation Street at present.

In the week that fictional son Danny started looking for a residential home for ailing father Mike Baldwin, real life Geoff was shown seeking a place for his 90-year-old father Lew.

Both elderly men have Alzheimer's, although in Mike's case you wonder if the acceleration of the condition hasn't been speeded up for dramatic purposes. Of course, the Street's airing of the increasingly-common dilemma facing families caring for sick older relatives will reach many more millions of people than any C4 documentary.

Kira Phillips Dibb's film was a candid and honest look at 65-year-old Geoff's struggle to get his father into a home - and have him agree to stay there. The film-maker wasn't afraid to ask, from behind the camera, the questions that viewers were asking themselves.

"Does Geoff always shout as much?," she asked Lew, after his son lost his temper at his father's forgetfulness.

"Always, he frightens me to death," replied Lew.

Telling us that "the final journey will stretch their relationship to the limit" was melodramatic but, as the story unfolded, my sympathy switched between father and son.

You understood that Lew deserved to be treated with dignity, just as you felt for Geoff who'd looked forward to retiring to the south of France but found himself at the beck and call of an unpredictable father with whom he'd clashed as a young man.

"I would like my father to live to 100, but in a home," said Geoff.

Lew, in his more lucid moments, said that his son gave the impression he'd be happy to see him go into a home. "I think he's a bit browned off with me as a father," he said.

He agreed to a short, trial stay in a residential home. What I saw of the place, despite it being clean and friendly, didn't make me want to put my name down for a room. I could understand Lew's reluctance to give up his independence after seeing scenes of life in the home - wheelchair disco-dancing to Abba, daily fitness classes and arguing with similarly ill old people over war experiences.

Geoff, reaching the end of his tether at his father's constant phone calls and demands, sought help in a carers' support group after counsellors, doctors and medication had failed.

I'm not sure that having the song, There's A Place For Us, on the soundtrack as Lew packed his bags to go into the home was necessary. Otherwise, this was a sad, thought-provoking film about a problem that many of us won't be able to escape, either as a carer or a sufferer.

Coronation Street, incidentally, is taking the easy way out and having Mike Baldwin die next week, putting both him and his son out of their misery.

The Vermeer Quartet: Sage Gateshead.

The Vermeer Quartet carry the name of an artist whose command of the translucent effects of light is legendary.

True to the spirit of the Dutch master, the quartet illuminated three diverse scores in dazzling relief at the Sage Gateshead.

The programme, marking a fitting end of the season for the Newcastle International Chamber Music Series, opened with a comfortable rendition of Mozart's String Quartet in D - perhaps too comfortable.

The notes were meticulously delivered and the tones warm, but one got the sense they were going through the motions of warming up, without pushing the envelope.

Shostakovich's String Quartet 10 opened in a similar vein, but when they got to the second movement it was as though they had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Galvanised by the visceral energy of the music they delivered the brutal chords with gusto and unmistakable flair.

The swirling lines of the adagio were conveyed with heartfelt intensity. By the second half the players were brimming with energy and delivered a fine account of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No 3.

Shmuel Ashkenasi extracted the richest of tones from his violin, while cellist Marc Johnson rose to celestial heights in the final prayer for the dead. The quartet drove the finale, with its Russian folk music, to a rousing conclusion.

Gavin Engelbrecht

A Nightingale Sang In Eldon Square, Live Theatre, Newcastle

Nearly 30 years have passed since CP Taylor's hugely enjoyable play was first performed when this atmospheric Quayside theatre was only a few years old.

That was back in 1977 when the now glitzy and fashionable riverside was semi-derelict.

Had Cecil Taylor lived (he died in 1981 aged only 52 just as his career was taking off) he would undoubtedly have been amazed at the changes which have taken place in the last three decades.

Now Live Theatre, the company which Taylor helped set up, is about to undergo its own £4.3m make-over which will involve it going dark until 2007.

As the last production for quite a while, Live director, Max Roberts, decided to revive Nightingale as a tribute to Taylor and, judging by the storm of cheering, stamping and applause which greeted the end of Wednesday's performance, that was a sound decision.

The funny, tender and moving play follows the trials and tribulations of a Tyneside family caught up in the Second World War. Punctuated by familiar wartime songs like Roll Out The Barrel - performed with great gusto by David Whitaker as Da - the excellent cast brought blitzed 1940s Newcastle to life.

* Runs until April 29. Box Office 0191-232 1232

Barry Nelson