Fostering and Me with Lorraine Pascale
(BBC2, 9pm)
JUST imagine what you might watch if Uruguay weren’t playing England tonight? If not you might need the good old iplayer to track down chef, best-selling author and former model Lorraine Pascale, who has become one of TV’s biggest success stories of the past few years.
Aside from being a mum to a teenage daughter, in the past she had a go at hypnotherapy and worked as a car mechanic before finding fame in the food department.
BBC 2 cookery shows like Baking Made Easy and Home Cooking Made Easy, as well as Sky Living cooking competition My Kitchen Rules, have given her meal appeal.
However, her main vocation is put on the back burner as she discusses her life as a foster child. Pascale was born in London in 1971; adopted at 18 months, and then went into care aged eight. She reflects on the impact fostering had on her life, recounting her experiences of being in care and tracking down the people who looked after her, who she hasn’t seen for more than three decades.
With the assistance of Lambeth Council Social Services, Pascalealso meets people at every stage of the fostering process to find out what it takes to be a carer, and what the children think of the current system.
“I believe foster care is the Cinderella of the care world and there is far more emphasis put on adoption,” she explains.
“I’m making this film to throw the spotlight on fostering and hopefully encourage more people to consider it as an option”.
In Britain today a child is placed in foster care every 22 minutes, and those needing homes continues to rise. In the next 12 months alone, 8,750 new foster families must be found across the UK to avoid a real crisis. One of the most heart-melting quotes comes from tenyear- old Junior at the start of the show, who admits the first night in foster care was ‘scary’.
“It’s like a big old question mark in your heart thinking, ‘Why has this happened?’, but there’s no point wasting your time, and going all sad and angry.
You have a life around you and anything can happen.”
George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces
(Channel 4, 8pm)
WEARSIDE-BORN architect and TV presenter George Clarke meets the people who have gone for the DIY holiday approach, including motorbike racer Ollie. Normally, when he’s away at competitions, Ollie sleeps in the back of a transit van, but now he’s decided he fancies something a little less basic.
He’s planning to transform a doubledecker coach into a Japanese-style pod hotel that can hold up to 20 people.
Meanwhile, James, who was left bedridden for eight months following a car crash, is hoping to make his design for a fully-accessible glamping pod a reality.
George and Will call in at a Texas building constructed entirely from rubbish.
However, not everyone is looking to get away from home.
We also meet the man who is helping his daughter get on the property ladder by building her a house in his back garden for just £12,000.
Celebrity MasterChef
(BBC1, 9pm)
THIS week’s intake are JLS singer JB Gill, actress Amanda Burton, ex-Corrie star Ken Morley (Reg Holdsworth), Big Brother contestantturned- TV presenter Alison Hammond and EastEnder Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell).
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here