Flight of feisty

FEISTY is probably the best word to describe Alison Steadman, particularly when it comes to discussing her stage tours to the North-East… but I never would have thought the actress had a lifelong ambition to visit the Shetland Isles.

Now the Shirley Valentine, Fat Friends and Gavin & Stacey star – who is also a keen birdwatcher and patron of the RSPB – has made a documentary about her travels for this one-off programme.

That’s a small matter of travelling 200 miles from Aberdeen to an area inhabited by only 23,000 people – plus actor Douglas Henshall when he’s filming the Ann Cleeves-inspired detective series Shetland.

On many of the islands, it’s so desolate that there aren’t any shops or even roads – but they are home to plenty of rare birds. Steadman begins her trip in Reawick where she takes in the unique scenery and its solitude.

“The one thing that’s really kind of amazing me is there are no trees here.

I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere in the world where there are no trees.

There’s hardly any people, which is something I’m not used to, having lived in two cities my whole life,” says Steadman.

During high season, 1500 puffins can be found in the region, they’re less numerous when the cameras arrive with Steadman, but she says: “That’s so wonderful.

I’ve been waiting for this moment really all my life.”

She also tries a spot of sea kayaking, after being advised that it’s the best way to take in the views of the coast and wildlife around the shore. The actress also takes a coastal trek around the island of Unst in search of otters, forages for razor clams and sea urchins on the beaches of Dury Voe, and winds up in Hermaness, where she sees a huge colony of 33,000 gannets.

At 67, Steadman doesn’t look set to slow down anytime soon, but says of the trip: “It took me years to finally make it to these islands - I should have done it a long time ago.”

Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter
(BBC2, 9pm)

TURN the clock back 150 yearss, and being served by a shopgirl was a new, strange phenomenon, as this new series points out. Over the course of three episodes, Dr Pamela Cox will follow the journey of the shopgirl, from an almost invisible figure in stark Victorian stores, to being the focal point of our glossy, modern shops.

Cox opens with a look at mid-19th Century, a time when the notion of shopping being a pleasurable experience was still a lifetime away.

Soon after this, though, women’s groups would actively campaign to promote women’s employment, and get rid of the idea that shopping was “unladylike”.

Love Your Garden
(ITV, 8pm)

SOME consider Alan Titchmarsh as welcome as Japanese Knotweed, but in-between those annoying chatshow interviews and the successful books, there’s still a green-fingered guru who’s worth watching… particularly when he’s coming to the rescue of the disabled.

In tonight’s opening episode, Titchmarsh and his team meet Darren and Lesley Chan, whose youngest daughter Amelie was born with Charge syndrome, a genetic condition which has left her deaf, partially-sighted and in need of constant care – hence their neglected outdoor space.

David Domoney, Frances Tophill and Katie Rushworth help out by introducing sensory planting for the ten-yearold, and a multifunction pathway made up of decking, artificial turf and paving.