The Hotel Inspector Returns (Channel 5, 9pm)
I CAN’T help but admire Alex Polizzi who is constantly looking for standards and professionalism in a world which isn't always accommodating. The woman has staying power if nothing else, because her training in the formidable Forte hotel chain – she’s the granddaughter of Lord Forte – must make her despair of others reaching similar standards.
After years of looking at less than cosy little B&Bs and unimpressive hotels, Polizzi is revisiting some of her proteges to see if they’re keeping up the good work. It’s also quite a cheap way of making a four-part “new” series. Three-quarters will be a re-run of the previous heated debates between Polizzi and her not always genial hosts, before the Hotel Inspector returns to run a finger over the bedroom window sills.
Tonight, Polizzi heads back to the eight-acre Meudon Country House Hotel, near Falmouth, and checks in again with the Pilgrim family. Two years ago, father and son Harry and Mark were struggling to balance the books, and the business – and their relationship – was on the brink of collapse. Polizzi saw to it that she boosted general manager Mark's confidence and equipped him with skills that would enable him to put himself forward as a leader.
Now, she’s keen to find out if the old folks’ home look of the place has been completely banished – “It’s done up like God’s waiting room,” grumbled Polizzi previously – and if daughter Gaye has been given more of a say by 85-year-old Harry?
This Old Thing: The Vintage Clothes Show (C4, 8pm)
DAWN O'Porter is here to put the case for clothes that were made to last. As well as encouraging us to shop for vintage garments, she'll also be opening the doors to her sewing workshop, where a team of seamstresses and tailors will work their magic repairing or even completely re-inventing old items.
She understands why some people are resistant to “pre-loved” clothing. "Well, first of all, they think that someone died in them. To which I would say, 'Who cares’? As long as they're not still dead in them, it doesn't matter.' Also they think it's unhygienic, but if you go into a vintage shop and something is really stained, or it smells, don't buy it. It doesn't mean that it's all like that.
"Another thing that put people off was all the rummaging. What's great about the high street is that you can go out in your lunch hour and buy a red dress in your size and everything's very easy. But if you put the time in to buy the right stuff, your wardrobe is going to be full of stuff that you love, and getting dressed is going to be less stressful each day."
The first person O’Porter tries to convert is Bristol girl Chevonne, who refuses to shop second-hand, but admits she's tired of looking the same as everyone else. Can she be convinced that buying vintage will help her find her own unique look?
My Last Summer (C4, 10pm)
ANOTHER effort to break the taboo that death has on us ends a four-parter tonight. Terminally-ill people are brought together for weekends at a Cotswolds manor house, encouraging them to talk openly about their experiences, and their thoughts about dying. The group mark Junior's death. Ben and Jayne accept more treatment to try to prolong their lives and Lou, who has motor neurone disease, introduces her breathing machine to her children.
She explains: "Even though I'm not afraid of dying, and I'm not afraid of the things that Junior was, I still knew how he felt. I could sit there and hold his hand, because both he and I have thought about the prospect of taking our last breath."
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