Film and TV

So You Think You Can Dance judges Sisco Gomez, Louise Redknapp, Arlene Phillips and Nigel Lythgoe
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TV Choice: Chilean miners, Peter Kay & wannabe dancers

By Lewis Rudd
March 24, 2011

Every week our square-eyed reporters take a look at what’s on TV – the highlights and the lowlights – and pick what they think you should watch or avoid.

So You Think You Can Dance, BBC One, Saturday, 7.10pm

Movers and shakers, and that is putting it politely, from across the UK will be taking over our screens for the next 12 weeks in an effort to become crowned the country’s next dance star.

Wannabe Michael Flatleys, Lionel Blairs and Fred Astaires take to the floor to perform in front of a judging panel consisting of ‘nasty’ Nigel Lythgoe and his glamorous assistant Arlene Phillips.

Among those hoping to secure a place in the competition’s grand final are a mother-and-daughter duo and a partially deaf girl who dances to music by feeling the bass vibrate through her body.

Oh, and let’s not forget the many more auditionees whose dream and destiny it is to dance and become a performer.

If I remember correctly, these are the same people who had previously been told they have the X Factor by their next door neighbour’s cat-sitter and once dreamt of winning Britain’s Got Talent.

Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got..., Channel 4, Saturday, 9pm

Before I give my reasons as to why you should watch this particular programme I will admit it is a repeat, but it is more than worthy of a second screening because it is brilliant.

The full title of this show, for those who do not know it, is actually Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, and is a spoof about pretty much anything and everything that is reality television.

The Bolton comic returns to our screens with his very own humorous take on the shows mentioned above, epitomising everything which is bad and bonkers about the car crash television programmes we call entertainment.

Highlights of the show include the trio of, ahem, talent that is R Wayne, Two Up Two Down and Geraldine McQueen, and the judging panel of DJ Neil Fox, Pete Waterman and Nicki Chapman being…well, being themselves I guess.

Chilean Miners: What Happened Next, BBC Two, Monday, 7pm

The lives of 33 Chilean miners changed forever last year when they became trapped 800 metres below the country’s deserts for more than two months.

I’m sure most of you, like me, watched with eagerness when each of the trapped miners, one by one, was pulled from the mine during a complicated rescue mission which dominated our screens last autumn.

For most, the experience has led to fame and fortune, yet the glare of the international media’s spotlight has failed to remove the mental scars suffered by those trapped underground with little food or water for 69 days.

This documentary catches up with three of those caught up in the incident and looks at how the trio are still struggling to come to terms with the traumatic ordeal.