I have to say that I expected more from this cast. The gags, especially a piece of shtick with the security guard at a gated community in Beverly Hills, fell pretty flat and I didn’t smile once, let alone laugh. However, it’s really hard to do much with some stories until you’ve set the scene and established the characters, so I shall reserve full judgement until I’ve seen a bit more. I hated Only Fools and Horses at first, and look how good that got in its heyday. Maybe I’ll write a bit more once we’re well into the series.

Yes, we’ve seen similar stuff before, and in the hands of almost anyone else it’d be quite boring by now, but somehow Gareth Malone manages to keep our interest. A great deal of this has to be due to his infectious passion for singing and his refusal to give up in the face of the kids’ initial indifference. It really is lovely to watch, despite a certain predictability. I’ll be glued to the remaining two episodes and to whatever Mr. Malone comes up with next.

Of particular note was the struggle faced by Linda, an intelligent and cultured woman in her forties who has never managed to read a single word and has a desperate desire to read Shakespeare. Initially she just doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere but eventually the breakthrough comes and it’s truly magnificent. There were tears in my eyes at that point, as at many others throughout the programme.

It goes without saying that I shall be glued to next week’s episode.

I’d definitely go again, but as an experience I think that radio recordings are somewhat better. You don’t have to queue for hours in a howling gale, you get to hang around in a theatre bar instead, and the atmosphere is rather more relaxed.

In the evening I watched a wonderfully scary episode of Dr. Who. The concept of creatures who look exactly like statues and are unable to move while they’re being observed but who can move incredibly quickly when you blink or look away was a good one, although I thought that they could have been dealt with rather easily by the suitable positioning of a mirror or two (can anyone say ‘Medusa’?). Still, they looked frightening, what with the fangs and clawing fingers, and I’m sure there are some appropriately traumatised children out there.

The plan for today is to watch MotoGP and Formula 1 while eating snacks and drinking beer. Well, it is Sunday, after all.