The male fantasy who prefers women - Our Sam (C4), Rail Cops (BBC1)

IF nothing else, Samantha Fox gave one newspaper sub-editor the opportunity to write the headline "In loving mammary" when she quit topless modelling. That's the problem when your fame rests on exposing your breasts on Page Three - people don't take you seriously.

In Our Sam, the model-turned-singer reminded us that she'd sold 30 million albums. But the legacy of topless modelling lives on. Touring Norway - well, someone has to - as a singer, the presenter of a live TV show on which she was being interviewed asked if he could put his hands on her most famous assets. "Can I touch your boobs? I thought this was a children's show," said an indignant Sam.

She hasn't graced Page Three since 1986 and wants to put that part of her career behind her, an argument undercut by her decision to pose topless (and bottomless) for Playboy magazine when she was 30 six years ago.

The documentary recounted the highs and lows of her life so far - modelling by the time she was 16, an affair with a married man a year later, and how she was given £200 a week pocket money until she was 26. That decision was taken by her father and manager, always a difficult combination. Inevitably, they fell out and Sam sued him for £1m. It appeared he hadn't paid her taxes. He died on his own in a room, surrounded by her pictures.

Her choice in men wasn't always wise. Boyfriends included con man Peter Foster, who used Sam as the front woman for a tea-selling scam. Perhaps that explains why her current relationship is with her female manager Myra.

Sam told us that the happiest she's ever been has been with women. It's not just a phase she's going through. From the time she was a teenager she had feelings for women. At 14, she recalls watching the Bionic Woman on TV and "really liked" Lindsay Wagner, the actress who played the superwoman.

Whether Sam's confessions have anything to do with the fact that she's making a comeback - she wants to be a fully-fledged rock star - I couldn't possible say. But you couldn't help feeling that, rather like the week's other documentary star subject Michael Jackson, she's someone whose life has suffered by finding fame and fortune so young.

Modelling is far more glamorous than being one of the Rail Cops who, this week, had to deal with drunks, illegal immigrants and graffiti artists. "Paul's been sitting in stinging nettles for two hours and isn't happy," we were reliably informed, as the British transport police officer staked out a railway sidings to catch vandals spray painting carriages.

After four hours' observation, one villain was apprehended. In the end, he was only charged with trespass, and fined £200. It hardly seemed worth all the time and trouble.

Fame, Darlington Civic Theatre

LOVERS of Alan Parker's hit movie Fame should be warned: Fame The Musical bears only a fleeting resemblance. Anyone expecting the energy and vibrancy of the film to be re-enacted onstage will be sorely disappointed.

While the theme - struggling dancers trying to make it big at the New York High School for the Performing Arts - remains the same, the hit songs and characters that made Fame cult viewing on TV and the big screen are nowhere to be seen.

Ten minutes into the first half, I was already frantically searching through the programme hoping to see signs that Leroy or Coco would be taking centre stage, but it wasn't to be.

Instead, the musical charts the lives of a new set of students who have made it into 'PA', eager to graduate and become stars, but that is as far as the storyline takes you.

There are strong performances by Yasmin Kadi as Carmen - a dancer who leaves school to make her name in LA but dies of a drug overdose - and Ben Heathcote as Jo Vegas, a Spanish student with an eye for the ladies.

Leigh-Anne Stone as Mabel also provides a few laughs.

While there was no doubting the talent of the cast, the entire performance was filled with expectation - expectation that it would get better. Finally, it did, when a rendition of Irene Cara's hit song Fame had the audience on their feet. But by then it was time for home.

Liz Lamb

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