Young at heart

AS Victor Meldrew, the Last of the Summer Wine crew and The Golden Girls have proved, growing old disgracefully can be a lot of fun.

Early last year Roger Lloyd Pack and Clive Swift, aka The Old Guys, joined the ranks of prime-time comedy pensioners.

The series revolves around seasoned mates Tom (Lloyd Pack), Roy (Swift) and their alluring neighbour, Sally (Jane Asher).

As the show returns, the old guys are determined to win a pub quiz to prove their minds are still young and agile.

Jane Asher may have spent more than 56 years in showbusiness, but this successful series marked a rare trip into sitcom and she admits making such comedies is far from easy.

“It’s a very hard nut to crack, and very hard to pitch the right level between playing for the studio audience – which, for theatre actors as we all are, is very tempting – and keeping it very much sort of a naturalistic level of TV acting,” she says.

“It’s a strange line to tread, but on the other hand, having such a warm audience, as we always did, is very, very encouraging.

There’s nothing like thinking you’re being funny and being met with deathly silence, but they seemed to find it funny, which is great.”

What’s it like still being the apple of the old guys’ eyes?

She finds her character good fun to play because she’s apparently quite charming but is really pretty right wing.

“She’s deeply patronising to people she considers not quite of her station or her rank, without ever sort of doing it too obviously,”

says Asher. “She’s one of those people who’s really sweet to the little people, is very much, ‘oh bless them, they do try hard’, kind of attitude.”

But does Sally know the depth of feelings Tom and Roy have for her?

“She’s aware that these two old guys are attracted to her and she exploits it no end, but I don’t think somehow she is fully aware of the depths of their obsession,”

she says.

“She might be a bit thrown if she was, because at times they really are obsessed with her, sexually if not emotionally. I think she quite likes them, but they’re more amusing and useful than anyone she would take seriously as a partner.”

FIRST Cut returns for a fifth run to offer up-and-coming directors the chance to showcase their work on peaktime TV.

The opener, The Playboy Murderer, is a fascinating film about the life of Thanos Papalexis. Back in 2000, Papalexis, who had previously been known for hosting parties for then-US President Bill Clinton, murdered Charalambos Christodoulides after he foiled a property deal.

He then went on to live a life of playboy luxury with private jets, Bentleys and mansions all at his disposal.

But behind the scenes, police in London were gathering evidence against him, involving everything from forensics to witness accounts, which led to his eventual arrest in 2008.

Director Rachel Williams pieces the story together using testimonies from people who knew Papalexis and reconstructions of the events.

DIVE, the two-part drama from Bafta award-winning director Dominic Savage, turns to Robert’s Story. The focus shifts from diver Lindsay’s perspective to bad lad Robert’s.

We learnt from smitten Lindsay that she quickly became pregnant and faced a tough decision – Olympic success or motherhood.

Robert’s having a bit of a rough time of it too, as the king of cool in the playground suddenly finds himself in love and about to be a father.

He confides in his older brother, who’s just returned from serving in Afghanistan, but he can’t believe that Robert would consider bringing another life into this world.

What decision will the couple arrive at, and how will it impact on their young lives?