On TV last night

CSI: Miami (five)

XIN Hua is likely to end up what the Chinese call "a bare branch" - a man without children. A young man looking for a bride in modern day China has as much difficulty as the BBC have had in finding a suitable job for Graham Norton after wooing him away from C4.

By 2020, the number of bachelors in China will be 40 million. There are simply not enough girls to go round because of the legacy of Communist rule. Twenty-five years ago, the government decreed that couples should have just one child in a bid to halt the spiralling birth rate.

Tradition means most want a son, not a daughter. This has led to female foetuses being aborted and, even more dreadful, stories of female babies being left to die.

The shortage of brides has led to girls being kidnapped from their homes and sold to desperate bachelors. A government crackdown on such trade has led to 20,000 women being rescued in the past four years. That's only the tip of the iceberg.

Xin Hua is typical of the bachelor boy generation. At 24, he still lives at home with his parents in a village where there are no longer enough women left to marry. An only child, he must look after his parents in their old age, although selling rice from the fields brings in barely enough to feed the family.

The only hope for young men like him is to travel hundreds of miles to the city to get a job and make themselves financially attractive to women. The wedding of a friend who did just that and found himself a bride gives Xin Hua the chance to impress. He spends what his whole family could earn in two weeks on a new jacket in an attempt to catch the eye of a single woman. It doesn't work and his parents feel his only hope is to travel to Bejing and find a job in the booming construction business.

When this is the desperate situation in China, our preoccupation with frivolous game shows about finding a mate like Blind Date seems misguided.

The CSI: Miami team returned to find more criminals, although the first in a new series was more concerned with internal affairs and the death of one of the team during the course of an investigation.

Thank goodness for CSI boss Horatio Caine and his Sherlock Holmes-like detection techniques. His knowledge of car wheel bases provided a breakthrough in the case of a kidnapped child. Muddy footprints, a grass carp, a palm print and a long blonde hair were other clues duly followed up.

Not even Caine can do anything about the use of language. He was reprimanded by a mother for referring to the kidnapped child as her stepson. "We're a blended family, we don't use such terms," she snapped at him.

Stick to wheel base sizes, Horatio, you can't go wrong with them.

A Summer Gala Evening Of Dance And Song, York Grand Opera House

THIS was a star-stuffed programme that mere money couldn't buy, with a bill featuring Wayne Sleep, Anita Harris, Bonnie Langford, Jason Connery and Simon Callow wearing tights. They were doing it to raise money for the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, the annual summer school for would-be dancers held in York. Doncaster-born former Royal Ballet dancer Marguerite Porter, the seminars' new director, hit on the idea of persuading a few friends to do "a song, a dance and a turn".

The one-night-only production was not without problems - a faulty microphone, an indisposed dancer and injury forcing a last minute replacement. The show went on regardless. And what a show. Charity dos can become self-indulgent but the luvvie content was kept low. Dance ranged from a romantic double set to Love Walked In and The Man I Love through the frivolously camp Side Show to the delicate flutterings of Madame Butterfly pas de deux. Bonnie Langford showed what an electric dancer she is, partnering Strictly Come Ballroom's Anton du Beke in a sizzling routine, while Sleep displayed his nifty footwork in The Hornpipe. Students of the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars showed off their talent in a piece, Troppo Allegro, choreographed by Wayne Eagling.

Porter herself made a surprise appearance, dancing in a piece dedicated to actor husband Nicky Henson to mark their 19th wedding anniversary. Might it, I wonder, become an annual fund-raising date on the Grand Opera House calendar?

Steve Pratt

Magic of the Dance, Newcastle Theatre Royal

LOVERS of Irish dance are in for a treat at the Theatre Royal this week. John Carey, winner of eight world championships and the only English-born male dancer to be accepted into the Riverdance company, stars in a show which literally sets the stage on fire.

Carey seems an engaging sort of cove, waggling his eyebrows at his partner and treating the audience to an appealing grin at the rapturous reception he received. Not the demi-god Michael Flatley deemed himself to be, but a dancer of tremendous skill and grace.

Collette Dunne as Carey's lady love, lost and then regained, is fetching with her cascade of blonde hair and little tiara, and she too holds championship medals. I couldn't help feeling that her two songs slowed the action, a bit like the soppy bits in panto. Her voice is tuneful without being memorable.

I wasn't too sure about the three men - one of them well stricken in years - dragged up on stage to join in the dance (more shades of panto) without even a lollipop for their trouble.

Each member of the company has their chance to shine, and shine they certainly do. In a mixture of traditional Irish dance and some more contemporary stuff, the pace never slackens. Check out charismatic Ciaran Maguire as the baddie, brooding and aggressive in black leather. Phew - no wonder his shoes burst into flames!

* Runs until Sat. Booking Office: 0870 9055060

Sue Heath