In First Cut: Teen Horse Whisperers asbo ponies and troubled teens are paired up with surprising results
This is nice. In a rough part of Liverpool, Bernie runs a scheme to help troublesome kids; she pairs them up with troublesome horses. You'd think it would cause havoc, that you'd end up with feral teenagers and asbo ponies running wild together through Merseyside. But, weirdly, they help to calm each other down.
The horses were considered unmanageable and were destined for the knacker's yard. But Bernie explains to them (she's a horse whisperer) that the way to an easier life, or indeed any kind of life, is via her programme. And she says pretty much the same to the kids.
They are wary of each other at first. A kid called Ryan does a horse impression at a horse called Simba. "Do you think that helps, making sounds like that?" says Bernie. Simba's not impressed either. Bernie shows Ryan how to gain the animal's trust, with words and movements. And apples (it's just bribery really, not horse whispering). Soon, Ryan's leading Simba around the yard, confidently.
Bernie's scheme, and her ponies, are threatened by the cuts. They'll probably be slaughtered, Bernie too, boiled up for glue. Which will then be sniffed by Ryan and his mates, because they'll no longer have long-faced role models. Yeah, good one Mr Cameron, pony killer.
The opening episode of a sitcom is always tricky, but Friday Night Dinner is particularly underwhelming so far, like a less interesting version of Simon Amstell's Grandma's House.
Dad gets the wrong end of the stick, mum's weird, the neighbour's weirder, the sons revert to childish behaviour when they return home, the sofa man comes on the wrong day, the sofa gets stuck on the stairs. Perhaps this is part of a new trend for gentleness someone was telling me about. I think it's taking it too far though; it's not funny enough.
But the cast is good: The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, Green Wing's Mark Heap, and everything's Tamsin Greig. Writer Robert Popper has an impressive CV: Look Around You, Peep Show, South Park. Maybe we'll give it one more go. The sit's established, now let's have the com.