I’m delivering this column late and I’ve kidded myself that it’s OK because it’s in keeping with the subject, which is ITV’s Married to the Job, in which real-life female detectives juggle a heavy workload and a family. I, on the other hand, have looked after someone with a bug while trying to write a column. The only real similarity is that I have also seen bodily fluids on walls today.

Advertisement

I always forget the show’s name and accidentally call it “Women on the Job”, which sounds like a very matter-of-fact porn film. In Married to the Job, a documentary crew follow senior female police at work and at home. DI Kay Lancaster is amazing. Leading a team that targets criminals who prey on the elderly and vulnerable, she is also a single mam of two boys. To be honest, as a novice cook, I’m as impressed by her making a Thai green curry as I was by the bit about putting bad men behind bars.

I feel for her sons a bit, though. Thai green curry aside, there’s no way they’re going to be able to get away with not doing their homework, or having the DVD of “Women on the Job” stashed in a cupboard when they’re older.

DI Lancaster spends a lot of time with the pensioners, reassuring them and advising them and often just listening to them. Which is not without humour. Just seeing an old lady realise she has said that a young man asked to see her “cock stop” is glorious. Or the glimmer of hope when a group of old women hear that Kay is there to tell them about Operation Manhunt.

There are few things I like more than to see old people twinkling. A shopping centre I frequent has Tea Dance Tuesdays and I regularly pop by to see the over- 60s twirling about to a live band. I well up, I sometimes sing along, and I always look forward to being old enough to join in.

More like this

I really enjoy Married to the Job, but think the episodes deserve to be an hour long. As a woman happily without kids, I sometimes struggle with the balance between work and play, so to see these formidable women juggle (not literally, thank God) work and kids is eye opening. And these women are everywhere. This show could run and run with women in any job you like, trying to keep everyone happy. Mams eh? Working mams eh?

They’re all amazing. It’s worth pointing out that Mel Giedroyc does the voiceover and that did, at the beginning, make me think they were all going to have to embark on a rum baba for the technical challenge. Poor buggers. Frightening baddies, tucking their kids in and then bashing away at a lattice-topped treacle tart. Soggy bottoms all round, I suppose.


Thumbs up for comedy

I love seeing people I know be funny on telly, so I’m happy to report that Seann Walsh World and comedy trio Pappy’s from Badults both get ticks from me.


Sarah’s stand-up DVD, Thoroughly Modern Millican Live, is available at radiotimes.com/dvdshop

Follow @RadioTimes


Advertisement

//
//


Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement