One of the most uplifting TV series is back on the box for an autumn season: Timothy West and Prunella Scales’s Great Canal Journeys (Channel 4). This sprightly pair of married thespians in their 80s – Tim is 83, Pru 86 – have had a late career development, gliding through the canals of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, opening up the beauty of the waterways with the wit and charm of their commentary (aided by fabulous camerawork).
Prunella suffers from the onset of dementia, but you would never guess it: she can draw on the mental discipline and long-term memory of a lifetime’s work in the theatre and on screen (she was the unforgettable Sybil in Fawlty Towers).
