Quelle Catastrophe! France With Robert Peston

Things have been good in France, but now the bill is in
Ben-Felsenburg-portrait-176Remember Asterix? ‘Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of the indomitable Gauls holds out against the invaders.’

So, for decades, has France held out against globalisation. While the rest of the planet has succumbed to the unsparing demands of the 21st-century rat race, they’ve stubbornly and gloriously maintained la belle vie, with its generous state subsidies, 35-hour maximum working week and three-course meals even for children at nursery. But now, in Quelle Catastrophe! France With Robert Peston (BBC2, Friday at 9pm) Peston discovers, l’addition is in – no, not for the pre-schoolers, but for the entire French state and its superannuated legions of public employees.

In lesser hands this prophecy of financial doom might be snoozeville, but the BBC’s economics correspondent has a mischievous sense of humour and oodles of the sort of piquant schadenfreude (do the French have a word for that?) which we Brits reserve for the misfortunes of our neighbour. Plus ‘the Pest’ – who I’m told has a considerable number of female admirers – has styled his raven locks into a sweep that the young Alain Delon would have been proud of. Still there’s a serious message here: a once-great nation is edging towards bankruptcy – both political and economic – and those at the extremes are poised to take over. But life is good for now, for some: down in Montpellier, the typical civil servant is absent for 39 days a year – on top of 50 days’ holiday. ‘It’s because of the sun,’ explains one forgiving local, with a shrug.

NOT TO BE MISSED

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Bringing the fruit and vegetable plots of the royal palace at Kew back to life, with Kate Humble and Raymond Blanc.

Back In Time For Dinner, BBC2, Tues, 8pm
Polly Russell and Giles Coren send a family back to experience post-war food, starting with the 1950s.

Stargazing Live BBC2, Wed, 8pm
Brian Cox and Dara O Briain look up to the skies with gleeful anticipation of Friday’s solar eclipse.