Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands, New Tricks (BBC1)
Bingo is the answer. If you want to teach fresh skills to a bunch of raucous pensioners, don’t bother with evening classes or online tutorials – take them to bingo.
Rose Ayling-Ellis was struggling in her mission to excite the residents at a retirement village with her sign language lessons, on Old Hands, New Tricks.
There was, to put it kindly, a certain absence of enthusiasm when she first proposed the idea – half her audience dozed off while she was introducing herself.
Nothing ever seems to daunt Strictly winner Rose, which is what makes her so lovable. But her initial pitch was painful. She’d have got a warmer reception on Dragons’ Den if she’d tried to sell them a machine that turns £2 coins into tuppences.
‘Are you interested in coming to signing class?’ she pleaded with one lady, who was at least awake.
‘No,’ came the retort. ‘Because I’m too old. I’m 101.’
Rose kept urging her to set an example to her fellow residents: ‘If you can do it, no one has the excuse to say they’re too old.’
‘I’m not going to do it,’ repeated the centenarian stubbornly.
Rose Ayling-Ellis (centre) take on an experiment with a group of pensioners to see if sign language can bring them confidence
Rose Ayling-Ellis was struggling in her mission to excite the residents at a retirement village with her sign language lessons, on Old Hands, New Tricks
In the end, of the 300 villagers, whose average age is 80, about half a dozen (pictured with Rose is Bev Snodgrass) agreed to give it a try – and I have a strong suspicion that was chiefly because the cameras were there
The home’s manager, Belinda, didn’t have anything more optimistic to offer. ‘They can be quite forgetful so maybe that’s a bit of a challenge,’ she warned.
In the end, of the 300 villagers, whose average age is 80, about half a dozen agreed to give it a try – and I have a strong suspicion that was chiefly because the cameras were there.
A dear old chap called Eric was quite keen, partly because it gave him a break from nursing his wife of 68 years, June, who has Alzheimer’s. But Eric’s hands were knotted with arthritis. Try as he might to copy Rose’s hand signals, his fingers didn’t want to obey.
The Beeb was obviously hoping that this show could rival Vicky McClure’s moving experiments with singing to help dementia patients.
But without the promise of a climactic performance on stage, learning sign language lacks the drama of coaching a choir.
It was all looking like a bit of a disaster, until British Sign Language [BSL] tutor Marios Costi had the bright idea of a coach trip to bingo at a north London community centre for deaf people.
This brought the novelty of an outing, the opportunity to meet new faces and, most importantly, the chance for a flutter.
No one wields a felt-tip dobber with quite the intensity of an octogenarian lady with her eye on a sixty quid jackpot.
A dear old chap called Eric (pictured right) was quite keen, partly because it gave him a break from nursing his wife of 68 years, June, who has Alzheimer’s. But Eric’s hands were knotted with arthritis. Try as he might to copy Rose’s hand signals, his fingers didn’t want to obey
It was all looking like a bit of a disaster, until British Sign Language [BSL] tutor Marios Costi had the bright idea of a coach trip to bingo at a north London community centre for deaf people
But this was bingo for the deaf. The numbers were flashed up, not shouted out.
And Sue, one of the villagers, was visually impaired. Her frustration at being unable to join in almost brought her to tears, until Marios and Rose took it in turns to show her the numbers using BSL.
By the end of the session, Sue was mathematically fluent in sign language. It’s amazing what you can learn with the right incentive. Bingo!
Taste vacuum of the night
Fixing up a six-bed house on Building Britain’s Superhomes (Ch4), property developer Guy Phoenix went £150,000 over budget, including £12,000 on silk upholstery and £6,000 on wallpaper.
Who on earth will want that? ‘A footballer,’ Guy shrugged.