Opportunity knocks | 12 May 2012

I should have thought about this more carefully — the timing of it, I mean. This is Crucible time, and in the normal scheme of things I would be watching almost nothing but snooker. Yes, dear readers, I am that sad and pathetic thing known as a snooker addict, and a red-button one at that. But I eschew the green baize and march purposefully into the world of television previews — and what a challenging world it is.

Not, I suppose, as challenging as the task that faces The Town Taking on China (BBC2, Tuesday), one of those programmes that reassuringly does exactly what it says on the tin. Kirkby-based cushion manufacturer Tony wants to see whether the ‘British manufacturing lion can take on the Asian tiger China’, and as Tony owns a sister plant on the east coast of China — the ‘textile capital of the world’ — you’d think he’d know better.