TV preview, Grayson Perry: Divided Britain (Channel 4, Tuesday 9pm): A nation in a real state

I can’t really start with politics, or at least not proper party politics, given everything that’s going on, so I thought I’d first mention the semi-political semi-artistic endeavour that is Grayson Perry: Divided Britain.

As Perry said soon after the referendum result last year, Brexit is divisive, yes, but also artistically exciting precisely because it is so divisive, and it continues to be so, with the Leave and Remain camps mutating into tribes and cutting across party loyalties. It will also be divisive because, in Perry’s view, it’ll turn out to be a disaster (just so you know here he is coming from).

Seeing Grayson Perry standing on the White Cliffs of Dover in a sort of Bo Peep outfit does make you proud to be British, I must say, but so does the “matching pair” of vases he creates. Inspired by Leave and Remain voters, and the centrepiece of an exhibitions scheduled to open on 8 June (that is, before the election was called), Perry manages to unite his audiences in admiration for his work. Quite right too. There will be tears.

Absent a “proper” debate between the two major party leaders, or between them and some combination of others, voting viewers will have to make do with a series of variations in a lower note on a theme. So there’ll be more party leader debates with the under-used Andrew Neil on BBC1; Jeremy Corbyn will turn up on The One Show, though without his wife, on Tuesday evening – and I hope they give him an equally soft ride to the one they gave the Prime Minister and Mr May – and a Question Time Special on Friday night, where Ms May and Mr Corbyn get a chance to answer voters directly.

We will also see whether Jeremy Paxman has still got some lead in his pencil during the joint Sky/Channel 4 News show May v Corbyn Live: the Battle for Number 10. It's misleadingly named, because it isn’t a Corbyn-May head to head, but actually May v Paxman live followed by Corbyn v Paxman live. There will be rudeness.

open image in gallery

Even if you’re not much into football you should probably find a little time to retire from your sunny barbecue party to watch two great teams, Arsenal (still legendary, despite their current travails) and Chelsea in the FA Cup final. Actually that should be four great teams, as obviously you should also find time for the Scottish Cup Final, if you can, which starts a little earlier (Celtic v Aberdeen). Maybe the winner of each should play the other in the British Cup Final, while, that is, England and Scotland are still in the same country. There will be goals.

Duty compels me to mention Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors because although I can usually just about enjoy anything that Lucy Worsley is put in front of, some bruising schooldays encounters with Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice and, lord love me, Emma, have left me in a state of permanent aversion. Imagine her being on the £20 note too! So she (Jane, not Lucy) can stay behind closed doors so far as I’m concerned.

And, while I’m being a little unbuttoned, I can also take or leave Paul Hollywood’s Big Continental Road Trip, which even the most devoted fan might conceded does sound a bit forbidding. I’d rather watch the latest round of repeats of Top of the Pops you’d find on BBC4, now grinding their way through 1984. There will be Bananarama.