Selfridges at Christmas
Channel 5
★★★☆☆
24 Hours in Police Custody
Channel 4
★★★★☆
I expected Selfridges at Christmas to be the usual hour-long puff job, packed with gushing talking heads. And it was! But it was better than your average plug-fest because of the fascinating character that was Harry Gordon Selfridge and one contributor going slightly off-script.
The TV presenter Dallas Campbell, who was dressed as an elf, used to work in Selfridges’ “magical” Christmas grotto. He admitted that the day-to-day running of the grotto was “hell”. Of course it was. All Santa’s grottoes are hell, a triumph of optimism over experience. He quickly added: “It wasn’t hell, it was wonderful, but goodness me, it was hard work. Because [it] was so popular there’d
