TELEVISION / BRIEFING: One foot in the present, too

On Friday nights, presumably, Prince Charles takes the phone off the hook and settles down for a night in front of the telly. Not only can he catch up with the latest state of his unmarriage in What the Papers Say, there is also Channel 4's Garden Club and, now, ONE FOOT IN THE PAST (9.30pm BBC2), a magazine devoted to Britain's ancient bricks and mortar - or 'heritage' as they say in Tory think-tank circles. Omnipresenter Kirsty Wark (in Scotland you can wear out your remote control finding a programme not fronted by her) anchors the show, which is actually a lot more than just restored mining villages and Brideshead Revisited revisited. It takes a left-field, Lucinda Lamptonesque line on what is of value in our landscape, whether it be the Emley Moor television tower in Yorkshire or Beryl Bainbridge sharing her favourite view (the gas-works behind King's Cross Station). Architectural journalist Dan Cruikshank goes in search of the Euston Arch, whose removal in 1962 kick-started the modern conservation movement, while Loyd Grossman gets the kitsch assignment, looking at the effect of pebble dash and stone-cladding on once dignified Victorian house fronts.

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