Proms scale the best of British .sx OPERA .sx IT WOULD be hard to find a more ideal work for the First Night Of The Proms than Elgar's great oratorio , The Dream of Gerontius .sx Its size , sound and style fit the Royal Albert Hall like a glove , and it is British to its core .sx It received a magnificent performance on Friday when the 97th season of Proms opened , televised live on BBC2 , broadcast on Radio 3 , and attended by the Prince of Wales .sx Under the BBC Symphony Orchestra's excellent Chief Conductor Andrew Davis , it was magnificent .sx Cheers First rate playing by the orchestra , three superb soloists , and that glorious sound which only our British amateur choruses produce .sx These were the BBC Symphony Chorus , joined by the professional BBC Singers and the London Philharmonic Choir , and they earned our fervent cheers .sx There are eight more weeks of exciting Proms to come .sx Watch this space .sx AMERICAN Peter Sellars' hippy Los Angeles version of The Magic Flute , at Glyndebourne , remains tacky , tasteless and inept , and is not helped by being sung this year in Alice Goodman's dated Sixties American slang .sx Andrew Davis again conducts admirably , and the singing is stronger than last year .sx But his Flute remains ruined by the mindless self-promotion of Sellars .sx It's all such a waste of talent and Mozart's music .sx IF Sellars can spare the time , he should go and see Carmen Jones at the Old Vic .sx There he will learn , from Oscar Hammerstein's brilliant adaptation and Simon Callow's inspired direction , just how the experts update classic operas .sx Carmen Jones , set in an American parachute factory during The Second World War , has all the drive and passion of Bizet's original opera .sx The latest arrival in the role of Carmen , Paula Ingram , gives what must be the sexiest , best sung performance on the West End stage .sx Not to be missed at any price .sx DAVID FINGLETON .sx A racing certainty on the Turf turns into a saddle soap .sx WEEKEND VIEW .sx By THE SCOUT ( John Garnsey ) .sx HORSERACING folk tend to like a drink .sx None of the great tipplers of the Turf I know , however , look quite as disgustingly healthy as Mike Hardy .sx He is bright-eyed and youthful even when emerging from the stiff end of the most monumental hangover .sx Hardy , played by Mark Greenstreet , is a central character in the new racing drama Trainer ( BBC1 ) .sx He is a young assistant trainer struggling with a drink problem , but blessed with an immense talent .sx Unfortunately , he and the rest of the cast bear little relation to racing reality .sx Vices Furthermore , our hero committed a cardinal sin in the opening scene of the first episode .sx He was late for morning exercise - and not for the first time , we were led to understand .sx No trainer would stand for that .sx He cannot afford to have valuable horseflesh milling around unsupervised .sx Mike's villainous and womanising boss Hugo Latimer , played by Patrick Ryecart , was the oiliest and slimiest wretch on earth .sx You wouldn't give him house room , let alone allow him to train your horses .sx He did share certain characteristics with some trainers , but the ones I know who might qualify for comparison are far more adept at disguising their vices .sx By the end of episode one , abrasive owner James Brant ( Nigel Davenport ) had vowed to place his horses with young Mike as long as he could cure his love affair with the bottle .sx It is a racing certainty that Susannah York , as recently widowed owner Rachel Ware , will provide comfort and motherly advice .sx Assisted by real-life trainer Peter Cundell , producer Gerard Glaister has taken great pains to ensure authenticity .sx The stable and racing sequences do bring some reality to the otherwise improbable plot .sx Insiders say the first episode of Trainer is one of the strongest in the series .sx On that form , it must be rated as just another soap .sx If the plot deteriorates , it will be no more than saddle soap .sx I HOPE you also caught Alfred Molina's uncannily accurate performance as the self-pitying alcoholic genius Tony Hancock in Screen One's Hancock ( BBC1 ) .sx From the moment he recreated the famous Blood Donor sketch , you knew that this was a quality production .sx With documentary intensity , we saw how one of our greatest comedians since Charlie Chaplin slid down the greasy pole just as inexorably as Richard Burton did two decades later .sx Creative Essentially a radio performer , the cult creator of Hancock's Half Hour would have flourished today with the greater creative opportunities in TV offered by the advent of more discerning channels :sx BBC2 in 1964 and Channel Four in 1982 .sx Instead , we saw the Smirnoff bottle first destroy Hancock's relationship with the brilliant Galton and Simpson writing team , then his two marriages , and finally himself in 1968 .sx My only quibble is that scriptwriter William Humble devoted his two-hour profile to Hancock's final eight years .sx Younger audiences deserved to know more about why this complex denizen of Railway Cuttings , East Cheam , was so side-splittingly funny .sx COMPTON MILLER .sx Cooking Boon for absolute beginners .sx YESTERDAY'S VIEW .sx By CAROLINE HENDRIE .sx COOKERY programmes usually fit into one of two categories - either a methodical step-by-step course from sensible cooks like Delia Smith , or the kind designed to feed the voracious appetites of home cooks who know everything , have every gadget and need more and more strange and elaborate recipes to keep them hungry for the next week's offering .sx To learn much from either , the kitchen-stool student needs to put in a good term's work .sx But now Michael Elphick and Don Henderson have stepped out of their better-known roles as TV detectives , Boon and Bulman , to solve the mystery of how to get a hot dinner on the table , with the minimum of investigations .sx Their four-part series , The Absolute Beginners' Guide to Cookery ( ITV ) is aimed at people who have survived into adulthood without needing to cook anything .sx With amiable banter , ad-libbing and passages read aloud from the cookery book , they quickly rustled up cauliflower cheese , spaghetti with meat sauce and lasagne .sx They kept the pace fast with many digressions , a sensible tactic to keep the attention of an audience who has not been interested enough in cooking to try it before .sx And pressing themselves as two clumsy oafs - not terribly convincingly on Elphick's part as he deftly trimmed a cauli and effortlessly stirred up a lump-free white sauce - must have given even the latest starter the confidence to look up a recipe or send off for the leaflet and have a go .sx It is a great shame , therefore , that the programme goes out in the afternoon , just the time when the most kitchen-shy of either sex are generally out at work .sx Only the culinarily clueless of the South West get an evening repeat .sx LATER , while heating up the frozen fisherman's pie or perhaps waiting for the faithful spouse to produce a three-course dinner , the exhausted workforce was able to slump in front of the opening round of The Krypton Factor ( ITV ) .sx For the 15th year running , 36 out of an initial 8,000 hopefuls are putting themselves through six punishing and pointless mental and physical tests , in pursuit of the title the presenter Gordon Burns is careful to call Superperson .sx Since very few women bother to enter , it is highly unlikely that one is going to win .sx Last night , the token female came last in nearly everything , though she was better than the heat's winner at general knowledge being able to name Charles Dickens as the author of The Old Curiosity Shop - and she did have blonde hair .sx Global warming to witty John's fantasy Sessions .sx THEATRE .sx THAT malicious mimic John Sessions is unlikely to be on Vanessa Redgrave's Christmas card list after the disgracefully funny remarks he makes about his fellow West End star and her entourage .sx His new one-man show , Travelling Tales at the Theatre Royal , Haymarket , roams restlessly around the globe , making witty connections between the craziest people and places .sx His geographical fantasies feature a cast of thousands of tree-frogs , all played by Sessions , and a momentous meeting between Su Pollard and Robert De Niro .sx You want someone to impersonate Adolf Hitler , Saddam Hussein and the Bront*_e < Sisters ?sx Sessions is your man , a comedian with ambitions to conquer the world's accents .sx He is the ultimate school show-off , with a prodigious talent , a butterfly mind and enough sex appeal to be the new Dudley Moore or Tom Conti as the next British secret weapon to subvert Hollywood .sx MAUREEN PATTON .sx Cilla's dating game is blind to change .sx WEEKEND VIEW .sx By SIAN JAMES .sx KIMBERLEY , the hairdresser from Cleveland who sold sexy underwear in her spare time , had a bit of a thing about Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze .sx While David , the clerical officer from Newcastle said he rather fancied someone like Julia Roberts .sx In the end , Kimberley got Matt from Essex , David went home disappointed and Pauline and Glen had a nice time at a sausage factory in Spain .sx Yes , they're back and this time they are really .sx .. well , pretty much the same as all the 1,200 contestants in the previous six series .sx Obviously the justification for Cilla Black's Blind Date ( ITV ) comes down to the cliche sic !sx " If it ain't broke , don't fix it .sx " .sx Since its inception in 1985 the programme has changed hardly at all .sx Same appalling , scripted jokey chat-up lines , same type of guests .sx The question is will the seventh season of the show pull in the same 14 million audience ?sx The answer is probably but not definitely , because those who watch Blind Date fall into two camps .sx The ones who admit it , and the ones who don't .sx It's the latter category , in which I include myself , that could start getting a teensy-weensy bit bored .sx But on Saturday , the contestants didn't disappoint .sx Not the sort of people you'd kill for to get on a Trivial Pursuit team with , they were lambs to our witty slaughter .sx As usual , behind a screen , William , David , and Dickie competed for an all-expenses paid date with Marie Claire from Edinburgh , who wanted to be an actress .sx Then there was a filmed report from Neil and Sally , who'd won a trip to Portugal in the last series .sx They had a great laugh in the painted-plate shop .sx But then the bit we all love came when Neil and Sally , in separate studios , had to give their verdicts on one another .sx Neil thought Sally was great fun .sx He'd take her out with the lads any day but she was not someone with whom he could fall in love .sx Sally could sense it .sx She obviously really liked him and rather sadly said :sx " After holding hands on the beach , I wished it could have worked out , that's all .sx " .sx Then three girls competed for the man and another couple , Pauline and Glen , reported back from Spain .sx At first madly in love , she'd gone off him since the last series .sx Glen looked a bit upset .sx And so it will go on tirelessly for another five months .sx But there is still something compulsive about it .sx Cilla is an excellent hostess and it's all good , harmless , innocent fun .sx But for the first time , the format started to look a little tired .sx I would have liked a couple of changes .sx Bitch is the loser in double trouble .sx LAST NIGHT'S VIEW .sx By COMPTON MILLER .sx ANYONE who watched Mrs Hat and Mrs Red , final episode in BBC2's half - hour comedy series Murder Most Horrid , had an unexpected treat .sx I'm normally no admirer of comedienne Dawn French - too brash and noisy - but she did superbly well here playing these two roles .sx We first spotted her as frumpy , broke divorcee Katie Hatcliffe ( alias Mrs Hat ) dispiritedly pushing her trolley round a supermarket .sx Enter rude , glamorous Sonya Redfern ( Mrs Red ) swooshing round the most expensive shelves and bellowing at staff about " how French brioche could not possibly be made in Solihull .sx " .sx The pair are suburban doppelgangers who have never met before .sx On a whim Mrs Hat secretly follows Mrs Red's sports car back home by taxi and that was when the fun began .sx At tightly-written script directed by Bob Spiers cleverly established Mrs Red's lady-who-lunches lifestyle , including the athletic young black stud for whom she is about to leave her long-suffering husband and daughter .sx