Doubles all round

It has been too long since a television programme tackled the issues that really matter. When I lie awake at night, the major concerns which conspire to fight off the onset of sleep are many and various. There is the constant worry about the direction that the directing/acting team of David Furnish and Elton John might take. Disturbing images of Michael Jackson torment the mind. Worries about the Queen, Charles, William and the the rest of her brood occasion rapid eye movement of the most disruptive sort. And most discombobulating of all are the philosophical and moral implications of Sven-Goran Eriksson's decision to make David Beckham captain of the England football team.

I had occasion to raise this point in yesterday's review, as part of a monologue about the documentary which proved that one man's life - ie, Sven's - can be at one and the same time turbulent and utterly tranquil to the point of stasis. Fortunately Double Take (BBC2) is on hand to provide a highly original and imaginative theory as to the nature of the two men's relationship.

We encounter them submerged in adjoining bubble baths. Sven is coquettish, while Beckham maintains a friendly impartiality which strikes a fine balance between warmth and distance. Sven wants to know if Beckham has this kind of bubble bath relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson, and when the former avers that this is not the case, the latter is so gratified that he breaks wind underwater.

I should explain at this point that Double Take, as the title implies, is a programme populated by lookalikes. The similarity of the actors to their famous doubles is enhanced by a camera which roams and twitches and does not always place the most significant image where we might expect to find it. The eye is constantly being dragged to the edge of the screen in search of enlightenment.

To further confound our sense of the natural order of things, the visuals come in various degrees of grainy. The overall effect is to provide an alternative universe of the powerful and the famous, where they behave in ways that are seemingly uncharacteristic while being gratifyingly synonymous with our most subversive daydreams.

Mick Jagger is greeted by an old buffer who claims to have been at school with him, and is then observed in animated telephone conversation with his stockbroker. Jamie Oliver flogs a microwave oven on the cheap in between takes for his latest television show.

Prince Philip makes it crystal clear that he does not want Elton John to sing at his funeral. Rolf Harris steps in a great pile of pet poo and reacts accordingly. Kylie checks for cellulite in a lift mirror.

Tony Blair cheats at tennis. Camilla Parker Bowles proves not to be adept at meditation. These incidents conform to the common fantasy of famous people caught in unguarded moments behaving out of character. It is very funny.

Double Take is not just about deadpan humour. There is a particular fondness in evidence for the much-maligned Queen. We witness her being dressed by a maid, and adding the finishing touches to a jigsaw puzzle of her younger self in regal finery. Best of all is the sequence when grandson William attempts to teach her how to get groovy on the dancefloor. While the popular myths surrounding many other characters are debunked or sent up, the Queen is granted the unusual privilege of being presented as a normal person with privilege bolted on as a not necessarily welcome optional extra.

Given the nature of the camera work, it is not surprising that the sexual undercurrent which inevitably accompanies footage which is perceived to be somehow stolen or illicit sometimes surges to the forefront. I have already mentioned Sven and Becks, but there are other naughty delights to savour. Tony Blair clearly features strongly in the erotic imagination of Alison Jackson, whose creation the programme is.

He is seen in a massage threesome with Cherie and Carole Caplin, and in another scene he becomes excited by Cherie's latest boutique purchases and kicks off his cheeky little underpants with undisguised glee. In a more intimate episode, Tony shares a sauna with a proactive George W Bush, which necessitates much towel adjustment for ease of posture.

Perhaps the most disturbing sequence features Michael Jackson wearing a surgical mask in a room full of baby dolls, some of which turn out to be human. Having viewed the scene a couple of times, I have come to the conclusion that this is the one example of a wrong note being struck. It is time to give Jacko a break. Other than that, it only remains to congratulate Alison Jackson on a remarkable achievement.