TV Review: Liz Smith's Summer Cruise – BBC4, 9pm

Liz Smith's Summer Cruise BBC4, 9pm

LIZ Smith, aka Nana from The Royle Family, enjoys life in a block of retirement flats in London. "There's people to go to for advice," she says. "Which optician to use, where to go when you need some new false teeth." Not only that, but she doesn't have to suffer Jim scowling at her from his armchair.

Jim would have loved Nana to go on a cruise – one way to the Arctic – but Liz had plumped for a somewhat more comfortable route from Croatia to Venice. "When you're nearly 87, you do wonder how much longer you've got," she said of her holiday of a lifetime, "so you don't want to waste it."

And her plans for the trip? "All I want to do is just sit and do nothing, nothing, nothing."

Liz's only concern was the fact she'd be travelling alone. "There's always that worry as to whether you'll meet any people to be friendly with or if you'll be isolated," she said. And isolation was something she'd had more than enough of after remaining single since splitting from her husband in 1957.

Thankfully, there were plenty of fellow passengers more than willing to say hello. "They think they know me," laughed Liz. "I've been in their living-room." But even then, there was a tinge of melancholy. "They love the character," she pondered. "That's what they love really."

Liz found acting success late in life. "I had rejections until I was 50 and my best years have been in my 80s," she said. "The last five jobs I've had I've been killed off."

But she is living proof that only a fool writes off the elderly as entertaining companions. Give me an hour with Liz Smith than those preening young oafs in the Big Brother house any day. If Liz is looking for a shipmate on her next foray to the oceans, I'm a dab hand at quoits.

Mind you, I'm not totally sure she'll be going again. "It made a lovely holiday," she told her pals back at the retirement flats, "but for me there was too much water, especially in Venice."

You could almost see the exasperation on Jim Royle's face.