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So, with this as the brief, you can imagine the creative meeting where Bourne to Dance was conjured up. “We got to have recognisable names,” say one. “I know, what about that guy who did the funky male Swan Lake”. “Mathew Bourne”, says another. “Great”, says a third, “we can do “Bourne to Dance”. Get it?” “And how about tying it in with Billy Elliot? That was a big hit and it had dancing in it. And we could get some clips of stars like Nureyev for Mom.” And so another jumble of a Christmas Show was born that, in the cold light of a January morning planning session, would not have got off the drawing board.

The programme did not know if it wanted to be: a) a discussion of what has, and does, influence Bourne as a choreographer; b) a study of the evolution of the Western European male dancer; or c) a consideration of gender and sexuality. Divided into three parts over 100 minutes, we had snatches of conversation with the usual suspects, Judith Mackrell, Alastair Macaulay, (who incidentally edited the book, “Matthew Bourne and his Adventures in Motion Pictures”), as well as others such as Anthony Dowell, (who confesses that he would have loved to have played the male swan in Bourne’s Swan Lake), Mark Morris and Robin Cousins. Hey, did I say Robins Cousins? How did he get in there? Good question. At one moment we are deep in men in tights and the next there is Robin Cousins being interviewed at an ice rink talking about the difference between spinning on the ice and doing a pirouette at the ROH. Such was the logic of this programme.

The second section was the most cohesive. Here Bourne goes to Hollywood. (The programmers must have reasoned that it’s cold in Britain in December so let’s have some shots of Bourne in warm and sunny California.) The focus was mainly on Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Discussions about their contrasting dance styles has been heard on television before, but it is still nice to see those two major 20th century hoofers strutting their stuff even if there was time for only a number of short clips.

And that was the major value of this programme. While full-length dance pieces have not often been well served by the small screen, some wonderful moments have been captured on celluloid and several of these are in this programme. Most remarkable was the tap dancing duet performed by Gene Kelly and the Sugar Ray Robertson. Thus demonstrating that Sugar Ray was the first boxer who could really “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.

The programme ended with the remark that the idea of men expressing themselves through dance remains provocative. That thought is admirably suitable for exploration, and one that the programme makers could think about delivering. They certainly didn’t on this occasion.