GAPER DELAY.

Who hasn't slowed down to take at least a glance over the highway divider at someone else's very bad day?

Chances are, though, that we'll never learn very much about the people trapped in twisted metal or standing, dazed, at the side of a vehicle that won't be going anywhere any time soon. Their dramas remain undiscovered as we move on.

On Sunday, PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary" shows us what we might be missing - and a lot that we probably aren't - as it begins with what at first feels like an excruciatingly slow look at a multicar accident in "Collision."

A two-parter from "Foyle's War" creator Anthony Horowitz, who maneuvers deftly past the obstacles that might have made his show seem like a British rip-off of "Crash," "Collision" owes more to the old-fashioned storytelling of Arthur Hailey's "Hotel" or "Airport," tales of strangers whose secrets we discover only during a moment of crisis.

It's the crisis itself, though, that seems to have passed as "Collision" begins with the assignment of Detective Inspector John Tolin (Douglas Henshall) to the investigation of a Friday afternoon pileup on a highway east of London.

We already know who's dead, or think we do, and though there are hints that accident investigation is a peculiar assignment for the guarded Tolin, it's not until he's teamed with another officer, Ann Stallwood (Kate Ashfield), that the man seems to acquire any color.

But if Tolin has a few secrets - buried so shallowly that everyone but him seems to be aware of them - they're not nearly as interesting as those he uncovers as he and Stallwood start rewinding the crash and tracking the victims.

They include a piano teacher with a problematic past, an apparent smuggler, an unhappy tycoon, a secretary with a problematic past, a man and his mother-in-law, and a pair of young lovers.

Though each character in "Collision" is in some way connected by the crash itself, it feels at times more like an old-fashioned collection of short stories, the kind that often end, O. Henry-like, with an ironic twist.

At the same time, it's about as contemporary a "Masterpiece" production as we get on our side of the pond, given that it's being played out over five nights on Britain's ITV this week.

'Glee' is back

It's all about "Defying Gravity" as the perennially clueless Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) uses Artie (Kevin McHale) to try to teach his students a lesson about diversity while managing to demonstrate once again how little he actually knows about the subject.

We also learn something unexpected about Will's fearsome rival, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), whose decision to add a new Cheerio to her team might lead to some actual casting diversity, too, at a time when a group of disabled actors is reportedly criticizing "Glee" for hiring the able-bodied McHale to play a paralyzed student.

It's a tricky subplot and one I'll be watching to see if "Glee" producers know any more than Mr. Schuester does about handling true diversity. *

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