I agree with Greycap & Sweeney.

Pete Stanley tried to teach Frank a tune to play at the Competition (the one he did play). He wrote out & demonstrated a style (3-finger). Frank decided he knew better & practiced 2-finger style. Then blamed Pete when he was struggling.
His new teacher taught him scales but the tune he played in the comp was Petes played 3-finger style.
He failed because of nerves/ inexperience.

A couple of things here.
1. If I had to play a tune on an instrument I had not played before (i.e. piano) with a deadline, I would like to have the notes pointed out to me & practice playing those notes until they were second nature. I would not have time to learn basic scales, sight reading, history of the instrument etc. This seemed to me the way Pete was going. (This is not to decry John Downing)

2. Far from encouraging people, I believe it is giving the message that any instrument can be learnt up to concert standard very quickly. We all know this is not true. Its another case of 'pop idol' syndrome - when do we want it, we want it NOW!

3. I would like to have seen part of the programme given over to performances by true players (Pete & John etc.) to show what can be done thru HARD WORK rather than the small snippets we saw.

(I also took note of Franks statement that he had tried many things and given up when the going got tough.)