High School Musical 2 (Good Friday 4.05pm, BBC1)
A TV Today favourite gets a very welcome airing on BBC1 to help while away a long, lazy Good Friday. This sequel is just as much fun as the delightfully cheesy original, with exuberant performances from all concerned to raise it above being a run of the mill cash-in on the huge success of the original. For more HSM2 treats, see Scott’s piece from earlier in the day.
EastEnders (Good Friday 8pm, BBC1)
Ooh, if there was ever any doubt that EastEnders was back on blinding form after a couple of years in the wilderness, then this slice of life from Albert Square should win round any remaining naysayers. Big, bold and brilliantly silly plots are what ‘Enders does best, and this culmination of events between Tanya, Max and Sean is as big, bold and silly as they come. Tanya has been playing something of a long game over recent weeks, and tonight she gets Max right where she wants him. This could be a plot from CSI, and I won’t spoil the details, but it’s a corker!
Moving Wallpaper (Good Friday 9pm, ITV1)
The great experiment comes to an end as the first series of Moving Wallpaper closes. Echo Beach (still with an uncertain future in the real world) has completed its first series and the team await the news of renewal from them upstairs. Jonathan is forced to cut costs and fire one of his stars, and that brings with it some great moments for Ben Miller’s fabulous creation. At least we know Moving Wallpaper will be back for a second season, so sit back and enjoy, knowing we’ll be seeing this often-brilliant show again.
Dirty Sexy Money (Good Friday 9pm, C4)
Channel 4 unveils a promising new family saga from across the pond, most excitingly starring Peter Krause off of Six Feet Under and Donald Sutherland off of… well, pretty much everything. Krause is squeaky-clean lawyer Nick George who is coerced into working for the Darling family by Sutherland’s patriarch, Tripp. It’s all very exuberant and everybody has several skeletons in the cupboard to make an entertaining, if somewhat silly, drama.
The Mighty Boosh Night (Easter Saturday 9.05pm, BBC3)
They might be an acquired taste, but The Boosh certainly have their charms (and a legion of fans to boot). This evening of themed programming for the holiday weekend is centred on The Mighty Boosh – a Journey Through Time and Space, a documentary charting the rise of Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding to cult comedy gods. Following this will be six of the lads’ favourite episodes. Not a bad evening’s entertainment by anybody’s standards.
Love Soup (Easter Saturday 9.30pm, BBC1)
It’s Saturday, and if you’re at home there’s only one place to be at 9.30, and that’s in the agreeable company of Alice, Cleo and Milly. I love the lightness of touch in this show, and the way the supremely talented Tamsin Greig can play comedy and cringing tragedy with such seesaw deftness. All this, and being in The Archers on Tuesday – how does she do it?
Richard the Lionheart (Easter Saturday 10pm, BBC2)
Stephen Waddington must have something kingly about him, as it was only at the end of last year that we saw him play Richard the Lionheart at the climax of Robin Hood. This is a rather rousing piece of historical docudrama full of shouting and boisterous battle sequences, following Richard on his third Crusade in the Holy Land. There are power struggles, skulduggery and more shouting throughout, and it almost makes you want this to become a weekly series. Although the shouting would get a bit tedious after a while.
There will be another Square Eyes easter Update on Saturday
I assume that where Mark has written Easter Saturday, he actually means Easter Eve or Holy Saturday. Easter Saturday is the Saturday AFTER Easter Sunday.