May 2008 Archives

Emmerdale (Friday 7pm, ITV1)

The 5000th episode goes off with a bit of a whimper tonight as not a great deal happens. The powder it seems is being kept dry for next week’s double-episode wedding of Eric Pollard to the always-brilliant Val Lambert.

Have I Got News For You (Friday 9pm, BBC1)

The guest host element of HIGNFY has generally worked very well, but it’s always a relief to get somebody who is just very good at it and could probably make a pretty good fist of the job on a full time basis. And of all those who could do the gig, I can never think of anybody better than Alexander Armstrong. Confident, funny and genial, he’s just brilliant and his appearance tonight is very welcome.

Peep Show (Friday 10.30pm, C4)

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Jez and Super Hans finally get a manager for their band and get booked to play a Christian rock festival - and Mark comes along as their roadie. Any write up of Peep Show by its nature will always undersell the experience of watching it. Words just cannot convey the understated brilliance of this comedy, so I won’t bother - just watch it!

I’d Do Anything - The Final (Saturday 6pm/7pm, BBC1)

The most fun BBC talent search comes to an end tonight as the final three Nancies face off against each other to take on a new production of Oliver! in the West End. I think it’s too close to call, but I’m setting my cap at Jodie to go the distance. Certainly if the crowd’s reaction to her at the Liza Minnelli concert a few nights ago is anything to go by, she certainly appears to be the public’s favourite. As always, Scott will be on hand with the post match analysis later in the weekend.

Britain’s Got Talent - The Final (6.50pm/9.30pm, ITV1)

I really could not care less, but it seems that 10 million members of the British public could. I’m not blind to the attractions of the format - the talent show is a long-standing tradition of the entertainment world - but there are limits to how much I can take. And Piers Morgan is at the lower end of those limits. Sorry… Jodie to win!

Doctor Who (Saturday 7pm, BBC1)

After a week’s break, Doctor Who returns with a typically spooky two-part tale from the pen of show runner in waiting Steven Moffat. The Doctor and Donna land in the largest library in the universe, containing every book ever published. But where is everybody, and what evil is lurking in the shadows? Joined by an archaeological team led by the flirty Professor River Song (who seems to know the Doc a little better than she should), there’s soon lots of running away from scary skeletons stalking the library stacks. Silence in the Library looks utterly beautiful throughout and is very, very scary. You have been warned.

Florence Nightingale (Sunday 7pm, BBC1)

Laura Fraser takes on the mantle of the Lady of the Lamp who was a heroine to many injured soldiers in the Crimea. It’s okay in a plodding kind of way, but an hour seems too sleight to tell the story of Nightingale’s return from the war and how angry she was at the British military and the rank conditions of its hospitals. It’s engaging nonetheless, with good support from Roy Hudd, amongst others.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (Sunday 8pm, BBC1)

A final final end for the toffy nosed ‘tec as this brief two-part series comes to an end, and with it the prospect of no more Lynley. Oh well, the wider TV audience will barely bat an eyelid, but I shall be sad. Lynley and Havers investigate the disappearance of a second girl following the discovery of a body in a lake. Will the missing girl be found in time? I hope so, considering this is the last episode. Look out for a guest turn from Foyle’s War’s Honeysuckle Weeks.

How TV Changed Britain (Sunday 8pm, C4)

The beginning of a six-part documentary series that should be of interest to all TV Today readers. In tonight’s opener, the depiction of the police is put under the microscope, with usual suspects Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and Life on Mars all in the line-up. Will it prove probing and conclusive in its findings? That remains to be seen, but it’s alsways fun seeing Jack Reagan telling a villain to put his trousers on cos he’s nicked.

How often do we get to witness TV history in the making? Not very, that’s for sure - everything that can be done on TV seems to have been done. But tonight, for three and a half minutes, we can all sit down and see a bit of TV history happening before our very eyes…

Yes, at 8.10pm, during the first ad break for Come Dine With Me, Channel 4 will broadcast the very first live advertisement, tying in to Honda’s current high-profile campaign for the Accord. The ad will feature a team of skydivers throwing themselves out of a plane and attempting to spell out the word Honda in the air.

It’s an audacious proposition for both Honda and Channel 4. The potential for things going wrong will no doubt prove irresistible for many, and I would expect Channel 4’s ratings to spike massively at 8.10, along with a very tasty rise week on week for Come Dine With Me’s viewing figures. Everybody wins!

As we limber up to decide on Saturday whether to support Jodie, Jessie or Samantha, I caught up with the very busy Zoe Tyler, who has been diligently reviewing I’d Do Anything for The Stage’s weekly print edition throughout this series.

I also met up with John Byrne, our resident agony uncle, to discuss the options available to young performers who may have felt inspired to turn their hand to the performing arts. And, for those young boys who already have sufficient skills, we have news of the castings for Dodger and the rest of Fagin’s gang (who also play the workhouse boys at the start of the show).

Listen using the player above, go to our podcasts channel for this and other podcasts from The Stage, or subscribe in iTunes for an enhanced podcast with chapter markers, additional pictures and built-in weblinks.

It’s about time here at TV Today that we started to give some kudos and nods to the unsung heroes of television, and I’m going to get the ball rolling with a request that we all put our hands together for Bernard Black, late of the much missed Black Books.

This week, as part of my quest to fill the grim hours of the summer TV schedules, I have watched all six episodes of the first series of Black Books. It remains as brilliant as ever. I love Fran (Tamsin Greig), I adore Manny Bianco (a sublime Bill Bailey), but both are put in the shade by Bernard, as played by the sitcom’s creator Dylan Moran.

Bernard is vile. He’s a rude, arrogant, elitist, filthy, chain smoking alcoholic. But, and this is the inspired brilliance of the character, he’s no idiot, and Moran’s cheeky, almost boyish charm renders him utterly likeable throughout all three seasons of the best sitcom of the last decade. And that’s no mean feat, as any students of quality comedy will know.

Mark blogged at length last month about ITV deciding not to schedule the second episode of Pushing Daisies to ensure that a nine-episode season would fit into the eight weeks available.

ITV have now decided to run the ‘missing’ episode, Dummy online via itv.com’s “catch up” web service.

And whoever wrote the copy promoting the episode, which will be available from 10pm Saturday after the last episode in the series has aired, has made a fine attempt to present this content as a personal favour to its viewers, rather than a cop-out.

The Apprentice (Tuesday 9pm, BBC1)

The Apprentice moves to Tuesday for one week only thanks to some football game or other tomorrow night (sorry, but do I really care about a friendly between England and the USA? No, I do not!). After the tasty tissue tantrums of last week, this week sees the hideous hopefuls hiring out top-end sports cars to wealthy clients. Expect breathtaking displays of stupidity and some priceless eye rolling from Nick, before heading to the boardroom for those famous words…

The Supersizers Go… Restoration (Tuesday 9pm, BBC2)

Giles Coren and Sue Perkins investigate the diets of our ancestors in the 1660s. Great fun in a bilious kind of way as Coren and Perkins get to sample some long-forgotten delicacies.

Smallville (Tuesday 9pm, E4)

It’s easy to get all hyped up about the likes of Battlestar Galactica - it’s the acceptable face of sci-fi fantasy drama for the more discerning fan as it’s a grown up, serious undertaking. With that in mind, something like Smallville can easily be missed. It’s a bit frothy and a bit daft, but there really is a decent adventure drama hiding beneath the super-powered silliness. This seventh season opens with a double bill as Clark takes on an evil doppelganger. As you do…

Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story (Wednesday 9pm, BBC2)

Superlative performances from Julie Walters and Hugh Bonneville make this the highlight of the TV week, as Walters takes on the role of Mary Whitehouse, the infamous campaigner for decency on television throughout the 1960s and 70s. Walters shines, as you would expect, as Whitehouse. It would have been easy to paint her as a grotesque, but Walters chooses to play her straight down the line, as she takes on the BBC and its Director General, Hugh Carlton-Greene. Whitehouse blamed him for the filth that was supposedly creeping into television, and Bonneville is equally brilliant here. This is a great piece of drama with a sharp script and stunning performances.

Heroes (Thursday 9pm, BBC2)

Well, as there isn’t much else on tonight (or indeed this week), I suppose I could watch Heroes. Just don’t expect me to enjoy it, okay?

House (Thursday 9pm, Five)

Oops! Would that be Hugh Laurie popping up on a list of worst American accents from a British actor in a poll on the Radio Times website? All right, he also tops the poll for the best American accent as well, so it would be churlish of me to laugh and point. So I won’t. Tonight on House, Mira Sorvino guest stars as a psychiatrist who House must treat via web cam as she’s in the South Pole. This is far better than the usual slack material House serves up, thanks to top notch turns from the lead (yes, I do like Hugh Laurie in this role sometimes) and Sorvino.

The Graham Norton Show (Thursday 9.45pm, BBC2)

Ahead of the final of I’d Do Anything (go Jodie!), Barry Humphries’ best friend, Dame Edna Everage drops in to see Graham for some chat and fun. Will Graham be able to cope with a personality even larger than his own? Will musical guest Alanis Morissette crack smile. Will John Barrowman try and gatecrash the action? Whatever the outcome, it will be a fun and lively show and well worth a look.

Well, with just two more weeks of shiny floors and nail biting tension to go, it was notable that this week’s opening number of Food Glorious Food had all twelve Olivers completely overshadowing the supposed main stars of the show, the four prospective Nancies. Which is completely fine, as it’s exactly what the number is — an all-boys chorus designed to open the show. As such, it’s pretty indestructible and did exactly what it was supposed to.

Of course, the panel was joined for tonight (and next week’s final) with Oliver! producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh, as The Stage revealed before the start of the series. To be honest, although a couple of his comments rankled, his presence on the panel showed just how the other members have struggled in all coming from a performer-only background.

The Great British Menu (Friday 6pm, BBC2)

Can I ask why it’s such a big deal that the chefs who win this particular series of The Great British Menu get to cook for Heston Blumenthal? I mean, I know Heston’s good, but he’s just this chef, you know? Still, The Great British Menu is terribly, terribly entertaining in a very BBC way. Jenny Bond is terribly nice about everything, and there’s something terribly nice about the judge’s deliberations. Apart from Oliver Peyton who always looks like he’s sitting on a hedgehog. Tonight the chefs find out the result of the public vote. Erm… and that’s that.

EastEnders (Friday 8pm, BBC1)

Tonight on EastEnders: Sean Slater goes mental and kidnaps his mum in Charlie Slater’s cab. Sorry, did I just wander into the wrong show? EastEnders is crazy at the moment, but you know what? I think I like it…

Peep Show (Friday 10.30pm, C4)

Jeremy, who has been living off handouts from his mum for years, finds out that he’s in line to inherit £40 grand following the death of an aunt, bringing Jez’s mum into the frenzied comedy of the Peep Show world. With 40k coming his way, Jez could set himself up nicely. But of course, we know that’s not the Peep Show way. The fun with this show is watching how the threads of each carefully orchestrated situation unravel with riotous comic effect.

I’d Do Anything (Saturday 6.??pm, BBC1)

Jodie, Jodie, Jodie, Jodie, Jodie, Jodie, Jodie!!!!!!! Now, when’s Eurovision starting?

Eurovision Song Contest (Saturday 8pm, BBC1)

Ah, I love my annual camp laugh fest, mostly on the basis that Britain doesn’t stand a cat in hell’s chance. With that in mind, we can sit back and enjoy the fun without actually committing any serious attention to proceedings. Eurovision is worth it for Sir Terry of Wogan’s pithy asides, the crazy costumes and the sense of utter futility. But how Dustin the Turkey didn’t get through to the final is beyond me. A disgrace!

Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain (Saturday 8pm, BBC1)

If Eurovision doesn’t float your boat, then I recommend you take the opportunity to dip into Andrew Marr’s excellent documentary series covering, as it says on the tin, the history of modern Britain. It’s a repeat run, but this is one repeat that I happily welcome with open arms to the schedules. Thoughtful and packed with insight, it’s one of the best things put out by the Beeb in the last couple of years.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (Sunday 8.15pm, BBC1)

A swansong for this sedate yet always enjoyable detective yarn starring Nathaniel Parker as posh-toff cop Inspector Lynley and the scrumptious and lovely Sharon Small as sidekick DS Havers. Lynley must investigate the disappearance of his godson 10 years after he disappeared, and the trail leads him to Rome where there’s plenty of excuse to show off the local architecture. Thanks, Lynley, I at least will miss you.

Greek (Sunday 9.10pm

A mildly amusing US teen sit-com starring Spencer Grammer (daughter of Kelsey), set in a university where the geeks battle for acceptance from the beautiful people of the campus. Not great, not terrible. In a modern world, is that all we can hope for?

Mad Men (Sunday 10pm, BBC4)

Finale of this cracking drama set in the rough and tumble world of the advertising industry in 60s America. Things all come to a head as Don pitches for the Kodak campaign. Fans of this ridiculously well made and addictive show will be pleased to know a second season is already in production. Amen to that!

Good news from ITV Drama, as they announce a second series commission for The Fixer, Kudos’ drama about a state-sponsored hit man.

It’s particularly good news as the channel is in desperate need for more returning drama series. Unfortunately, while The Fixer’s ratings were better than many recent ITV dramas in the 9pm slot, it was still beaten by a repeat of Old Tricks on BBC1, which had to sting. It’s a sign of confidence from incoming director of programmes Peter Fincham that he is willing to recommission something that clearly showed promise, rather than ditching a series which maybe didn’t realise its full potential on its first outing.

Now, if we can just get him to reverse the decision not to renew Foyle’s War…

Tomorrow sees the I’d Do Anything semi-final, which means that in just eight days’ time we’ll know which actress the public has cast in the role of Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh’s forthcoming production of Oliver!.

TV Today has, of course, been reviewing each week of the show online, while Zoe Tyler, vocal coach and judge on predecessor shows How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do has been doing the same for The Stage’s weekly print edition.

Next week, we’ll be recording a podcast discussion looking forward to the final and looking back over the previous eleven weeks of auditions, callbacks, sing-offs and saves by the Lord. If you’ve got any questions or comments about the series that you’d like Zoe and me to discuss, then please either leave them on our podcast blog or email them to podcasts@thestage.co.uk. Please don’t leave them as a comment to this entry.

All comments need to be received by 10am Tuesday morning, and the podcast will be online from Thursday.

Back when it was announced, my colleague Mark was disdainful of a competition to design a monster for the third series of ITV1’s Saturday teatime monster romp, Primeval:

Okay, I’m bang on for that, it’s a bit of fun for the kids and some lucky little tyke will get to see their creation on the telly (and I would hope, get a studio visit into the bargain too). But let’s not overstate the importance of this little marketing gimmick… we won’t feel more involved or closer to the action. Gluing some tinsel and glitter onto a bit of paper and colouring it green will only get me into trouble with my cleaner and have her wondering what on earth I get up to at the weekend

Well, the results are in, and I have to say that if the winner and runners-up are anything to go by, some young people have been truly inspired. ITV has recently revamped the Primeval website to include the top entries — more of which after the jump…

As we lurch ever closer to the long summer months where television becomes a wasteland desert of sport and Big Brother (how much longer must we endure this marathon of tedium?), I am arming myself against the oncoming storm. I am stockpiling DVD box sets of yesteryear TV classics and edgy contemporary stuff that I haven’t caught up with yet. Heading off into my summer TV bomb shelter, never will the words “Big Brother house, this is Davina,” ever have to assault my eardrums.

Currently winging its way to a non-disclosed south London borough is a shiny Seinfeld Season Four box set, along with Six Feet Under Season Two and The Wire Season One. My complete set of The West Wing has had a judicious feather dusting, ready to answer the call, and you know things are desperate when you’re eyeing those Blake’s 7 box sets with more than half an interested eye. Only open in an emergency…

But before that, a couple of nights ago I dived into a true classic to act as a premed for the coming ordeal. It’s been sitting on the shelf for a few months now, but I finally unfurled the cellophane on my beautiful three-disc set of the swan song of perhaps the world’s finest TV show. MAS*H - Goodbye, Farewell and Amen. I had forgotten just what a stunning, funny, heartbreaking two and a half hours of TV this was, something that probably passed me by when I watched it one Christmas Eve with my mum and dad on its original UK transmission.

I can’t recall a time when the changeover of executive producer/showrunner on a top-rated UK TV drama made the news in such a way as the announcement that Russell T Davies is to leave Doctor Who, handing over to writer Steven Moffatt for the 2010 series. It’s frankly unheard of, but this is a sign of just how much impact Doctor Who has had on the landscape of British Television in the last few years.

Is that overstating the case? Perhaps - maybe as a bona fide, signed up, card carrying fanboy, I pay much more attention to the fortunes of Doctor Who, but it doesn’t take away the fact that the news of Davies’s departure next year and Moffatt’s taking over made one of the teatime news bulletins on Radio 2 yesterday. I thought it was a bit mad back in the day when Billie Piper’s casting as Rose made the news, but four years on, I don’t think anything about this show surprises me any more.

So what we know is that Davies will be overseeing the specials that are in the works for 2009, while Moffatt will be Doctor Who’s new executive producer and head writer for the full series of 13 episodes on the slate for 2010. What we don’t know is how Steven Moffatt’s Doctor Who will differ to Russell T Davies’s Doctor Who, and most importantly for my 6-year-old nephew, is whether or not David Tennant will still be playing the Doctor by the time we get there.

The BBC’s iPlayer on demand service continues to expand rapidly. New figures available today show that an average of 1.4 million people a week accessed the service during April. All told, over 75 million requests to stream or download programmes have been received since the service’s official launch at Christmas.

On average, the iPlayer site received just under 700,000 requests a day in April. That’s much less than the number of people who watch a regular BBC1 scheduled broadcast, of course, but there’s every sign that the Corporation’s digital channel commissions are getting a much broader audience through the service. Gavin and Stacey, for example, was viewed online by approximately a quarter of a million people, compared to a broadcast ‘reach’ of three million.

Fifty years ago, Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop premiered the first play by a nineteen-year-old writer, A Taste of Honey. The story of Jo, who finds herself pregnant by her black sailor boyfriend and abandoned by her prostitute mother, the play confronted social taboos of the 1950s in ways that shocked and enthralled audiences. A success at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, it soon transferred to the West End and was later adapted into a film starring Rita Tushingham and Dora Bryan.

On Radio 4 this Thursday, TV writer Kay Mellor explores the legacy of such an iconic play, featuring interviews with the original cast and archive material. A Taste of Honey was one of the first so-called ‘kitchen sink’ dramas, introducing a style which would be popularised through television’s Wednesday Play and, later, Play for Today.

• A Taste of Honey, BBC Radio 4, Thursday May 22, 11:30am

Turn off the TV is an occasional feature highlighting radio programmes on topics the TV Today team think will be of interest to our readers.

Coronation Street (Monday 7.30/8.30pn, ITV1)

Bless Sally Webster - if ever there was a character that’s gone through more personality changes in Corrie over the years, it’s her. From young mum to cheating temptress to comedy middle-class harpie, she’s done it all. But it kind of works, and Sally, after years on The Street, has had some great things to do of recent years. Not sure about the current house swap storyline, mind, as the Websters prepare to move across the road to Ashley and Claire’s, who will be taking up residence chez Webster. It’s perhaps a sign of how slight Corrie feels at the moment, but as we know, soaps are cyclical, and there’ll be some meatier fare along any week now…

Waking the Dead (Monday 9pm, BBC1)

The final story of this series of Waking the Dead has Boyd and the team investigating the link between a body found on a roadside and a brutal murder during the Bosnia/Serbia conflict. It brings Eve into the foreground a bit more as was involved in the conflict, having worked on some of the mass war graves uncovered there. This series has been a bit and hit and miss, but it’s always entertaining and this story is a good one to go out on. It concludes tomorrow at 9pm, and Waking the Dead will return for a new series next year. Here’s to more shouting from Boyd!

Delta Forever (Monday 11pm, BBC3)

Another day, another comedy pilot for BBC3, this time concerning the online fans of fantasy book heroine Delta Dempsey. It’s okay, but typically thin and the characters need fleshing out as they descend on a test screening for the latest film devoted to their hero. Not one I expect to see going to a series, but fun nonetheless.

Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2008 (Tuesday 8pm, BBC3)

The first of two semi-finals this year (apparently they’re trying to split things up a touch and minimise the spectre of block voting). Of course Britain will be there for the real deal on Saturday thanks to the financial contributions made towards the comp, but I’m rooting for Dustin the Turkey, representing Ireland. With an ex who hails from the Emerald Isle, I’m more than familiar with Dustin - he’s a foul-mouthed puppet with a cult following. I’d like to see this audacious stunt go the distance and be there on Saturday night. Brilliant!

Battlestar Galactica (Tuesday 9pm, Sky One)

Unless you’re still banging the Lost drum, Battlestar Galactica is the one show it’s worth having Sky for at the moment. I won’t go into plot details - suffice it to say it’s as tense and taught as ever, with the crew going after a Cylon resurrection hub in tonight’s episode. Oh god, I love this show more than is probably healthy!

UEFA Champions League Final Live (Wednesday 7pm, ITV1)

It’s summat about football, but if Liverpool aren’t playing, I don’t really care.

The Apprentice (Wednesday 9pm, BBC1)

While the footie rages over on ITV, this is where I’ll be. Last week’s edition dipped in the tension stakes somewhat, although the sight of Raef in a bear costume was worth the entrance fee alone. Tonight’s endeavour is quite insidious in its execution as the teams are tasked with creating their own brand of tissues and shooting a commercial to market them. There’ll always be one who thinks they can direct and makes a right tatty hash of it - I can’t wait to see who!

Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Wednesday 9pm, ITV1)

She’s due back in Doctor Who in a few weeks time, but here we get a terrestrial showing for Billie Piper’s risqué ITV2 drama based on the diaries of call girl Belle du Jour. It’s a bit juvenile in places with lots of flesh on show, but it is quite entertaining, and Piper remains a talent to watch over the coming years.

The Invisibles (Thursday 9pm, BBC1)

There have been better dramas on BBC1 (much better, to be honest), but there have been many worse, and The Invisibles is becoming quite enjoyable a couple of episodes into its run. It’s worth it for the trio of Anthony Head, Warren Clarke and Dean Lennox Kelly, even if the material doesn’t quite lift off the page. In tonight’s knockabout, Maurice’s daughter (Emily Head, daughter of Anthony) announces she is off to New York with her bloke to become a burlesque dancer. So what does a concerned dad do in this situation? Breaks into the boyfriend’s flat, of course!

The Midnight Man (Thursday 9pm, ITV1)

Not the greatest thriller ever foisted on an audience, but much like The Invisibles, it’s not the worst either. Max (an excellent James Nesbitt) is pushing closer to the truth as he suspects Hagan (Alan Dale) is behind the funding of the death squad, who is also getting his claws into Daniel Cosgrave (Rupert Graves). Will this series finish with Max stepping out into the daylight and getting over his phobia of daylight? Not if they want a second series he won’t! Unless they want to call it The 12 Noon Man.

So, it’s the pre-penultimate weekend of I’d Do Anything, with just five Nancies remaining, and one more Oliver place available. At this point last year, there was a definite front runner for the role of Joseph, albeit with less experienced performers nipping at his heels. This time round, though, the competition is much harder to call. Each of the remaining girls has her own strengths, and each could take Nancy in a direction that would work, given the right direction and sufficient work.

This week’s opening number, Consider Yourself, was an ebullient performance that really showcased the appeal of Oliver! — a combination of cute kids, and professional singers, to lift the heart. And with the promise of performances from five of last year’s finalists (including two regular West End performers in the shape of Avenue Q’s Daniel Boys and Hairspray’s Ben James-Ellis — don’t they have shows to go to?) it was shaping up to be a good show all round. And this week, the Nancies themselves selected the songs they would sing for their solo performances, although I suspect that the musical director would have had a big influence in guiding them. Still, the choices involved would prove to be quite revealing.

View the BBC’s YouTube videos in our handy player (launches in separate window). Although this week they seem to have truncated the solo performances. Naughty, naughty BBC.

There is a mystery to be solved. Who is responsible is not immediately clear, but a crime has been perpetrated, of that there can be no doubt.

The felony has been uncovered by a curious gentleman who leaves us in no doubt that he has a surfeit of little grey cells. His name is Gareth Roberts, writer of The Unicorn and the Wasp, 45 minutes of the finest Agatha Christie style murder mystery. The crime? That ITV manages, in two hours, to brutally murder its recent series of Marple mysteries, when he is able to produce such a faithful homage to Mrs Christie’s work in less than half the time, even though it includes a giant alien shape-changing insect, something that never troubled Poirot.

The Unicorn and the Wasp is unlike any Doctor Who story in the programme’s history. Right now, after my third hungry devouring of its glorious combination of melodrama, comedy and high tension, I’d venture that I’ve just watched the best edition of the show since its 1963 beginnings.

An Audience… without Jeremy Beadle (Friday 9.30pm, ITV1)

It’s perhaps a moribund title for a celebratory look at the life of the late Jeremy Beadle, but is probably a good mark of the man’s sense of humour in this retrospective hosted by Chris Tarrant. Beadle was a familiar part of my childhood viewing thanks to Game for a Laugh, so I shall be there for this affectionate piece with contributions from Henry Kelly, Robert Powell, Sir Alan Sugar and Tony Blackburn.

Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Friday 10pm, C4)

Tonight’s celebrity guest is David Tennant who, thanks to Derren’s skills of manipulation, gets to experience some Doctor Who style time travel experiments. As fascinating as it is entertaining.

Peep Show (Friday 10.30pm, C4)

If it wasn’t for tomorrow night’s Doctor Who, this would be my top TV pick of the weekend. I’ve heaped loads of praise on Peep Show in recent weeks, and that simply doesn’t diminish. It only seems right and proper that the Bafta-winning series has been recommissioned for a sixth series. Now, if Channel 4 can persuade Dylan Moran to come and make a new series of Black Books, I’ll be a happy bunny.

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (Friday 10.35pm, BBC1)

Always worth a look, but tonight JR has Sarah Jessica Parker on the sofa ahead of the opening of Sex and the City: the Movie.

Doctor Who (Saturday 7pm, BBC1)

Finally this fourth series of Doctor Who shows off the greatness we’ve seen in previous series with The Unicorn and the Wasp. Gareth Roberts’s script, featuring an encounter with Agatha Christie in the 1920s, is fast, funny, clever, witty and most importantly, scary. It’s exactly what Doctor Who should be, with lots of winks to the adults and an effective monster that will have the kids scurrying behind the sofa. There’s a great guest cast, chief among them Fenella Woolgar as Christie, who is just brilliant - a name to watch over the coming years. This is perhaps my favourite episode of new Who to date.

The Poisoner (Saturday 10pm, BBC4)

Heavy but excellent Emmy-winning drama about Marie Besnard, accused of poisoning her husband after 18 years of happy marriage. Based on a true story.

Love Soup (Saturday 10.25pm, BBC1)

It’s time to say farewell to the lovely Alice this evening as Love Soup gets to episode 12. My, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun, and the last three months has provided some of the best bitter-sweet and frankly dark comedy you’re ever likely to find on British TV. David Renwick sketches deliciously bleak situations better than anybody, but tempered by the wide-eyed, if world-weary, innocence of Tamsin Greig’s Alice, Love Soup is rendered irresistably likeable. Will we see Alice and her pals from the make-up counter back in the future. We’d better!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Sunday 8pm, BBC1)

With nobody knowing whether Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is going to be any good or not, it might be safe to hedge your bets and watch the third in Spielberg’s adventure series - you know, just in case…

Bear Grylls: Born Survivor (Sunday 8pm, C4)

Well, it’s either this or Heartbeat. At least with Bear Grylls, there are laughs to be had on the way, especially if you activate your inner Harry Hill commentary. Tonight Bear is in Patagonia where he messes about with ice crevasses, hand glides, and keeps himself warm using his own urine. Aw bless, it’s such homely television.

Ultimate Force (Sunday 9pm, ITV1)

Oh good grief, are there still episodes of this over bloated thing still to go out? I thought this Ross Kemp vehicle had been put out of its misery years ago. It seems there are still three episodes of fun and games with Henno Garvey and Red Troop. It’s the usual macho tedium as the gang are teamed with US Special Forces to go and open a can of whup-ass on some bad guys. It’s kind of like The Unit, only without the added David Mamet. I think you know what I’m getting at…

A small story from the world of Doctor Who, and one that seems to be snowballing somewhat in a negative way for the BBC as they seek to squash the creative endeavours of fans in a what could be construed as unacceptably high-handed manner.

A Doctor Who fan who is known only as Mazzmatazz has fallen foul of the BBC’s legal arm for posting some really very cute knitting patterns on the internet, giving instructions on how to knit your very own Ood or adorable Adipose. The Beeb, not so much an Auntie in this case, more Big Brother, has ordered the knitting patterns be taken down as people have been stitching the critters and sticking them up on Ebay for cash money.

The BBC has said it is merely protecting its copyright, but I think they’re being a miserable bunch of old bean counters who should know better than to stamp all over the creative enjoyment of a fan of one of its shows.

ITV plc today announced that it has bought Scandinavian independent producer Silverback. The cash-based deal (£5.2 million changes hands now, with additional payments of up to £8.8 million over the next three years dependent on profit performance) gives ITV exclusive distribution rights over Silverback’s portfolio of programmes and programme formats.

The Silverback show best known to Stage readers will be West End Star, the show with which Swedish viewers selected Nina Soderquist to play the Lady of the Lake in the Palace Theatre’s Spamalot. The concept of casting West End actors by TV show is certainly a familiar one to our shores now, but this deal secures the rights for ITV to distribute Silverback’s show format worldwide. While ITV had its own Grease is the Word last year, the format (itself a clear derivative of The X Factor) belongs, I believe, to the show’s indie producers TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell’s SycoTV.

Some of the other formats Silverback created, and therefore that we may see cropping up on ITV’s screens soon enough, are Missing Link, Office Nightmare, Prospect Dads, Stable Stars, Stars on Air, Trucker — King of the Road, The Gone Show, Where the Hell is my Band and the intriguingly named God Bless Jew Allah.

Silverback also acts as the Scandinavian representative for Joost, the P2P-powered internet TV platform from the creators of the Skype internet phone system. Whether this signals a similar collaboration in the future between ITV and Joost is unclear, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the chances of a tie-up hadn’t just increased.

In this week’s print edition of The Stage, former Doctor Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe, who was in charge of the show between 1974 and 1977, compares the modern day Saturday night hit drama with the shows from his own era.

Hinchcliffe talks Stage readers through his thoughts upon watching the third episode of the current series, Planet of the Ood. Covering subjects as diverse as the move to 45-minute episodes, comparing the quality of monster designs and the level of violence and fear that a family-oriented show can include.

Read on for a preview of the feature.

Following yesterday’s developments in the fortunes of the US version of Life on Mars, an extensive trailer for the upcoming Fall series has just surfaced on YouTube, and here it is for your pleasure:

Obviously, it’s all here for you to make your own minds up. My own take is that, made up of scenes from the pilot, what we get when the series is in full swing will likely be very different.

Certainly the cultural differences between 1970s Britain and 1970s America are more pronounced than they are in the homogenised Noughties, so that’s hopefully where the series will find most meat and drink. As for the rest, I admit to finding it a bit on the bland side, but as with all these things, I’m prepared to give Life on Mars US the benefit of the doubt.

For now…

An interesting titbit cropped up in my inbox this morning. From Friday, ITV will be streaming the earliest known surviving episode of classic Midlands motel soap opera Crossroads via its website, itv.com/crossroads.

Episode 126 dates from 1965, just months into the then five-nights-a-week soap’s 44-year run (I think it’s best we quietly forget about the 2001 ‘revival’, don’t you?). It was found among a collection of films by film archivists preparing for a future DVD release of old archive episodes.

According to the release, the synopsis for the episode reads as follows:

It’s that time of year when the US television networks start to announce their line-up for the upcoming new season in the autumn. ABC and CBS have now stepped up the plate, announcing a raft of new dramas, with three being notably based on previous British television formats.

Of course, most attention is being heaped on the announcement that Life on Mars will be given the trans-Atlantic treatment following the production of a pilot last year under the tutelage of producer David E Kelley, he of the Ally McBeal and Boston Legal pedigree, amongst others.

ABC will broadcast the show, based on the hugely successful BBC1 series starring John Simm and Philip Glenister, in a co-production deal with original UK production house Kudos. Staying with the show following the pilot are Irish actor Jason O’Mara as Sam Tyler, with his countryman and Star Trek legend Colm Meaney taking the all-important role of Gene Hunt.

The US-based watchers of all things Apple have noticed that, in America, at least, cable channel HBO has struck a deal with Jobs & company to distribute some of its shows, including The Sopranos, Rome and Sex and the City. What makes this announcement potentially more important is that episodes of some series are retailing for US$2.99, while others retail at the ‘standard’ iTunes price of $1.99.

Previously, Apple has stood firm on the principle of a one-price-fits-all structure. There is now some speculation about whether this agreement by HBO could spell the beginning of a store-wide re-evaluation of that policy.

As usual, this deal is country-specific at the moment. However, in the UK (and with much less attention), US-based distributor Universal has, since last week, begun selling some of its shows direct to UK iTunes customers. Alongside current shows including Heroes and House, they are also offering the first seasons of both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Seventies cult classic The Incredible Hulk. While they may be archive shows, their release is as important to iTunes’ pricing structure as the HBO deal in America: whereas all TV shows available via iTunes UK up until now have been available for a whopping £1.89 per episode, each show of either Hercules or Hulk can be purchased for ‘just’ £1.19.

At current exchange rates, that’s still more money for an old TV show than our American cousins pay per episode for most of their up-to-date ones. But at least it’s a sign that iTunes pricing can go down as well as up.

Waking the Dead (Monday 9pm, BBC1)

More madness from the Cold Case squad as they investigate a body left in an underground chamber over a decade previously. It’s the usual potent brew from this always entertaining, frequently frustrating series. There are some ritualistic undertones to the reality behind the murder, and no doubt there’ll be another body turning up before too long. Boyd is on particularly fine shouty form this week, and that’s worth tuning in for alone, let alone the crazy plots.

The Duke: a Portrait of Prince Philip (Monday 9pm, ITV1)

One of the most mysterious and controversial members of the royal family is put under the spotlight in what is being hailed as an unfettered, revealing documentary about Prince Philip. The Duke of Edinburgh has made some proper gaffes in the last couple of years, but there’s no denying he’s an energetic force in the make-up of our royal landscape, so this should prove a fascinating insight into the Queen’s consort. Concludes tomorrow.

Admin (Monday BBC3, 11pm)

An average pilot for a not particularly clever sitcom set in a solicitor’s office. Why anybody would want to go near an office based comedy these days is beyond me.

Gordon Ramsay’s F Word (Tuesday 9pm, C4)

The best food themed show on the box returns as Gordon Ramsay strides through the schedules with quick-fire recipes and celebrity guests. But where F Word really scores is in the segments on the reality behind the food we eat and Ramsay’s desire to challenge our preconceptions about an industry he clearly holds dear. Yes, he can be a pain, but he’s more consistent than some of his peers.

Scallywagga (Tuesday 9pm, BBC3)

Um, when did this one slip in under the radar? A sketch show from the north, with the most notable member of the personnel the divine Sally Lindsay, aka one-time diva of the Rovers Shelley Unwin. It’s not terrible, but neither is it all that great, mining a seam somewhere between the excruciatingly awful Tittybangbang and the higher ground of the rather good Man Stroke Woman.

Battlestar Galactica (Tuesday 9pm, Sky One)

It’s sad to think that, with the quality notched up to the max, we know that very soon, Battlestar Galactica will no longer be with us. Yes, I think it’s a good thing to end shows before they become watered down shadows of their former selves, but it’s still going to be a wrench when this series comes to an end in the second half of season four. Still, let’s enjoy it while we can, with Roslin’s treatment for cancer continuing and Starbuck on the road to find earth.

The Apprentice (Wednesday 9pm, BBC1)

It ain’t half getting tense in The Apprentice right now, especially after last week’s slaughter in the boardroom (ooh, sounds like a Sophie Ellis Bextor track). This week our hapless hopefuls are selling garments at a huge wedding show at the NEC. It’s not quite as tense and action-packed as last week’s sojourn to Marrakesh, but as the weeks go on, it seems these idiots just get hungrier for it. Joyous television at its very best.

Desperate Housewives (Wednesday 10pm, C4)

How marvellous! Richard Chamberlain, him off of Dr Kildare, The Thorn Birds and those fantastic Musketeer movies pops up as a special guest-star in tonight’s slice of fun from Wisteria Lane. He’s playing Lynette’s long-lost step dad, and he looks mighty fine for an actor in his 70s, and it’s lovely to see him acting opposite the equally great Felicity Huffman. I’ll be honest, DH passed me by some time ago, but if it can attract quality talent like Chamberlain, it must still be doing something good.

Heroes (Thursday 9pm, BBC2)

Things finally seem to be picking up in this second series with the arrival of Micha’s cousin, Monica. She has the power to mimic anything she sees, which will probably come in quite handy. I’d like to see a new character who has a super power that is absolutely useless - perhaps somebody with the ability to sense jam from miles away would be good. It’s still not as great as it thinks it is, but at least there’s a sense of movement now.

Midnight Man (Thursday 9pm, ITV1)

Oh this is marvellously bonkers in a hugely enjoyable fashion thanks to James Nesbitt’s presence in what would otherwise be a typically forgettable crime thriller. Our daylight phobic hero Max Raban is on the run from the cops, who think he offed his wife - which he clearly didn’t. Elsewhere, Reece Dinsdale plays a rather scary head of a death-squad who are also on Raban’s trail. It’s summat about a government conspiracy, but then, isn’t it always these days?

If I’d Do Anything were Sesame Street, this week’s show would have been brought to you by the numbers 6 and 1/2.

Six Nancies remain, half of the original finalists; Six Olivers have already been put through to the semi-finals, leaving six boys’ fate in the competition undecided; half of the remaining Nancies have previously been saved by Andrew after the sing-off (a fate which, remember, neither Connie Fisher nor Lee Mead experienced). Half of the remaining crop of actresses are Irish, too — although only one of those attracts comments about her accent when acting or singing…

Update: Our usual collection of the BBC’s YouTube clips is online now. Still no sing-off video available, but this week the clips also include the judges’ comments.

Opening the show with another rendition of It’s a Fine Life, we then went into a VT of the girls talking about which of their competitors isn’t right for the role. This seems to be a fairly standard tactic in these shows, trying to up the stakes by pitting actor directly against actor, but until now it’s one that I’d Do Anything has kept in abeyance far more than Maria? or Any Dream Will Do ever did. Hopefully, the girls are all savvy enough to realise how artificial this section is. However, without going into the interpersonal disputes the producers seemed to want us to believe, it’s better to take a step back and look at the reasons each actress gave for their choice. The actresses who fit the more traditional casting of Nancy (professional actresses Ashley and Rachel, and singer Jodie) all selected one of the younger girls. I’d suggest that’s more to do with their view of the role rather than their view of their fellow competitors.

But on to the solo performances, and this week the girls were asked to sing songs that brought out different aspects of Nancy’s character.

With a title as contentious as The Doctor’s Daughter, one can’t help but feel cheated within the first three minutes of this episode of Doctor Who when the cute pouty girl we’ve seen trailed endlessly this week isn’t actually the Doctor’s daughter, but a knock off bit of DNA created at the top of the episode.

Still, at least the meat of this episode isn’t undersold from that point onwards, because the next 45 minutes are actually pretty good as the Doctor, Donna and guest-companion Martha land on a colony planet in the far future. The colony was supposed to be a place where humans and the alien Hath could forge a new culture together. Sadly, things went Pete Tong fairly quickly and soon the humans and Hath were at war, a war that has been raging for generations in the underground corridors and chambers of this nightmare world. Soldiers are genetically created on both sides from whoever is near to hand, in this case the Doctor, and the gang are soon involved in the search for the Source, the mystical relic that the gun-toting General Cobb (Nigel Terry) thinks will help the humans win the war.

After last week’s run-around with the Sontarans, we still get plenty of running around, but there’s a different feel to this episode than we’ve had in previous weeks. The tone is darker, and there’s also a sense that things have settled down a bit - Donna is no longer the new girl, and we’ve hit that mid-season running speed that makes everything that bit more satisfying.

Have I Got News For You (Friday 9pm, BBC1)

Bill Bailey is tonight’s guest host, with BBC political editor Nick Robinson joining the regulars for what will likely be some incredibly witty banter about the week’s events.

Benidorm (Friday 9pm, ITV1)

Not a show that I’ve particularly warmed to, but it’s had some guest stars of note that had me tuning in a couple of times. Tonight’s episode of humorous Brits abroad features Margi Clarke, ahead of her reappearance in Corrie as Jackie Dobbs, playing Gavin’s mother. Is this the renaissance of Margi Clarke’s career?

Peep Show (Friday 10.30pm, C4)

After yesterday’s rant on how TV doesn’t deserve an audience any more, I take it all back at the prospect of a new episode of Peep Show. I can’t praise this show enough - it never takes the audience for granted and has characters that are unashamedly misogynistic yet remain strangely likeable. Tonight, Jez knocks off some music and passes it off as his own, Mark returns to work, and Sophie gets over her wedding woes - by turning to drugs. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Doctor Who (Saturday 6.45pm, BBC1)

So the Doctor has a daughter, has he? Well, he does according to the title of tonight’s adventure with Droo and his companion’s Donna and Martha. The team land right in the middle of a war between humans and the sinister and scary Hath, and fighting the good fight is a cute blonde with combat pants and a cheeky pout. Yes, this is the Doctor’s daughter, apparently. And rather wonderfully, she’s played by the fantastic Georgia Moffett, who is Peter Davison’s daughter, so she really is the Doctor’s daughter!

I’d Do Anything (Saturday 7.30, BBC1)

We’re down to the last six in this nail-biting competition, and things can only get interesting from this point on. I’m not sure all the survivors up to this point have it in them to play Nancy, but the majority are all feisty contenders. For my money, I want Jodie to go the distance - she has exactly the right amount of sassy sexiness and charm to be nigh on perfect, but I fear I might be outnumbered on that one. And please John, stop shouting so much, it isn’t dignified.

Pushing Daisies (Saturday 9pm, ITV1)

Five episodes in (or is that 6?) and it might be worth checking out the fortunes of this quirky US drama. Might be, because there’s something I find remarkably unpalatable about Pushing Daisies. Nothing gels for me, from Anna Friel’s sugary sweet Chuck, to the flimsy premise that really doesn’t stretch beyond a handful of episodes. The best series can overcome those constraints, but Pushing Daises seems to have problems in deciding what it ultimately wants to be. Is it enjoyable? Yes. Frustrating? Most definitely.

Gladiators (Sunday 6pm, Sky One)

Ian Wright brings his jestering skills to a revival of 90s phenomenon Gladiators. For some reason, this is getting several of my colleagues excited. Me? I couldn’t care less, to be honest, although I am looking forward to Wright’s serious and high-brow post-match discussion with Richard Dawkins and Marcel Proust.

Midsomer Murders (Sunday 8.05pm, ITV1)

You know things are getting desperate when Midsomer Murders is one of your top TV recommendations of the weekend. It’s the usual meandering malarkey with Barnaby and Jones who this week are investigating the murder of a former colleague of Barnaby’s. Edward Petherbridge makes an all too rare TV appearance as a Lord who himself served time for murder in the past.

So ITV has received a record fine from Ofcom in the aftermath of the regulator’s investigation of a series of phone-in scandals across various shows broadcast by the network, two of which are hosted by Ant and Dec. The fine amounts to £5.675 million, which, considering some of the amounts supposedly involved in the scandals, I find somewhat wanting.

You can peruse Ofcom’s findings here, and in ITV’s response, executive chairman, Michael Grade, said:

“For anyone who cares about British broadcasting the Ofcom findings and the Deloitte review make for sorry reading.”

Well, yes, it does Michael, it does. Let’s make no bones about this, and I believe I have raised this point previously: fraud has been committed here. Not some grey area, uncertain, possibly, maybe kind of fraud, but yer actual, fleece the public out of their hard earned fraud. Last time I checked, that was a criminal offence, so why haven’t the boys in blue been round and had a word? Well, I’m waiting?

So Davina McCall has finally decided to quit Big Brother following the end of the next series, if reports doing the rounds are to be believed. While nothing official has been issued on this subject from McCall, Endemol or Channel 4, I can’t say I’m surprised and am amazed it has taken the Big Brother veteran this long to call it a day.

I find myself rubbing my hands together in glee at the prospect of Davina leaving the Big Brother house for the final time -could this be the final nail in a reality coffin that has taken some hammering in the last couple of years? I do hope so - if ever there was a show that’s well past it’s sell by date, Big Brother is it. The race row of Celebrity Big Brother aside, slipping ratings, tedious housemates and a pervading sense of been there, done that has made the prospect of yet another summer of hell on Channel 4 as welcome as a new series of Rock Rivals.

Ready, Steady, Cook Tuesday 4.30pm, BBC2)

Denise Van Outen and John Barrowman bring a bag of shopping for Ainsley’s chefs to have a crack at making into something edible. Is there anything that John Barrowman won’t appear on?

Waking the Dead (Tuesday 9pm, BBC1)

Part two of the usual entertaining nonsense courtesy of Superintendent Boyd and his team of cold case sleuths. These days, you could probably mix and match episodes of Waking the Dead and you’d still be able to make a plot that’s probably more comprehensible. As always with the second part of a WTD tale, time is usually running out for the team to prevent another murder connected to a more recent murder connected to a murder from two decades ago. Is this long-running BBC big hitter starting to run out of steam? Perhaps, and for the next series I’m wondering what can be done to inject some more energy into proceedings…

Battlestar Galactica (Tuesday 9pm, Sky One)

Unless you’re watching the other shows we’ve recommended, there’s only place to be on Tuesday nights at 9. Battlestar Galactica: still great, still bonkers, still loving it!

Deadliest Catch (Tuesday 9pm, Discovery)

Documentaries might just fall outside the remit of TV Today, but Deadliest Catch could easily be a TV drama. This fly on the wall account of the crab fisherman working the treacherous Bering Sea has been running long enough now that the men crewing the trawlers have become like favourite soap characters. It might be the same thing week in week out - they cast out the traps and then haul them back in, but there’s always a thrill when your favoured captain is suddenly “on the crab!”. A very entertaining and addictive show.

Child of Our Time (Wednesday 8pm, BBC1)

The annual update on the lives of the group of children Sir Robert Winston has been following since their birth back in 2000. There’s nothing startling on display in how the children are growing up, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The British Soap Awards (Wednesday 8pm, ITV1)

With EastEnders back on decent form after a couple of years in the wilderness, and teen soap Hollyoaks running some good, hard-hitting storylines of late, there could be some surprises along the way in tonight’s annual celebration of all things soap (of course, we know the results already, but for the sake of suspense, I won’t tell if you don’t). Certainly Coronation Street seems to be out in the wilderness on some nominations this year, which is a surprise, but you know what they say, there’s nowt so queer as soap. Or something. Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton are on hosting duties.

The Apprentice (Wednesday 9pm, BBC1)

This series just gets better and better, but I do have that uncomfortable feeling watching The Apprentice that much of its success is based on displays of human cruelty. Last week’s attack on Sara was fascinating to watch, but also gut-wrenching for the pack mentality it illustrated. But good on Raef for stepping up to the plate and showing he’s more than just a chinless wonder by gamely defending Sara. This week sees the pack of entertaining human tedium heading to Marakesh to bargain their little hearts out in the market and bring some wonga for Sir A.

Heroes (Thursday 9pm, BBC2)

Oh yawn, this sometimes-entertaining American drama really has lost me in this second series as it meanders through too many plotlines concerning too many characters. The first season of Heroes had a top-heavy cast as it was - can somebody entertain the virtue of introducing yet more super-powered types? Less showing, more doing please!

The Invisibles (Thursday 9pm, BBC1)

Maurice and Syd are blackmailed by a copper from their past into doing a job for him or he’ll turn them in. From the trailers, I was expecting The Invisibles to be slick, funny piece of character led TV. Instead it’s just a fairly ordinary piece of work that ends up being a bit dull. Shame, as the cast are great but the scripts just don’t sparkle as much as they should.

Midnight Man (Thursday 9pm, ITV1)

A promising if clichéd drama starring James Nesbitt as down at heel journalist Max Raban. A phobia means he can’t go out during the hours of daylight, so he’s reduced to trawling through rubbish bins in the dead of the night to find his stories and pay the bills. Looking into the death of two Iranian cousins, Max is on the verge of uncovering a conspiracy that implicates top-level politicians and Rupert Graves’ dodgy businessman Daniel Cosgrave. Midnight Man is fairly run of the mill stuff, but Nesbitt has that ability to raise mundane fare out of the doldrums, and an appearance from the legendary Alan “It’s Jim Robinson!” Dale is also good value.

As various Doctor Who forums go into a paranoid meltdown as the ratings for this weekend’s episode fell to 5.9 million, the rest of us get on with enjoying what was another fast and fun episode. So what if the ratings have slipped a little - it was still the second most watched TV programme of the day with an audience share of well over 30 per cent. Most dramas would kill for figures like that, and let’s face it, Doctor Who is not going to pull 14 million viewers every week - and it was a Bank Holiday, so let’s not count the Doctor out just yet, shall we?

Last week, we left the Doctor in a painfully atmospheric wide shot as the Sontarans got down to business with their plan to gas the planet - for reasons that we don’t yet know. Granddad Wilf was trapped in his car, choking to death, with the Doctor unable to free him because it was “deadlocked”, the cure all solution to the sonic screwdriver. As one, the audience screamed “Smash the window!”, and obligingly, Donna’s mum did. I can’t tell if this was genius or just silly. It was the obvious thing to do, but Doctor Who rarely stoops to the obvious.

Apologies again for the delay in this week’s review — the bank holiday and dodgy internet connections conspired against me this week.

As with previous weeks, the BBC’s YouTube videos are now available in a handy compilation player, which will automatically play all the main performances from Saturday and Sunday’s shows in their correct order.

This week, all the girls were coached for their performances by Andrew Lloyd Webber himself. And for all his mugging and ham-fisted attempts at humour on the judging panel, here it showed him excelling at his day job — getting the best out of the seven remaining Nancies. As a result, we ended up with seven strong (although not flawless) performances, and a cracking show to boot.

Have I Got News For You (Friday 9pm, BBC1)

Brian Blessed sits in on hosting duties this week. So that’ll be a quiet, subdued affair then. If he doesn’t shout “Gordon’s alive?” then there will be trouble.

Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Friday 10pm, C4)

I wasn’t wholly convinced by the apparent random chance element of this Derren Brown vehicle, where his victims endure a good or bad experience based on the picking of a card. Brown is too good at sleight of hand to let the outcome of a TV show hinge on a 50-50 chance - these things all have to be planned way in advance, of course (and see this post from last year for an example of how he ‘forces’ the choice - Ed). Still, it’s very, very entertaining and sometimes rather alarming to see how events unfold, especially when a “trick” is being played. Tonight’s episode features a treat and gives Brown the opportunity to employ some of his deft brain training exercises.

Peep Show (Friday 10.30pm, C4)

There was something quite machinegun-like about the last series of That Mitchell and Webb Look. Fire enough rounds off and some of them will hit the mark. Thankfully there’s no random shooting with the fifth series of Peep Show, possibly down to the fact that this isn’t really the boys’ baby. They turn up, say the lines and concentrate on not bumping into the furniture. And they do it very, very well indeed. But the real plaudits for Peep Show really belong to writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, whose dialogue and characterisation is arrow straight every single time. Sparkling, quotable dialogue, excruciating situations and two great actors make Peep Show a marriage of brilliance between scripters and performers.

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (Friday 10.35pm, BBC1)

Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow join Wossy to big up this weekend’s blockbuster film release, Iron Man.

Doctor Who (Saturday 6.20pm, BBC1)

In the second of a zippy two-part adventure, the Sontarans are choking the Earth through the ATMOS system (is it possible to have a system system?), and even with two companions on hand and the military might of UNIT behind him, the Doctor seems powerless to stop it. Of course, with a cheeky grin and some fast thinking, we know he’ll win through in the end. The Poison Sky is as fast and furious as last week’s slice of adventure, and the Sontarans make for fun if not entirely threatening monsters.

The Comedy Map of Britain (Saturday 10.40pm, BBC2)

This is a somewhat personally timely edition of the likeable ramble through TV history: as I head north to Yorkshire for the Bank Holiday, so too does The Comedy Map of Britain. I’m especially interested in the section covering Leigh Francis’s return to Leeds to seek out the tutor who was the real-life inspiration for Avid Merrion… Good Lord, Avid was based on somebody in the real world? Now that’s just scary. Wonder how he feels about that?

Boy A (Saturday 11.20pm, C4)

Following a quite correct nod for Andrew Garfield as best actor at the Baftas, Channel 4 plays a timely repeat of this stunning drama following the return of a young killer to society after his time in prison. It’s beautiful, heart-breaking and thought-provoking in one big hit of emotion and drama and deserved very plaudit it received first time out.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Sunday 8.05pm, BBC1)

Oh go on then. It would be rude not to really.

Flood (Sunday 8.05pm, ITV1)

I thought cheesy disaster fare like this was destroyed in the late 70s, but it seems the genre is alive and well and living on ITV this Bank Holiday weekend. Robert Carlyle plays troubled marine engineer Rob Morrison, summoned to check out a fault on the Thames Barrier (which in a quirk of bad plotting just happens to be looked after by his ex-wife). In the face of a sudden storm front, the barrier is overwhelmed and London could soon be under some major CGI water, which at least will make the scenery easier to chew for the heavyweight cast. Pretty much everybody here is better than this tosh (enjoyable tosh though it may be) like this, so one can only assume that David Suchet needed an extension doing on the house or something. Concludes tomorrow night.

Family Guy (Sunday 10pm, BBC3)

The new series of this frequently funny and daft alternative to The Simpsons opens with the hour-long Star Wars skit, Blue Harvest. The show has always had an obsession with Star Wars in amongst the other silly TV references, and this special puts the Griffin family right in the middle of a loose retelling of George Lucas’s famous trilogy. It’s fun for a while to see Peter replace Han Solo, Stuey replace Darth Vader, and so on, but the beauty of Family Guy is the quickfire wit. Stretched to an hour, that wit seems watered down somewhat, but it’s still a great watch for fans nonetheless.

Apologies as I know this story is nearly a week old now, but I’ve just stumbled across this latest salvo from Ian Wright against his former employers the BBC. And you know how much I loved this one when it first broke a couple of weeks back. Seemingly now a new pet favourite of that bastion of quality The Sun, former self-appointed jester Ian Wright has decided that not only is the BBC’s sports coverage rubbish, but the BBC as a whole is well… rubbish.

Oh dear, oh dear. Has Wright’s stormy departure from the Beeb not quite had the reaction he was expecting. Rather than being hailed as some kind of conquering hero of the masses, striking a blow against the suits and tie brigade of intelligent football coverage, it seems Wrighty might be the one out of touch. Had he perhaps not considered the level of affection that still exists for Match of the Day, but also that football fans might actually still want intelligent coverage of football. It certainly beats ITVs somewhat wishy-washy coverage, often presided over by a decidedly uncomfortable and out of place Steve Rider.

If you or anyone in your family has felt inspired by this series of I’d Do Anything (or Any Dream Will Do, Grease is the Word or How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?), then you need to buy this week’s print issue of The Stage where we take a long, hard look at the world of training for musical theatre.

With the BBC currently in its third year of searching for a West End star, Matthew Hemley looks at the conflicts the BBC’s “fast track” approach throws up.

Mary Hammond, head of musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, has seen her fair share of ex-pupils trying their luck on such shows and acknowledges that it is one way someone can achieve their goal of taking a leading role in the West End. However, she refuses to allow her students to take part in shows when they are in the middle of their course, saying their attention should be focused on their studies.

Even when they have graduated, she would rather see her former pupils working their way up the ladder on a touring show or a repertory theatre company, where novices can perfect their craft away from the glare of the public eye. Being in the public eye week after week on something like I’d Do Anything, has the power to break a career as much as it has the power to make one.

[…] With this in mind, Hammond now makes it an element of her course to talk to students about the shows and the advantages and disadvantages of taking part. “As part of my training, I talk through the whole thing and how you deal with it,” she says. “I will bring in past contestants to talk to them - people who enjoyed their experiences and people who were destroyed by it and whose careers have not been helped by it. I want to make sure they know the score.”

The full text of Matthew’s article is now online, and is just one of the features in our musical theatre training supplement. For a rundown of what else you can find in the issue, check out our In The Paper blog.