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.