October 2008 Archives

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

In the week that David Tennant announces he is to leave Doctor Who, another legendary Time Lord takes the presenter’s chair in Have I Got News For You. Tom Baker is the man of the night, so expect lots of erudite banter from the Little Britain narrator (and some gags about Dalek bumps - or is that too smutty for the BBC now?)

The American Future: A History, by Simon Schama (Friday 9pm, BBC2)

On the eve of one of the US’s most crucial Presidential elections, Simon Schama brings his excellent series to a close as he looks at the role that immigration has played in the building of the country. There is some quite shocking stuff in here, but it’s always considered and expertly delivered by Schama.

Wire in the Blood (Friday 9pm, ITV1)

The concluding part of this Wire in the Blood investigation sees Tony Hill desperately trying to make a connection between the two serial killers stalking Bradfield. It’s as grim and gruesome as ever, and you wonder just how long the series can keep this format going, but the show is undeniably entertaining. Do they have to use so much blood though? It can be very off-putting when the Friday pizza arrives.

Speed (Friday 10.40pm, BBC1)

Erm…

Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Saturday 7pm, ITV1)

After the week the broadcasting industry has had, we all need a laugh, so thank the Lord for Harry Hill and his cheeky brand of humour. He’ll steer clear of Ross and Brand for sure, but the usual suspects, from Bear Grylls to EastEnders, will be in the firing line. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Harry gives his verdict on the final of The Restaurant.

Merlin (Saturday 7.30pm, BBC1)

Another week, another timeslot. Really, Auntie, stop this, it’s getting silly. Tonight’s adventure with everyday Arthurian folk is the usual run of the mill stuff with evil magical types pitching up at Camelot, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, and then Merlin has to save the day again. Nice effects, some engaging performances, but low on incident. Most of Merlin’s stories could be told in 20 minutes, and I’m desperate for some more meat on the bones. More doing, less talking please.

Dead Set (Saturday 10pm, E4)

If you’ve missed it, settle down for this omnibus of all five episodes of Charlie Brooker’s excellent zombie horror yarn set in the Big Brother House. Scarily brilliant.

Top Gear (Sunday 8pm, BBC2)

They’re back! Clarkson, Hammond, May and the Stig return with one of the BBC’s most-prized formats. Top Gear has been something of an unlikely success story over the last few years, but it continues to be entertaining and as watchable as ever. I have some reservations about the show’s cavalier attitude to the environment, but this blokey, almost laddish cocktail hits the spot with a wide range of viewers. Sometimes you can’t argue with that.

Sharpe’s Peril (Sunday 9pm, ITV1)

There’s something quite comforting about the adventures of Richard Sharpe, and so we bid the hero of Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling novels a welcome return as Sean Bean once again raises his rifle. Our Richard is looking forward to returning home and having a break from derring do, but he has one last task to take care of in India - escorting an upper class French lady to a nearby hill station. Of course, it just can’t be that easy, can it? As ever, Daragh O’Malley is on hand as Sharpe’s bezzie mate Patrick Harper.

Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (Sunday 9pm, BBC4)

Who could resist this frothy, inter-linked drama to celebrate that most industrious of publishing houses, Mills and Boon? The lovely Jodie Whittaker, Peep Show legend Olivia Colman and Silent Witness’s Emilia Fox play three women separated across a century, all with lives, loves and aspirations. It’s a fascinating, three-pronged examination of romance across the last 100 years and the place Mills and Boon still holds in the heart of the nation.

• You Only Live Twice Radio 7, 12.00pm

  The first of several programmes this week on the BBC networks tying in with the cinema release of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace and the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth (see also last week’s reading of Casino Royale by Alex Jennings). Michael Jayston stars in this adaptation of Fleming’s 12th James Bond novel.

• Saturday Play: The Late Mr Shakespeare Saturday Radio 4, 2.30pm

  As a boy actor, Pickleherring played Viola, Juliet and Cleopatra for Shakespeare’s own theatre company. Now in his 80s, he finally discovers what it mean to fall in love… Jim Broadbent stars as Pickleherring in this adaptation of Robert Nye’s play.

• The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall Saturday Radio 2, 7.00pm

  Possibly singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s most well-known work, the song Hallelujah has been covered by over 120 artists including Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and John Cale. Elbow frontman Guy Garvey explores the history of the song, meeting artists and recording engineers involved in various versions of the song.

• Elaine Paige on Sunday Sunday Radio 2, 1.00pm

  The Ian Fleming/James Bond theme to the week continues, as Miss Paige presents a special edition featuring some of the most beloved Bond themes, musical scores and a few surprises.

• Classic Serial: On The Beach Sunday Radio 4, 3.00pm

  Mike Walker adapts Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel. As radioactive clouds roll across the globe, Commander Towers and his crew arrive in Australia, where they discover a radio signal coming from Seattle…

• The Choir Sunday Radio 3, 6.30pm
  BBC Radio 2 Young Choristers of the Year Sunday Radio 2, 8.00pm

  As the final rounds of Radio 3’s Choir of the Year approach, Aled Jones catches up with current champions, Chantage. Later on, Radio 2 hosts its finals to find the young Choristers of the Year, in an event due to be recorded in St Paul’s Cathedral today.

• Drama on 3: 24 Weeks Sunday Radio 3, 9.15pm

  Scriptwriter Tony Marchant, perhaps best known for his TV works including Holding On and The Mark of Cain, presents a provocative new play about abortion. Part of Radio 3’s Free Thinking festival weekend, the play is due to be recorded tomorrow, Saturday.

• 15-Minute Musical Wednesday Radio 4, 11.00pm

  The series of spoof musical satires returns with Washington High School Musical, in which school pupils Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton compete to be president of Washington High. Richie Webb, David Quantick and Dave Cohen are on writing duties with Webb, Dave Lamb and Vicki Pepperdine performing.

• Friday Night is Bond Night Friday Radio 2, 7.30pm

  Concluding the Bond-themed radio programmes for the week, Mike Dixon conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and a host of singing stars in a concert celebrating the music of the Bond films. Performers include David McAlmont, Mica Paris, Tom Baxter and Jodie Prenger. Some of TV Today’s resident Loppies were in attendance, thanks to Lee Mead performing From Russia With Love — his performance hasn’t been mentioned in the programme notes, but hopefully will be included in the broadcast. (UPDATE: They were two different concerts. My error completely — many apologies!) During the interval, David Arnold talks about his composition of five Bond scores and his album of Bond covers, Shaken and Stirred.

• Private Peaceful Friday Radio 2, 9.15pm

  As Remembrance Sunday approaches, Radio 2 takes the opportunity to repeat this four-part adaptation, read by Robson Green, of Michael Morpurgo’s 2004 novel about brotherly love set during the First World War. The same author’s War Horse will be airing on Saturday 8th.

This week, our remaining ten couples will each be doing a different dance from the Strictly Come Dancing repertoire. As a result, there just wasn’t room on this week’s scoresheet to include all the historical information about each dance, as we’ve done for the last couple of weeks. On the upside, that did mean that (with a bit of jiggery pokery) the scoresheet is back onto two pages.

Download the Week 7 scoresheet [PDF]

While you’re here, why not check out these other offerings from The Stage:

• Hear Len Goodman talk to Matthew Hemley about the show’s win at the National Television Awards, taking a week off from Dancing With The Stars and his man-flu

• Read our review of Britannia High, Arlene Phillips’ new project for ITV

• Looking for dance-related gift ideas? Have a look around The Stage Strictly Store, powered by Amazon.co.uk. The Strictly Annual 2008 is currently £7.79 - over £5 cheaper than the store price. There are also dance instructional books and DVDs, as well as biographies of Len and Craig and more…

The weather’s turned bitter, nobody has any money (there’s a credit crunch on, you know?), ITV’s shares are in the gutter, David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who and the BBC is on the brink of destruction following the so-called Manuelgate scandal involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.

But come on, let’s look on the bright side, it’s not all that bad. Is it? If you look around the multi-channel landscape, there’s surely something that you can find to sooth a fevered brow, to raise a smile, to make you realise that telly is still great and not really broken.

Only on Monday night was I thinking how much my cup runneth owner with rather good telly at the moment, my idle thoughts sparked off by the spectacular opening of the new series of Spooks.

When Strictly Come Dancing was announced as the winner of last night’s Most Popular Talent Show at the National Television Awards, the show’s top judge Len Goodman was not there to join the rest of the programme’s team in collecting the gong. For one, he told me he is currently suffering from a “man cold”, meaning if he had gone he would not have been “on top form”. But more than that, he just doesn’t like the hype and attention that comes with big awards shows like the NTAs.

I would not have gone anyway. I don’t like red carpets. I like being there but I can’t stand walking up the carpets. It would have been lovely to have gone but I am glad I didn’t.

The title says it all really!

While cyberspace goes mad with the news that David Tennant has just anounced, live on air at the National Television Awards, that he will be leaving the best role on television at the end of 2009, TV Today wishes David the very best fortune for what is doubtless going to be a continuing stellar career.

You have earned your place in the hearts of the TV viewing audience as one of the very best Doctor Whos of all time, and you will be missed. But we’ve got four more specials to enjoy before you hang up the Tardis keys for good, and we can’t wait to see them.

Roll on Christmas - Allons-y!

Even bigger than the hoo-ha over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand is the other top news story of the week - the BBC has cancelled the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops! What, I ask, fresh madness is this?

The Christmas Top of the Pops is as much a part of Christmas as presents round the tree, turkey and stuffing, mince pies, James Bond and granddad falling asleep in front of the Queen’s Speech. As far as I am concerned, the BBC has ruined Christmas!

Well, not really, although in the current climate, I’m sure those headlines aren’t too far away. But this does seem a silly piece of Christmas chicanery. What, one asks, is Auntie going to replace the show with? So the last Christmas edition rated at just over 3 million viewers, which really isn’t that bad considering at that time of the day, the total TV audience is not huge as people are sitting down to eat (or have the annual family argument). The show usually served as a nice little break in our house to get a breather from family, and it’s always a hoot to see stars dressed up in Santa hats having a bit of a laugh.

At a time when the world and his wife are complaining about the BBC, it’s worth noting a project which illustrates the real value that the Corporation is able to provide from its unique historical archive.

The latest collection from the BBC Archives is a celebration of the unique place that Liverpool, City of Culture 2008, has in the UK’s musical heritage. Featuring TV and radio programmes and excerpts, the collection illustrates that there is far more to its cultural contribution than just the Beatles — though, of course, they’re represented here.

The key programme in the collection is the 1965 documentary, The Singing City, which looks at how the port’s Welsh and Irish roots contributed to its vibrant musical tradition. But modernisation was an encroaching threat:

In 1965, Liverpool council displaced thousands of families from the city centre, rehousing them in the suburbs. This documentary looks at the immediate effects of this migration, and at different aspects of Liverpool’s cultural makeup, from Catholic and Protestant rituals to football terraces, comedians like Ken Dodd and a deep-rooted folk music tradition.

Included in the rest of the collection are contributions from Gerry Marsden, Brian Epstein, Holly Johnson, Pete Wylie and Roger McGough.

• BBC Archive - Music from the Mersey

A very quick musing today, but of course the biggest story of the broadcasting world at the moment are the antics of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and their offensive messages left on actor Andrew Sachs’s answer phone. This does stray into the territory of our Turn off the TV section, but has wider implications for television broadcasting and Ross’s wider work within the BBC.

Not to come over all prudish and Daily Mail, but I’m finding myself rather incensed by the whole thing. Perhaps this is a sign that I’ve finally become old and reactionary (finally?), but is this kind of insulting, sub-playground behaviour from two personalities who are paid rather a lot of money (our money) to do what they do, what we expect from the BBC? I mean, it was Radio 2, usually such a bastion of genteel, witty banter. Not this rubbish.

Spooks (Monday 9pm, BBC1)

A good night for TV as the slick, stylish and always entertaining Spooks returns for a seventh series. Time has moved on since the cliff-hanger ending of last season that saw top spy Adam cradling Jo in his arms - but did he shoot her? Aside from the resolution to last year, there’s also a new cast member in the form of Richard Armitage playing Harry’s former protégé Lucas North. It’s a far cry from Robin Hood’s Guy of Gisborne for the actor, and it looks like North will be the replacement for Adam when Rupert Penry-Jones leaves later this series. And even better, Hermione Norris is back as Ros - bring it on! Episode 2 is tomorrow at 9pm.

Wired (Monday 9pm, ITV1)

Final part of the mildly engaging thriller starring Jodie Whittaker as a bank a manager drawn into a high-risk scam to siphon off millions from the bank she works for. There are twists and turns galore as you don’t know who is loyal to whom, with Whittaker’s likable Louise playing everybody off against each other. Enjoyable, but hardly highbrow.

Dead Set (Monday10pm, E4)

Charlie Brooker takes a break from burning our screens in his Guardian column to scribe this intriguing horror tale that gives a Davina McCall a rather horrifying makeover. The dead are walking, and their victims are getting up too - zombiegeddon has come to Britain, but the only ones who are blissfully unaware of this are the contestants in the Big Brother House. No, really! It’s eviction night, and the zombies are coming to get the housemates. As the week unfolds, the housemates are picked off by the zombie horde, including a terrifying Davina McCall. A brilliant fusion of horror, reality TV, and a light dusting of comedy, Dead Set could be the hippest show on TV this year.

Emmerdale (Tuesday 7pm, ITV1)

It’s rare for us to give the nod to Emmerdale in Square Eyes, but sometimes its nice to see what’s going on with these country folk. And tonight is worth looking at for an appearance from Aussie soap royalty, Mark Little, making a guest turn here as a new man in Louise Appleton’s life (as played by another antipodean soap graduate Emily Symons). With Louise’s engagement to Jamie Hope on the skids, will she head home to Australia alone?

Spooks (Tuesday 9pm, BBC1)

Second part of this tense new series sees the team picking up the pieces of the literally explosive events of last night’s opener. Which means lots of running around looking stern and shouting at people. And Richard Armitage seems to spend an inordinate amount of time with his shirt off, displaying North’s impressive array of tattoos picked up in a Russian prison.

The National Television Awards (Wednesday 8pm, ITV1)

The annual bun fight for TV types, these awards are quite hotly contested as they are all voted for by us, the viewers. It’ll be the usual cavalcade of soapies and reality TV hobbits, but of great interest to many will be the face-off between Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate, who are both up for best drama performance. Could it be too close to call?

The Restaurant (Wednesday 8pm, BBC2)

The challenge for the two remaining couples in the final of one of the year’s best TV shows is a doozy. The hopefuls must cook a meal for some highly discerning diners in the cramped kitchens of a luxury train. Crikey, that’s not going to be hard, especially as the couples squabble at the best of times. Expect scathing comments from Sarah, David, and the man himself, Raymond Blanc who will be the one declare he’s going into business with one the couples. Brilliant!

EastEnders (Thursday 7.30pm, BBC1)

A tense, hour long EastEnders focusing on ginger-haired scamp Max Branning who has gone out of his way to alienate just about everybody in his life - friends and enemies alike. But there’s a moment of hope for Mr B as a heart to heart with ex-missus Tanya ends in a snog. What the…?! She was trying to bury him alive not so long back! But Max is heading for trouble as the episode winds up with the dodgy dealer heading for a car/road interface situation - but which of the many likely suspects is at the wheel? Don’t expect to find out for some time to come!

Little Dorrit (Thursday 8.30pm, BBC1)

After Sunday’s well-paced opener, this sumptuous Dickens adaptation from the dream team of the BBC and Andrew Davies hits its stride with the move to 30-minute episodes. Arthur Clenman (Matthew Macfadyen) stoically wanders around proceedings, trying to find out if his family put the boot into the Dorrits years ago, while making eyes at little Amy (she’s nearly half his age!). It’s brilliantly executed from the lovely visuals, frothy words and master class acting, and tonight’s instalment introduces even more memorable grotesques for us to delight at.

Life (Thursday 10pm, ITV3)

With Max Branning’s woes being played out on BBC1 earlier in the evening, you can barely move for redheads tonight as Damian Lewis turns US TV star in this promising new cop drama. Detective Charlie Crews was sent down for a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. Fast forward a good few years, and new evidence exonerates the flame-haired ‘tec, and so with a massive settlement for damages in his account and years of reading Zen Buddhism, he’s back on the force. It’s a nice character hook for the series, and Lewis (always good to see a Brit doing well abroad) carries off what could be some quite mawkish material with great charm. The series around it fairly bog-standard, but Life has enough quirks to make it a worthwhile watch.

You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here’s where you start paying. Starting with your dignity and self-respect.

Let’s talk about Jonathan Harvey. On the one hand, he’s produced some excellent plays (Beautiful Thing being a particular favourite), some of Coronation Street’s finest recent episodes, and his new BBC2 sitcom Beautiful People is never less than watchable, even if it’s not exactly setting the ratings alight. While Gimme Gimme Gimme was rarely to my personal taste, it at least showed that he was skilled in plotting, pacing and with an eye for a good, if often tasteless, gag.

On the other hand, his script for the first episode of performing arts drama series Britannia High is just awful. It’s so thin, and has so many holes, that you could easily mistake it for one of Mark Foster’s Strictly Come Dancing outfits.

And that’s a shame, because beating somewhere within Britannia High is the seed of a great little series of the sort that ITV hasn’t produced for years…

This week, our eleven remaining couples had to contend with either the romanticism of the Viennese Waltz, or the fiery passion of the Paso Doble. Nearly all of them struggled this week, with some of the strongest contenders slipping up, while one or two of the stragglers really tried to up their game. But all in all, it did feel like one of the weaker shows of the series so far — at least until John Sergaeant took to the floor…

Full reviews of each competitive dance, with video, after the jump.

British television comedy is a much-debated topic, and there are more than enough people who will not hold back when it comes to saying what they really think. Earlier this year, we ran a piece carrying comments from Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, who criticised the fact too much comedy relies on shock-tactics and swearing to make people laugh. Linehan said writers should aim to be cleverer with their content in a bid to challenge themselves and force themselves to be more imaginative with their humour - and also to create shows that can be enjoyed by everyone.

And it seems he is not alone. Earlier this week I interviewed Mark Benton - the man best known to many as the banker in the Nationwide adverts and who has also appeared in comedies such as Early Doors. Benton told me comedy is harder to make if you refrain from swearing and dirty jokes and claimed his forthcoming comedy, Clash of the Santas - which also stars Robson Green - had to be that much cleverer with its content because it was aiming for a family audience.

After last week’s mammoth round-up, there’s a shorter list of new stuff to watch out for on radio this week. Of course, ongoing series like Alan Carr’s Comedy Outings are still worth tuning in to, and for many of last week’s items they will still be available on iPlayer for a while.

BBC Electric Proms: Saturday Night Fever Radio 2, Saturday 7.30pm
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest movie soundtrack albums of all time, this concert (part of the BBC Electric Proms season) brings together Bee Gee Robin Gibb with Sam Sparro, Sharleen Spiteri and the BBC Concert Orchestra. It’s likely that this performance will also be available in video at the EP dedicated iPlayer page, where you can also find a fantastic concert by Burth Bacharach featuring Adele and Jamie Cullum.

The Wire: Nowt to Look At Radio 3, Saturday 9.00pm
Valerie Laws writes of Annie (played by Pat Dunn), a disfigured recluse “whose head now floats in a pathology museum jar” in a play about deformity and self-image.

Doctor Who: Max Warp Radio 7, Sunday 6.00pm (repeated midnight)
The second self-contained play in this Paul McGann/Sheridan Smith series is notable mainly for its thinly veiled satire on a certain well-known TV motoring show for petrolheads. Instead of Jeremy, James and the Hamster, we get Graeme Garden, James Fleet and Duncan James. The satire is gentle, but is the best thing about this otherwise slight episode.

Drama on 3: Caligari Radio 3, Sunday 8.00pm
Poet Amanda Dalton adapts the classic German expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari for radio. Given that the original film is one of the all-time great silent movies, an audio-only adaptation is intriguing, to say the least.

Stage to Screen: Gypsy Radio 4, Tuesday 1.30pm
Based on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the role of Gypsy’s mother was created for Ethel Merman — but played on screen by Rosalind Russell. Paul Gambaccini explores the history of the musical, with contributions from Patti LuPone, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents.

Bruce and Sammy Radio 2, Tuesday 10.30pm
Bruce Forsyth presents a personal tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr., the consummate all-rounder whose life was marked by political controversy, racial prejudice and more than his fair share of tragedy. Archive material of Davis’s performances is combined with new interviews with Englebert Humperdinck, Paul Anka, Lionel Blair and Laurie Holloway.

Afternoon Play: Memorials to the Missing Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm
This rerun of Stephen Graves’ play was scheduled before it was revealed that it has won the Tinniswood Award, for the best original drama broadcast on radio in 2007. According to the judges:

This is a play about burying the dead — primarily the dead soldiers of the First World War, which had an impact on the disposal of corpses of those killed in all subsequent wars. Interestingly it is based on fact, on the efforts of one man, Major General Fabian Ware, to persuade the authorities, against strong opposition from Church and State, to establish cemeteries of identifiable graves for those killed in battle. This led to the establishment of The Imperial War Graves Commission of which Ware was put in charge and for which, again against strong opposition, ecclesiastical and architectural, Sir Edwin Lutyens provided the design plans.

So much for fact. The fiction imagines the voices of dead soldiers, reading their diaries or thinking their thoughts aloud, who seek the recognition of their buried remains by mourning relatives. We hear too the relatives searching for an identifiable place to mourn over their lost loved ones.

This intermingling of fact and fiction makes for a poignant play which is perfect for radio and a play, not without humour, of great emotional power. All the judges privately confessed that it reduced them to tears - and they are no “softies” either!

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama (Friday 9pm, BBC2)

This excellent series continues as the United States is on the verge of a possibly history changing presidential election. This week, Schama turns his attentions to the role that religion has played in moulding the course of American politics. It’s a fascinating insight from the always enthusiastic and ebullient Schama (and I bet he likes The Tudors…)

Wire in the Blood (Friday 9pm, ITV1)

Somebody is wandering Bradfield offing homeless men with a single knife blow, and so another mystery begins for Dr Tony Hill and the hopeless plod of Bradfield. But forget the case in hand, Tony has himself a date with Alex (my word, you can get sushi in Bradfield, how gauche), so the serial killer will have to wait for while. You may want to watch the date scene through your fingers… The story concludes next Friday.

Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live (Friday 9pm, C4)

Following the success of the first cookalong, GR is back for an extended run that aims to get you to cook a meal for four in an hour - with added potty mouth, no doubt. This is like *Jamie’s Ministry of Food *for the middle classes, and actually feels much more useful than Jamie’s crusading enterprises in Rotherham. Everybody has a TV, so what better way than getting the message across than beaming straight into the audience’s home and telling them how to do it.

Merlin (Saturday 5.50pm, BBC1)

Unusually, this episode of Merlin hasn’t been sent randomly spinning across the schedules and retains a (just about) consistent timeslot from last week. And it’s a good one, with Julian Rhind-Tutt on fine form as a creepy sorcerer who puts the ‘fluence on Morgana with his magic, ear-invading beetles. And Gaius (Richard Wilson) is under pressure to save the princess - no doubt magic will play a part somewhere. Poor Uther, so intent is he on banishing magic from Camelot that he doesn’t notice the place is crawling with magic types.

Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Saturday 7.15pm, ITV1)

As the cold winter nights draw in, we can all be thankful that Harry Hill is around to give us a belly laugh at his droll observations on the week in telly. Sublime.

Strictly Come Dancing/The X Factor (Saturday 6.35pm/7.45pm, BBC1/ITV1)

Both shows are now into their stride and we’re well on the way to the Christmas climaxes in a couple of months. On Strictly, the remaining hopefuls are dancing a Viennese Waltz or a Paso Doble to wow the judges and the audiences at home. Over on The X Factor, it’s big band week, which might just separate the men from the boys. If Daniel isn’t in the bottom two this week, there will be trouble. Scott, as always, will provide his thoughts on Strictly before the weekend is out.

Mad Men (Saturday 11.30pm, BBC4)

A joyous repeat of this excellent drama that wowed critics and audiences alike. This episode is a stylish scene setter for the shocks ahead. A second series is due in the New Year.

Britannia High (Sunday 6.15pm, ITV1)

Arlene Phillips puts her name to this energetic drama that’s perfect for a teen audience. Set in a London performing arts school, we follow six teenagers in their efforts to win fame as fortune. Obviously the High School Musical parallels are there, but the main influence here is 1980s phenomenon Fame. The script is surprisingly zippy, which raises it above a simple cash in on what’s popular right now, but I do have some reservations on the timeslot. A Saturday night at 6pm might be more appropriate, but time will tell. Watch out for Scott’s insights into the show following the first episode.

Little Dorrit (Sunday 8pm, BBC1/BBCHD)

I am rubbing my hands in glee at the prospect of some top notch Dickens from the masters at the BBC - even more so now I’ve entered the realms of having the BBC HD channel - just think, Alun Armstrong in pin-sharp detail. Matthew MacFadyen is Arthur Clenman attempting to carry out his father’s death-bed wishes of righting some undefined family wrong. Elsewhere, Amy Dorrit (the titular Little) is stuck looking after her father in a debtor’s prison. After tonight’s hour-long opener, there will e two, half-hour instalments per week of this cracking period piece, as with Bleak House. Expect Bafta’s galore for this…

A Touch of Frost (Sunday 8.15pm, ITV1)

I’ve been enjoying this new run of Frost immensely - it provides a sleepy, but tense, end to the weekend, and David Jason seems just at home with his other signature character than ever before. Same he’s giving it up, but let’s enjoy Jack while we have him. This week, the discovery of a shallow grave containing three bodies bristles the veteran detective’s moustache more than usual. Good stuff.

In Love with Barbara (Sunday 9pm, BBC4/BBC HD)

Another fantastic drama based on the life of a larger than life figure from BBC4. Anne Reid is utterly fantastic here as Barbara Cartland, giving a rounded turn as a personality who has perhaps been unfairly portrayed over the years. Reid certainly humanises the scribbler of romantic novels in this frothy piece about her lives and loves. And into the bargain you get the always-wonderful David Warner as sometime suitor Dickie Mountbatten. A winning contribution!

Now that all our couples are competing against one another, it really does feel as if the competition has started in earnest, doesn’t it? Still, it carries on from now until Christmas, which I’m kidding myself is way, way off…

After last week’s mammoth 12-couple score sheet, I’ve streamlined this week’s a little. The dancers’ and Sunday dance-off score elements now fit back onto two pages, leaving page 3 for the leaderboard and a Strictly history of this week’s dances, the Paso Doble and the Viennese Waltz. Plus, there’s a plug for something that may be of interest as you’re planning for the aforementioned festive season…

Strictly Come Dancing scoresheet, week 6 [PDF] (right-click and select ‘Save As…’ or equivalent)

If you’re looking for any Strictly Come Dancing-related Christmas gift ideas, check out our new store, powered by amazon.co.uk. You’ll find this year’s official annual, the new CD of music from the series, the DVD of the live tour and much more, including Len and Craig’s biographies, various “teach yourself” dance DVDs and more. If you, a friend or relative love Strictly and you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas, where else would you need to go?

After last week’s stats trivia fest, there’s not much new statistics-wise to report, except possibly that in the entire run of all the series (excluding, as ever, Christmas specials where everybody votes as if they’ve had a little too much sherry), so far the judges have awarded 12,499 points between them over the course of 443 competitive dances.

No surprises for who has awarded the fewest points (Craig, with 2,857). Arlene is third with 3,041, beaten by Bruno with 3,263 and Len with 3,338.

All those stats mean that Craig will, with the next lift of one of his voting paddles, award the 12,500th point in Strictly Come Dancing history. Let’s just hope that the dance in question is good enough to merit a few more points on top…

In this week’s print issue of The Stage (and also reproduced online), a writer to the letters page wonders whether racism is a reality in TV talent shows:

I just wanted to get the chance to bring up an issue that has repeatedly come to my attention over the last year observing reality TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, I’d Do Anything, Last Choir Standing and The X-Factor and which I’m sad to say has very much been the case since these programmes began.

In these shows contestants of ethnic minorities are repeatedly voted off by the British public in situations where they are held in better esteem by their fellow contestants/judges/leaderboards than their white rivals indicating the ‘support your own ethnic/class group’ mentality of the British public, which surely makes any of these competitions unfair and must be very dispiriting for an ethnic minority performer in Britain.

Last week, of course, we had a Strictly Come Dancing dance-off between the only two ethnic minority celebrities, actor Don Warrington and singer Heather Small, despite three other couples receiving lower marks from the judges.

So does our letter writer have a point?

Our modern television landscape is great, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Sure, there are lots of channels and lots of dross to sift through (Bonekickers for instance), but good television is there for the taking.

And for me, right now, the good television is coming from yesteryear, thanks to the marvellous Alibi, part of UKTV’s channel rebranding (which seems to have made a laughing stock of Richard and Judy - oh well). While there might be the usual suspects rubbing shoulders on this archive channel - Waking the Dead, Spooks, New Tricks - there is one show that is sitting head and shoulders above the rest - Shoestring.

This is where a channel like Alibi comes into its own, and why I always used to love UK Gold - it would occasionally put out shows that have been rarely repeated since first transmission. Through these channels I discovered the joys of Survivors (the remake is almost upon us), Cribb, Callan and others. But Shoestring, for some reason, has remained somewhat mythical. I would have been eight when Trevor Eve’s first starring role came to BBC1 and pulled in huge audiences, but aside from a blink-and miss-it heavily edited daytime rerun in 2002, the show has remained resolutely unshown.

Just catching up on a few items in despatches form the last few days, but I was rather amused by Dr David Starkey’s somewhat scathing (and some would say justified) attack on The Tudors which, as regular readers will know, I absolutely adore. Although even I must admit, coming back for a third season without Natalie Dorma’s divine Anne Boleyn is going to be a tall order…

Starkey, speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, said of the historically inspired drama series:

“It is brutal dumbing down. It’s okay for the Americans to do it but is it ok for the BBC to wreck one of the greatest parts of history?”

While we were all over the UK launch of Disney’s High School Musical 2 when it aired on the Disney Channel last year, this week’s premiere of its sequel, High School Musical 3: Senior Year is something we’ve overlooked, not least because it’s a cinematic release and therefore outside The Stage’s remit.

However, the BBC’s best film critic, Radio 5Live and The Culture Show’s Mark Kermode, is on the case. The latest instalment from his video blog is one of the more, shall we say unusual reviews you’ll see — right up to (and beyond) the point where you think, “No… he isn’t… he wouldn’t… oh my god, he is”:

• BBC: Mark Kermode - High School Musical 3

My, that was a long show, wasn’t it? Twelve couples is a lot of dances to get through. Then again, it’s the same number of couples as we had last year when the male and female celebrities were united in week 3. And, looking back, I think the breadth of ability of the celebrities was broadly similar — we had some no-hopers, some people who could undoubtedly do better and one or two who clearly had potential to win. And we had one celebrity who was so bad that the public voted in droves to keep them in for sheer entertainment value.

That’s not to say that this year’s series is shaping up to be a retread of last year — far from it, in fact. Full reviews of all the competitive dances, with their now-customary video recaps, after the jump.