Coronation Street (Friday 8.30pm, ITV1)
Dev buys the kebab shop, and Amber is furious. Um, do we sense that pre-Christmas lull running through the soaps at the moment?
Gavin and Stacey (Friday 9.30pm, BBC1)
Ahead of the much-anticipated Christmas special, the other big success story of BBC3’s comedy output is promoted to the heady heights of BBC1 for a welcome repeat of the just-as-good-as-the-first second series. The more people that see this show the better, as it’s absolutely stonking, with Ruth Jones and James Corden’s scripts hitting the right note between sweet and subversive. If there’s one criticism, Gavin and Stacey themselves take a back seat for much of the series, but blame the writers for creating such a lovable and well-drawn group of characters. Brilliant.
The IT Crowd (Friday 10pm, C4)
Graham Linehan’s always-enjoyable comedy returns for a third run, but as before, it still leaves me yearning for the vibrancy and wit of his Dylan Moran collaboration, Black Books. Still, I’ll take what I can get (and compared to Clone, The IT Crowd looks like vintage Galton and Simpson). Roy, Moss and Jen are still stuck in the basement, attending to the IT needs of Reynholm Industries, while Douglas (Matt Berry) does his level best to run his father’s company into the ground. This week, Moss gets some tuition in how to stand up to bullies.
Merlin (Saturday 7.25pm, BBC1)
This show has really hit its stride, with last week’s undead extravaganza being a real turning point. This week, Merlin’s home village is under attack from bandits, and the boy wizard, naturally, races home to help. But will Uther let Arthur ride into battle for his most loyal of servants? Probably not, but that’s what bad tempered fathers are for, isn’t it? Good, fun stuff that is finally discovering an edge.
Outnumbered (Saturday 9.10pm, BBC1)
Best. Comedy. On. TV. Watch it!!!!!
Einstein and Eddington (Saturday 9.10pm, BBC2)
Slightly odd scheduling - this HBO/BBC co production has a mid-week feel to it - but it’s a cracking piece of telly nevertheless. Andy Serkis and David Tennant (never heard of ‘em) star as scientists Albert Einstein and Arthur Eddington, the two men responsible for one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time. Einstein, toiling over his work into the theory of relativity, strikes up a correspondence with Eddington, Director of the Cambridge Observatory. Together they seek to break down geographical boundaries in a difficult age, with Eddington sounding a lone voice in speaking up for the German physicist’s work. Beautifully acted by two of our finest performers, with a script by Peter Moffatt (Hawking), there is more than The X Factor worth staying in for this Saturday.
Rolf Harris Night (Sunday from 7pm, BBC4)
It’s an evening of programmes devoted to Rolf Harris - what more needs to be said? The evening culminates in a new Mark Lawson Talks To… interview with the beloved presenter and painter at 10pm.
Survivors (Sunday 9pm, BBC1)
Well, this is going to be interesting. This is not so much a remake of Terry Nation’s (no, he didn’t create Doctor Who, just the Daleks, okay?) 70s disaster series, but more a take on the novel the writer penned to go alongside it. I suspect something to do with rights issues there. Still, this modern Survivors has a lot going for it, with a cast that includes Julie Graham (washing Bonekickers right out of her hair), Freema Agyeman and Max Beesley. When a virus wipes out much of the world’s population, survivor Abby Grant (Graham) sets out to find her young son, encountering danger, friends and enemies along the way. Interesting stuff…
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