tv dinners

Tom Selleck’s photo has been used twice this week in the Guardian, first on an in-depth look at mustaches, and secondly, with news about Three Men and a Bride. According to Guttenberg he and Selleck and Danson are signing up for a remake, a la Mama Mia. That said, Guttenberg also sounded like such a hippie on It Takes Two this week, Claudia Winkleman didn’t know what to do with him.

Speaking of akward guests, Jessie Wallace was back on It Takes Two today and man is she bitter – I love it!

The Department Store – Peters

Now this is quality, fly on the wall (I mean compared to Louis Theroux) documentary. The Peters’ store in Huddersfield has been in administration before and Caroline and David are determined to get it back on track. Caroline is a beautifully strong character and I was enthralled by the OTT workplace drama. The finale is on BBC4 next Thursday.

24 Redemption

More good TV. Say what you will about Day Six (feel free, I hated it too), this two hours special was brilliant and proves Kiefer’s Jack Bauer can rise from the ashes again. Based in a fictional African country, Sangala, just before a US funded coup, the plot was typical 24, but made more believable by the setting, plus great acting from Robert Carlyle, Tony Todd and a scruffy looking Gil Bellows (remember Billy in Ally McBeal?).

Whether the freshness of this special can carry over to the next series is still unknown, but I’ll definitely be watching.

Jodie & Ian gone… so Christine & Matthew have stolen all the John Sergeant votes, damn, I guess maybe they’re just BBC votes after all.

Both x-factor and strictly suffered from Cranky Judges this week – pretty soon we’ll be voting for best sniping remark.

Lisa and Brendan

Arrghh! It’s shocking that Cherie Lunghi is out of the Strictly competition – but I’m relieved, Lisa and Brendan are my favourites, and definitely did not deserve to go – Lisa’s Latin dancing overall is better than Cherie and her ballroom comparable.

This puts John Sergeant in an unenviable position – why do people keep voting?? I’m over the ‘he’s very witty and ‘quite endearing’ now, this series of Strictly is too fierce to have people that can’t dance still in – what next, John in the final? John to win? Did anyone else notice he didn’t seem to be in the throng of dancers saying goodbye to Cherie at the end of the show? 

Finally – me and my shadow – whilst it’s remarkable Anton du Beke looks like Bruce Fosyth’s long lost love child, we really don’t need a re-enactment of old fashioned entertainment, book a proper act and stop all the pro dancers in front of them!

Wot else is on?

Risky Business

Crap business if you ask me. Neil Morrissey of Men Behaving Badly in another lifetime, is annoying, arrogant and lucky from what I’ve seen of this half property ladder, half Nuts-on-TV.

Nigella Feasts

Strictly not on TV, this series, filmed between Forever Summer and Nigella Express, has only been shown in US, Australia etc. It is an exact half-way point between the more serene earlier series and the latest camp outings from Nigella (don’t get me wrong, she’s entertaining and likeable in both). She’s as enthusiastic as ever, not OTT, and the recipes are from my favourite book of hers – FEAST is a must for any cook, and Nigella’s Christmas book is pretty great too. You can order the DVD from Australia, if you have a multi-region DVD player. Be warned though – to cater for the cultural cross over Nigella has to say, in one breath, ‘Add your spring onions/ scallions/green onions’ which at first is disconcerting. I’m used to all the US translations from watching Barefoot Contessa!

This clip from this week’s The Soup, is frankly, going to haunt me for at least a week.

Harry Hill’s TV Burp was good – more homely and positive than The Soup – perhaps because of the footage from Natural Born Sellers (“If you like the Apprentice, you’ll like the Apprentice”) below, but his power over UK tv celebs is still too incestuous for my liking.