The TV WEEK: Saturday 10th - Friday 16th September 2011

Saturday
6.10pm Strictly Come Dancing BBC1 - New series of the celebrity dance competion including Jason Donovan, Robbie Savage, Edwina Curry and hosted by Brucie and Tess.
9.45pm Making QI BBC2 - Behind the scenes documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the quiz.
Sunday
7.00pm Holding Out for a Hero ITV - Gethin Jones hosts a brand new quiz show in which contestants play to win money for someone else. Each contender is hoping to win the cash for someone they consider to be a hero, to support that person's work for charity. Whoever wins the most money will hand the winnings over to their own particular hero, a deserving person with an amazing story who supports a good cause.
8.00pm Rebirth Sky Atlantic - Documentary following five people who were profoundly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Time-lapse photography also reveals the regeneration of Ground Zero.
9.00pm The Children of 9/11 Channel 4 - Documentary that gives a voice to some of the young people who lost parents on that fateful day, many of whom are speaking out for the first time. Over the course of a year cameras have followed 11 children from six families across America, charting how one day's events touched children of all ages, religions and backgrounds.
Monday
2.15pm Celebrity MasterChef BBC1 - . This episode sees the first four celebrities undertake a range of culinary challenges in a bid to prove themselves to judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Amongst the contestants are actress and former model Linda Lusardi, and actor Nick Pickard, best known for playing Hollyoaks' longest serving character, Tony Hutchinson. Joining them is entrepreneur and founder of lingerie brand Ultimo, Michelle Mone, whilst Olympic sprinting champion Darren Campbell completes the line-up. The first challenge is a basic skills test, as the celebrities are tasked with filleting and cooking a flatfish in less than ten minutes.
8.00pm Little England ITV - Series meeting ex-pats who have settled in France.
9.00pm The Queen's Palaces BBC1 - Documentary series taking a look at HM the Queen's three official residences, telling their distinctive stories and examining the architecture and the treasures within.
9.00pm Doc Martin ITV - 8-part Fifth series of comedy drama series set in Cornwall that finds Doctor Martin Ellingham face his biggest challange yet as he becomes a father.
9.00pm Embarrasing Bodies Channel 4 - A brand new run of 5 episodes.
9.00pm Britain's Youngest Undertaker BBC3
10.00pm Rude Tube Chanel 4 - New series of the web series fronted by Alex Zane.
Tuesday
8.00pm Missing Millions ITV - Paul Heiney and Melanie Sykes present a new four-part series which aims to track down people who are entitled to a share of the 15 billion pounds lying unclaimed in Britain's bank vaults.
9.00pm The Body Farm BBC1 - Waking the Dead spin-off with Tara Fitzgerlad reprising her role as Forensic Pathologist Dr Eve Lockhart. When Eve gets a call from DI Craig Hale asking for her help to investigate an unusual crime scene, she sees an opportunity to bring much-needed funding to The Body Farm, but her decision to work with the police on real crime scenes will take her team out of their comfort zone.
9.00pm 71 Degrees North ITV - Second series of the celebrity reality series that sees 10 celebrities race from Norway 71 Degrees North. Celebs involved in the second series include Martin Kemp, Nicky Clarke, John Thompson and Brooke Kinsella.
9.00pm The Hairy Bikers' Meals on Wheels BBC2 - Dave and Si come face to face with the three biggest problems facing Meals on Wheels today - volunteer vacancies, the food and its out-dated, moth-eaten image.
10.35pm The Bomb Squad BBC1 - Documentary series following the work of specialist bomb disposal teams in Afghanistan.
11.05pm True Blood Channel 4 - Third series of the US Vampire Drama. With Bon Temps still reeling from the Maenads' reign of terror, Sookie begins her desperate quest to find Bill, while her friends face new threats that make their previous problems seem tame by comparison.
Wednesday
7.30pm Waterloo Road BBC1 - Return of the school based drama which sees the induction of new Head Michael Byrne who has  brought in by the education authority to turn the school around. But Michael literally bears the scars of his success following an attack at his previous school by the knife-carrying Wayne. Called to court to hear the verdict, Michael is appalled when his ex-pupil is acquitted of attempted murder, and vows to get revenge.
 8.30pm Planet Dinosaur BBC1 - For the first time on British television, the very latest dinosaur discoveries have been brought together and brought to life in this ground-breaking series. Featuring a cast of new dinosaurs that will feed the nation's nightmares, the next generation of children aren't going to be talking about Tyrannosaurus rex – they are about to meet far bigger, badder, more vicious characters that roamed the Earth 95 million years ago. The series starts in North Africa, where two of the world's biggest predators once battled for supremacy. At 13m and 7 tonnes, Carcharodontosaurus was a huge beast, a gigantic lizard-like carnivore with shark-like teeth more than 6 inches long. It was an efficient hunter that would slash at its prey until it bled to death.
 9.00pm Grand Designs Channel 4 - A brand new series hosted by Kevin McCloud starting with the "longest ever" Grand Design. Back in 2006, Stefan Lepkowsky and Annia Shabowska set out to transform a derelict mill cottage in the beautiful Northumberland countryside into a cutting-edge contemporary home. But this was never going to be a simple build...
10.00pm Best of British Channel 4 - 4-part Documentary series that follows the extraordinary journeys of Paralympians, or those hoping to be, in their sporting and private lives as they aim for selection for the 2012 London games.
Thursday
9.00pm Billy Connolly's Route 66 ITV - Four-part documentary that sees the comedian travel the famous 2488 mile long road from Chicago to Santa Monica.
9.00pm Young Soliders BBC3 - Documentary that follows a group of young men from their first day of Basic training all the way to their first day on the front line in Afghanistan.
Friday
8.00pm Love Your Garden ITV
9.00pm DCI Banks ITV - Full series following from last year's pilot of the crime drama starring Stephen Tompkinson comprising of 3 2-part stories. DCI Banks is called to a canal where there has been a fatal fire. The crime is far from straightforward, and as another body is discovered the motive, as well as the intended victim, become increasingly unclear. However, the discovery of what appears to be a Turner landscape suggests that at least one of the victim’s was involved in an art forgery scam
10.30pm Comedy Showcase: The Fun Police Chaannel 4 - Vic Reeves and Rhys Darby star in this larger-than-life sitcom, which follows the trials and tribulations of an incompetent health and safety team.

Red or Black? Why Should We Care??

A new game show format is always a difficult one. BBC1's recent attempts Scare the Hare and Epic Win have fallen flatter than a collapse at a pancake factory.  The last one I remember that worked was ITV1’s BAFTA winner and all round tension grabber The Cube. The Cube though wasn’t overly hyped and talked about before its premiere like ITV1’s latest brainwave Red or Black? Incase you were a bit slow on the uptake, and the appearances from Louis Walsh, Leona Lewis and One Direction weren’t a massive giveaway this is the latest money making idea from Simon Cowell. The premise is a simple one, contestants watch games and decide whether Red or Black will win. The games are so simple. Decide whether the detonator that will send David Hassellhoff hundreds of feet in the air is Red or Black.. Sod that just shoot him into the sky! Another “challenge” saw contestants forced to watch Leona Lewis perform her new single whilst her dancers swapped suitcases.

Ignoring all the plugs for other Simon Cowell productions the main problem with Red or Black was that it wasn’t interesting or engrossing enough for the viewer at home.  It didn't matter how much drama or dramatic music they used I still didn’t care either way whether the outcome was Red or Black. I could perhaps understand it was interesting or slightly exciting if you were playing the game yourself but as the 6million people who gave the first episode a chance weren’t it fell flat. The X Factor style sob stories from those taking part didn’t ingratiate them into my affections any further why should I care if they need a new fridge freezer or would like to take the family to America if they won the million pound prize.

Unlike the Cube, which is truly gripping watching the participants attempt what appear to be simple challenges and crumble under the pressure Red or Black requires no skill or tactics at all. If you taught a parrot to say Red and Black they would stand just as much chance at scooping the million as anyone on the panel. After years of the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent we’re all well aware of the production teams attempts to over dramatize situations but in the case of Red or Black there wasn’t enough going on to keep me watching.

If I was to over analyze the basis of the series further I could say that it sent out the message that gambling is OK and that anyone with the skill of distinguishing between two different colours could win but its not important what’s important is the fact that I’ll never get that initial 90mins back!

For some strange reason ITV have decided to dedicate an entire week of the Autumn schedule to this banal piece of Television but on the upside it means I can catch up on what the BBC and Channel 4 are offering.

Red or Black continues all week on ITV1

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Outnumbered: Not the run of the Mill Family sitcom

The cast of Outnumbered

The term “family comedy” has taken a beating in recent years. Its almost become a dirty phrase. Oh its not a family sitcom is it? I prefer my comedy a little more highbrow. A comedy about family life should be one of the easiest things to pull of given that we’ve all lived in families at some point. What tends to happen though is that families are painted in an unrealistic manner and every single time a new family sitcom appears it follows the same predictable and stale “comedy by numbers” format. The dad is the buffoon who is always hiding something from the wife, the wife is the concerned parent always sticking her nose in her children’s lives or she’s a high powered businesswoman who runs the house in a mad panic and the kids are either precocious little so-and-sos who know far too much for their own good or sulky teenagers who only appear on screen occasionally to tell us how embarrassing their parents are who difficult their lives are. The problem with all this though is that whilst its based on something we’re all familiar with it doesn’t ever feel like we’re watching a real family. Its not so much watching a family like those who might live next door but one which has been over exaggerated and therefore ends up resembling a family of stereotypical clowns rather than Mr. and Mrs. 2.4 Children. With the axing of BBC1’s long running joke My Family this year we are at least minus one of these banal attempts at hilarity but the BBC1’s other series to never stray to far away from the format Life of Riley appears to be returning a new series. Ah well.

You can imagine my absolute delight when one evening in 2007 (don’t ask me specifics on the evening but I believe I was wearing a black jumper) when I happened upon a brand new family comedy. Admittedly I’d missed any news on this in the listings, otherwise I’d’ve probably gone out for the evening. Entitled Outnumbered, on the surface at least appeared to be yet another attempt to use the same old format with a new cast. The truth is though Outnumbered attracted my attention almost immediately as it quickly dawned on me that whoever was behind this show had done it! They’d made a comedy that felt real, that was relatable and even more amazingly it strayed away from the plots and the pit falls that so many before it had fallen into. Unusually here the children were the stars of the show. Right from the word go Outnumbered felt real, warm and like we were watching the first truly relatable comedy family. Delving a little a bit deeper into the background of the series I discovered that the show was partly improvised which is what gave it its off the cuff and real feel. The children are told the storyline and where to go with it but not asked to memorize any lines. This was a revelation, bordering on genius because what it meant was that instead of some 40 year old writer sat in office trying to remember what kids were like what was portrayed here was something we’d never seen before in family comedy. Put simply it was genuine. The one flaw of Series one was the odd scheduling. The BBC seemed unsure where Outnumbered fit and so they strangely placed the first 3 episodes over consecutive evenings and then the last three in a further slot of consecutive evenings.



Needless to say by the end of the first series I was hooked. I’d never seen a family comedy that appeared so effortless before. The Children were so loveable and everything about it was likeable and unpretentious.

Four series in Outnumbered has gained popularity and the seat of the pants style still works as well as it did back in 2007.

On Friday night as BBC1’s My Family limped to its finish, Outnumbered returned for an impressive fifth run. As a fan of the series I looked forward to it but wondered if a show that relied on the innocence and believability of its young cast could work now that the kids are getting older.


Of course things have changed since the last run, Ben’s voice has broken, Jake has become a proper teenager and Karen’s older and wiser. These changes don’t appear (based solely on the first episode that saw the Brockman Family head to Uncle Bob’s funeral) to have had any damaging effect on the quality of or the partly improvised feel of the show. If anything it was a bit more relatable now that the children are older. Daniel Roche, Ramona Marquez and Tyger Drew-Honey are still the stars with highlights including Ben confusing a Hog roast for a cremation and Karen’s obsession that uncle Bob may not actually be dead.

The series is warm, genuine, naturally funny and lives in a world we can all relate to and that’s why it works so brilliantly. Outnumbered makes it OK to love family comedy again and for that I will enjoy it for as long as the Beeb wants me to.

More on the Show
Buy Outnumbered on DVD

Life's Too Short: The First Trailer

The first look at the new project from Ricky Gervias and Stephen Merchant that follows the life of Showbiz Dwarf Warick Davis

The TV WEEK: Saturday 3rd - Friday 9th September 2011

Saturday
7.00pm Red or Black? ITV - Ant and Dec present a brand new TV event in which ordinary people get the chance to become millionaires. All week, contestants have the chance to spin the Red or Black? wheel and answer the simple question - red or black? Ten correct answers stand between them and a million pounds. Each day 1,000 hopefuls go from the Red or Black? Arena at Wembley to another spectacular UK location to take part in a series of challenges which will whittle their numbers down. Eight make it through to the next stage, but only two can go head-to-head in the final later in the evening with the first results show airing at 9.15pm. Continues all week with 2 shows a night.
9.45pm The Jonathan Ross Show ITV - New chat show with guests Lewis Hamilton, Sarah Jessica Parker and singer Adele.
Sunday
6.30pm Nature's Miracle Babies BBC1 - Series in which zoologist and presenter Martin Hughes-Games travels the world to discover how species on the brink of extinction are being protected by dedicated and passionate people. He starts his journey in China where, without the extraordinary advances in reproductive science, the country's most visible symbol - the giant panda - would be extinct. He also follows the stories of the pied tamarin, the tiny and tenacious monkey teetering on the edge of extinction, and the threatened one-horned Asian rhino.
8.30pm Inspector George Gently BBC1 - Return of the period crime drama centering around the discovery of the body of a missing school girl.
9.00pm World's Most Dangerous Roads BBC2 - Comedian Sue Perkins and adventurer Charley Boorman travel across Alaska to the notorious Dalton Highway - a dirt track built in the 1970s as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
9.00pm Appropriate Adult ITV - 2-part drama about the intense and complex relationship between serial killer Fred West and housewife Janet Leach, whose life is dramatically changed when she is asked to act as West's 'appropriate adult' while he is in custody. Almost immediately after Janet begins working with West, he makes a shocking confession of murder - but she cannot tell the police because of her obligation of confidentiality. As West reveals more to her - while refusing to divulge information to the police - Janet feels forced to give him an ultimatum: she will leave the case unless he co-operates.
10.00pm The Grumpy Guide to Driving BBC2
Monday
8.00pm Ground Zero Mosque Channel 4 - BAFTA Award-winning director Dan Reed untangles the hysteria, fury and politics surrounding the 'Mosque at Ground Zero'. His film explores how this proposed mosque and Islamic community centre, two blocks away from the site of the 9/11 attacks in lower Manhattan, has thrown into sharp focus the tensions at the core of American democracy regarding the country's Muslim population.
8.30pm The Real Hustle BBC3 - Return of the scam series.
9.00pm How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring BBC2 - The story of how the Arab world erupted in revolution, as a new generation used the internet and social media to try to overthrow their hated leaders. In the first of this two-part series, Mishal Husain charts events in Tunisia and Egypt by meeting those who led the revolts and showing the unique footage they shot.
9.00pm 9/11: Emergency Room Channel 4 - Documentary that tells of the emergency treatment of the injured that took place in and around the World Trade Center as the jets crashed and the towers fell on the morning of 9/11. Many lost their lives in the attacks, but there were also thousands of evacuating office workers and emergency responders who were burned, crushed, impaled, lacerated, blinded and traumatised. Many had life-threatening injuries. With access to new footage and testimony from those on the ground, 9/11: Emergency Room reveals how lives were saved.
Tuesday
7.00pm Euro 2012 Qualifiers ITV
9.00pm Catch Me If You Can: Armed Robbers BBC1 -  Narrated by Philip Glenister, this is part of a series of Crimewatch specials examining how investigators stay one step ahead of the most professional and ruthless criminals.
9.00pm Adopting Abroad: Saira's Story BBC2 - First of the two documentaries that follow Saira Khan and her husband Steve on their journey to adopt a baby girl from an orphanage in Karachi, Pakistan. Concludes Thursday
9.00pm Don't Tell the Bride BBC3 - Return of the series where a groom organizes his wedding.
10.35pm The Twins of the Twin Towers BBC2 - Documentary that features the accounts of some of the 46 twins including Zachary Fletcher, a New York City Fire Fighter who lost his fellow fire fighter and twin brother Andre in the south tower; Gregory Hoffman, who was on the phone to his twin Stephen as the second plane hit; and former NYPD undercover cop Lisa DeRienzo, who lost her brother Michael. As a broker, Michael believed he was the one with the safe job. These and other compelling testimonies make for a profound and powerful tale, which strikes at the heart of what it is to be not only a twin but also a human being, and reminds us why the world can never forget the events of September 11 2001.
Wednesday
9.00pm Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill Channel 4 - The most complete story yet of the operation to find and kill Osama Bin Laden. A stellar cast of White House insiders speak on camera, including the first extraordinary documentary interview with President Barack Obama on the subject. From the anxiety-drenched minutes in the White House Situation Room to the deadly stairwells of Bin Laden's secret labyrinth, cinematic dramatisations take viewers deep inside one of the most important moments of our era, showing the US Navy Seals coming face to face with the most wanted man in history.
9.00pm Claire Richards: Slave to Food Skyliving - Former Steps star Claire Richards attempts to discover the real reason she never wins her battle with weight, as cameras gain access to her life over the course of a year.
Thursday
9.00pm 9/11: The Conspiricay Road Trip BBC3 - Andrew Maxwell, a comedian, believes in the findings of the official investigation, which claim the responsibility for the attack lies with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. He thinks the conspiracies theories are unsubstantiated nonsense. So in this film he offers to take five young Brits, who believe some of these conspiracy theories, on a road-trip from New York to Washington. They visit Ground Zero where two planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, home of vast American defence HQ and Shanksville in Pennsylvania where United 93 crashed.
Friday
9.30pm Would I Lie To You? BBC1 - Fifth series of the panel game fronted by Rob Brydon with team Captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack. David is joined by Rebecca Front and Jack Whitehall, and Lee is joined by Nick Hewer and Miranda Hart.
10.00pm QI BBC2 - The panel game fronted by Stephen Fry returns to its original home on BBC2 with the I series.
10.30pm Comedy Showcase: Coma Girl Channel 4 -Single-camera comedy that follows a group of female friends united by a shared history but divided by almost everything else. Most friends meet for dinner, or at the pub, but for these four old school friends their monthly get together is in the unsettling surroundings of an intensive care unit. Siobhan is a failing TV presenter, Sarah is a rather reluctant mother of three, Pip is a pseudo bohemian and Lucy, well, Lucy is in a coma. After the initial shock, the group soon realise that Lucy is in dire need of help, if only they could provide it.