Monday isn’t usually the day of the week when you’re spoilt for choice in the TV schedules, but tonight seems to be an exception, with a whole heap of quality programming vying for your attention.
Channel 4 kicks us off with a new series proper of Come Dine With Me at 5.30pm (following last week’s celebrity edition), which is always welcome, with the daytime version being infinitely superior to its evening cousin. Following this, Homer discovers the joys of gaydom at 6.00pm in The Simpsons.
BBC Two is screening a special at 7.00pm, looking at last year’s Liverpool Capital of Culture. I went to see the big spider and it was fantastic, so I’ll be tuning in for that – and to see all the stuff I missed. At 8.00 and 10.00pm, Channel 4 will be kicking out another housemate in Celebrity Big Brother, whilst another week of Masterchef kicks off at 8.30pm on BBC Two. After two weeks of putting the right people through (the fierce and the fit), will they continue with the run of lowculture friendly semi-finalists?
9.00pm sees three big hitters up against each other, as quality BBC One drama Hunter concludes and surprisingly good (so far…) ITV drama Unforgiven reaches the halfway stage. They’re up against the first show in Channel 4′s Big Food Fight, and the first outing for the channel’s new signing, Heston Blumenthal. In Big Chef Takes on Little Chef our gadget loving hero takes on the greasy former favourite to try and stop it going the way of Woolworths and MFI. It runs for three consecutive evenings and is worth a watch for the Little Chef staff alone.
Later on this evening, BBC Three pre-empts Channel 4′s new run of Supersize vs Superskinny (starts tomorrow, 8.00pm) with My 22 Stone Dad and Skinny Me, essentially the same programme but with a family ‘twist’ – and on at 10.00pm, so perhaps with added swearing. BBC Two is showing the ‘mission documentary’ episode of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe at 11.00pm.
With TV, radio and the cinema all being brilliant at the moment, it may be worth recording some things now and saving them to play in the lean months we’re bound to have in the spring and summer, because January and February are going to be the gifts that keep on giving, entertainment-wise. Honestly.
