Britz, Wednesday, 9pm, Channel 4

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
This is an ambitious, quality two-part drama from Peter Kosminsky, the multi Bafta-winning writer/director who also made the acclaimed The Government Inspector – about Dr David Kelly and those pesky, mysterious weapons of mass destruction.

He's into similarly weighty material here with Britz, which centres on two young British-born Muslims, brother and sister Sohail and Nasima, played by Riz Ahmed (The Road to Guantanamo) and Manjinder Virk (Bradford Riots).

Ambitious, patriotic Sohail is a law student who joins MI5 and goes undercover to crack a terrorist cell. He finds himself increasingly conflicted by the contradictions involved in national security, snooping on friends, racial profiling and the erosion of Muslims' human rights.

His intriguing, complex story plays out against a backdrop of post-7/7 Britain. But this is not a chin-stroking Newsnight debate – there is real human interest and emotion provided by an excellent script and stand-out performances. So, 120 minutes of this tonight, and another 120 minutes tomorrow – this is a show that requires a commitment of time as well as intellect.

Part 2 is even better, as we follow Nasima's credible and heart-breaking journey from keen young medical student through angry young woman, fed up with British foreign policy and policing, to alienation and shocking radicalism. It's to the actor's credit that she manages to keep us empathising with the character even as she goes way off the reservation.

An excellent, worthy, heavy way to spend four hours of your life.

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Tuesday 9pm, Channel 4

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Our rating:
Get your swear-boxes ready: crinkle-headed serial pottymouth Gordon Ramsay is back. Admit it, you did kind of miss him, didn’t you?

The opener of the new series of Kitchen Nightmares sees the scariest chef in Christendom attempting to save a posh Brighton seafood restaurant called Ruby Tate’s, run by former musical actor and luvvie Allan Love.

Ruby Tate’s is going down the pan faster than you can say “these oysters taste like boiled sick”. Or, as Gordon puts it while menacingly sharpening some knives, "Alan's PONCY restaurant offers very expensive badly-cooked seafood, STUPID decor and a MEANINGLESS name". (Shouty capitals, speaker’s own.)

Allan is in denial that anything is wrong. “I’m not in denial,” responds Allan when Gordon confronts him. Later, however, he breaks down, admitting that he’s having to put his house on the market to finance his sinking ship. Gordon softens up (it’s quite touching, really) and instead directs his wrath at the restaurant’s two slacker chefs.

As expected, the swearing is particularly fantastic: Ramsay’s is as illustrious as ever, but he’s boosted by the supporting cast, who are all equally foul-mouthed. What with all the cussing, a good amount of fighting and a real emotional heart – thanks to Allan’s predicament – it’s all fabulously entertaining.

The programme’s triumphant finale strikes a peculiar note though, as Allan gets on the mic for a rendition of ‘My Way’. We’re reminded that all the new ideas and changes to the restaurant – many of which Allan didn’t agree with – are Ramsay’s. It seems an odd choice of song.

SEE ALSO
Gordon's most shocking moments >>

The Armstrong and Miller Show, Friday 9pm, BBC1

Posted by Helen Jennings

Preview rating:
It’s been 10 years since Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller first brought their double act to TV. The Armstrong and Miller Show attracted a cult viewing audience to Channel 4 for several series but the comedians decided to part company in 2001.

Since then they’ve both been doing rather well for themselves, thank you very much.  Ben starred in Steve Coogan’s film The Parole Officer, TV hits Johnny English and The Worst Week of My Life and also provided the voice of Monkey, the ITV Digital primate resurrected in the recent PG Tips adverts. Meanwhile Alexander has busied himself with Have I Got News for You, Life Begins, the quiz show Don't Call Me Stupid and, of course, those Pimms commercials.

But now they’re back together again and have been rewarded with a prime-time Friday night slot on BBC1. It doesn’t get any more mainstream than this – so can they still pull it off?

If their rehearsals are anything to go by, yes they can. New sketches include spoofs of Who Do You Think You Are? and Hell’s Kitchen, a dentist who tells inappropriate stories while attending to his patients and a pair of WWII pilots who talk like teenagers, thus:

Nazi officer: “I can and will use force to extract information from you.”
Pilot: “You actually can’t because that’s against the Geneva Convention, and s***.”

Together, their humour pokes fun at British society – and you’ll be relieved to hear they’re still fond of a swear word or two. The question is, after all these years, are they still prepared to strip off and bring back the infamous naked vets of Nude Practice? Watch and see.

SEE ALSO:
Russell Brand's top shocks

Richard & Judy’s best kids’ books, Thursday 8pm, Channel 4

Posted by Helen Jennings

Preview rating:
Who died and made Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan the king and queen of contemporary fiction? It’s an as-yet unsolved mystery but nevertheless they have indeed become the most important figures in UK book publishing. I know, it’s frightening.

Publishers clamber to have their titles included in the Book Club section of the couple’s daily show because it guarantees that sales will rocket – and although you’d have to be a total snob to boycott the authors and novels making it onto the list, many still scrape off the glaring ‘Richard & Judy’ sticker on the dustcover as soon as they’re past the tills. For shame…

Richard & Judy’s Book Club has proved so successful that they’ve now launched a junior version. On tonight’s programme, part of the Lost for Words season on Channel 4, Richard & Judy recommend a gamut of books, authors Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson turn up for a chat, and celebrity mums Melinda Messenger (former page 3 stunna) and Tana Ramsay (wife of Gordon) road-test some of the titles on their own children.

Of course, anything that gets the nation’s young minds reading is admirable, and god bless Richard & Judy for using their influence for the greater good with this latest literary mission. But (and you knew there’d be a but) it's still staggering that it takes a couple of TV presenters to lure tiny tykes away from, well, the TV, and into the pages of a book. I’m sure there’s some delicious irony in that equation somewhere.

SEE ALSO:
Top 10 embarrassing chat show moments

Michael Jackson: What Really Happened, Wednesday 10pm, Channel 4

By Brian Charles

Our rating:
Cracking stuff this: bizarre, disturbing, really well written – and the interviewees are excellent.

Filmmaker Jacques Peretti, who says he is a lifelong fan of Jacko, looks at the crushing fall of the man we once called the King of Pop.

The stuff about the court cases is pretty well-known, but what makes this film really disturbing is the allegation that Jackson's bizarre relationships with young boys required the complicit cooperation of a loose network of parents (desperate to get their youngsters on the showbiz ladder), casting agents and MJ employees.

Nobody, needless to say, comes out of it very well, and you do have to wonder just what sort of person would let their kid head over to Uncle Michael's to play, several years after Jordan Chandler had become a household name.

The interviews with two of the journalists who doggedly pursued the case, to the detriment of their own careers and happiness, add further sauce. But the final trump card is Randy Taraborrelli, identified by the film as a “lifelong friend” of Jackson and identified by me after five seconds on a search engine as a celebrity biographer who's done a book on Jacko.

Mr Taraborrelli, and indeed most of the other interviewees – MJ's manager, the investigative reporters – have made a living out of the Jackson industry. Much is made of the fact that having parted ways with Jackson, the ex-manager is now on skid row. Is the crappy wallpaper in his bungalow Jackson's fault, too?

I'm not saying the film is unfair, just that a lot of those interviewees look like they've got an axe to grind. With such a staggeringly weird story to tell, you hardly need to load the dice any more, as it were, and it might have been nice to see somebody try to defend the indefensible.

Gripping programme, though.

Brat Camp, Tuesday 10pm, Channel 4

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Preview rating:
If life has taught me nothing else, I know this: there is nothing more satisfying than seeing an irritating oik being put in their place. Welcome back, Brat Camp.

Tonight’s episode features 15-year-old Natasha Whitlock, a terror from Bognor whose rap sheet (happy slapping, underage boozing, getting arrested for shoplifting) reads like a Daily Mail reader’s worst nightmare. Despite her daughter’s antisocial ways, mother Montana treats her like a princess. Her affectionate gestures are not reciprocated.

There is, of course, only one thing for it: a trip to the Arizona Desert for a bit of wilderness therapy. Unlike previous series, this time Natasha is accompanied by her mother, for some proper outdoor bonding, just like in the movies.

But the two get split up as well. Montana undergoes a Native American ritual called "blanket stepping" to help her stop blaming others for her failings. Meanwhile young Natasha – getting the rough end of the stick, we feel – is forced to hike alone with a 20kg backpack as the sun beats down on, then camp in rough terrain while temperatures sink to minus 10 degrees.

This series promises to focus on mothers and how they treat their children, which definitely sounds like a more grown-up approach. Let’s hope such serious intentions don’t come at the cost of stamping on the brats until they beg for mercy. Ahem.

SEE ALSO:
TV's most memorable moments

Fanny Hill, Monday, 9pm, BBC4

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
I don't know if it's something in the way I walk, but whenever I'm asked to preview a TV show, said show always seems to be heavy on the sauce. My recent run has been The Tudors, Californication, The Really Honestly Truly Believable Secret Diary Of A Call Girl... and now, Fanny Hill.

The BBC's latest lavish costume drama is adapted from the 18th century novel of the same name, regarded by many as the first example of erotic fiction and swiftly banned. A very lovely Rebecca Night plays Fanny (I know, I know) a simple country girl who comes to London and is soon lured into working at a brothel, run by Alison Steadman’s no-nonsense madam, Mrs Brown.

The adaptation is by the always-excellent Andrew Davies (Tipping the Velvet, Take A Girl Like You) and, as is his wont, he attacks the disreputable novel with relish. In the first half hour Fanny (stop it now) has had a sex act not suitable for description on a family website performed on her by one of her fellow working girls – twice – and had to fight off a grotesque old customer to keep her “honour”. They're saving her virginity for a high-roller, you see. Nice.

Fanny promptly falls in love with a hunky young visitor to the brothel and the pair run away together. I need hardly add that they don't live happily ever after.

The series looks like good rompy fun, basically. Although there isn't a massive amount of plot and the characters can all pretty much be summed up in one word each, it's still the sort of thing the BBC does better than anyone else. So, yeah, give it a go.

SEE ALSO:
TV's top 10 steamy moments >>

Katie and Peter: Unleashed, Friday 9pm, ITV2

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Preview rating:
Tonight sees the unleashing of Katie Price, aka Jordan, onto our screens, reborn as a TV presenter.

Although you might think the combined intellectual might of Ms Price and her husband Peter “the wit” Andre would produce a programme simply too highbrow for your average viewer, from what we’ve read, it sounds like Jordan may just be using the show as a forum to air her views on her contemporaries. Check it out:

On Victoria Beckham
“Her skin has always been bad. If she looks rough, she shouldn’t go out like it. She craves attention. What is she without David? Name me five things she’s done apart from The Spice Girls and a pair of jeans and a perfume?”

On Madonna
“I think she is very fit but I do think she is a bit too muscular in some pictures.”

On Dannii Minogue
“Her Botox makes her look frozen.”

Actually, this sounds quite entertaining. I might just tune in.

SEE ALSO:
Most embarrassing chat show moments >>

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Wednesday 11.45pm, Channel 4

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Our rating:
If you think you're experiencing a feeling of déjà vu, well, that's exactly what it is. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has its Channel 4 debut tonight, almost three months after it first graced our screens on 4's sister channel, More4.

Cards on table: I loved The West Wing so much I still have a framed picture of the cast hanging in my house. I’m not even joking. So it’s no surprise that I think Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the work of West Wing writer and creator Aaron Sorkin, is quality stuff. To be honest, he could hold a bogey in front of a camera for an hour and it would still be brilliant television.

As live show ‘Studio 60’ gets underway, executive producer Wes Mendell has a barney with some tight-ass network mogul who wants to ditch one of the show’s sketches. Mendell barges onto the set and embarks on a dialogue about how satire has been castrated by a cowardly network.

Inevitably, he gets fired and new company president Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) drafts in a pair of hotshot gunslingers, Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, who instantly start rattling out brilliant lines. But it’s Peet who’s the big surprise. Reduced for years to playing bimbos in Hollywood crud like The Whole Nine Yards, she’s luminous as the sass-tastic company president who smiles at her quarry like she’s in love with them.

You can see why the Americans didn’t take to it - Sorkin’s trademark smart-talking script tries to convince you that media folk are articulate, likeable and funny, when everyone knows we’re all arrogant misanthropic scumbags. But as with The West Wing itself (what, you think the people who run the White House are all that brainy?), suspend your disbelief and you’re well away.

SEE ALSO:
Wogan defends "trouser bulge"
Top 10 most embarrassing chat show moments

The love doctor

Posted by Will Parkhouse

<Spoiler alert>
Ah, the poor brooding Doctor, still distraught over the loss of his old companion Rose. Will he ever recover from the painful heartbreak he suffered after she disappeared into an alternate world? And don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Well, yes, he does get back in the game apparently, because (fanfare) Kylie Minogue’s character is set to snog the Doc in the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special. Set aboard the Titanic, which has been turned into a spaceship by evil villain Max Capricorn – it probably seems more plausible when Russell T Davies explains it – the episode sees David Tennant’s character stowing away and bumping into waitress Astrid (one for the anagram fans there), played, of course, by Ms Minogue.

The duo then have to save the earth, one of those tasks which, in our experience, often leads to a bit of romance. Sadly, in this case, it’s doomed - Astrid doesn’t make it out alive, possibly because her alter ego has to go back to her day job (being a pint-sized pop princess and attending glitzy premieres).

But at least they get to lock lips along the way, eh? “Dr Who is one lucky, lucky, lucky time traveller,” one salivating show insider told The Sun. “Who wouldn’t want to be snogged by Kylie?” You sound a bit creepy, “insider”, but it’s a fair point.
<end spoiler>

SEE ALSO:

Davina McCall turns 40

Dragons' Den, Monday 9pm, BBC2

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Preview rating:
I was tempted to go to the pub this evening, but the new series of Dragons’ Den starts tonight and for that reason, as Duncan Bannatyne has been known to say, I’m in.

Why is this show – now in its fifth series – so good? Perhaps because we’ve all been there. By “there”, I don’t mean making crackpot business presentations to five hard-nosed millionaires. But the experience of standing up in front of a panel of scary people in an attempt to convince them that you’re not a gibbering idiot, whether it’s a job interview or playing the shepherd in the school nativity play, must be pretty common.

The new series also welcomes a new Dragon, in the form of one James Caan. Sadly he’s not the guy who played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, although surely the BBC can see the potential in Dragons’ Den Mafia Edition, with its ready-made “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse” catchphrase.

Anyway, we’re expecting the highlight of tonight’s opener to be the pitch by David Beckham lookalike Andy Harmer. He’s trying to get his mitts on £100,000 to fund his “celebrity doubles experience” and brings along pals “Johnny Depp” and “Will Smith” to help convince the Dragons. Despite his pretty boy looks, you don’t envy him.

Californication, Thursday 10pm, Five

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
I can scarcely bring myself to type out a description of just how heartbreaking you will find this new series. It details the plight of Hank Moody, a witty and handsome writer in his forties whose critically-acclaimed novel has been turned into a cheesy Hollywood blockbuster. They've butchered his work, you see. Butchered, you hear me! And now he has writer's block. It's just too, too sad.

Hank seeks solace in the only way he knows how: roaming the expensive restaurants and bars of Los Angeles and rogering a series of exceptionally attractive women, all of whom get their kit off on mere mention of his book/film or, in extreme cases, just one sniff of his brooding I'm-David-Duchovny-and-I've-still-got-it-no-wrinkles-
here-no-sir-and-don't-you-dare-call-me-a-poor-man's-
Warren-Beatty schtick.

Sometimes, the husbands of the attractive women come home and Hank has to make good his escape. In his Porsche. His plight is too pitiful for words. His ex, The One Woman He Really Loves has got his number and is marrying A Boring Guy; the daughter he has with The One Woman is channelling Wednesday Addams and shaping to go fully off the rails.

Poor Hank. He seems to have it all... but there is an emptiness within him that crushes him like, say, a 50-ton anvil of yet another series billed as "the male Sex And The City" smashing you in the face.

Hank: cheer up, enjoy your several funny lines and snazzy camerawork and, er, stop whining. It's not dignified for a man your age, no-one's sympathising and it could become extremely boring to watch.

Nigella Express, Monday 8.30pm, BBC2

Posted by Helen Jennings

Tasty rating:
Nigella Lawson is loved and hated in equal measure for her “food porn” antics, which she gets up to in abundance in her latest TV series, Nigella Express. But her tag as everyone’s favourite gourmet poster girl is taken to new lengths in the latest issue of men’s magazine Esquire.

Pictured wrapped in tin foil – yes, the silver stuff you tuck around your Sunday roast – and pouting for the camera, it’s steamy stuff. Those who actually manage to peel their eyes away from these tantalising images long enough to read the accompanying feature will be further aroused to discover her discussing her taste in lingerie. “Stockings never fail to make you feel sexy. I have actually worn them with nothing but a pair of shoes in bed,” she reveals.

Nigella adds that she likes her men to be of the bear variety (“I like an animal. Hairy back. Hairy everywhere,”) and that she fancies footballers: “I only have to hear John Terry and Frank Lampard talk and I swoon.”

The “culinary crumpet” also says that with Nigella Express, she hopes to get away from her “blow-up sexy doll” image. Hmm, I don’t think confessing to the contents of your frillies drawer (she also likes over-the-knee French schoolgirl socks, by the way) is really going to help shed that oh-so-terrible stigma is it, Ms Lawson?

And neither is the show itself. In the latest programme, we watch as she wakes up in bed (presumably wearing heels, although they’re hidden from view under the covers), saunters down to the kitchen in a dressing gown and whips up a breakfast so calorific it would make a deep fried Mars bar look like a healthy, Way-to-Five snack. If she’s not popping to Waitrose in a cab (as you do), or dipping her saucy fingers in to dessert gloop, she’s got a bun in the oven or making a midnight snack fit for the entire Chelsea footie team.

The premise of the show, of course, is that she loves food and loves eating, but doesn’t have the time to cook elaborate meals each evening. And now we know why. She’s too busy coaxing her millionaire husband into wrapping her up in Bacofoil. Phwoar, etc.

Photo of Nigella Lawson by Sean McMenomy

The full feature can be seen in the November issue of Esquire, on-sale tomorrow

The Kylie Show

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Blimey, it’s all about Kylie at the moment, ain’t it? A Q Idol Award (no, it’s not for extreme laziness), the premiere of her new single '2 Hearts' on GMTV (and subsequently YouTube), the announcement that she’ll be celebrating her pop comeback with a TV special – and it’s still only Wednesday!

The hour-long show – an ITV1 one-off – sounds fairly intriguing. Yeah, yeah, so Kylie says it’ll feature “a mixture of old songs, new songs” (revolutionary, eh?), but the thing that makes it sound a bit different is that the miniature one and her creative director are talking about how each track will be accompanied by a "visual experience”.

ITV are talking it up, too, saying that producers are “pushing the boundaries to create an original and visually breathtaking piece of entertainment." What in the name of Jason Donovan can they be planning?

Louis Theroux – Under the Knife, Sunday 9pm, BBC2

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Our rating:
Michael Moore may go after the pharmaceutical companies and the President himself, but Britain’s very own king of the documentarians is still best suited to tackling crazy Americans. Riddled as they often are with delusion and insecurity, Californian plastic surgeons and their patients are perfect material for Louis Theroux.

There were some good moments in Under the Knife – the best, perhaps, being Louis’s encounter with Dr Nikolas Chugay and one of his “creations”, Steve. Chugay is a Russian in a pinstriped suit blessed with BobMonkhousian charm, not dissimilar to The Simpsons’ resident quack Dr Nick (“Heyllo everybaddy!”). And although Steve did appear younger than his 50 years, unfortunately he’d had so much plastic surgery, he also looked like a cross between Hugo Weaving and an alien.

Despite clearly feeling the need to tackle the question of whether cosmetic surgery is responsible for promoting vanity and a chase for unattainable perfection, Louis made no attempt to placate this possibly troubled individual, pointing to Steve’s overly round pectorals (okay, man-boobs) and asking, “Does the slightly feminine cast of that bother you?”

With such ripe subject matter, Louis didn’t always have to work very hard, but the programme’s climax saw that change as he underwent liposuction on his stomach. It was a bold move and paid off in two ways: firstly, the programme’s funniest moments took place mid-operation, and secondly Louis went home with, like, totally buff abs. Suck on that, Moore!

Ugly Betty, Friday 10pm, Channel 4

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
Season two of Ugly Betty kicks off on Channel 4 tonight – just a week after the series resumed in the US, making a nice change from having to wait for months, desperately trying to avoid internet spoilers, as with other favourite American shows.

The formula of the ugly duckling makin' it in the shallow, bitchy world of fashion magazines has been a winner, with star America Ferrera picking up the Best Comic Actress gong at the Emmys last month.

And Betty fans will be happy to know that show bosses have not meddled with the product: series two picks up, both in plot and in tone, exactly where season one ended.

Cliff-hangers including Daniel and Alexis's car crash, the shooting of Santos, Wilhelmina's scheming and others are dealt with in a fast-paced hour that's high on laughs.

Needless to say, no actor is ever knowingly undercamped and zingers fly, my favourite being Amanda's horrified realisation that her lover Daniel may be her brother:  "And that's the kind of dirty that don't wash clean."

Some of the cheese – Daniel's coma-side vigil over Alexis and Betty symbolically burying keepsakes from her relationship with Henry – might be a bit ripe for some tastes, but otherwise it's as you were, and fans will have no complaints.

One note of caution is sounded by the news that Victoria Beckham has been booked for a guest slot, to which I say: “Dahlings – sooo last year.”


Who's who in Ugly Betty >>

Ugly Betty's best bits >>

The Tudors, Friday 9pm, BBC2

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
Did you know that in the olden days they had boobies and stabbing?

You may have seen this in the honestly-it's-factual-really historical documentary series Rome, and we learn here that the Tudor era was similarly dominated by heaving bosoms, naked manly pectorals and all sorts of exciting ways for the ruling class of the day to injure each other with sharp objects.

Only 15 minutes into this 10-part series, we've already had an ambassador filleted by rival diplomats, and watched Henry VIII get hot and historical with a married lady, ravage a servant (with a rather token "do you consent?"), slurp a pomegranate in a most suggestive manner and mash up a rival in a jousting tournament.

And phwoar, is that King Henry a bit of alright, ladies? He's Tu-dor die for, etc. Not for Jonathan Rhys Meyers the fatness, horrid ginger beard, paranoia, vile temper and gout that we learned about in school and recognise from the portraits by Holbein et al. This Henry VIII is a brooding 25-year-old hunk, married to a Catherine of Aragon fully 15 years his senior and just about to embark upon the desperate quest for an heir, Reformation, divorce, beheading and all the rest of it.

Historical liberties are taken as lustily as buxom wenches, while dimly-remembered figures from GCSE history get broad, hasty characterisations – Cardinal Wolsey scheming, Thomas More saintly – and the dialogue is churned out. The political intrigue bits lack flair, almost as if they have been made deliberately dull to add seriousness.

But never mind: there'll be another pair of boobies or a swordfight along in a minute.

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, Thursday, 9pm, BBC2

Posted by Alan Tyers

Our rating:
Jennifer Saunders' new show about a daytime TV talk-show host breaks a pretty solid comedy rule of thumb right from the off: the rule that if characters are given a funny name that describes their major personality trait, that character will not be funny.

But Vivienne is indeed vile, so whaddya gonna do? She is a calculating, cynical rotter whose show preys on society's weak-willed and mentally feeble and sprays their problems over the TV in the name of entertainment.

And as such, isn’t it marvellous timing that The Jeremy Kyle Show has been so in the news of late?

Saunders co-wrote the series with clinical psychologist Dr Tanya Byron (of Little Angels and House of Tiny Tearaways fame), and their combined experiences of the worlds of TV production and shrinkery make for a spot-on satire. Miranda Richardson is excellent as Vyle's flamboyant producer and there's a funny cameo from Fern Britton as herself.

The first couple of episodes skewer their twin targets – poor man's Oprah talk-shows, pop psychology – so effectively that it's almost too much. Which isn't to say that this is not a good programme: it’s a welcome return to form for Ms Saunders. It's just the thought of Jeremy Kyle jotting down ideas for his next show that makes the laughter catch in the throat…


See a clip of The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle below >>

Stephen Fry: HIV and Me, Tuesday 9pm, BBC2

Posted by Helen Jennings

Preview rating:
Anyone who saw Stephen Fry’s previous BBC documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive will know they’re in for some tough but compelling viewing tonight. In HIV and Me, Fry examines current infection rates and, horrified by what he discovers, asks whether we’ve become complacent about the dangers of the disease despite all the warnings of previous decades.

His journey is a personal one as he recounts watching his own friends die in the 1980s, and witnessing an ex-lover almost go blind from Aids. When Aids was first discovered, he remembers the gay community being gripped by terror and considering it a death sentence. Yet today he finds that in some quarters it’s viewed as little more than a chronic condition. He even meets one young gay man who says he wants “the gift” of HIV.

With a third of those infected unaware that they’re positive, and with new infections rising in both the gay and straight communities, Fry is compelled to prove that the problem hasn’t gone away. He talks to an HIV-positive grandmother, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who has had HIV since birth, and HIV-positive couples who have given birth to HIV-negative children. He hits the streets of Manchester to give out condoms and talk to teenagers about unprotected sex. And he takes an HIV test himself.

He also talks to celebrities including George Michael, Erasure's Andy Bell and Scissor Sisters singer Ana Matronic about their own heartbreaking stories.

And all the while, you truly feel Stephen’s genuine connection to the issues he raises. He’s not preaching or judging. He’s not scaremongering or waving any manifesto. And thanks to his intelligent, sensitive nature, he imparts his message with a deft touch few could match.

Let’s hope that with this documentary, Stephen Fry helps reawaken Britain’s concern about, and understanding of, HIV and Aids.