It seems that one of the most difficult genres to get right is televised history, which the major networks have tried to jazz up in recent years. Obviously we still get the interesting, but fairly dry, programmes such as those on the Romans presented by Mary Beard, however the ratings winners are usually the ‘interactive’ shows such as BBC’s current project Turn Back Time: The Family. ITV1’s latest contribution to the historical show is Britain’s Secret Treasures; here the emphasis is on the word Britain as we are told that all these artefacts were found by the ‘Great British Public’ as a camera sores across our country accompanied by the strains of Coldplay’s Vida La Vida and the authoritative voice of Michael Buerk. Read more & comment »

As we approach another week in TV land here’s the usual five highlights for the week ahead.

Raising Hope (Sky 1, Sun, 6:30pm)
Anybody who saw the first series of Raising Hope on Sky knows that this likeable sitcom is worth a watch when it returns on Sunday. Raising Hope is based around the exploits of the Chance family and in particular, son Jimmy who, in the first episode of the series, discovered that he’d had a baby with a serial killer who know wanted him to look after it as she was to be sent to the Electric Chair. Jimmy and his parents Burt and Virginia do their best to care for Hope, although things don’t work out all that well while the fact that they’re not exactly wealthy means they can’t always afford the finer things in life, but somehow they muddle through. This second series starts with the revelation that Jimmy was once a musical child prodigy and so he sets out to discover his artistic side mainly to impress long time crush Sabrina. While Raising Hope isn’t as funny as Modern Family, it’s good old-fashioned working class sitcom with some great one-liners while Martha Plimpton is a hoot as Virginia and the legendary Cloris Leachman is just plain barmy as Jimmy’s great-grandmother. Read more & comment »