The ladies of Wisteria Lane have played their last poker game. Tonight after eight years on screen, 180 episodes, a surprising amount of murders and more mysteries than you can shake a stick at, Desperate Housewives aired its final edition in the US.

Creator Marc Cherry previously said that he aimed for a finale that would "make sense" and be "very satisfying" for fans. We've already detailed what we wanted to see, but did the Housewives boss man give you all that you wanted?

Digital Spy is inviting you to celebrate tonight's big event by chatting about all things Desperate Housewives. Share your thoughts on the finale, explain what you would have changed about it, recall your favourite moments from the series - do it all and more in the comments below!

> 'Desperate Housewives' finale recap: How'd it end in Finishing The Hat?

A trio of US favourites return to our screens this week with new episodes - repeats be gone, Family Guy and How I Met Your Mother are back! Plus, there's a zombie-filled treat for Channel 5 viewers as season two of The Walking Dead makes its terrestrial premiere...

Not only that, but Channel 4 is dishing out some stand-up from the UK's top comics and there's more (unintentional) laughs to be had with ITV2's new Apprentice-aping series The Exclusives - read on for all the details!

The Walking Dead: Monday at 10pm on Channel 5
Alright, so season two of this superb zombie drama already aired in the UK courtesy of FX, but we know that many of you have been desperately hanging on for the new episodes to make their terrestrial premiere. The second season picks up where the first left off, with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the crew having fled the CDC. Soon, the gang find themselves on a walker-infested highway and more than one of the survivors is placed in mortal peril. Some have criticised the pace of The Walking Dead's second run, but for our money, the writing, acting and production values - including those gruesome zombie effects - remain top-notch.

Watch a trailer for season two of The Walking Dead below:



How I Met Your Mother: Thursday at 8.30pm on E4
After repeating the first half of season seven, E4 is finally back to showing new episodes of this US sitcom - and it's about time! The season resumes with episode 13 'Tailgate', in which Marshall (Jason Segel) relates the story of how he and his pals spent New Year's Eve. Let's just say that things quickly spiral out of control when Ted (Josh Radnor) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) decide that, to avoid the New Year's Eve crush, they will transform Ted's apartment into an impromptu bar. We'd recommend sticking with this latest run of HIMYM episodes - if only because the season finale promises to finally reveal the identity of Barney's bride!

Watch the US promo for 'Tailgate' below:



The Exclusives: Thursday at 9pm on ITV2
We've got high hopes for this new reality show, even though its trailer seems to suggest that the contestants are more suited to TOWIE than a newsroom. A kind of journalism Apprentice, The Exclusives follows six aspiring reporters hoping to land a job with one of Britain's top publishers. In this first episode, the candidates are sent to work at a weekly women's fashion magazine and cover the Brit Awards. We're sure everything will go swimmingly and there'll be no hilarious screw-ups along the way...

Channel 4's Comedy Gala: Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4
If you're a big stand-up comedy fan, you could do a lot worse than devoting your Sunday night to the third annual Channel 4 Comedy Gala at London's 02 Arena. This year Lee Evans, Michael McIntyre, Jonathan Ross, Jo Brand, Keith Lemon and Alan Carr are among the mirth makers hoping to raise funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. No doubt there'll be a few more surprise guest appearances too, though probably nothing as surreal as Katie Price and Alex Reid attempting to do comedy in 2010.

Watch highlights of Channel 4's Comedy Gala 2010 below:



Family Guy : Sunday at 10pm on BBC Three
We must have seen every episode of Family Guy about 20 times now given that the repeats of previous seasons are the go-to TV choice when you just don't feel like bed. Mercifully, BBC Three has now decided to add some brand new adventures from the Griffins into the mix, starting with a double bill of the freaking sweet first episodes from season 10. In the premiere, Peter becomes a millionaire after winning the lottery, while episode two at 10.20pm sees Brian take magic mushrooms as a hurricane approaches Quahog.

Watch a preview of the brand new season of Family Guy below:



What are you looking forward to watching this week? Let us know below!

We here at Digital Spy don't like to think of ourselves as the discriminatory sort. If a programme makes us feel nostalgic, has an enduring fanbase and gave us some truly great moments of telly, we feel that it deserves to be recognised here in Tube Talk Gold. And that's regardless of how many plotlines about hermaphrodite babies it featured.

This week we're spreading the love for Footballers' Wives, a piece of trash pumped full of gratuitous sex and plots that even a soap opera wouldn't go near. But despite its many faults, we've still got a place in our heart for the WAGs of Earls Park FC - it's the ultimate guilty pleasure.

Footballers' Wives: Originally broadcast from January 8, 2002 - April 14, 2006

Let's get this out of the way first - we're not going to pretend that Footballers' Wives isn't crap. It's got atrocious dialogue, repulsive characters and half-baked shock tactics wrapped up as a narrative. The thing is it's so gosh darn entertaining, it's the TV equivalent of a big greasy takeaway pizza or paying a tenner for an action movie that quite clearly is going to suck.

When it debuted in 2002, Footballers' Wives was right on trend. Tabloids had begun to care less about the athletes that crowded their back pages and instead focused on the wives and girlfriends they could put at the front.

The three central characters in the first series - Donna, Chardonnay and Tanya - lived the lives we were told real WAGs took for granted. Supported by caricatures of the people we believed made up the footballing world - foreign lotharios, sordid chairmen, angry coaches - their story arcs across the series were the stuff of a Daily Star editor's dream. They had affairs and poor sex lives, threw grand parties and got married, made enemies of each other and became tangled up in conspiracies.



However, it's got to be said that the first series of Footballers' Wives is probably the weakest. While the show was trying to find its feet, it bombarded viewers with scenes of a sexual nature in order to prevent them from turning over their TVs.

Admittedly, the amount of bare bums on show in Footballers' Wives was a big part of why the show was talked about then and remembered (possibly with contempt) now. The sex scenes remained unjustified throughout, side dishes to spice up the main stories, but in series one there was just too much of it. Only in series two, once an audience had been established from those intrigued or outraged by the smut, did the execs realise that the future of the show would be in the characters.

For many viewers Zoe Lucker's crazy-eyed Tanya Turner made the show and it's no shock the ratings plummeted after she left part way through the fifth and final proper series. A coked-up, sour-faced femme fatale, Tanya showed her ruthless streak from the very first episode when she almost killed the club's chairman Frank, a man she would later marry and 'sh*g to death' in a plot to get his money.



As strong as the character was on her own, Tanya did best when getting muddled up in a love triangle with Bollywood bitch Amber (Laila Rouass) and her husband Conrad (Ben Price). While the performances on Footballers' Wives could be sub-par, credit needs to go to Lucker and Rouass for making their characters' long feud come alive.

The attempts of Tanya and Amber to win the heart of metrosexual, bisexual Beckham stand-in Conrad dominated the entire third and fourth series. Every razor sharp put-down, every scolding threat, every dirty glance felt authentic, and their increasingly ridiculous schemes to demolish their love rival made for delectable television. In a TV climate of tiresome will they-won't they and on again-off again romances, the fact that the battle for Conrad's heart remained so unpredictable for so long deserves credit.



Though the dynamic between Tanya, Amber and Conrad turned Footballers' Wives into a bit of a three-man show towards the end, viewers also responded to the brutish Bruno (Ben Richards), Tanya's repulsive and thuggish first husband Jason (Cristian Solimeno), Gillian Taylforth's old banger Jackie (a marked departure from her tender EastEnders character Kathy Beale) and the sweet love story of Kyle (Gary Lucy) and Chardonnay (Susie Amy) - later replicated by Harley and Shannon, the Footballers' Wives version of the Rooneys.

Footballers' Wives was always a show of sensationalism. It thrived on being as outlandish as possible and even those who have forgotten about most elements of the show today could probably remember a few key plots; Chardonnay's boobs catching on fire, Jackie giving birth to a child with both male and female genitalia, Tanya's baby being smothered to death by a dog - all insane stories, but if you were willing to embrace the madness you'd never be bored.

What people perhaps don't realise when they address the smut and silliness of Footballers' Wives is that it was self-aware. It ran for five series - there were plenty of chances for the creative team to tone it down if they wanted to. They weren't inadvertently churning out crap while striving for greatness. They just wanted Footballers' Wives to be talked about. Isn't that what every show aims for?



The scaling back of the sex somewhat and the decision to push Tanya to the fore showed that the brains behind Footballers' Wives were very much aware of what worked and what didn't, it wasn't just cobbled together. If you look a little closer, you can see that the aim was to emulate the grandiose American melodramas of the past. The Amber/Tanya rivalry is reminiscent of Dynasty and there were a few Dallas-esque mysteries to be solved, such as 'Who Killed Jason' and the slow burning plot where one of the players is revealed to be a rapist.

As is the case with many shows featured in Tube Talk Gold, Footballers' Wives didn't bow out on a particularly strong note. The murder of Conrad at the end of series four ended the conflict between Tanya and Amber, dooming them to be drowned out by a mass of lightweight characters that really failed to stick.

However, that shouldn't diminish how strong Footballers' Wives was as a piece of escapism, a harmless show where for an hour a week all the juiciest gossip from the papers was true and playing out right in front of us. Don't be scared about admitting your love for it. You might get scoffed at, but the haters will never know how fun watching Zoe Lucker and Laila Rouass rip each other's hair out can be.

Were you a fan of Footballers' Wives? Does it deserve a place in Tube Talk Gold? Leave your comments below!

Matt LeBlanc's terrific comedy drama Episodes returns to BBC Two tonight - yes, it was a tough couple of years for LeBlanc as his Friends spinoff Joey floundered, but now the 44-year-old is a television favourite once more, scooping up a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination!

But how have the actor's Friends co-stars fared since the hit comedy wrapped in 2004? This week's Friday Fiver takes a look at a few of the post-Friends projects taken on by Cox, Perry, Schwimmer and co...

Matthew Perry - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-2007)
We all loved Perry as the quick-witted Chandler Bing, but who knew he had such a talent for drama? The former "transpondser" was fantastic as TV writer Matt Albie in Aaron Sorkin's sadly short-lived West Wing follow-up. Yes, Studio 60 struggled in the latter half of its run when it awkwardly shifted focus from television production to politics, but Perry remained solid and his double act with The West Wing's Bradley Whitford was a joy to behold.



Courteney Cox - Cougar Town (2009-present)
Cox had her first taste of post-Monica success with the critically-acclaimed, two-season FX drama Dirt, but it was ABC's Cougar Town that really brought the actress back into the public eye. The comedy has a small but rabidly devoted following, and though ABC may have lost faith after three years, news recently broke that cable network TBS had picked up Cougar Town, granting the Cul De Sac Crew a fourth run! Still no word on if they'll change that misleading title though...



David Schwimmer - Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004)
The man best known as geeky palaeontologist Ross Geller has kept a relatively low acting profile since leaving Friends behind, instead branching out into directing. However, he did make a fun guest appearance in the fourth season of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, replacing Ben Stiller as Larry David's partner in a new stage production of The Producers. Of course, in an ideal world, we'd like to see Schwimmer fulfil his ambition to appear in the BBC's Sherlock or Luther - an idea so oddball it would have to be amazing.



Jennifer Aniston - 30 Rock (2008)
Like her on-screen on-again/off-again partner, Jennifer Aniston has focused more on movies than TV since Friends ended. Aside from a reunion with Cox in Cougar Town (playing her real-life bezzie's therapist), the only other credit of note is her guest spot in a 2008 episode of 30 Rock, 'The One With The Cast Of Night Court'. What makes her cameo so fantastic is that while Rachel was probably the most normal and relatable of the Friends, her 30 Rock character Claire is a complete psycho and quickly develops an unhealthy obsession with Jack (Alec Baldwin). Equal parts sexy and scary, we'd still take her home to meet our mums.



Lisa Kudrow - Who Do You Think You Are? (2010-Present)
Kudrow's "floopy" alter ego Phoebe would approve of her slightly alternative career trajectory, which has seen her step behind the camera and become more involved in the making of TV shows. Her greatest achievement is bringing UK genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are? to American viewers and managing to retrain all the charm and emotion of the original on the crossing. A-list stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Rob Lowe, Susan Sarandon and Sarah Jessica Parker have all made appearances on the show, and Kudrow even decided to climb her family tree in the first season, embarking on a voyage of discovery in Europe that saw her reunite with long-lost relatives and mourn family members killed in the Holocaust.



What have you made of the Friends gang's recent TV efforts? Let us know below!

Oh come on people, you know the drill by now. You sent us questions about your favourite TV shows, we answer them - it's that simple.

This week Tube Talk has for you a few winks about the next seasons of Homeland and Doctor Who, analysis of how Friday Night Lights is doing over here, and teasers of some very special episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Additional reporting by Jamie Wotton

Is Breaking Bad ever going to continue in the UK?

As we reported a while back, no UK broadcaster seems to be interested in the superb Breaking Bad - a travesty! The third season can be watched right now on Netflix, however, and will soon be available to buy on DVD. Still, we understand your frustration at the new episodes not airing on TV over here, and so does Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan...

You may not want to believe it, but this weekend tolls the end of Desperate Housewives after eight seasons of lies, betrayal, love, murder and top quality baking. The grand finale has been filmed and we've already been given a few teasers about what's coming, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding how the ladies of Wisteria Lane will say goodbye. So we thought we'd have a guess at how it will all wrap up.

Let's get this out of the way first of all - there will be some spoilers here for viewers watching at UK pace. We may be only three episodes behind, but there have been some big developments that you really should wait and see. There'll also be references to a few ambiguous promo pics that have been released that some may want to avoid.

Those of you still here will know that the main focus of late has been Bree's trial for the murder of Ramon Sanchez/Alejandro Perez. The most recent US episode 'The People Will Hear' saw things take a turn for the worse when jurors heard her guilt-ridden suicide note, prompting her lawyer Tripp to suggest she bring up Gaby's link to the deceased as a way of saving herself.

It's all about the comedy and the drama in our TV picks this week. Over the next seven days, we've got the return of Matt LeBlanc in Episodes, the return of an animated Ricky Gervais in his self-titled show and the airing of the most shocking Once Upon a Time episode to date.

And there's bound to be equal measures of laughter and tears when Britain's Got Talent comes to a close for another year. Read on below for our full run-down of this week's best telly.

The Ricky Gervais Show: Tuesday at 11.30pm on E4
This animated version of Gervais's fantastic podcasts - which also features quick-witted Stephen Merchant and Karl 'head like a f**king orange' Pilkington - returns for a third series. And this opener is one of the most hilarious episodes yet, focusing primarily on Karl's attempt to sell his latest movie idea to a pair of fictional film execs, personified by Gervais and Merchant. For those of you who enjoyed Pilkington's idea for a bizarre sci-fi romance starring Clive Owen (or is that 'Clive Warren'?), just wait until you hear the pitch for 'Bryan's Brain' starring none other than Tom Cruise. This writer genuinely shed tears of laughter.

Watch a clip from The Ricky Gervais Show below:



Episodes: Friday at 10pm on BBC Two
We here at Tube Talk feel that this US/UK comedy-drama got a bit of an unfair reception first time round - it may have taken a little while, but Episodes grew more confident as it went on, and by the time the first series ended, it was firing on all cylinders. We're certainly glad to see it back - series two picks up four months after Beverly (Tamsin Greig) slept with Matt LeBlanc (the man himself) and that fight. Pucks is about to launch on US TV, but relations are frosty between the show's star and its creators. Will Matt's particular brand of charm win Beverly and Sean (Stephen Mangan) round?

Watch a trailer for series two of Episodes below:



Britain's Got Talent: Saturday at 7.30pm on ITV1
The nation's biggest freakshow may have been slightly overshadowed this year by TV's hottest new property The Voice UK, but how could you not tune in for the final? Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon will all be on hand to mock 2012's top performers one last time before you decide who gets a spot at the Royal Variety Performance and the cool £500,000 jackpot. Our money's on Mr Zip. Maybe with that kinda wonga he can finally replace his lost mobile and get some new keys cut.

Watch Digital Spy's interview with the Britain's Got Talent team below:


Starlings: Sunday at 8pm on Sky1
If you're on the lookout for a heart-warming family drama, then Starlings could be just the thing for you. A strong cast of familiar faces - Downton Abbey's Brendan Coyle, Scott and Bailey's Lesley Sharp and more - breathe life into the Starlings, a loveable working-class clan. Believe it or not, this gentle series was created by none other than Matt King - Peep Show's Super Hans - along with writing partner Steve Edge, and Steve Coogan is also on board as a producer, so there's a strong pedigree behind the show. Starlings is perfect viewing for a sleepy Sunday evening.

Watch a trailer for Starlings below:



Once Upon a Time: Sunday at 8pm on Channel 5
We're absolutely loving Once Upon a Time, but until now the fairytale mystery has been a little bit light and fluffy. All that changes by the end of episode seven, when a major twist turns up the heat in Storybrooke. Seriously, the final few minutes of this episode are shocking, heartbreaking and will potentially have you throwing things at the TV. But before the rug is pulled from underneath us, we get to explore the past life of Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) and finally discover his fairytale equivalent - is it the character you're expecting?

Watch a sneak peek of the next Once Upon a Time below:



What are you looking forward to watching this week? Let us know below!

In 1989, English writer Simon Nye wrote a book charting the exploits of two laddish layabouts. Soon, the novel - Men Behaving Badly - had been earmarked by producer Beryl Vertue (Sherlock), who felt it had the potential to become a hit on television. Vertue was correct, but the show's path to success was not an easy one...

Men Behaving Badly: Originally broadcast from February 18, 1992 to December 28, 1998



The novel's first male character - now one of the show's four leads - was one Gary Strang. 30-something and stuck in a dull office job with the shy and retiring George (Ian Lindsay) and Anthea (Valerie Minifie), Gary - like so many men his age - yearns for the pleasures of youth; girls, lager and crude jokes. Martin Clunes was quickly cast in the part - with his hangdog expression, the then 30-year-old actor was perfect for the role.

Keeping Gary's feet firmly on the ground was the show's first female lead, Dorothy. It's a shame that, for the most part, actress Caroline Quentin all but abandoned comedy post-Men Behaving Badly in favour of more dramatic work, because she's fantastic as Gary's spiky, long-suffering girlfriend.

Both Gary and Dorothy frequently wonder if they're a good match - at times, the pair are positively indifferent towards each other. But it becomes clear throughout the show's run that they're a perfect if unusual match, despite the highs and lows of their relationship.

Leslie Ash - then best known for her role in 1979 Brit flick Quadrophenia - was hired to play Deborah, the attractive blonde who moves into the flat above Gary's. The show's fourth lead role, meanwhile, was filled by Harry Enfield - then riding high on the success of his BBC sketch show Harry Enfield's Television Programme.

Enfield was in fact the first actor to be cast on Men Behaving Badly and was the one who persuaded Clunes to take part. But ironically, the comedian was quick to jump ship - after filming a single six-episode series, he left the show, and his role as Gary's first roommate Dermot, behind.

Enfield's depature turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because it was with the addition of Neil Morrissey as Gary's new pal Tony Smart that Men Behaving Badly really began to take flight. The child-like Tony was a brilliant character - one with no emotional middle ground...



Each episode was a rollercoaster for the loveable oaf - his will they / won't they relationship with Deborah often led to infectious bursts of enthusiasm on his part, followed by crushing bouts of disappointment when things didn't work out. Either way, it was terrific fun to watch.

Unfortunately, the show's original broadcaster ITV didn't agree. The channel had partly backed Men Behaving Badly on the basis of Harry Enfield's star appeal and his exit, coupled with disappointing viewing figures, led to the show being cancelled after two series.

But once again, the series triumphed over adversity - the ITV axe wasn't the end for Men Behaving Badly but the beginning of something greater. In 1994, the BBC revived the sitcom, airing it in a later timeslot than previous. Freed from the constraints of early evening television, Gary and Tony could now behave more badly than ever, and viewers lapped it up.

The key to Men Behaving Badly's success was, of course, its characters. Simon Nye admitted as much - "I don't do mad, plot-driven farragoes," he once said. "You have to allow your characters time to talk."

Despite their immature, politically incorrect behaviour, there's something undeniably loveable about both Gary and Tony. While there's absolutely room for the cringe comedy of something like The Office, there's something to be said for a sitcom that makes you wish you could be friends with the central characters. Men Behaving Badly had that special appeal.

The four series following the BBC pick-up were the show's golden period - the peak of which, in this writer's opinion, is the 1997 episode 'Watching TV'. Centered entirely around Gary and Tony's beloved sofa, the episode sees the gang reminisce about old telly and play a string of tricks on the chipper Tony, who's finally got together with Deborah. It's a near-perfect example of sitcom writing and performance.



But all good things must come to an end, and Men Behaving Badly bowed out after a final trilogy of episodes, broadcast over the Christmas period in 1998. It was a sign of how far the show had come - from being deemed a failure at ITV to becoming the lynchpin of the BBC's festive schedule.

The final instalment - 'Delivery' - saw Gary and Dorothy have their first child. With Tony and Deborah also blissfully happy, it seemed like the boys might finally have grown up, but the show's final shot - in which an apparently sleeping Gary crushes a lager can and hurls it at his best mate - perhaps hints that they haven't left their laddish behaviour behind entirely.

Unlike many sitcoms of its ilk, Men Behaving Badly hasn't really been subject to constant rumours of a comeback. The cast have all moved on - Martin Clunes reinvented himself, discarding his laddish image for the likes of ITV's cosy comedy-drama Doc Martin, while Caroline Quentin for the most part left sitcoms behind to carve out a dramatic acting career.

Leslie Ash was also a prominent face on UK television throughout the late '90s and early '00s. And as for Neil Morrissey, he's done everything from brewing beer to playing the Invisible Man.

Perhaps the lack of outcry for a reunion is down to the fact that, unlike so many shows, Men Behaving Badly ended at just the right time and on just the right note. Still, that doesn't mean it's wrong to get a bit nostalgic. If you're looking for the best in '90s Brit comedy, why not pick up a few lagers and stick on Men Behaving Badly on DVD? And then have a dance - Gary and Tony style - to that cracking theme tune...



Do you have fond memories of Men Behaving Badly? Share them below!

Much-anticipated new drama Awake kicks off tonight at 10pm on Sky Atlantic. The show's a bizarre blend of cop procedural and fantasy, following homicide detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) as he's torn between two worlds - one in which his wife died in a tragic car crash and another in which his son was the one he lost...

Tube Talk has already seen the first episode and it's a belter, so to celebrate the arrival of Awake on these shores, this week's Friday Fiver is comprised of our picks for the five most mind-blowing pilot episodes...

Lost - 'Pilot' (Aired September 22-29 2004)
Say what you like about the way this cult ABC drama ended, you can't knock the way it started. The two-part series premiere of Lost really did set a new standard for pilot episodes - at the time, it was the most expensive ever, costing between $10 and $14 million. But every cent went up on the screen, making for a truly impressive visual spectacle as the dazed survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 fought to survive in the aftermath of their crash. Not only that, but both parts of the Lost pilot are packed with strong performances and plenty of plot intrigue - right then, we knew we were hooked.



The Shield - 'Pilot' (Aired March 12, 2002)
This pilot not only launched a ground-breaking and award-winning cop drama but also helped to reinvent the FX network as a home for gritty, well-made adult programming. Throughout its seven-year run, The Shield dealt with many dark and controversial topics in a highly satisfying manner and the pilot episode sets out the show's stall quite clearly. It boasts what is possibly one of the greatest and most shocking episode endings ever and Michael Chiklis is on fire as corrupt cop Vic Mackey - his finest moment comes when he confronts a suspected paedophile with the chilling line, "Good cop and bad cop left for the day - I'm a different kind of cop".



Friday Night Lights - 'Pilot' (Aired October 3, 2006)
Like The Shield pilot, the reason the first episode of NBC's sports drama is so memorable is because it tricks the viewer into thinking they know what to expect before spectacularly pulling out the rug from under them. The Dillon Panthers - a Texas high school football team - are preparing for the beginning of a new season under new head coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), but their first game ends in tragedy as promising young player Jason Street (Scott Porter) suffers a permanent spinal injury from a bad tackle. It's properly shocking, heart-in-your-throat stuff and a good indication of the kind of quality, heart-wrenching drama that Friday Night Lights specialised in.



Twin Peaks - 'Northwest Passage' (Aired April 8, 1990)
Pretty much everything about David Lynch's cult '90s series was mind-blowing, but the ABC drama's feature-length pilot episode stands out as one of the show's all-time great instalments. The discovery of Laura Palmer's body in that fantastic opening sequence, Dale Cooper's arrival, Sarah's unsettling vision - some of the show's most memorable moments can be found here. 'Northwest Passage' is unsettling, creepy and perfectly sets up the key plots and themes of Twin Peaks's first season. It's not surprise that the episode was nominated for eight Emmy awards, eventually winning two.



The Sopranos - 'The Sopranos' (Aired January 10, 1999)
Again, the end of this much-loved and much-missed HBO drama might have stirred up more than a little controversy, but the pilot episode of The Sopranos remains an exemplary piece of work. Written and directed by series creator David Chase - who also helmed the finale - the episode has both style and substance, deftly balancing high drama with moments of brilliantly black humour. A television phenomenon - one that would change the face of US drama - had got off to a very solid start indeed.



What are your favourite pilot episodes? Share your own picks below!