It's a fair cop, guv

Remember the good old days of the 1970s maverick TV cop, the days when villains could be fitted up -and indeed beaten up - as long as the hard drinking misogynistic hero had a hunch they were guilty? Well, telly fans, those days are back, sort of…

In Life on Mars, John Simm stars as by-the-book 21st Century policeman Sam Tyler. Following a car accident, Sam awakes to find that he's although still in Manchester, he is now living in 1973, though still a cop. While this premise is great fun, a few serious points are made along the way. While it highlights the great strides in policing made in the last three decades, it also begs the question; has all that change been necessarily for the better?

The other interesting thing is the way it plays with what has happened to Sam. Is he in fact as he suspects in a coma; and if so, why is the coma induced dreaming so lucid?

There are more than passing nods to The Sweeney, Starsky and Hutch and even Vanilla Sky. The whole thing looks gloriously nostalgic.

The writers have also cleverly shielded themselves from criticism by going down the "it's all a dream line," as this can be conveniently trotted out if the Curly Wurly wrappers happen to be from the wrong year, the wrong version of a Ford Cortina appears or any gaping holes appear in the plot.

Simm is excellent in the lead - when isn't he? - but Philip Glenister steals every scene he pops up in as Tyler’s "guv" Gene Hunt , a name which just has to be rhyming slang. As a big fan of The Sweeney, I was worried that it would stray too far into parody but parallels have been made with obvious affection and the show has already developed a feel all of its own.

Cracking stuff.

Super duper

I felt more nostalgic when Smallville returned for a fifth season on E4 with an episode that can best be described as paying homage to the movie Superman II.

The disciples of Zod arrive to cause mayhem in the town full of weirdoes and it's not long before our Clark has to return from his Fortress of Solitude to put things right. Love interest Lana Lang was as miserable as ever (you'd think she'd be getting used to being thrown around by strange super beings by now), so it is left to Lois Lane, now in the regular cast, to provide the real glamour.

Now in its twelfth season, ER is beginning to look tired as fresher shows such as House and Grey’s Anatomy steal its thunder.

The opener seemed very slow paced and was dominated by Sam’s search for her diabetic runaway son. Far be it from me to accuse the nurse of being a bad mother but the kid she finally managed to catch up with looked nothing like the one who’d done a runner in the end of season cliffhanger.

With all the star names now departed, the show remains watchable, just about, but it really is a shadow of its former self. Quite frankly the re-runs of the old stuff on More4 are far more entertaining than the new stuff.

Familarity breeds contempt

I thought the pilot episode of Tittybangbang showed great promise but the characters seemed to grate more than amuse as the series got underway. Rehashing the same gags every week was successful to some extent for The Fast Show and Little Britain but it’s not going to work everytime. Part of the joy of the opener was the edgy, risky nature of the comedy but repetition quickly means that the vital edge is lost.

I was disappointed but I’ll give it a few more tries before giving up on it. There’s so little cutting edge comedy on the box these days that I suppose we should be grateful for what we are given. Perhaps TV bigwigs should come out from behind their balance sheets and visit a few of our comedy venues once in a while. There are bags of talent out there waiting to be discovered.

Making a drama out a crisis

The genre of drama documentary is a difficult one to get right and I felt really uneasy watching the tragic events the Munich Air Disaster reduced to a one hour play in Surviving Disaster.

Surely this sort of story would be effectively told via archive footage and interviews with those who survived rather than a dramatised version of events that was unengaging and woodenly performed. I found the reconstruction of the actual crash to be ghoulish and unnecessary. It felt as if the piece had been made as entertainment rather than as a factual piece and it felt rather offensive to me.


How does Gail pick ‘em?

I’m sure we were supposed to feel revulsion at David’s rough treatment at the hands of Phil, Gail’s latest unsuitable love interest in Corrie. However, as inappropriate, unjustified and scary as Phil’s behaviour was, I really couldn’t help thinking that the teenager from hell was asking for it and David’s rapid transition from cocky know-it-all to terrified child was nicely played.

Unfortunately for David his dad wasn’t just down the road in Liverpool but in London learning to ice dance. What is it about TV bosses these days that if one show is successful they have to clone it rapidly? Yes Dancing on Ice is quite literally Strictly Come Dancing but on a slippery surface. The phrase rip off springs to mind and I wish the powers that be would learn that you can have too much of a good thing.

Among the celebs struggling to stay on their pins is Dame Kelly Holmes who seems to have spent every spare moment since winning her medals appearing on light entertainment shows. I’m not quite sure why. She may be fast on an athletic track but she wasn’t first in the queue when charisma was being handed out.

Unsurprisingly most of the stars looked uneasy on their skates. Andi Peters looked so unsteady that I feared for his safety while Gaynor Faye was incredibly cautious. Bonnie Langford has the right idea, spending much of her routine being held aloft by her partner, minimising her contact with ice while John Barrowman’s efforts were impressive enough to allow him to be forgiven for The Sound of the Musicals. None of the judges has yet emerged as “the nasty one” while Phillip Schofield has his work cut out attempting to extract any points of interest from Torvill and Dean.

Admit it though, if you’re watching this it’s because you’re waiting for a spectacular fall.

Soapy bits

Emmerdale got too daft for my taste years ago but every now and then they come up trumps and the birth Sam and Alice’s son amid difficult and upsetting circumstances was handled very well and was very touching.

The downside was that yet another Dingle has been added to ever increasing tribe. My goodness this lot are fertile. In true Dingle style, ordinary names aren’t good enough for Dingle additions so the new baby was quickly named Samson. No wonder so many members of the clan become wrong ‘uns. They must get terribly picked in school.

Meanwhile on Albert Square, Ruby nearly did us all a favour by downing a bottle of vodka and awaiting results. Sadly Phil Mitchell was on hand to breathe life back in her body. All we need now is for someone to breathe life into her performances. Wendy Richard had impressed of late, finally given a decent storyline of her own after years being forced to look miserable in cardigans. Her reticence at getting too attached to Joe has been true to her character and the scene where she thought she has lost eternity ring was quite moving.

No doubt Wellard would have done some serious celebrating after escaping from death row. I await the Bouncer style dream sequence.