I Think That I'll Go Out And Find Her, Just To See If There's A Better World

Endeavour continued its strong showing in Sunday's overnight ratings. The Inspector Morse prequel - featuring Shaun Evans as a younger Endeavour Morse - closed its first full series on ITV with 4.89m viewers in the 8pm slot. Stephen Mulhern's Catchphrase was seen by 3.6m at 7pm, while Off Their Rockers followed with 3.56 million at 7.30pm. BBC1's Countryfile was the second highest-rated programme of primetime on Sunday, taking 4.88m viewers at 7pm. Antiques Roadshow was seen by 4.48m at 8pm, and Maxine Peake and John Simm's drama The Village picked up 4.13m at 9pm. Channel Four's highest-rated programme during primetime was Peter Kay Live: The Tour That Didn't Tour - Tour at 9pm with 2.74m. Meanwhile, BBC2's coverage of the world championship snooker averaged 2.12m between 7pm and 10.15pm. Moscow Chelski FC's Premier League win over The Scum was the highest rated programme across the multichannels, drawing 1.66m for Sky Sports 1 from 3.30pm. The channel's coverage of the Merseyside derby - in which Liverpool Alabama Yee Haws and Everton drew 0-0 - was seen by 1.15m from 1pm.

Doctor Who's latest episode, The Crimson Horror had an Appreciation Index score, of eighty five.

Hat Trick co-founder Jimmy Mulville has defended the low ratings for Sky's comedy programming, insisting that 'creative freedom' is more important for producers and writers than viewer numbers. Hat Trick have worked with Sky on the BAFTA-winning but recently cancelled Spy and the upcoming revival of The Kumars At Number Forty Two. Speaking to Broadcast about why he enjoys working with Sky, Mulville said: 'I talk to writers. What they want is to be treated well, with quick decisions and sensitive development. Sky offers you that and has smart people developing with you. The truth is, I don't care whether five hundred thousand or five million people watch our show, as long as people are enjoying it intensely. I'm in the business of "I love that show", not "that was quite good."' Sky has invested heavily in homegrown comedy over the past two years with shows such as Moone Boy, Hunderby, Stella, the risible Trollied and the return of Alan Partridge. Commenting on the low ratings for series such as Julia Davis's Hunderby, Mulville added: 'With Hunderby, everyone in the business knows about it, it will probably pick up loads of awards, and I'm sure Julia Davis had a very nice time making it.' Mulville also insisted that he held 'no grudge' against Sky for dropping Hat Trick's Spy after two series. 'Sky is a commercial organisation. I've got no complaints. There's still an appetite to work together, he said.

Cheeky gap-toothed Scouse comedian Jimmy Tarbuck has been arrested over an allegation of child sex abuse dating back to the 1970s. North Yorkshire Police confirmed that a seventy three-year-old man was arrested in Kingston upon Thames on 26 April. The entertainer and quiz show host - who has an OBE for services to showbusiness and charity - was released on bail pending further enquiries. A police statement said that he was questioned about an alleged assault on a young boy in the late 1970s. North Yorkshire Police says Tarbuck's arrest came after information was passed on by Metropolitan Police officers working on Operation Yewtree. The force stressed that this arrest 'is not part of Yewtree, but a separate investigation' by North Yorkshire Police.

Sheridan Smith has revealed that the prospect of a career in Hollywood 'doesn't appeal' to her. The thirty one-year-old actress - who has recently starred in Jonathan Creek and ITV's Mrs Biggs - said that she believes she would 'miss home too much.' She told Saturday magazine: 'A lot of people try it after being in a big show, like Downton. That's better, rather than going over to queue for a pilot show. Also everyone's so glam and gorgeous. I'm happy here. It just doesn't appeal. I think I'd hate being away.' Smith admitted that her schedule is 'a bit crazy' at the moment. She explained: 'Recently I had to have a spray tan for one job I was working on in Lancaster, then I shot the scenes, got on a train back to London, and had to scrub all the tan off for another job I had the next morning. I was almost bleeding by the time I'd rubbed it all off. But I like to work. It keeps me out of trouble.' Smith is set to appear in the BBC drama The 7:39 alongside Broadchurch's Olivia Colman.

Mad Frankie Boyle's contribution to the current Operation Yewtree malarkey was posted on Twitter this week: 'Nostalgia programmes are going to be trickier - "I Remember The 70s" just full of people crying, with a helpline number at the end.' The lad does, undeniably, have a point.

A man who died in a speedboat crash off the North Cornish coast, which also killed his daughter, was a senior executive at BSkyB. Nicholas Milligan, fifty one, and his eight-year-old daughter were among six people thrown from the boat in the Camel Estuary, off Padstow on Sunday. Four other family members, thought to have been hit by the boat, are in hospital with serious injuries. The vessel was stopped after a local waterskiing instructor jumped on board. The injured family members are thought to have been hit by the boat while it was going round in circles. The four injured are a thirty nine-year-old woman, a four-year-old boy and two girls aged ten and twelve. They suffered leg injuries of varying degrees of severity, John Oliver from South Western Ambulance Service said. Police and marine investigators have begun an inquiry. The boat is owned by the family, who are from Wandsworth in South London, said police, who called it 'a tragic incident.' Supt Jim Colwell, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said that some of their injuries were 'life threatening' as well as 'life changing. The key lines of enquiry are primarily witness enquiries, those eye witnesses that were at the scene at the time and have already started to provide us with information as to what the circumstances were and what the boat was doing at the time of the incident,' he said. Colwell said that a mechanical examination of the boat, with the involvement of the Marine Action Investigation Branch, would take place 'just to make sure there were no factors to do with the vessel itself which may have caused this incident.' The sunny bank holiday weather had drawn a lot of visitors to the harbourside, and the surrounding waters of the Camel Estuary were said to have been calm on Sunday afternoon when the accident happened.

Matthew Cain, Channel Four's first ever culture editor, who was recruited from The South Bank Show with a brief to work alongside Channel Four arts commissioners in generating programme ideas as well as beefing up arts coverage, is quitting after three years to pursue his 'dream' of becoming a novelist – his first book has been delivered to Macmillan and a second is under way. According to the Gruniad Morning Star, 'Cain never seemed to be that comfy on camera, and there is no indication yet that Channel Four News is looking for a replacement.'

Eyebrows remain somewhat raised over the exaggerated enthusiasm of the BBC's embrace of Charles Moore's authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, with no satisfactory explanation given of why the tome was not only Radio 4's daily Book of the Week last week, but also promoted via a tie-in BBC2 documentary (Young Margaret) and yet another Radio 4 programme, presented by Moore (Living with Mrs T). It can't have hindered the biography's chances, of course, that its editor is Stuart Proffitt, whose line-up of authors also includes Chris Patten. Proffitt was to have published Patten's memoirs at HarperCollins, but billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch notoriously axed the book; so Proffitt resigned and Patten followed him to Penguin, where the BBC Trust chairman now sits alongside the BBC-feted biographer on the publisher's roster.

TV bosses are failing to take their responsibility to educate viewers seriously enough, Professor Brian Cox has warned. The particle physicist and broadcaster said the BBC should make more TV shows that educate viewers, rather than seek simply to entertain them. While also taking a swipe at reality shows, he told the Radio Times: 'The director general of the BBC has a tremendous opportunity to shape TV. If I had that job, I'd tell them: this is not just about entertainment. I'd get a flag with "education" written on it and plant it in the sand. Television is the most powerful way of getting ideas across. Often, it doesn't take its responsibilities seriously.' Asked which shows would not stand the test of time, he added: 'We have had enough of talent shows. I don't want my kids exposed to them and get it into their minds there's a short cut to riches. I want them to go to university and work hard for everything they get.'

Film-makers working with the celebrity shopping guru Mary Portas on her reality TV show lobbied government officials to direct taxpayer funds to high streets because they would be 'popular with television audiences', documents obtained by the Gruniad Morning Star appear to suggest. Although, frankly, any claim made by the Gruniad should be taken with a pinch of salt because, like as not, it'll be smeared with 'agenda' like most people's keks are smeared with plop. The funding for the so-called 'Portas pilots' was part of a high-profile government policy to renew town centres. Portas produced a twenty eight-point plan on how to revive moribund town centres for David Cameron in December 2011. Twenty eight commandments, eh? You'll remember that God only needed ten, dear blog reader. Anyway, less than six months later, from almost four hundred entries, more than two dozen towns – the Portas pilots – were picked to receive one hundred thousand smackers of state support and advice each. On Tuesday Portas fronts the first of three hour-long programmes in a series on Channel Four, Mary: Queen of the High Street, focusing on three of the winning bids. The Gruniad now claims to have 'established' that the production company hired by Channel Four and Portas's staff 'suggested' some locations for winning bids. In one example, the production crew advocated taxpayers' cash for a deprived part of London because 'social history is currently really popular on television.' The government's high-profile policy was handed to the local government minister, Grant Shapps, early last year. In February he wrote to the retail expert saying there would have to be 'clear blue water between the selection of the pilots and the television show. This will be best achieved by me selecting the pilots, with [Portas's] Yellow Door and [TV production company] Optomen having no involvement.' The Portas team proposed a list of favoured choices. Government e-mails, released under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that on 13 April last year a Portas agency director e-mailed Shapps's private secretary to say: 'We already have our proposed twelve [Portas pilots].' Four days later, the same director e-mailed David Morris, the civil servant in charge of the pilots, to say: 'We have now done some early reviewing of the entries with Mary and have come to an early shortlist from our end,' adding a list of thirteen towns. Morris responded twenty four hours later to warn the Portas agency that 'we need to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest between pilot selection and the TV show – which are separate projects.' When the first list of twelve Portas pilots was announced by the government from three hundred and seventy one entries on 24 May last year, it included three of Yellow Door's favoured high streets: Croydon, Market Rasen and Stockport. A spokesperson for Portas denied that Portas had 'sought to influence' the government's selection process. Channel Four and Optomen also strongly deny any attempt to 'influence the process.' One of the high streets selected for filming, Roman Road in East London, did not make the initial top dozen pilots. In an e-mail, Optomen explained to Morris that Channel Four 'loved' the idea of renovating an East End market: 'Social history is currently really popular on television and Roman Road would be the perfect road to bring back to its former glory.' The second tranche of pilots offered another opportunity for it to receive funding. On 28 May, London mayor Boris Johnson announced a three hundred thousand knicker fund for three more pilots. Forty-eight hours later, Optomen wrote to Morris to ask: 'Do you know when Boris is planning to announce his towns and whether there will be another call for submissions? Will this be going through your office or his? Roman Road is on top of our list and we're still hopeful that all our towns are part of the government selected towns, hence the question.' Morris replied a week later after a meeting with the Greater London Authority, who he said 'are aiming to work to the same timetable as us – but they will be making the selections. I have told them you are interested in Roman Road! Are Channel Four interested in any of the others?' There is, the Gruniad hurried add at this point, no suggestion that the mayor was influenced by Portas or the TV project. Two months later, the government announced that among the three successful Portas pilots 'selected by the mayor' and receiving 'funding from the Greater London Authority' was one in Tower Hamlets which included Roman Road. The first Portas hour-long reality show centres on the renewal of the East London market. When contacted, the mayor's office said it was only 'part-funding' the Tower Hamlets pilot with local council cash used to update Roman Road. There were also an impression within government that TV pilots were getting 'more attention' than those high streets not featured by Channel Four. In early June civil servants e-mailed to ask if Portas' agency 'could clarify what additional support those who agree to filming will get.' One government official told Yellow Door: 'I am aware of two pilot areas where they have been told – one by your office and one by Optomen that they would only get Mary's time if they signed up for the TV series.' In Margate, which features in the second episode of the Channel Four series, the original bid-winning team resigned and the town split over the pilots, with some claiming Portas had threatened to withdraw cash unless the cameras were let in. A spokesperson for Mary Portas said this was 'well documented.' A month later, on the eve of the announcement of the second round of fifteen Portas pilots, Portas told the government she would not be 'personally involved' in supporting the winners – in effect withdrawing from the scheme. Half the second round pilots have yet to spend any of the one and a half million quid allocated to them. Labour claims that the e-mails show the government was more interested in 'publicity than public policy.' Roberta Blackman-Woods, the shadow local government minister, said: 'The government promised their Portas pilots scheme would lead the way for proper regeneration on the high street. Now it appears the real intention of this competition was to mask the government's abject failure to support businesses at the heart of our communities.' A spokesperson for Mary Portas said: 'Any suggestion that Mary was involved in influencing the government's selection of Portas pilot towns is categorically untrue. Early correspondence between Yellow Door and the government simply reflected a former employee's enthusiastic response to the hundreds of inspirational video pilot applications. The government clarified protocol and there was no influence by Yellow Door on the selection of the Portas pilot towns whatsoever. Mary's work preparing The Portas Review for the government, and her subsequent and ongoing advice, is unpaid. In July last year Mary let the government know that she was stepping back from personal involvement in the second round of Portas pilot towns. This in no way diminishes from her commitment to the high street campaign.' Channel Four said: 'The final decision on selecting Portas pilot towns always rested with the government and at no point did Channel Four make any attempt to influence that decision or government policy. We strongly dispute that anything was constructed. We are aware of a number of complaints – many of which are in the public domain – and the programme fairly and accurately portrays events as they happened during filming.' A spokesperson for Optomen said: '[We] had no influence over or involvement in the selection of the Portas pilot towns, which was solely a decision for the government. The programme tells the story of what occurred when Mary went to work with three towns that applied to be Portas pilots. More of Mary's time would inevitably be spent in the towns featured in the series. No sweeteners or financial inducements were offered or made by Optomen to the towns to encourage their participation in the programme. Great care has been taken to ensure that the programme is a fair and honest representation of Mary's work in these towns.' A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: 'We have always been completely clear that the twenty seven Portas pilots were selected for the leadership, commitment and innovation shown in their application, that Mary Portas had absolutely no role in choosing the towns, and that their status as Portas pilots was in no way dependent on their participation in any show.'

More has emerged about the unlikely leisure pursuits of John Whittingdale MP, the former political secretary to Margaret Thatcher and now chairman of the Commons' culture, media and sport select committee. Well-known already is his love of heavy metal - AC/DC, Deep Purple et cetera - but who knew that he also had a penchant for hardcore horror movies? Lunching with the Broadcasting Press Guild last week, he talked with enthusiasm about the new Eli Roth TV series, Hemlock Grove (the TV version of the movie Hostel, sometimes labelled 'torture porn'). 'I quite like really nasty films,' Whittingdale confided. 'I have seen Hostel and Hostel: Part II, which is undoubtedly the most unpleasant film I have ever seen. And the trailer of Hemlock Grove,' he continued enthusiastically, 'contains a transformation scene of a man turning into a werewolf which makes the one in An American Werewolf in London look like Mary Poppins.' Perfect credentials for commenting on BBC corporate horrorshow (and drag), then?

Big Billy Connolly says that he has 'no regrets' about reducing a photographer to tears by verbally abusing her during one of his live shows. The comic is said to have called Valerie O'Sullivan, the in-house photographer at the INEC venue in Killarney, a 'fucking cunt' after she strayed into his eye-line. She had previously obtained permission from Connolly's Irish promoters to document last Thursday's gig. According to reports, O'Sullivan was 'clearly distressed' by the exchange - as you would be if a big hairy Scotsman gave you a taste of the verbals - and, reportedly, left the venue in tears. But Connolly was unrepentant, telling RTE Radio: 'I told her to go away but she wouldn't, so I told her to go away properly - in a Glaswegian fashion. It only takes two words.' Asked if he regretted the incident, he said: 'Certainly not. I'm very proud of it.' He showed a similar attitude on his Twitter feed, positing: 'I seem to have caused a little ripple on the Lakes of Killarney by telling a photographer to get the Hell out of my eye-line. No regrets.' Connolly later added: 'The photographer from Killarney seems to have run to the media weeping about the big bad comedian who gave her a hard time. Boo Hoo.' Actually, O'Sullivan herself doesn't appear to have been interviewed but several members of the audience have. According to some of those present O'Sullivan was sitting on the steps about halfway down the auditorium when the comedian made some remarks about photographers making money out of him. He is said to have told her to, 'Get the fuck out of here,' before dropping the C-word. Audience member Caroline O’Sullivan (no relation, presumably) told the Irish Examiner: 'I could only describe it as an abusive tirade. It was shocking. Initially, some members of the audience thought it was part of the show, but they soon realised this one woman was being singled out for an absolutely mortifying and appalling experience.' Comments on Connolly's Facebook page also voiced disappointment. One Cathy Scannell (whoever she is) said: 'The way you spoke to the woman in the audience was absolutely awful. So very disappointed in you. Way over the top to the point of being embarrassing both for the woman and a high percentage of the audience I would say. I do not go to any performance to watch members of the audience being humiliated like that and I will not be going to any of your shows again.' Which, Bill will, no doubt, be mortified by. Or not. Carol Carroll (no, me neither) added that she was left with 'a bitter taste in my mouth after the very rude and unnecessary treatment of an audience member.' Local politician Michael Healy Rae is calling on the public to boycott Connolly's shows until he apologises for the incident. Which, they're not going to do and he's not going to do so that's, basically, the end of Healy Rae's contribution to this story. Thanks for that, Michael. In a statement, the INEC said: 'Valerie O'Sullivan has been the in-house photographer for the INEC and Gleneagle Hotel Group for the past twenty years. As our official press photographer and as part of our ongoing public relations strategy she was engaged to photograph the recent Billy Connolly performance for INEC exclusive use. Permission had been granted for same in advance by Billy Connolly's Irish promoter. The success of Valerie as our in-house photographer and her popularity with visiting artists is due to her discreet demeanour, professionalism and unobtrusive nature. Valerie is a highly regarded professional photographer and also a highly respected member of the Killarney community, a tireless volunteer and supporter of local charities and groups. The numerous messages of goodwill and support that we have received is testament to the high regard in which she is held within the local community.'

Ben Elton’s new, if you will, 'sitcom' (allegedly) The Wright Way, has come in for a lot of flak for its tired and dated comedy set around a council health and safety office. But Glynn Gibson, the real health and safety advisor at Basildon Council seemingly has the most stinging criticism yet. Elton shows the fictional 'Baselricky' department dealing with road defects. But Gibson has been keen to point out to anyone that will listen (so, that'd be the Daily Scum Mail, basically) that in real life, Basildon town council did not deal with roads, as they come under Essex County Council's remit. Well, thanks for shattering illusions about council life, Glynn.

For yer actual Keith Telly Topping's 33 of the Day today, dear blog reader, you're getting two for the price of one (perhaps the best value on the bloggersphere this very day. Perhaps not). The same song, like - a particular favourite of yer actual keith Telly Topping, as it happens - just two different versions. First up, here's the original, from The Shop Assistants.

And, as if that isn't enough, an ever better - far more dramatic - cover by one of the most underrated bands from Planet Edinburgh, yer actual Goodbye Mr MacKenzie.

Right. Yer actual Keith Telly Topping feels ready to face that day after those!

Week Twenty: Procrastination? More Coming Up After The Break

Fresh from the news that the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary will not, after all, feature incarnations of the Time Lord earlier than former national heart-throb David Tennant's tenth Doctor, some potentially spoiler-type photos have emerged suggesting that all is not lost when it comes to honouring the family SF drama's origins. The photos, posted on Twitter by one Ryan Farr during filming in Cardiff this week, show two acknowledgements towards Doctor Who's very first ever adventure, 1963's An Unearthly Child. The first is of the opening scene's famous IM Foreman scrapyard, the location where original companions Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton first discovered the TARDIS. The second is a sign for the - entirely fictional - Coal Hill secondary school, which the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, attended and where Barbara and Ian taught (it also appeared in 1988's twenty fifth anniversary four-parter Remembrance of the Daleks). According to the sign, yer actual Chesterton is now 'Chairman of the Governors.' Whether Ian, played by William Russell, is set to return to the popular long-running family SF drama for the first time since 1965 is, at this time unclear - and unlikely - although the actor has been confirmed to play a character called Harry in Mark Gatiss' Doctor Who drama An Adventure In Space And Time which will also be broadcast later this year.

He once conquered the pop charts as part of 1990s band D:Ream, explained the intricacies of gravity to a confused nation and even appeared in a magazine list of the sexiest men alive. Now yer actual Professor Brian Cox, one of the BBC's star turns, has laid claim to a new achievement: inspiring a generation of children to take up biology, chemistry and physics in school. In an interview in the Observer Magazine, Foxy Coxy – who has been a ubiquitous presence on the BBC in recent years – says he believes there can be 'little doubt' that science on television has been a factor in an upward trend in the number of children taking up the subjects at GCSE and A-level. Cox said he thought that the series of science programmes, including his own Wonders of the Solar System, aired during the BBC's 'year of science' in 2010, had a major impact. In 2012, there was a thirty six per cent increase in the number of students doing GCSE science exams, compared with the previous year. Biology and chemistry were two of the three A-level subjects, including ICT, where attainment rates at A (and A*) rose in 2012. Cox, who is currently filming a new show about man's growing understanding of the universe, said: 'It's kind of obvious when you think about it. A public service broadcaster in my view is part of the education system, as it does change behaviour. I think the year of science did that. There has been an upswing in the number of students applying to university to do scientific subjects. It's difficult to say why, as there are many factors. It's important to say that. But one of the factors is the popularity of science on television. I don't think anyone disputes that. You can dispute the percentages, but someone should do a thesis on it at some point.' The presenter and academic, a graduate of Manchester University who is regarded by many as the BBC's successor to Sir David Attenborough, said that the success of the programmes in 2010 had also made it easier than ever to pitch science to channel controllers. Wonders of the Solar System pulled in up to five million viewers when it was first broadcast, figures more often associated with dramas. 'I think in general the BBC had the year of science in 2010 to coincide with three hundred and fifty years of the Royal Society, and that was a tremendous success across a lot of the programmes,' he said. 'My first big show, Wonders of the Solar System, was in there and Bang Goes the Theory, and Iain Stewart's and Michael Mosley's programmes. After that, I think it's been a lot easier and I also think the BBC has realised that it has a responsibility in this area because it's been a goal of the government to make science more popular, to get more science students through GCSE and A-level and on to university. It's been seen as a national imperative. I think the BBC has realised it can do that, and the government has too.' After one of the BBC's most traumatic years, Cox is quick to applaud its work. He said the corporation had woken up to its responsibility to promote science and had done well in giving academics the chance to present – a skill Cox believes is underestimated. Cox said: 'I'm not saying it's difficult, it's something a lot of people could do, but you have to be given the chance to learn, to practise and to grow. One of the main things for me was to forget there's a camera there and just allow yourself to be as enthusiastic as you would be in a lecture or a public talk.'

The gap in overnight ratings between Britain's Got Toilets and The Voice narrowed yet again on Saturday. BGT's overnight audience was 9.52m (peaking at 10.59m) whilst The Voice was watched by an average of 7.99m (with an audience peak of 9.82m). That's the fifth consecutive week that The Voice's overnight audience has risen and the third that Britain's Got Toilets has fallen (albeit, not by  very much). Of course, the big test for The Voice will come next week when they move into the so-called 'battle rounds'; last year, that was the point where the show , which had started like a train began to lose momentum. Still, for the moment at least - and despite all of the silly shenanigans with regard to ITV deliberately placing BGT in the slot in an effort to crush The Voice's pulling power - both channels will be happy enough with the results. Doctor Who's latest episode, The Crimson Horror, had an overnight of 4.61m, although the audience share (twenty five per cent) was more or less consistent with previous results over the last few weeks. Once again, expect that figure to rise by around two million or thereabouts once consolidated timeshift viewers are taken into account.

Did you spot all of the Get Carter references in Sunday night's episode of Endeavour, dear blog reader? Specifically Thursday's old nemesis, Vic Kasper, having recently relocated to Oxford from The Smoke after becoming 'persona non grata' with a couple of London's top boys, the legendary 'Sid and Gerald Fletcher'. Oi, copyright! Someone'll be pushing 'legitimate Northern businessman' Cliff Brumby (he's a big lad, but he's out of shape) off the top of a multi-story car park next, mark my words.

Broadchurch's Jonathan Bailey has claimed the show ruined his social life because he was so worried about giving away the secret of who the killer was. The twenty five-year-old actor played reporter Olly Stevens, the nephew of the police detective played by Olivia Colman in the hit ITV crime drama, and revealed that he did not find out who the murderer was until halfway through filming the final episode. Jonathan confessed: 'I found it really hard to keep the secret. And it brought about mild social anxiety, especially when it was on TV. Because if you've had a little drink after a night out, that's when the friends start trying to throw it into conversation. But I've learned to be strong and not give anything away.' The actor is excited the drama has been recommissioned for a second series, and is hoping his character is still around. He said: 'I hope he is going to be in the next series. I would love to see him on Fleet Street, although he's very loyal to Maggie Radcliffe, his boss played by Carolyn Pickles, so I'm sure there's going to be a lot more with that team. So I think you'll see him in Broadchurch again.' Jonathan admitted the overnight success of the show, which also starred David Tennant, had taken him by surprise. He said: 'It's mad. It's fantastic that people have really taken it, and even though we all knew the scripts were top quality, but to see people to be waiting every Monday for the next instalment has been fantastic.'

And so to yer next Top Telly Tips, dear blog reader:-

Saturday 11 May
It's the FA Cup Final between Sheikh Yer Man City and Wigan Not Very Athletic (kick-off 5.15pm). Of course, as ITV have the coverage rights, odious greed bucket (and drag) Adrian Chiles will be presenting (badly) all the action from the showpiece match at Wembley Stadium. Dirty Wigan and their particularly odious chairman are aiming to produce a major upset against the 2011 winners. The Latics have reached this stage for the first time in their history, but Everton were the only top-flight side they faced en route, though they were highly impressive 3-0 victors in that sixth-round clash. The Citizens will be looking to make up for the disappointment of relinquishing their Premier League crown to neighbours The Scum, and have demonstrated their quality with a fourth-round away win against Stoke City in a repeat of the final two years ago, and overcame the cup holders, Moscow Chelski FC, in their semi-final. With - crap - commentary from Clive Tyldesley and waste-of-space nobody Andy Townsend, and a complete lack of anything approaching decent analysis from Roy Keane, Lee Dixon and the most boringly voiced man on the planet, Gareth Southgate. Subsequent programmes are subject to change if it goes to extra time and/or penalties.

Thankfully, on the other side, there's Doctor Who, this week starting at the later time of 7:00 BBC1 (and, presumably, hoping that the football finishes on time). It's the penultimate episode of the series, Nightmare In Silver - The Doctor takes Clara and her young charges, Angie and Artie, to Hedgewick’s World, billed as the biggest amusement park in the universe. But, it's now in ruins. Is it worth noting at this juncture that the last time the TARDIS had a crew of four, one of them died, very horribly, at the hands of The Cybermen? Probably not. Anyway, they befriend the impresario, Mister Webley (a suitably sinister turn by Jason Watkins) and his henchman, Porridge (Warwick Davis) in a waxworks where the main distraction is a chess-playing Cyberman. So far, so bizarre in Neil Gaiman's typically quirky script. However, there is an even bigger surprise in store for the Time Lord with the re-emergence of one of his oldest foes; The Cybermen are back, and they're deadlier than ever. Tamzin Outhwaite also guests.

Tonight also sees the conclusion of the two-part adaptation of Arne Dahl's Swedish crime novel To The Top Of The Mountain - 9:00 BBC4. The A-Unit continues its investigations into a family's car exploding on a road trip in the Netherlands, and looks further into the affairs of the suspect, David Billinger - with life-threatening consequences. After the fiery denouement to last week's episode, the team of crack Swedish detectives is getting back on its feet. But, you'll notice, there seldom seems to be much urgency among this lot. All of that bantering over snacks and coffee in their office, all the cracks about each other's private lives. Don't these people realise there are crimes to be solved? Really nasty ones in this particular case. The gang is, notionally at least, on the tail of a wealthy restaurateur who is seemingly involved in drug-smuggling. He's also being pursued by some very unpleasant Dutchmen. None of it is remotely credible, of course, and Arne Dahl unforgivably uses one of the oldest shock-tactics in the TV crime book this week which is so hokey you may well turn violent when you see it. Starring Irene Lindh.

Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is one of the biggest players in US television and movies, with a seemingly unstoppable ability to turn old material into box-office gold. The hits keep coming, from Felicity via Alias and Lost to Person of Interest, and from Mission: Impossible III via two Star Trek blockbusters to the next Star Wars film. As Star Trek: Into Darkness opens (the early reviews are mostly favourable although one or two dissenting voices are starting to emerge on the darker corners of the Interweb), big quiffed Marky Kermode travels to California for a Culture Show special - 7:35 BBC2. Which is, frankly, stupidly placed to begin ten minutes before the end of Doctor Who for which, one presumes, it'll have much the same audience. What moron thought that was a good idea? This includes a personal tour of Bad Robot, Abrams's production company and talks to the writer/producer/director about his influences – he professes himself to be a fanboy – and his ambitions.

Sunday 12 May
Break out the bow ties, unfurl the red carpet and open a fresh bottle of brass polish for those masks. It's British television's big night of the year, and we're all invited to The BAFTA Television Awards. Not to the actual do itself on London's South Bank, oh no, that's only for The Special People, but, at least, to the suitably trimmed BBC1 version – 8:00 - which is, frankly, a better deal all round. Viewers at home can enjoy the close-to-the-bone gags of Graham Norton and our favourite stars dressed to the nines without the marathon of heartfelt speeches. Norton hosts the annual ceremony celebrating the best of British TV, held at London's Royal Festival Hall. Actors and actresses hoping for a gong tonight include Steve Coogan, Sienna Miller, Miranda Hart, Sheridan Smith, Olivia Colman and Hugh Bonneville, while the entertainment performance category sees Graham himself competing against Ant and/or Dec, Sarah Millican and Alan Carr. Among the programmes up for a prize are Homeland, Twenty Twelve, I'm A Z-List Former Celebrity Desperate To Get My Boat-Race Back On TV ... Please Vote For Me To Stay Here As Long As Possible (I'll Even Eat Worms If You Want), Parade's End, Mrs Biggs, Accused, Scott & Bailey, Ripper Street, Last Tango in Halifax, the BBC's coverage of London 2012 and Channel Four's of the Paralympics. One person sure of a award, however, is a member of the Olympics presenting team, who is being given a special recognition acknowledgement.

The Challenger - 8:30 BBC2 - is a fact-based docudrama about the American physicist Richard Feynman's determination to reveal the truth behind the Challenger space shuttle disaster. When the craft exploded seventy three seconds after lift-off on 28 January 1986, leading to the deaths of all seven crew members, it was the most shocking event in the history of US spaceflight, and a presidential commission was immediately convened to investigate what went wrong. Towards the end of his life, sick with cancer, Richard Feynman was invited to join the presidential inquiry into the disaster. The space shuttle has exploded shortly after launch throwing the space programme into doubt: no one knew what went wrong. Feynman had to turn detective: he was wary of politics and hated the cant of Washington (after Reagan's infamous eulogy he muttered, 'I personally doubt they're touching the face of God'), but he was well placed to cut through the vested interests and get to the truth. William Hurt in the lead role takes what could be a dry, technical story and makes it an inspiring drama about the place of science in a world of spin and greed. Also starring Bruce Greenwood, Brian Dennehy, Kevin McNally and Joanne Whalley.

When Richard Feynman was ten he had his own science laboratory at home. He went on to shape modern quantum physics, win the Nobel Prize and tell the world why the space shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after take-off; his real-life story is told in The Fantastic Mr Feynman - 9:30 BBC2, immediately after The Challenger. This inspiring film, embellished by Feynman's writings and drawings, tells of a full and amazing life, even though it was cut short by cancer in 1988. And one which embraced both joy (his love of science shines through in interviews) and pain (his first wife dying from TB at twenty five and the anguish from helping to develop the A-bomb).

After a successful 2011 adaptation of Kate Summerscale's bestseller The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, ITV has hung on to its central character for a second outing. But, while the book was based on a true story, The Murder in Angel Lane is entirely fiction, written by Neil McKay (who also wrote Appropriate Adult). Paddy Considine returns as the pioneering Nineteenth Century inspector in this one-off feature-length drama. Having left the Metropolitan Police under something of a cloud, Whicher's days as a detective are behind him. However, when he saves a respectable country lady (Broadchurch's Olivia Colman, a regular collaborator with Considine from Hot Fuzz to Tyrannosaur) from a violent robbery in a dangerous part of London, she hires him to investigate the savage murder of her sixteen-year-old niece. The subsequent investigation pits Whicher against wealthy and powerful figures, as well his former colleagues in the Met, and leads to a psychiatric institution where he must confront his own demons. Co-starring Shaun Dingwall and Mark Bazeley.

Monday 13 May
When a murder in Belfast remains unsolved, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson is brought in from to help catch the culprit in The Fall - 9:00 BBC2. She finds similarities to a case from eighteen months previously and becomes convinced that there is a serial killer on the loose, but her superiors are unwilling to make the same connection. Gillian Anderson is great as a detective in the Met who arrives in Belfast to review the investigation into the murder of a young woman. Running parallel is the story of a killer, possibly the killer (Jamie Dornan, playing against his heart-throb status). He's a quiet obsessive, a man who stalks, who watches and who waits. He is also a man with many secrets from many people, and he is surprising, not just a blank-eyed, strangle-happy deviant. The Fall, like its two protagonists, is tightly controlled and very deliberate. Proper scary, too.

Ash is fretting over what he should do with his life, so Freddie suggests he pursue an acting career and teaches him the tricks of the trade in Vicious - 9:00 ITV. However, with an important audition of his own coming up, he's thrown into a state of depression when Ash quickly secures a role - leaving Stuart with the task of rebuilding his partner's self-confidence. Meanwhile, Violet seeks advice about her tumultuous relationship with her Hungarian boyfriend. The histrionics are in full flow when Freddie goes for an audition on Downton Abbey, although his only line of dialogue involves potatoes. The notion of Ian McKellen being up for such a small role is, in and of itself , hilariously funny, and the scene where Freddie sits gauche young Ash (Iwan Rheon) down for his first acting lesson is priceless. Freddie and Stuart live up to the promise of the title in this episode. They're in a particularly waspish mood, not just to each other and Ash but also to Violet — Frances de la Tour getting many of the best lines. 'A lot of acting is just good hair,' she claims, while seeking solace for a failed affair with Christoph: 'He'd fly me to Hungary once a month to do unspeakable things.'

Only Connect, one of British TV's hidden gems is back for a seventh series - 8:30 BBC4 - with a University Challenge-style format where, for several weeks, nobody is knocked out and losers reappear until the semi-finals randomly arrive. You'd hope that would mean a lot more episodes, but in fact there are fewer this time around. BBC cutbacks, obviously. Tonight you need to know about politics, athletics, pubs and Les Mis. As for the contestants, one of them exclaims a suitably random 'Oh, my hat!' at a particularly elusive answer, while another becomes embroiled in a discussion about his testicles with remonikered host Victoria Coren Mitchell. He must then somehow refocus on the quiz.

Tuesday 14 May
Frankie - 9:00 BBC1 - is a drama about district nurse Frankie Maddox whose work always seems to take priority over her personal life. Frankie herself (Torchwood's Eve Myles) is in a happy if unremarkable relationship with policeman Ian, who she suspects is planning something special for her forthcoming thirty sixth birthday. However, elderly patient Mister Thomas becomes her number one concern when she realises his daughter is struggling to care for both him and her terminally ill husband. But frustratingly, it seems no one else wants to know. Adding to Frankie's workload is pregnant mum Heather, who is worried she will go into labour before her husband returns from Afghanistan. Writer Lucy Gannon pushes all the right buttons with some affecting storylines — many viewers will have a tear in their eye along the way — and an engagingly flawed heroine. This isn't Call the Midwife, but it's not Doc Martin, either, thank Christ. Dean Lennox Kelly, Derek Riddell and Jemma Redgrave co-star.

The CSIs investigate the murder of rising tennis star Claudia Weber and determine that she was killed with her own racquet, with suspects including her husband, her estranged brother and a mysterious assailant from her past in CSI - 9:00 Channel Five. Her best friend and rival, Tara Janssen, also comes into the picture and the team checks out her alibi - a dinner with tennis legend Chris Evert. Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you, that really is Chris Evert (and Lindsay Davenport, for that matter) playing themselves at the start of this episode, which focuses on the murder of a tennis player. The writers include a slightly ridiculous scene where Finlay questions Evert while they play some practice shots, so we get to admire Elisabeth Shue's solid net play (the tennis-themed episode was her idea, apparently). But the entire case is slightly cast into shadow by the blinding announcement that David Hodges has got engaged — to a fiery Italian brunette, no less. This may surprise you as much as it does his workmates, but Morgan looks especially crestfallen.

Dinner parties are a rarity in Albert Square, as most of the locals prefer to nip down the chippie or into the Vic for pie and mash rather than entertain at home. So Sharon brings a touch of class to the neighbourhood by having a Mitchells-only dinner — 'with canapés, a tablecloth and everything!' as Alfie points out in EastEnders - 7:30 BBC1. Lola, however, uses the occasion to sneak about searching for Sharon's stash of painkillers, while Billy hops from one foot to the other because he's supposed to be having his dinner with Ava. So when there's a knock on her door, Ava expects it to be Billy not ... well, you'll have to tune in to find out. The unexpected caller, nevertheless, turns Ava's world upside down. Meanwhile, Kirsty becomes further entangled in her own web of lies when Max asks about her twelve-week baby scan. Bianca and AJ plot to give Carol and Masood some time alone, while Jean is thrilled to be offered a job cooking in Ian's restaurant - until she realises he expects her to undertake a culinary test.

Wednesday 15 May
The Apprentice hopefuls are summoned to the home of the Design Council - 9:00 BBC1 - where Lord Alan Sugar-Sweetie sets them a design-based task - they have to come up with an inventive piece of flat-pack furniture, before producing prototypes and pitching their products to retailers. The candidates soon get creative, with one team bringing a folding chair to the table, while the others decide to manufacture a multifunctional cube - but it isn't long before problems begin, with mixed-up measurements and internal squabbles threatening the process. The girls' team has a problem, observes Karren Brady; they're all talkers and no listeners. And, as usual, she's right. Put the super-groomed furies of team Endeavour in a room with a task to do — such as this week's, designing an exciting new piece of flat-pack furniture — and it's like one of those City trading floors where everyone yells at once, but an octave higher. Yet the idea they come up with, a multi-functional, cube-shaped table, sounds as if it might have legs. Or, you know, casters anyway. 'It has to be, like, "Wow"' says their self-appointed design expert, as they try to bend the laws of physics to make their 'Tidy-Sidy'®™ idea work. Over on the boys' team, someone comes up with the idea of a chair with recycling bins built into the base. Every home needs one, frankly. Well, Stately Telly Topping Manor does, anyway. It's another beautifully machined challenge for denting massive egos and exposing critical flaws. None of it is reasonable or fair, of course, but as Sugar-Sweetie his very self points out, 'The only fair that goes on here is the cab fare home.'

Great Artists in Their Own Words - 9:00 BBC4 - features footage from the BBC's archive collections is unlocked to reveal the story of the birth of modern art, as told by those who created this cultural revolution. The second episode looks at the tortured images of Francis Bacon, born of the horror of the Second World War, the pop-art of Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol and the vibrant paintings of David Hockney. Featuring contributions by Joan Bakewell, Antony Gormley and Waldemar Januszczak.

The death of a former marine who was obsessed with the coming of the apocalypse leads the team to a survivalist group of self-styled doomsday preppers, to whom the deceased belonged in Bones - 9:00 Sky Atlantic. Meanwhile, Brennan dreads the thought of Sweets moving out.

Thursday 16 May
Tonight sees the concluding part of Murder of the Home Front - 9:00 ITV - the Second World War-set crime drama, starring Patrick Kennedy and Tamzin Merchant. Home Office pathologist Lennox Collins and his secretary Molly Cooper face a battle not only with their bosses but also with the police when they try to save a seemingly innocent man from the gallows. As more victims of 'The Nazi Strangler' turn up, they put their own lives at risk in a quest for the truth. With David Sturzaker and James Fleet.

Peter Powell presents an edition of Top of the Pops - 7:30 BBC4 - from 18 May 1978 with music by yer actual Plastic Bertrand his very self ('Allez Oop!'), Guy Marks, Brotherhood of Man, Elkie Brooks, Darts, Hi Tension (that's what they are, superstar, apparently), Boney M, Smokie, The Stranglers, X-Ray Spex, Ruby Winters and Raydio. Plus, a performance by dance troupe Legs & Co.

Movie of the week, by a considerable distance, is The Damned United - 9:00 BBC4. Director Tom Hooper gleefully re-creates the hairy, fag-smoking, pre-Premiership days of English club football in telling the story of manager Brian Clough's unhappy forty four-day tenure at Dirty Leeds United in 1974. Michael Sheen follows up Frost/Nixon with another pitch-perfect performance, showing how the arrogant, outspoken, grudge-fuelled Clough tried to take on the club, its players, fans and revered former manager Don Revie (a well-cast Colm Meaney) and, for just about the only time in his life, failed miserably. In adapting David Peace's stunning (and, with some, controversial) novel, Peter Morgan (The Queen) lightens the tone, avoids slandering Johnny Giles and keeps the footballing action to a minimum, focusing on what happens in the dugout, the boardroom and behind the weatherbeaten façade of Elland Road. This slice of recent British history might not rival the death of Princess Diana, but Morgan is a master at creating drama out of mundane detail and, with Timothy Spall providing welcome respite from the bombast as Cloughie's right-hand man, Peter Taylor, this is a stirring, tragicomic portrait of one of football's greatest characters. Clough's family, reportedly, hated it without having even bothering to see it. Their loss, frankly. Yer actual Keith Telly Topping hates whingers, dear blog reader. You might have noticed.

Friday 17 May
Warwick Davis, Paul Hollywood, Jason Manford and Joan Bakewell join team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack for Would I Lie To You? - 8:30 BBC1 - the comedy panel show, trying to hoodwink their opponents with absurd facts and plausible lies about themselves. Rob Brydon hosts. And, then there's the comedy highlight of the week, Have I Got News For You - 9:00 BBC1. Two - as yet unknown - celebrity guests join in the fun on the satirical current affairs quiz, as regular team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton take a sidelong glance at the events of the past week.

Tonight also sees the start of a repeat run of Sherlock on BBC3 - 9:00. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's cunning, massively popular 'reimaginging' of the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has, of course, been a massive worldwide hit. Fans have to feast on crumbs at the moment, whilst we wait for the third series which is currently filming, so we'll just have to seize this chance to enjoy the very first episode again, with the arrival of yer actual Benedict Cumberbatch as a brilliant, edgy, Asperger's-like Holmes for the Twenty First Century. When one useless plod calls him a psychopath, he famously snaps back, 'I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath — do your research!' While Cumberbatch provides the fireworks, Martin Freeman as John Watson is the essential glue that holds the whole story together, taking a flat-share with Holmes and proving a quietly brilliant foil with a nice ability around a pithy one-liner. So, nayway, it's 2010 and, in London, a chance encounter brings the injured John Watson, fresh from military service in Afghanistan, into contact with Sherlock Holmes, a loner and genius who earns his living as a consulting detective. The duo's first case together sees them investigating the fourth in a series of apparent suicides, and it seems even Inspector Lestrade - the best that Scotland Yard has to offer - cannot compete with the sleuth. With Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson, Rupert Graves, Mark Gatiss - dryly sinister as Sherlock's brother, Mycroft - and Phil Davis. If you haven't got it on DVD and watched it a million times already (and, let's face it, that should probably exclude most people reading this blog) then, BBC3's where you need to be tonight.

The news, now: Yer actual Bill Nighy is to star in two sequels to BBC2 film Page Eight. The sixty three-year-old will reprise his role as MI5 spy Johnny Worricker in Turks & Caicos and Salting The Battlefield both from writer/director David Hare. Mad Bad Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes will also star in Turks & Caicos, which will see Worricker forced to deal with an old girlfriend and the CIA. Salting The Battlefield will show Nighy appear opposite Saskia Reeves, Judy Davis and Ewen Bremner in a tale that sees Worricker in exile and on the run across Europe. 'We have assembled a most extraordinary cast for these two films,' said Hare. 'I think there may be two reasons - first and foremost, because so many actors want to appear alongside Bill Nighy, but secondly, because people responded so strongly to the feeling of Page Eight – all the fun of spy fiction, I hope but, for once, bang up to date and based in the real intelligence dilemmas of the last ten years.' Janice Hadlow, the Controller of BBC2, added: 'David Hare's outstanding films and incredible cast are testament to BBC2's commitment to original British drama and I am delighted to welcome him back to the channel.'

The disgraced broadcaster - and dirty rotten scoundrel - Stuart Hall is facing accusations that he recently transferred ownership of his home to his wife in a deliberate attempt to avoid paying compensation to his victims. Land Registry documents uncovered by the Gruniad Morning Star show that Hall's detached property in Wilmslow – said to be worth over one million smackers – was placed under sole proprietorship of Hazel Hall on 22 February of this year. The transfer occurred less than a fortnight after Hall mendaciously denied indecently assaulting thirteen young girls, calling allegations against him 'pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious.' He has since admitted all counts and been revealed as a dirty old scallywag and rotter. At least six of Hall's victims are set to sue as a result of the 'enormous suffering' inflicted on them by the former It's a Knockout presenter. The BBC is also said to be facing compensation claims for sexual abuse which may have occurred on the corporation's premises. Alan Collins, a partner at the law firm Pannone who is acting on behalf of Hall's victims, said he was 'alarmed' by claims that Hall had offloaded ownership of his property and would seek a court order to nullify any transfer. Collins said: 'I am very concerned about what is being said. If this is fact then it is very disturbing and I will want to ensure my clients' cases will not be compromised by it.' Land Registry documents show that until February, Hall and his wife had jointly owned the home since 1981. Hall told the Daily Torygraph he had transferred the deeds because he has 'an extreme heart condition and at any moment I'm likely to pop off.' Collins, who is also involved in compensation claims over the Jimmy Savile fiasco, said the BBC may also face civil claims over Hall. 'These people have got very good cases and they have suffered tremendously as a result of what Stuart Hall did to them,' he said. Several of Hall's former BBC colleagues sought to - hurriedly - distance themselves from him on Friday. The Gruniad claims that 'some' said he was 'a nuisance' with women, whom he would invite to an old medical room near where the BBC filmed Look North, later renamed BBC North West Tonight. 'It was common gossip that Stuart Hall used the room for assignations,' said Gyles Brandreth, the broadcaster and former Conservative MP. 'I described the atmosphere then as pretty sleazy, but I don't think anyone thought the girls were unwilling or under age.' Brandreth described in his 2009 diaries, Something Sensational To Read In The Train, how he visited the Manchester studios occasionally in the early 1970s, where his wife, Michèle Brown, was a continuity announcer and newsreader. Paul Jackson, the former entertainment director who worked at BBC Television Centre in the 70s, said: 'I think the fame and the fans it brings with it, coupled in those days with a suddenly sexualised society, led a lot of people to believe that anything goes. We [were] all swinging, in both senses, and there's nothing wrong with that, they thought then. I'm not really saying that some of these things were in any way justifiable. But equally it is hopeless to try and apply today's mores to a very different time.' The broadcaster Charlie Lambert worked alongside Hall at BBC North West Tonight in the late 1980s. Lambert said he was 'appalled and very very shocked' at Hall's admission and that there was no sign of his 'dark side' when the pair worked together. 'He had his dressing room but it wasn't closeted away, it wasn't as if he had a secret den in another part of the building. There was no attitude of laissez faire, it was quite a cheerful newsroom. He was always cheerful and jovial, looking on the light side of life. He was quite a big character but not in a sinister way.' Lambert added: 'I was never aware of any dark side. When Stuart made his statement on the steps of the court protesting his innocence I, like other people, thought it must be true. I was absolutely devastated by the announcement yesterday but also realised that what he had said was a complete lie.'

The author of To Kill A Mockingbird has sued a literary agent she says tricked her into assigning him the copyright on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Harper Lee claims that Samuel Pinkus took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight to transfer the rights and has failed to respond to licence requests. To Kill A Mockingbird was first published in 1960 and is considered a classic - its one of yer actual Keith Telly Topping's favourite novels, something he did as a sixteen year old for O level. It has sold more than thirty million copies worldwide. Lee herself is rarely seen in public and declines almost all interview requests. The novel is the only published book by the author, who lives in Monroeville, Alabama. In the lawsuit, Lee alleges that when her long-time literary agent, Eugene Winick, became ill in 2002, his son-in-law, Pinkus, switched several of Winick's clients to his own company. Pinkus is alleged to have transferred the rights to secure himself 'irrevocable' interest in the income derived from Lee's book. He also sought to avoid paying legal obligations he owed to his father-in-law's company for royalties, according to the lawsuit. It is further alleged that Pinkus failed to respond to offers on e-book rights and a request for assistance related to the book's fiftieth anniversary. The lawsuit bids the court to assign any rights in the book owned by Pinkus to Lee and asks that she be returned any commission he took from 2007 onwards. Set in Depression-era, small-town Alabama, To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of a lawyer who defends an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman and the parallel story of the lawyer's children and their fear of the mysterious man who lives next door. Seriously, if you've never read it, get yourself down to Waterstone's immediately. The film version's pretty good too.

For today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day, after Endeavour's Get Carter riffs on Sunday, here's another slice of yer actual classic seventies gangster times.

The Crimson Horror: In Chocolate Town All The Trains Are Painted Brown

'No one who goes to live there ever seems to come out.' In tonight's episode of yer actual Doctor Who t'people of a Victorian Yorkshire mill town, Sweetville, are reet t'terrified when t'bodies start washing up from t'river. Bright red and t'wax-like, an'all, so they be. But, even though there's, seemingly, trouble at t'mill, wi' t'Doctor and t'Clara nowhere to be seen, 'appen it's up t'Silurian detective Madame Vastra - last seen in t'2012 Christmas special T'Snowmen - and her 'servant' (and t'lesbian lover) Jenny, not forgetting Strax t'Sontaran t'take centre stage as they attempt t'get t'bottom of t'mystery. It seems t'answer lies behind t'imposing gates of t'Sweetville mill, owned by t'plain-speaking Mrs Millyflower (played by her what used t'be Emma Peel). Right, that's that sorted. T'blogger now fancies t'Eccles cake. Ah'l see thi. But first ... Doctor Who has done t'horror before, of course, it's been one of the staples of the drama's - many - genre pastiches for several decades, flowering especially brightly in the 1967-68 period, again during the early eighties and, especially, a particularly fondly-remembered three year period from 1975 when the show was being produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and script-edited by Robert Holmes. Controversy went hand-in-hand with the idea of scaring the buggering be'jesus out of ten year olds and making them shite in their own beds, of course and, as a consequence, since then the BBC's popular long-running family SF drama has - in relation to horror - occasionally flirted with form without ever, really, tapping into the substance of exactly what it is that makes us reach for the loo roll and leave all the lights on. Which brings us to yer actual Mark Gatiss who, long before he got to write for the show he'd loved since childhood, was already being acknowledged as one of Britain's foremost expects on the horror genre. He's the author and presenter of an acclaimed and award-winning series of BBC4 documentaries on that very subject as well as having co-created his own absurdist horror parody, the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol influenced grotesque, The League of Gentlemen. If pushed to say which he loves the most, Doctor Who or the chiller movies of Hammer, Amicus, Tigon and a plethora of other less well known British independent film companies of the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s, I'm guessing Mark would probably explode like The Devil's Chutney, rather than give a straight answer. 'It's a little-celebrated fact that between the 1950s and the early 1970s, Britain became rather good at something,' Mark once noted in an article in the Gruniad Morning Star. 'This is, in itself, practically unheard of and to have such a sustained period of competence seems as far-off now as Wembley glory or the possibility of a good sitcom. What we cracked, making it into a genre very much our own, was the horror film.' Many of his own previous contributions to Doctor Who have been flecked with the influence of both horror movies themselves and some of their more celebrated source texts; the Gothic novelists of the 1820s, the Victorian penny dreadfuls and the ghost stories of MR James (1862-1936). There was The Unquiet Dead's combination of Dickensian fancy and ghostly possession; Night Terror's classic 'something nasty in the cupboard' pretences; The Idiot Lantern's Quatermass-riffs and idea of the sinister nature of technological advance. In short, Gatiss, the co-creator (with The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat) of this era's other great cross-genre pollination, Sherlock, simply loves making his audience jump.

Described as part of the drama itself as both 'a dark and queer business' and full of 'strange goings on', The Crimson Horror was, according to pre-episode reports, 'specially written' for mother and daughter Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling. It was the first time that the two have ever worked together on-screen. Gatiss had recently appeared in a stage play with Stirling, who mentioned that she and her mother had never been in something together (other than, you know, the same house) and Mark - a gentleman as always - offered to 'tailor' them into his next Doctor Who episode, for which he already had a basic idea of a Victorian creeper. Stirling said that Gatiss had written 'an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. We have never before worked together because the offers have not been tempting, but when such a funny and original script comes through you know the time has come.' Presumably, none of those previous offers included a storyline in which Dame Diana's character had blinded, tortured and - emotionally and physically - abused Rachael's, otherwise the pair might well have worked together far sooner. Gatiss also stated that he wanted to write 'a properly Northern Who', eee baaa gum, and revealed that Rigg was able to use her native Doncaster accent for just about the first time in her long and distinguished career.

Although it was filmed in Caerphilly and based in t'Yorkshire, the town of Sweetville is, fairly obviously, modelled on Bournville, the model village on the south side of Birmingham, best known for its original (and continued) connections with the Cadbury family. The town was created in the 1880s specifically to serve as a domicile for the workers in Cadbury's nearby chocolate factory where, each morning, the model workers all went to the model factory using the model train (that's not to be confused, of course, with the model train owned by the model child of the model worker and his model wife, not that the model worker's model wife works as a model, you understand ... oh dear, we're getting sidetracked). And giving, about a hundred years later, Elvis Costello a superb opening couplet for his song 'Little Palaces'. Actually, all of that is a trifle unfair - even though Cadbury's have undeniably become well-known child poisoners over the years, something which this particular ex-child, frankly, couldn't give a stuff about as he rather likes choccy. The Cadbury family were Quakers and, apparently, had a genuine care - borne, largely, out of religious conviction - for their workforce, who, in return for their labours, were treated with respect, given relatively high wages and good working conditions, certainly for the Victorian era; Cadbury's also pioneered pension schemes, joint works committees and a full staff medical service. So, the average model worker living in the model town of Bournville would, like as not, have been reasonably happy with his lot. Not so the model mill workers of Sweetville. 'Oh great, attack of the super models,' as it were.

Dame Diana Rigg. Where do we start, dear blog reader? Well, in 1965, basically when - then aged twenty seven and, already, a veteran of ten years of stage work - she was cast as Honor Blackman's replacement in The Avengers. Over the next two years in the fifty odd episodes of the celebrated ITV telefantasy series in which she appeared in as leatherette foiler of the dastardly plans of supervillains Emma Peel, Diana became, quite simply, a TV icon. I mean, sod yer X Factor winners and the girls from Hollyoaks, for two years in the mid-1960s, Diana Rigg was the second most recognisable woman in Britain, after the Queen. And, probably, the country's second biggest export (after The Beatles). Subsequent to all that, she was, very briefly, James Bond's wife (until nasty old Blofeld had her horribly killed before they'd even reached their honeymoon), appeared in some terrific movies (The Assassination Bureau, Theatre of Blood) and lots of well-remembered telly (Mother Love, Bleak House, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries) and is one of the foremost stage actresses of her last fifty years. But, to those of a certain age and with a certain blood pressure, she will always be The Queen of Sin, getting her whips out for the lads in Peter Wyngarde's hellfire dungeon. (That wasn't an episode of The Avengers, incidentally, just a particularly moist dream that yer actual Keith Telly Topping once had after eating a lot of Cheddar late one Friday night.)

'We are going to ... "The North."' Which brings us to a very tricky subject, Doctor Who's previous treatment of anywhere outside a thirty mile radius of London (or, now, Cardiff). As everybody born beyond the boundaries of this hallowed geographical area will be well aware, for most of the last near one hundred years, the BBC's collective attitude (and, indeed, that of all primarily London-based broadcasters and media) is that 'The North' is something which starts at Watford and ends at ... Iceland. Witness, for example, Doctor Who's previous forays into the 'It's Grim Oop North' territory. Most notably 1985's risible The Mark of the Rani and their hopeless attempts at 'Geordie', riven with obscenely obvious generic clichés straight out of When The Boat Comes In and woefully bad accents. Mark Gatiss, born and raised in Bishop Auckland, must feel this burning sense of injustice just as much as your average non-Home Counties Doctor Who viewer had always done. Because, like the chap once said, 'lots of planets have a North.' So, given the opportunity to create a story stripped of the usual Doctor Who cliché of everyone speaking the the most perfect Queen's English ('in quotations', as Joe Strummer once said), could he manage to do so without resorting to equally banal and obvious syntax horrors? Or, would it be 'business as usual,' in fact. Do you know, dear blog reader, in many ways, it was, actually, both! And, surprisingly, that worked.

'You are all I have, monster.' In a tale of hypocrisy against moral decay, full of cosy brilliance in displaying - proudly - its influences, I'll leave dear blog readers only to ponder very briefly on how characters in 1893 can be singing 'Jerusalem' when Sir Hubert Parry didn't actually write the tune to go with William Blake's poem until 1916. (Although the words, of course, with their allusions of 'dark Satanaic mills' fit in perfectly with Gatiss's story.) It's not important, really, yer actual Keith Telly Topping merely likes showing off his research, that's all. A bit like Mark Gatiss his very self, really. It's just, he's far better at that sort of thing than I. So, the fans get not one but two references to Tegan ('brave heart, Clara' really did make this blogger laugh a lot) and the average horror aficionado is treated to Gatiss pulling in all sorts of visual and thematic allusions to ... well, how many horror movie references did you spot, dear blog reader? (Yer actual Keith Telly Topping noted, in no particular order, The Stepford Wives, Horror Express, Taste The Blood of Dracula, The Oblong Box, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Frankenstein & The Monster From Hell, The Mummy, Carry On Screaming, Phantom of the Opera, The Tingler, Vertigo and Hands of the Ripper. There were probably half-a-dozen more too subtle for this blogger to catch.) There were also a couple of a neat - and dismissive - discussions on the improbability of optigram lore, constant allusions to the mysterious Mister Sweet ('the repulsive red leech'). And, there was Strax at his most militantly warmongering (at one point, he even threatens to shoot his fourth horse this week after it fails its task of getting him to Sweetville ... And he's not even hungry) which ends with him gaining a new, if you will, Tomtom satnav. 'Have you been eating Miss Jenny's sherbet fancies again?' Plus, of course, the fainting. Which was funny.

'Long story. I'll keep it short.' The Crimson Horror is a oddly structured, but curiously satisfying little piece of pithy whimsy. It's got Rigg and Stirling acting their little cotton socks off, along with the regulars (once they finally appear, twenty minutes in) and the semi-regulars. There's loads of great dialogue too, like the description of the dead bodies as 'glowing like something manky in the coal cellar.' The Doctor's desperate attempts at undercover ('the missus and I couldn't be more chuffed') battles for prominence with just about everything Dame Diana says. Especially 'kindly do not claw and slobber at my crinoline!' And: 'You know what these are? Wrong hands!'

Fundamentally, then, The Crimson Horror was deeply silly, full of outrageous character pieces, weird little non-sequitars and moments of quiet, sinister cleverness. And, other moments that'll just make you think Graham Chapman's about to walk through the door and say that there's trouble a t'mill followed by the observation that he didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition. No one does. What else, frankly, did you expect about a story concerning a 'yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitching up in Victorian Yorkshire'? As The Doctor observes: 'Didn't see that one coming!' But, the entire episode justifies its existence with one, quite brilliant line: 'I'm The Doctor, you're nuts and I'm going to stop you.' In short, The Crimson Horror sees Gatiss his very self doing what Gatiss does best, providing the audience with horror in abundance, but horror in the grand tradition of Hammer and Universal, with a wink and a few pithy one-liners to underscore the nastiness. You wouldn't want it every week but, once in a while, it works terrifically well. 'Had enough of Victorian values for a bit'? Fine. Next week, it's The Cybermen.

ITV's three part drama The Ice Cream Girls finished with an overnight audience of 4.23m viewers on Friday. The final episode of the Brighton-set thriller was up just over two hundred thousand punters on the previous week's overnight figure, but down six hundred and forty thousand on its début. In the same timeslot on BBC1, a particularly fine episode of Have I Got News For You with guests Wor Ross Noble and the Reverend Richard Coles earned 4.47m and Not Going Out had 3.47m. Earlier, A Question of Sport attracted 2.69m at 7.30pm and the start of a new series of Would I Lie To You? was watched by 2.83m an hour later. The Graham Norton Show had an audience of 3.02m at 10.45pm. On BBC2, The Genius of Marie Curie - The Woman Who Lit Up The World was seen by 1.42m at 9pm. The channel's seemingly never-ending coverage of World Championship Snooker grabbed 1.52m in the preceding two hours. The Martin Lewis Money Show brought 3.17m to ITV at 8pm and movie The Fast and The Furious attracted eight hundred and fifty two thousand from 10.45pm. Meanwhile, Channel Four's Ben Earl: Trick Artist remained steady on nine hundred and twenty thousand punters at 9pm and Alan Carr's Chatty Man was watched by 1.1m at 10pm. Classic Britcom movie Hot Fuzz, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, performed best across the digital channels, earning six hundred and fifty three thousand viewers for ITV2 at 9pm.