This week’s best TV
FRIDAY CELEBRITY 5 Go Motorhoming (C5, 8pm)
HAVING had a taste of camping in sunny Wales, Melvyn Hayes, Lesley Joseph, Don Warrington, Nick Heyward and Cleo Rocos are keen to get back on the road and set a course that leads them through the highlands and islands of Scotland.
While Lesley faces up to her fear of heights in the mountainous region of Glencoe, co-driver Cleo opts for an adrenalineinducing experience.
SATURDAY EVEN Better Than the Real Thing (BBC One, 7pm)
THIS new 60-minute special hosted by Paddy McGuinness borrows an old formula but puts its own spin on it.
It takes the world’s best tribute acts and gets them to compete in front of a live studio audience, who vote on which act reigned supreme. In the process, it celebrates some of pop music’s biggest names with tracks from stars such as George Michael, Whitney Houston and Bruno Mars. As well as solo singing, the acts also team up to perform unique duets and collaborations.
SUNDAY ELECTRIC Dreams (C4, 9pm)
FIRST of a new series of stand-alone dramas, all based on short stories by influential sci-fi writer Philip K Dick.
The opening episode, The Hood Maker, is set in the aftermath of a meteor storm that fried most of our means of communication – including the internet – and methods of energy conversion. The storm also created the Teeps, a telepathic race who are shunned by the “Normals” and used by the government to read minds.
Tensions rise following the introduction of the a device that allows its wearer to block the Teeps’ power, forcing the telepathic Honor (Holliday Grainger) to join forces with government agent Ross (Richard Madden) to find its creator.
MONDAY W1A (BBC Two, 10pm)
THIRD run of the mockumentary portrayal of life at the BBC, following useless, irritating PR guru Siobhan Sharpe, yes man David Wilkes, nice but clueless intern Will and permanently befuddled Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), who could be good at his job if only he wasn’t surrounded by strongwilled idiots.
When we meet up with him again, Ian is looking to identify “creative efficiency opportunities”, while head of output Anna Rampton is trying to make sure everyone does “more of less” – whatever that might mean.
TUESDAY 100 Year Old Driving School (ITV, 9pm)
ALTHOUGH motorists over the age of 70 must reapply through the post for a driving licence every three years, they are not automatically re-tested.
This series meets the older drivers who are willing to take the plunge and sit an assessment overseen by examiners from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to find out if they are still roadworthy.
In this second episode, the RoSPA have set up shop in a biker cafe in Surrey, where the local leather-clad motorcyclists are surprised to encounter a procession of OAPs.
WEDNESDAY DOC Martin (ITV, 9pm)
GRUMPY medic Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) and the rest of Portwenn’s familiar faces are back for a new run, which will also see Sigourney Weaver reprise her guest role as an American tourist and Clunes’ old Men Behaving Badly sparring partner Caroline Quentin return as eccentric vet Angela Sim. Art Malik is also set to pop up as a visitor with intriguing news.
In this new series, the Doc is forced to take in a dog after his wife Louisa tells him having a pet will be good for their son James Henry.
THURSDAY EAMONN & Ruth’s 7 Year Itch (C5, 10pm)
TV PRESENTERS Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, both 57, celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary in June, and as they enter the notorious “seven-year itch”, they explore ways to spice up a marriage.
In this two-part series, they meet couples who have scratched the itch, and find astonishing ways to overcome the most extreme marriage crises – beginning with an alternative sex therapy session and a visit to a BDSM dungeon in London.