Jack’s moor the merrier
EVER think of chucking in the city rat race for a country idyll in a chocolate box village, where you can knit your own jam and have a valid excuse for buying a Range Rover? It’s an idea that appeals to thousands who dream of swapping their cramped London gaffs for enormous country piles in the shires and still have change left over for an Aga.
Well, Jack Dee is back to say don’t do it. He returns as the star (and co-writer) of the sitcom BAD MOVE (ITV, 8.30pm), about a middle-aged couple with an empty nest who decide that access to public transport and a local Starbucks is a small price to pay for a great view of the North Yorkshire moors. Only now they live in a ramshackle dwelling they can’t afford to do up, only get a decent phone signal during a full moon and have neighbours who behave like villagers from The Wicker Man.
Jack excels as adorable curmudgeon Steve, who wishes he’d never gone in search of the good life with his other half, Nicky (Kerry Godliman).
In tonight’s opener, they’re still trying to get their chimney fixed after a helicopter caused it to collapse (the vehicle was transporting their pop star neighbour, Grizzo, played by Strictly 2018 contestant Seann Walsh).
The moths have eaten through their fancy clothes and that scary lady still runs the village shop. It’s a fun half-hour that makes us city-dwellers feel pretty smug.
To many of us, Katherine Parkinson is a comedy goddess – Bafta agreed and gave her a Best Actress award in 2014 for her performance in The IT Crowd.
Most recently Katherine has wowed us as a lawyer in C4’s Humans (a non-comedic role – she’s multi-talented) and in the C4 comedy Hang Ups as Stephen Mangan’s bemused wife.
Tonight, Katherine headlines DEFENDING THE GUILTY (BBC2, 10pm), a new sitcom about trainee barristers starring Flowers’ Will Sharpe.
Katherine is his pupil master, who tries to show Will the ropes in court as he attempts to get to grips with our Byzantine justice system and wearing a wig.
Joanna Lumley has shown herself the ideal travel companion – faultlessly polite, endlessly enthusiastic and possessing a warmth that could melt Siberian ice.
And it’s worth noting that not many people could manage to look quite so well-groomed while living out of a suitcase. We’re enjoying JOANNA LUMLEY’S SILK ROAD ADVENTURE (ITV, 9pm), in which the honey-voiced actress traverses the ancient trade route, charming everyone in her path. Tonight, Joanna (below) travels through Georgia and Azerbaijan, states that are modernising rapidly in the post-Soviet era. She stops at all kinds of cool places, including the Georgian seaside town of Batumi, where Soviet-era blocks are overshadowed by the casinos and high-rise hotels that are springing up with new money. But it’s not all about jumping headlong into 21st-century life. In Tbilisi, the capital, Joanna marvels at the work of the Sukhishvili Dance Company, which dedicates itself to keeping traditional Georgian folk dance alive in the modern era.