Old pals’ act is a winner

I’M ASSUMING there’ll be at least one new category at the next National Television Awards – namely, Best Lockdown Show. In fact, there may be several in that vein. Best Lockdown Drama. Best Lockdown Documentary. And, guaranteed to be the most coveted honour of the lot, Best Lockdown Bookcase.

As for Best Lockdown Comedy, by far the strongest contender I’ve seen so far is starting tonight on BBC1 (as well as arriving in its entirety today on the iPlayer).

STAGED (10.45pm and 11pm), stars two of our finest actors, David Tennant and Michael Sheen, playing… well, playing a pair of actors called David Tennant and Michael Sheen, furloughed by the current crisis and so unable to go ahead for now with their new West End play.

Simon Evans is the play’s director (and in real life also the writer and director of Staged – do stop me if this is getting confusing), who’s urging them to carry on rehearsals via Zoom.

That way, he figures, they can steal a march on their rivals once the theatres reopen.

It’s a comedy delivered in nice, bite-sized chunks (each episode is just 15 minutes long) and it finds these two pals on top form, bouncing off one another hilariously, particularly with the petty point-scoring and one-upmanship. It really is an absolute treat.

Elsewhere, if the new series of BRADLEY WALSH & SON: BREAKING DAD (ITV, 8pm) has an oddly familiar look to it, that’s because it’s not a new series in the way that you and I think of a new series.

It’s actually the best bits of series one and two, where Bradley and Barney Walsh set out together on a US road trip, plus some stuff that was originally left out, presumably for the usual reason that stuff gets left out of TV shows.

Just thought you ought to be forewarned.

Meanwhile, it’s quarter-final week on THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE (BBC1, 9pm). Also, according to host Joe Lycett: “It’s World Sewing Week.”

But I must confess I’ve been confused by that second announcement. Is World Sewing Week an actual event, which is certainly how they’ve made it sound – like London Fashion Week or National Prune Week – or is it something they’ve just made up for the purposes of the show?

I’m guessing it’s the latter, because I searched for it on Google and found no mention of it, other than in the context of The Great British Sewing Bee.

Via that same search, however, I did learn that this Saturday is National Sewing Machine Day. Yes, for real.

Never let it be said I’m not using my time productively.

I believe this is lockdown day 80, by the way...