BEST OF THE REST
THE REPLACEMENT BBC1, 9pm
IT WAS the most awkward dinner party from hell, with a face-off between Ellen and Paula (the brilliant Morven Christie and Vicky McClure). And finally, Paula said “You win”.
We now pick up at that moment, with Paula coming clean about her secret. Of course, theories are rife, and you can probably make a good guess. But that doesn’t make this finale any less gripping as everything spirals out of control.
Most annoying is Ellen’s husband Ian (Richard Rankin) – surely the worst psychiatrist ever, who cannot see the madness.
He drops his wife (and mother of his baby) quicker than a hot potato, and all on the word of someone he’s known for five minutes.
Of course Ellen is not helping herself, creeping around like Columbo. But when she encounters the mysterious Georgia, Paula retaliates by telling Ian “as a friend” that perhaps he should consider getting a paternity test.
Watch out for yet another catastrophic ‘gasp’ moment as everyone comes together to celebrate the new library.
But it’s about to get much worse...
INSIDE NO 9 BBC2, 10pm
DAVID (Reece Shearsmith) is out running when he sees a lone shoe lying on the pavement.
Confused, as we all are, by the sight of a single shoe, he picks it up and leaves it on a wall nearby.
We can see it’s a size 9 and, given this is the creepiest comedy on TV, we have a feeling we should be rather afraid of this shoe.
In the end, David decides to bring the shoe inside: “It felt wrong leaving it outside,” he says to his wife Louise (guest star Keeley Hawes).
But he becomes utterly obsessed, putting up posters and offering rewards to anyone who can match it to its other half.
And he’s not impressed when their daughter Sally uses the shoe as a car for her Barbie doll.
Louise would really like David to get a job, but David is too busy with his project – the shoe. It seems there are some other issues going on here.
As always in this show, something much darker is afoot (no pun intended).