WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
MIDSOMER MURDERS kicks off its new series tonight (8pm, ITV) with a story about body snatching. I must say this is great. Not body snatching, I hasten to add, but the fact that this longrunning show is prepared to shake things up a bit, case-wise. Let’s be honest, bog-standard murder does get a bit samey after a while.
In the coming weeks I’d like to see this versatility taken further, with Barnaby and Wotsit tackling equally appalling crimes against humanity, such as double parking. In fact, if I ran ITV I’d commission Midsomer Double Parking Selfish Gits as a spin-off series in its own right. Although I guess there’d be quite a lot of murder in that one as well. I KNOW she’s a bit patronising, and seems to have made a career out of stating the bleeding obvious, but MARY PORTAS: SECRET SHOPPER does make me laugh my pants off at times.
Mary’s latest series starts tonight (8pm, Channel 4) in Surrey, where married pair Janet and Graham run a ladies’ outfitters and a bridal store, neither exactly crammed with happy customers.
Mary’s job, as usual, is to see if she can figure out where they’re going wrong, a task that starts with some undercover filming.
But in this case it isn’t hard. From the scenes caught on camera, let’s just say that making her clients feel special isn’t Janet’s strength.
Funniest scene? It’s either the bit where she calls a customer “mental”. Or when she’s fitting a lady for an expensive evening gown while at the time chatting with a colleague about whether the coleslaw in the fridge is still edible.