Harry Hill's TV Burp.

It's just a bloke replaying TV clips from the past week and making silly comments about them, but it's one of the best things on the box. He's also revived You've Been Framed IMHO

...I caught a curious programme called (something like) 'Mystery Science Theatre' which was, basically, three blokes watching an old film and taking the mickey out of it.

A little like modern DVD commentaries I guess

Someone watching obscure telly programmes and taking the piss didn't sound promising, but I think it worked well. It was presented by Bob Mills and was required viewing for a while back there. The great thing about it was the targeting of sincere people in documentaries, rather than politicians or celebrities.

It's on The Discovery Channel. Take some HD cameras, point them at something scenic, wait for the sun to rise. No narration, no musical soundtrack, no flashy editing, just nature.

This show has actually won awards.

This has been on for ages, doesn't have the character in title, has no TV 'star' (ie Quentin, Clunes, Kemp, Robson/Jerome) and doesn't really deviate from cops v baddy crime solving format. And yet, this no frills approach is generally more entertaining than other UK cop shows.

of shouldn't-work-but-do. Countdown with Richard & Carol. Look on YouTube for the Wankers outtake. Unfortunately all of the ones I have found have this: "embedding disabled by request".

Bastards.

...that I saw a programme which was just about a bunch of amateur games: schools, women's, chest-freezer shaped Polynesians in parks. They also covered the pre-game and the post-game rituals. I thought it was great.

So appalling it is bloody great! Plot, find 4 ill matched individuals, 1 always gay, 1 often a local tory councillor and have them feed each other over 4 nights, with them each "judging" each other, as well as the food. Add in some suitably waspish voice-over and you have a televisual treat. Makes mastermind seem like mastermind.

mythical stories series which was just him running around in the desert enlivening the story thesesus or similar with sheer enthusiams and talent. I'm not sure why they don't repeat them.

It's not TV, but Adam and Joe's podcast is a good example - two middle aged men giggling about the minutest of minutiae (hot water bottle covers for instance), but it's great.
Like Danny Baker's shows, it's a reminder to appreciate the tiniest things in life. It makes the Word podcast sound like "In Our Time".

I remember Danny Baker doing a Friday night post pub show where he commentated on a Sunday league game, normally from Hackney Marshes. It really was great.

We were talking about the sad death of Tony Hart the other day in the boozer and it was discussed how exactly you would pitch Hart Beat these days?

A slightly camp, silver haired man wearing a cravatte shows children how to draw whilst talking to a plasticine toy called 'Morph'. He apparently lives alone in a bohemian loft space but every now and then gets interuppted by a bumbling caretaker / landlord character demanding rent and / or water for his bucket.

Not going to happen is it?

I can't drive. Never wanted to, never will. In fact as a cyclist I absolutely hate cars. I know this is how I'm going to die; my remains churned in the wheel arches of some hideous 4 by 4.

But not only do I watch Top Gear, I tape it and watch it again. I even watch the repeats on Dave. Of course, the appeal is not the car porn, but the fact it's essentially three blokes of a certain age (journalists, notably) arguing the toss with each other.

I'm amazed no-one has thought to apply the formula to non-car topics. I'd love a music show where, say, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Andrew 'Hamster' Harrison were given the task of introducing a selection of the youth of today to their individual view of what prog or punk or psyche was. Points gained for favourable responses, not switching it off immediately, etc.

on Location Location - have a sort of Niles & Daphne will they won't they chemistry. Plus they are usually quite cutting about the couples with unrealistic hopes of buying a mansion in Hampstead and an apartment on Saint Jean Cap Ferrat on a £500,000 budget.

Not one mention of the Hitman & Her? Car crash tv at its finest!!

It really shouldn't work as a chat show... and it doesn't. Sod it. "Shouldn't work and doesn't" wasn't the theme of this post - I'll have to think of a programme that does work.

Two old duffers sit around in a fake record shop (actually the cheapest set imaginable) and waffle on about old records. What a pitch that would have been! But then Messrs H & E deliver a thoroughly entertaining show and voila! (OK, not a TV show... yet?!)

was a crazy idea and (as Series 2 showed) a bit of one trick pony - but what a fantastic pony it was for a while.

sky sport soap saturday

Lost shouldn't really work, all four series have opened a massive can of worms with many subject matters and themes, such as time travel, forgiveness, redemption, religion, the afterlife etc etc etc. Cast members are killed off at a rate of knots every season and to top it all, a strange smoke monster rears its smokey head every now and again. With so many components it shouldn't work, but it does, magically and magnificently. Personally speaking, I think it is one of TV's greatest mysteries. I just hope it has a better ending (with some explantions) and not an open ended ending like Life On Mars, what a cop out that was!

is turning, I think, into the possibly unsung broadcasting hero of my time. Anyone caught 'Great British Journeys' or 'Britannia'?

Technically, he's an explorer, although he only goes to places other people have already been. He goes and looks at things without really knowing what they'll be like, but because someone wrote a paragraph about them centuries ago or because they're in the right place on his map.

This should be random cheapo documentary bunkum, but instead you watch it for the sheer joy of NC himself. He can make anything fascinating (not sound fascinating, but actually be fascinating), often while simply pacing to and fro in a pub, or, on a good day, wading through a river or narrowly avoiding pitching himself A over T on a rugged hillside.

And I haven't even mentioned the iconic umbrella... Oh.

On "Animal Park" yesterday, Hercules the dung beetle was off his dung. Just couldn't face any more of the stuff.
It's true - look at the listless expression on his face in this picture:

And admit it, you want to know how he is now, don't you? Well, it's still on iPlayer.

and the ground he walks on.

Top man...

Imagine the pitch for these two excellent comedies:

"YES, MINISTER": Three middle-aged, grey-suited men discuss the inner workings of the civil service.

"MARION AND GEOFF": A minicab driver talks to a dashboard camera about his divorce. Neither Marion nor Geoff ever appear.

I agree that Lost just reels you in. I adore how the whole island moving thing and the potential for time travel is achieved by spooky Ben shoving a great big cartwheel round in some underground cavern. That's classy.

..a tiny blonde Valley-girl cheerleader, you say? Who is the chosen one to lay waste to all the creatures of the night? And her name is what?...Buffy? Well, that wouldn't catch on, surely?

Oh.

"It's The X-Files, kay? But here's the big twist: the Smoking Man's a woman with a bionic arm this time, and Skinner is that expressionless lieutenant from The Wire, and - you're rilly gonna love this - he's, er, still expressionless. Oh, and the mystery of Mulder's is-she-really-dead sister? Well, now it's the mystery of Dunham's is-he-really-dead boyfriend. Isn't that amazing?"

Well, I'm hooked.

It's not on anymore, sadly, but Hannah Gordon presiding over a bunch of amateur artists as they attempt to capture the many shades of green in the trees outside Durham Cathedral all in a half hour was captivating, restful and compulsive.

Bring it back.

The same goes for Boot Sale Challenge.

Indoor League - circa mid 70s. Pub Games played my a myriad of Northern chaps, made into a television show. Sort of like a poor man's Bullseye....and that'saying something. If memory serves, I think Fred Trueman hosted. Superb!

Not sure if it shouldn't work, although natural history on TV never really grabs me, but it does. Maybe it's because I grew up on the Fylde Coast, which is no kind of coast at all really. It's a shame they've run out.