Radio Times

Recently, and rather regretfully, I expressed to a close colleague my lack of interest in Little Dorrit. Not because there's anything wrong with Little Dorrit, but because I'm not a Charles Dickens fan either in print or on television. I had the same problem with the much-lauded Bleak House adaptation.

This is possibly down to a formative brush with the indigestible Hard Times, which after the third reading made me want to go out and buy a mill to exploit the lower classes just as soon as I could afford my first loom.

After making my admission, this colleague gave me a pitying smile before...

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As a rule, the best reason to watch a BBC Dickens adaptation is to see the pride of British character acting in full sail, and on that front, Little Dorrit has not disappointed.

The script is full of galloping eccentrics; so much so, you start to wonder if writer Andrew Davies misread the brief and took his inspiration from Little Britain. This is good news for some of the cast, as it means they can weigh in with performances so deliciously hammy they might as well be honey roasted, covered in breadcrumbs and served with slices of pineapple.

There's a growling Alun Armstrong,...

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Reality TV addicts, the wait is over. The line-up for the new series of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (starts 16 November, ITV1) has been announced, and we can now unveil the contestants for this year's jungle-based antics:

Dani Behr

The TV presenter is probably best known for her work on Channel 4's 1990s post-pub bad-taste-fest The Word. She counts Myleene Klass, the mysterious "J" Brown and Duncan James among her celebrity supporters. Her big phobia is jumping out of a plane, but her special skills will include being a good listener and keeping the camp tidy. Dani says, "If...

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Yes. It works, it's fantastic and it honestly does go where no Star Trek has gone before because it's exciting. Ferociously, relentlessly, successfully exciting. Radio Times has seen huge chunks of it and the trailer is about to hit UK cinemas.

Director JJ Abrams today screened four long sequences and the trailer for the British press in London. The final film won't be released until 8 May 2009 but he showed extensive excerpts that were said to be "almost complete".

The trailer - to be shown in cinemas from next week - is the least effective part. It's a barrage of moments including space battles, sex and...

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Watching Paul Merton kick a man in the groin, combining the swift upstroke of a goose-stepping Basil Fawlty with the sort of profuse apologies offered by his wife Sybil, brought tears to my eyes. Of laughter.

What it did to the poor chap on the receiving end, goodness knows. Apart from confirm his near lunatic commitment to getting into the Guinness Book of Records by any means possible (and as the reigning holder of the "most kicks to the groin" record, clearly any means are acceptable these days to the record breakers' bible).

Merton is the kind of Englishman we should be proud to send...

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Hollywood's response to the Vietnam War didn't really come until after the evacuation of American troops in 1975.

The unflinchingly critical Coming Home and The Deer Hunter were released three years later, opening the floodgates to other similarly themed movies.

A more recent equivalent for us is the Troubles in Northern Ireland. But film-makers did not wait for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to address it.

By then we'd already seen a host of films: Cal; Angel; The Crying Game; In the Name of the Father; Some Mother's Son; Michael Collins; even The General (Tuesday 11 November, Sky Movies...

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I felt sorry for Steve Rider after the Brazilian Grand Prix (2 November ITV1). It wasn't just that sport's blandest anchorman had the job of winding up 11 years of ITV's Formula One coverage as they handed the sport back to Rider's old employers, the BBC.

ITV's swansong had turned out to be the most nail-biting drivers' championship climax ever. (Lewis Hamilton had won it! No, wait, he'd blown it! No, he'd won it! On the last bend of the last race! Unbelievable!) As a result, they got a huge audience and went out on a high.

No, what made me feel sorry...

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Quantum of Solace is a bit like James Bond himself - gets in there, does the job, gets out again. The film is done and dusted in 106 minutes, a far more enticing prospect than the leg-crossing 140+ minutes of most action movies these days. Did they have to fill those 106 minutes with quite so many stunts, though? After the exhilarating pre-titles sequence, I was looking forward to a bit of a breather, a chance for the plot of this new adventure to develop.

But no. With barely a pause to refuel with the obligatory slug of whisky, our emotionally wounded tough guy was off on another...

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I realise that confessing to My Secret TV Crush means that it will be My Secret TV Crush no longer. But The Bill's 25th birthday would seem to offer the perfect time for me to step daintily into the limelight to declare my devotion to Detective Chief Inspector Jack Meadows.

Of course, I must make it clear that Meadows doesn't come close to The One, that most perfect of men, Scott from Thunderbirds (I'm still here, Scott, just waiting for you to call). But, until the glorious day when I seize the overnight bag I've had packed in readiness for 40 years, and my passport...

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Did you watch missing-person thriller Five Days last February and think, "These detectives are great. They should have their own series"? Someone at BBC1 obviously did, because Hugh Bonneville (pictured) and Janet McTeer are coming back as DS Iain Barclay and DS Amy Foster.

In Hunter - a two-parter filming now - Barclay is assigned to the case of two children abducted by radical extremists. Frustrated by his team's lack of experience, he calls the cynical, boozy DS Foster out of retirement to help him. A production from the BBC's own drama department, Hunter airs early next year.

Michael Palin's return journey
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These days it's become par for the course for cultural commentators to get themselves into frightful strops about TV producers "dumbing down" their output and resorting to pumping out lowbrow dreck in order to claw in viewing figures. A good example of this phenomenon was the BBC's decision at the end of 2007 to reduce its in-house factual programme budgets - a move that went down like the proverbial lead balloon and had many broadsheet writers spluttering into their peppermint tea.

But the situation's not quite as bad as all that. True, programmes like BBC3's Me and My Man Breasts don't exactly sound like the sort of thing...

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BBC1 has a great Christmas present for Wallace and Gromit fans - the premiere of a brand new adventure for the claymation duo.

A Matter of Loaf and Death sees Oscar-winning animator Nick Park back together with Bob Baker, who co-wrote earlier W&G yarns The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. And after the rigours of making two big-screen animated features, Park is keen on a return to the original 30-minute format:

"I love making films for the cinema," he says, " but the production of Chicken Run and Curse of the Were-Rabbit were virtually back to back and each film took...

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Viewers who pay to receive satellite porn channels are losers. OK, so you already knew that. But I'm not talking about how these sad, lonely people need to get out more and experience the thrill of real human interaction. No, I'm talking about how stupid they are to shell out their hard-earned cash for a service they can already get for free elsewhere on their menu of digital delights.

I'm talking, of course, about music television. Flick on one of these channels at any point in the day, and within seconds I guarantee you'll be seeing more bare flesh than a cosmetic surgeon carrying out a year's worth...

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The Bulldog takes on the Hamster as Ashes to Ashes' distinctly un-PC copper DCI Gene Hunt collars diminutive Top Gear star Richard Hammond for Children in Need (BBC1 Friday 14 November).

In RT's exclusive photo shoot celebrating the auspicious occasion, Hammond admitted of Hunt's pride and joy, "The Audi Quattro is a car I would have loved to have owned in the 80s, only I never had enough money." Lucky for him, then, that in the Children in Need film, Hunt is obliged to hand over the keys to Hammond.

But what about on the RT shoot - did Gene Hunt...

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The new 007 movie Quantum of Solace has made UK box office history, taking £4.94m, to become the biggest Friday opener of all time, and breaking the previous record of £4.025m set by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005.

Quantum of Solace also far outdid the previous Bond movie, Casino Royale, which took £2.9m on its opening day. But while Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond received almost universal acclaim from critics and the public alike, Quantum of Solace has so far met with mixed reviews.

So can Bond 22 pull off yet another amazing feat and overtake Casino...

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