Emmerdale
Drama on the dance floor leads to real life drama for Val this week. When Jonny blurts out Val’s secret in front of the other contestants at a rehearsal for the dancing competition, a humiliated Val rushes out and into her car. But her plans for a quick getaway come a cropper when she fails to notice Samson in the road and reverses straight into him. Panic erupts as an unconscious Samson is taken to hospital. And when Shane arrives to investigate the accident and discovers that Val has cataracts, he wants to know why she was driving at all.
David begs Nicola to tell Donald about them and end their marriage. However, when Nicola confronts her husband, she is horrified when he pulls out an annulment petition. Reeling at being out-witted by an old man she’d presumed would be dead by now, Nicola is astonished when Donald says he doesn’t really want an annulment and confesses that she’s the only woman to ever challenge him mentally. Donald demands she finish with David and then they can try again. But will Nicola be willing to abandon her lover? Elsewhere, Viv makes it clear she’s intent on evicting Debbie and, but Bob’s warning not to do anything stupid falls on deaf ears. And Perdy confides in Matthew she wants to spend some time with Katie to help her see where her best interests lie.
EastEnders
Dawn is a woman in demand in this week’s visits to Albert Square. Working at a corporate party at the club, the young mum finds herself the centre of both Garry and Jase’s attentions. It looks as if Jase will come out the winner as he and Dawn spend their first full night together, but is she taking things a bit too quickly? Meanwhile, Jase’s son Jay has a new set of undesirable friends. Could it have anything to do with the gangs swarming outside of Dot’s house and leaving her living in fear?
It’s Masood’s silver wedding anniversary but Masood hasn’t planned anything. He hastily books a table at a restaurant and buys a last-minute gift, but his haste is sure to backfire.
Elsewhere, Billy and Honey make a mess while staying at Pat’s, and Billy’s attempts to mend the situation just make matters worse. And it’s Phil’s birthday, but he and Jack are at loggerheads. Jack gets one over on Phil when he tells all those gathered about buying the Car Lot.
Coronation Street
There’s tragedy in Coronation Street as soap stalwart Vera (Elizabeth Dawn) makes her final bow. She and husband Jack have been planning to move away from the famous cobble stones to the bright lights of Blackpool, but fate takes a hand when a pre-move trip to the seaside town proves too much for Vera. A real tear-jerking episode sees the death of Vera Duckworth.
Michelle is continuing to dodge telling Ryan the truth about ’stalker’ Nick - leaving Nick to corner the lad and tell him that he is his real father and that he was swapped at birth. A stunned Nick demands the truth from Michelle, who admits that there’s a chance Nick could be telling the truth. She reassures him that he’s always going to be her son, no matter about the biology, but when Ryan discovers that everyone knew about Nick except him he is furious and storms out.
Elsewhere, Maria gets busy with wedding preparations, and leaves Liam at the house to compile his guest list for the big day. However, boredom kicks in and he decides to go into work. Rosie is still having a tough time at school and when Sophie joins in with taunting her sister about her affair, Rosie snaps and a fight breaks out. And Tyrone is stunned when Molly tells him that because of their financial situation with the new house she thinks they should keep Paul on as a lodger.
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Patricia Routledge is perhaps better known as the snobbish and insufferable Hyacinth Bucket from “Keeping Up Appearances”. In Hetty Wainthropp Investigates , she stars as Hetty, a retired Lancastrian housewife, who with assistant Geoffrey (played by a young Dominic Monaghan) has a detective agency. The series was made between 1996 and 1998 and has been repeated on the BBC over the Christmas period.
In this episode, Hetty is called upon to investigate various happenings on a housing estate. The neighbours seem to be terrorised by a gang but the identity is being kept quiet. Hetty pretends to be the sister-in-law of one of the residents and joins the quilting circle in order to hear the latest gossip. She adopts a not very convincing Irish accent and can not sew very well. She uncovers the fact that the culprits drive a white van but always get away with their crimes.
Geoffrey attempts to put up a shed for his “aunty” with a local boy (played by Coronation Street’s Tyrone – Alan Halsall). The boy has seen the gang setting fire to various properties but has been scared to come forward. Geoffrey tries to get friendly with the girl in the chipshop but is taken off in the white van and beaten up. Eventually the culprit is caught, but the programme keeps you guessing as to how Hetty manages to upstage the Police.
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates can be described as a comedy crime thriller and ran for 4 series.
BBC brings back phone-in charges
The BBC is planning to reintroduce phone-charges, but cap them at 15p per call.
Premium phone lines were banned at the broadcaster following a series of high-profile incidents. These included fake competition winners on children’s TV show Blue Peter and invitations to call a pre-recorded version of Saturday Kitchen that was presented as a live event.
The Blue Peter incident resulted in the BBC being fined £50,000 for “fakery” by Ofcom - the industry regulator.
In addition to reintroducing the cap on calls, the BBC has also introduced a new code of conduct.
Speaking to the Guardian, director Mark Thompson said: “BBC programmes do not make money from premium rate calls and we’ve always told viewers and listeners the costs of calling to enter competitions or to vote. But I want this to be even clearer.”
Other non-BBC programmes have been accused of faking elements of call ins - these include Richard and Judy’s You Say We Pay Quiz and I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
Last-minute changes to new BB series
Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, the new series of the celebrity version of the popular reality TV show, has had last-minute alterations to its format, according to a report.
Reports suggest that a poor guinea pig week has resulted in producers of the show increasing the role of the celebrities.
A show source told the Daily Star Sunday: “Things haven’t gone as well as we thought during the guinea pig week and it was looking like it was going to get a bit dull. “Now things have been changed around a bit and the new plans make it appear that the show will still be called Celebrity Hijack but will increasingly become more like a normal celeb version of Big Brother as it goes along.”
The show, which will be broadcast on E4, was originally going to feature young “gifted” housemates who would be set challenges by celebrity guests such as Matt Lucas and Jimmy Carr.
Hosted by Dermot O’Leary, the show will begin on January 3rd.
Sense and Sensibility
Period drama is something that the BBC does best and Sense and Sensibility is a fine example of that. The production is lavish and adapted by Andrew Davies, of Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice. The drama is based on the book by Jane Austen and follows the Dashwood family and the lives and loves of the two of the three girls – sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne. There is an all star cast featuring Janet McTeer David Morrissey and Mark Williams.
Episode 1 of 3 starts with the death of Mr Dashwood , and Mrs Dashwood and her three daughters having to find somewhere else to live. The girls are used to a privileged lifestyle but all of that is at risk as they have no claim on the estate, which their half-brother John inherits. They move to Devonshire and Elinor is distraught as she is forced to leave her love – Edward Ferrars . However, Mrs Ferrars does not consider Elinor to be a suitable match for her son.
In Devonshire, Marianne becomes the object of Colonel Brandon’s affections (Morrissey) but there is quite an age gap as she is 15 and he is 35 (closer to her mother’s age). She becomes attracted to handsome Mr. Willoughby who rescues her when she sprains her ankle whilst out walking. Willoughby and Brandon meet when both are visiting Marianne and it is obvious that there is some history between them. Future episodes will focus on the love affairs and heartbreaks of the two older Dashwood girls (played by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in the award winning film version of Sense and Sensibility).
