Never Mind the Buzzcocks
With guests Jean-Jacques Burnel, Nick Carter, Nicholas Parsons and Mike Wilmot.
Director Paul Wheeler , Producers Simon Bullivant and Warren Prentice
9.30 TLC
A newly qualified junior doctor fights to stay awake during his first shift, in the first of a new six-part comedy set in the corridors of South Middlesex hospital.
Written by Fintan Coyle ; Produced by David Tyler and Geoff Posner ;
Directed by Geoff Posner The best medicine?: page 27
10.00 I'm Alan Partridge
Steve Coogan returns as inane broadcaster Alan Partridge in a new six-part series. The Talented Mr Alan. After losing his TV show and suffering a breakdown, the resilient celebrity makes his comeback helming the third best slot on Radio Norwich.
Written by Peter Baynham , Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci
Producer/director Armando Iannucci Repeated Tuesday at 11pm on BBC Choice [Web Address Removed] BBC SHOP: series one video, £12.99; DVD. £19.99, released 18 November. available to pre-order from [Web Address Removed]
Something funny on TV: page 26; Face of the Week: page 73
Comedy
I'm Alan Partridge 10.00pm BBC2
We've had some fabulous comedies in recent months - Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, The Office, The League of Gentlemen - and now here's another diamond, the return of the monstrously self-centred Alan Partridge.
Five years after a BBC executive died just as he was about to sign Partridge (Steve Coogan) to front a TV talk show, we find him back at Radio Norwich. At first it seems the intervening years might have been kind. Partridge has "the third-best slot on Radio Norwich, I do a military-based quiz show for cable TV called Skirmish and I've got a girlfriend." But there have been problems. Partridge was, as he puts it, "clinically fed-up for two years", a condition that manifested itself in his driving to Dundee barefoot.
At least he's no longer living in a Travel Tavern. In fact, he's having a house built, although he and his Ukrainian girlfriend Sonja (Amelia Bullmore) have to live in a caravan while the work is done.
So although Partridge's fortunes have improved, the man himself is still as loathsome and morally bankrupt as ever, and he's learnt nothing about humility. And thank goodness for that.
Coogan is brilliant, the script is sharp, and it's a great half-hour. But you may find yourself distracted by a desperately intrusive and thoroughly superfluous laughter track. (Alison Graham)
Something funny on TV: page 26 Face of the Week: page 73
MEDICAL SITCOM
TLC 9.30pm BBC2
A laughter track might have come in handy here to indicate that this is, in fact, a comedy. The cast, including The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith, Alexander Armstrong of Armstrong and Miller and the ever-splendid Richard Griffiths, is excellent, but the laughs in this hospital-set sitcom are few. There's too much obvious slapstick, and TLC is just not black enough. (Alison Graham)
The best medicine?: page 27
