I think we can become somewhat anaesthetised to the realities of war as we hear tales of casualties to our troops on a near daily basis on the news. Ross Kemp in Afghanistan is a stark wake-up call and absolutely must see television.
Forget all that macho swaggering from Henno in Ultimate Force, this is Ross Kemp on the front line for real with at times literally nowhere to hide as the bullets and rocket propelled grenades whizz past.
There is no flowery commentary and not much of an attempt to put a spin on things. This is purely a point and shoot study of the grim situation our lads are having to face. Indeed the most gripping sequence featured the camera static looking at a blade of grass while the sound told the story of the terror of being pegged down and fired upon while in open ground.
Kemp's staccato matter of fact voiceover fits the action perfectly and dovetails nicely with his adrenalin-filled pieces to camera in times of danger, of which there are many.
Utterly compelling, this show deserves a far wider audience than it is likely to find on Sky One.
Mould in the pesto
What to Read Next
Ever wonder why there weren't that many new instalments in the last run of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares? Could it possibly be because he was across the pond making an American version of the show?
Sadly, the format didn't translate unscathed and seems like a diluted version in comparison to the show we're used to. The biggest crime is that instead of having Gordon's commentary on proceedings we now have a narrator which makes the whole thing seem less personal somehow. When you add in all the straight to camera interviews with the main protagonists, the whole thing feels far less real than the fly on the wall, seat of the pants stuff we get in the British version.
Thankfully the show is still peppered with Gordon's trademark profanities and he still manages to to make the sparks fly. In the opener, it seemed that manager Mike was on the receiving end of Gordon's ire more than anyone and eventually and spectacularly he cracked.
Show two featured a profoundly dirty kitchen and a seemingly ineffectual restaurateur who looked to me as if he'd benefit more from a session on Shrink Rap than a pummelling from “Chef Ramsay”. Why do they all insist on calling him that?
While the show's format tweaks have diminished it, it still makes for a watchable hour of telly, but frankly I'd much have preferred it had it been re-cut with British market and Gordon were allowed to provide the voice-over. Perhaps we could get a chef's commentary on the red button.
I was a bit sniffy about the return of Torchwood but the second episode was a nice bit of science fiction. There's nothing more scary than the enemy within and the emergence of sleeper agents gives the show a bit of much-needed menace. We need a major enemy lurking in the background and the introduction of the sleepers was smartly executed.
Ianto is finally coming into own and seems like a real member of the team these days rather than the tea boy, but easily stealing the show was Nikki Amuka-Bird as the bewildered Beth, struggling to come to terms with the fact that she was an alien invader. Her performance was absolutely essential in making the episode work and she pulled it off superbly.
The good form continued in the the third episode as a World War One soldier was defrosted from The Hub's Farmfoods section to heal a a schism in time. If that's not proper sci-fi then I don't what is.
It's just a bit odd that the show seems at its best when leading man Jack is taking a back seat.
Gimme a break
I know that all the daft plot contortions that have proved necessary to keep the show going can irritate but I'm still absolutely loving the crazy world of Prison Break.
You just know you've been pulled too far into this warped tale when you hear the phrase “Chicken foot Sammy?” and you know exactly what they are talking about.
Since Scofield discovered Sara's fate, Wentworth Miller has had an excuse to have an even less mobile face than usual, but it's still the supporting characters like T-Bag and Bellick that really hold the interest.
What I'm really revelling in though is the completely cartoon-like efforts of action bad girl Susan/Gretchen. I'm sure the writers won't deny us an eventual showdown between her and Michael. I just hope it won't be an anti-climax when it comes.
Lost has arrived back on our screens for what will be an all too short run of episodes. Pesky writers' strike!
As signalled by the end of season three, we now have something of a format change with flash forwards replacing the flashbacks that punctuate the island action.
Since the show relies on being enigmatic, this shift in emphasis is probably a good move, though my attempts to get my girlfriend into the show have been doomed to failure. Let's face it, even though this is the start of the season, it's not a good spot to jump in if you've not been watching.
Indeed, it seems so long since the last season concluded that even us die hard fans have had to have a quick refresher, lest we forget a vital detail in this multi layered viewing experience.
It was great to see Charlie popping up in a flash forward to confirm that he was indeed dead. Despite this it may not the last we ever of him. It's that sort of show.
Who or what is Jacob? What is the agenda of the “rescuers”? Whose memorial service was featured at the end of the last season? I somehow doubt we'll get all the answers but I've no doubt at all that we'll end up with a shed load more questions.
Strangest of all was Jack telling Hurley he was thinking of growing a beard – when he already had one!
I'm loving it.
Dot com
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Dot Cotton was handed an episode all to herself in EastEnders. A brave move that had my finger twitching over the remote control throughout. I stayed the course but only just.
I've nothing against monologues as long they are well written and creatively shot, While I was slightly put in mind of Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee this was in nowhere near the same class and anyway, modern audiences expect a bit more.
Fair play to June Brown who made a good fist of the material she'd been dealt, but there was very little revelatory about what came out here. Dedicated viewers will have picked up next to nothing about the character that they didn't know already.
The soap has provided some classic two-hander episodes over the years, but this was a step too far.
Of far more interest was the return of Clare to the square. We've needed a proper little minx since Janine disappeared and the early signs are that we may have found one. This looks promising.
The worry is that they may be going too far down the route of bringing back old characters. I've got this vision of nineties cop show featuring Gene Hunt in which a policeman from 2008 wakes up in the past into a world where Ricky and Bianca are rowing on the telly and Kevin Keegan is the manager of Newcastle.
Along those lines, blast from the past Terry Duckworth managed to turn up briefly for Vera's funeral. At least I think it was Terry, it could - by looks of him - have been an inflatable substitute. I wish he could have learned how to pronounce Tyrone. I'd rather they'd cremated him than Vera.
Wherever Nigel Pivaro has been, it sure as heck wasn't acting school.
What is about Channel 4 and Chris Moyles? He keeps popping up all over the schedules like a hard to shift skin disease. Why? If anyone has the perfect face for radio it's Moyles. Is he sleeping with someone at Horseferry Road? Or promising not to? Who knows?
He'll be presenting the news next.
Anyway his latest foray on to the channel was on the frankly limp game show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong, a programme that really is as good as it sounds. Not very.
The problem here certainly isn't Alan, who is at his cheeky wisecracking best. The trouble is that he has to battle with the flimsiest of formats and celebs so uninteresting that you were doing really well if you made it as far as the second commercial break without nodding off.
Mister Carr certainly deserves a solo vehicle to showcase his undoubted talent. This isn't it.
Over on ITV1, the competition in Al Murray's Happy Hour was having a very bizarre night indeed.
Firstly Al's opening monologue would have been very familiar to anyone who has seen him live or bought one of his DVDs. Then first guests Westlife emerged and we were treated to a very uncomfortable looking interview. It put me in mind of Clive Anderson's classic encounter with the Bee Gees. Didn't they realise they were there to be figures of fun? Wasn't the fact they weren't asked to sing a big clue?
If the Irish songsters were taken aback by Al's mickey-taking style, then Lembit Opik seemed positively furious as The Pub Landlord mercilessly ridiculed him. Wasn't he expecting this to happen. Perhaps he should stick to Have I Got News For You. While “Lemsip” as Al called him totally failed to grasp the concept of the comedy interview, his Cheeky Girl played along beautifully, even managing to wrong foot our intrepid host by accepting the advances he'd made in Romanian.
Oddest thing of the lot though was that the top of the bill guest was Adrian Chiles. Perhaps having to take third billing to our Adrian was what had rattled the Westlife cage. Don't get me wrong, I like Adrian but I bet even he was perplexed to find himself as the last guest on.
Meanwhile Jonathan Ross was interviewing the cast of Mistresses. If you're hooked at that show you really, really need to get out more.
