TV choice
GREEN WING
Channel 4, 9.30pm
Set in one of those hospitals where illness is an irrelevance, this new comedy series from the creators of Smack the Pony features a succession of quickfire gags of every possible comic denomination generated by a wide assortment of surreal caricatures. The cast is as good as they come, including Tamsin Greig (Black Books), Michelle Gomez (The Book Club), Sarah Alexander (Smack the Pony) and Mark Heap (Spaced). It may not be a work of comic genius, but it has many qualities — it is fast, surprising, rich in character and mercifully free of a laughter track. Compared with the other Friday night comic offerings, it is like breathing pure oxygen. DC
CARRIE AND BARRY
BBC One, 9pm
Has anyone yet devised a quicker way to induce depression than Friday night comedy on BBC One? Simon Nye’s new sitcom features Neil Morrissey playing the naughty- but-nice character that he always plays, accompanied by one of those laughter tracks designed to help us recognise the bits that are meant to be funny. These, for the most part, involve jokes about hot tubs, pubic hair, dildos and wife beating. It is described in the blurb as “unapologetically rude”, which says it all.
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EYES DOWN
BBC One, 9.30pm
Eyes Down was badly received on its first outing, but a critical mauling is enough to guarantee a second series on the BBC One Friday night comedy slot. So Paul O’Grady returns as the acerbic Liverpool bingo hall manager and the comedy remains as ageist, sexist and unfunny as before.
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EMMYLOU HARRIS: FROM A DEEPER WELL
BBC Two, 11.35pm
When the country and western singer Emmylou Harris was a child, she wrote to the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger asking how a middle-class white girl from a loving family could ever suffer enough to become a folk singer. Unhappiness, he replied, is not something that needs to be sought. This superb musical biography spans Harris’s 30-year career, beginning with her partnership with Gram Parsons and the years she spent coming to terms with his premature death. Elvis Costello and Keith Richards are among those paying tribute to a singer who beguiled both hippies and rednecks and made country music hip.
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THERE WE WERE . . . NOW HERE WE ARE: THE MAKING OF OASIS
Channel 4, 11.35pm
Are Noel and Liam destined for careers commenting on past glories in retrospective documentaries? Here they are again among those talking about Oasis’s swaggering rise to prominence ten years ago. DC
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Multichannel choice
INTERPOL INVESTIGATES
National Geographic, 9pm/10pm/midnight
In a world obsessed by spies and terrorists, the incredible true stories of Interpol provide the perfect subject matter for a new series. The international police force has it all — exotic locations, master criminals, the highest stakes and a jet-set mentality. If only the series hadn’t been made with the lowest common attention span in mind. The first episode follows the case of a Canadian conman who kidnapped his own daughter; they were caught years later in England posing as man and wife with two children, after committing a murder. But the constant repetition of facts renders even this intriguing story irritating after a while. GS
LIVE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET: ENGLAND v INDIA
Sky Sports 1, 10.30am
England face India for the second time this week at the newly renamed Brit Oval.
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WAR WEEKEND
The History Channel, from 5pm
To mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the History Channel has a weekend of documentaries, some of which are classics. The Great Escape, the true story behind the Steve McQueen movie, is at 9pm tomorrow, preceded at 6pm by Blitz Spirit, combining first-hand accounts of love, crime and derring-do in bombed-out London. And on Sunday starts another chance to see the landmark The Second World War in Colour (9pm).
THE DESIGNERS: VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
The Biography Channel, 7.30pm
Previous programmes in this series have seemed sycophantic, ladling syrupy superlatives on designers whose achievements have had more to do with business acumen than style. Not so Vivienne Westwood, the couturier beloved of designers, magazine editors and tabloids for completely different reasons. From sleepy Yorkshire to Swinging London, punk to haute couture, and Malcolm McLaren to the V&A, Westwood’s life story is one of single-minded, clear- sighted vision, seen through with the determination of a terrier.
BRECON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2004
BBC Four, 9pm
Two hours of highlights from the recent festival in Wales, including the piano legend Kenny Barron, sax maestro Greg Osby and singer du jour Jane Monheit.
BAND OF GOLD/ THE POLITICIAN’S WIFE
UKTV Drama, 9pm/10.05pm
Two solid British dramas begin again tonight: Geraldine James, Barbara Dickson and Cathy Tyson star as Kay Mellor’s gritty prostitute pals investigating a series of murders, then Juliet Stevenson is pressured to stand by her man (Trevor Eve) when his affair is uncovered. GS