Week 24 highlights 2012

29 May 2012

Farewell, then, ladies. It's been an absolute riot...

 

Here are the most buttock-clenchingly marvellous programmes on Channel 4 for week 24, Saturday 9th - Friday 15th June.

Write about them all nicely, we know where you live. Or work. Or, at least, we might have your email address. We can write some pretty ruddy clever and scabrous emails, you know? (Actually we're not that clever, I just had to look up how to spell scabrous. Plus we just went from first person plural to first person singular in one sentence. Look, let's just forget this, okay? Just write nice things about us. Thanks awfully.)

 

 

Saturday 09/06/2012
9:40pm
8 Out of 10 Cats Jubilee Special
8 Out of 10 Cats is all pomp and ceremony as it celebrates the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in its own inimitable style. As always Jimmy Carr hosts alongside regular team captains Sean Lock and Jon Richardson, plus guests from the worlds of comedy and entertainment, giving their unique take on the royal weekend.

 

Sunday, 10/06/2012
8pm
Dear John
Network premiere. Two weeks military leave is all it takes for US Army Staff Sergeant John Tyree (Channing Tatum) and college student Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) to fall in love in this Lasse Hallström-directed adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel. Having depended on letters to keep their romance alive, their relationship falters when John decides to re-enlist in the army. Then it arrives - the Dear John letter informing him that Savannah is engaged to someone else. But months later, John receives another letter from Savannah with their sign-off of old, 'I'll see you soon, then'. Could there be hope for the couple yet?

 

Sunday, 10/06/2012
10pm
The Royal History of Pop
Since the birth of rock'n'roll the Royal family has had a love/hate relationship with pop music. From John Lennon's infamous Royal Variety Performance joke about rattling jewellery to the Sex Pistols preaching anarchy in the year of the Silver Jubilee and today's pop stars lining up to be seen with the young Princes, this is the story of the 'rock and royal years'. This hour-long documentary helps celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee by looking back at the 60 year relationship between pop and the Royals.

 

 

Monday, 11/06/2012
9pm
The Secret Millionaire 5/7
In 2011, Britain was struck by rioting and looting that left the nation in shock. Some of the shops targeted were part of global chain 'Computer Exchange' owned by millionaire Bobby Dudani. Now Bobby is heading to Croydon - one of the areas most affected by the riots - to look for people to help, posing as a shopkeeper. After a foul-mouthed run-in with a local lad, Bobby begins to build an unlikely relationship with this serial offender. As the days progress Bobby is increasingly drawn to this angry and frustrated young man. But should he help him?

 

 

Tuesday 12/06/2012
9pm
Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket 3/3
In the last episode of the series Jimmy Doherty tries to transform Tesco's own brand chicken Kiev. He wants to create a free range version and finds the solution in the form of 'spent' egg-laying hens. Jimmy also turns his attention back to British rose veal, to help stop the needless slaughter of tens of thousands of male dairy calves after birth. And he gears up for the launch day of his affordable free range products, to see if the public will buy them or not.

 

Tuesday 12/06/2012
10pm
All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry, one of Britain's leading artists, has always been fascinated by taste. In this three-part series, Perry goes on safari through the taste tribes of Britain, not just to observe our taste, but to tell us in an artwork what it means. In this second episode, Grayson embeds himself with the British middle classes in and around Tunbridge Wells where he finds a world of aspirational, brand-led taste. These are the Britons most acutely self-conscious about what their taste decisions say about themselves.

 

Wednesday 13/06/2012
9pm
24 Hours in A&E 5/14
The RTS award-winning series continues, offering a dramatic and revelatory insight into love, life and loss on the frontline of the NHS. This episode focuses on young men in their prime. One is a fitness fanatic who arrives seriously injured after a canal barge accident, while another is a pre-operative transsexual with a sore finger following a night's clubbing. Meanwhile, in resus, 80-year-old Jean has been brought to King's by ambulance after collapsing at home.

 

Wednesday 13/06/2012
10pm
A Short History of Everything Else 1/4
Griff Rhys Jones hosts this brand new comedy panel show using archive TV clips to challenge players to give A Short History of Everything Else. Each week Griff is joined by regular team captains Marcus Brigstocke (Argumental) and Charlie Baker (Never Mind the Buzzcocks) who, along with this week's guests Kirsty Wark and Micky Flanagan, try to prove that they remember more about 'everything else' than the other team, adding their own irreverent interpretations along the way.

An interview with Griff Rhys Jones is available here.

 

Wednesday 13/06/2012
12am
Desperate Housewives 23/23: Finishing the Hat
The last ever episode of the long-running US drama. Gaby, Bree and Lynette are shocked to hear Susan's news. Katherine Mayfair (guest star Dana Delany) returns to Wisteria Lane and offers Lynette a tempting job opportunity - one that could ruin her chances of reconciling with Tom. Carlos finds a clever way to make his point with Gaby that she is behaving just as he used to do. Susan is at her wits' end when Julie goes into labour at the most inopportune moment.

 

Thursday, 14/06/2012
8pm
Country House Rescue 1/6
Back for a new, fourth series, this time with entrepreneur Simon Davis at the helm, the owners of six stately British homes seek help in securing the future of their unique properties for generations to come. In this edition Simon comes to the aid of Viscount and Viscountess Brookeborough who have lived in neo-classical mansion Colebrooke Park, in Northern Ireland, for over 30 years. Simon suggests converting the house and grounds into a health and wellbeing business. But Alan and Janet are reluctant to open their home to strangers...

 

Thursday, 14/06/2012
9pm
The House the 50s Built 2/4
To coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, this series celebrates the science behind the inventions and innovations that transformed the way we used to live, and catapulted the country into the modernity of 1950s Britain. Engineer and showman Professor Brendan Walker sets out to discover the ingenuity and life-changing technology behind the inventions that took post-war Britain and launched it into a Technicolor-drenched world of the future. This second episode focuses on the living room. A dramatic transformation reveals how science and technology banished the dark, formal, barely-used front room and gave us a bright, colourful beacon of 50s style that became a hub of family entertainment.

 

Friday, 15/06/2012
8:30pm
The Million Pound Drop Live 1/10
The Million Pound Drop Live is back with ten brand new shows over five consecutive weekends. With Davina McCall at the helm, new pairs of players will be taking on the Drop in an attempt to win big. And, once again, there will be some celebrity duos playing live in the hope of bagging some serious cash for their chosen charities. However, this series one of our celebrity players is without a partner so is on the lookout for one lucky viewer to join them. The celebrity in question will be announced live during the first show. Viewers at home can play with a virtual million pounds.