Weekend TV Highlights: Sherlock, Sicily Unpacked, Hustle, Call The Midwife

Weekend TV Highlights

Finally the weather is behaving in proper January fashion, so time to curl up on the sofa, open a bag of Jelly Babies and indulge in some fine televisual fare.

Here are our picks for the next three nights:

Friday

EastEnders - 8pm, BBC1

Dignity, quiet grief, comradeship in loss and a chance to put previous grievances and resentments in perspective... will not be available in this episode. It’s Pat's funeral. Show-stealers only need attend.

The Hustle - 9pm, BBC1

The Hustle is FINALLY back on our screens (was meant to be last week, but what can you do?), in its eighth and apparently final series. So six million happy viewers will soon have to find somewhere else to go for these chirpy scam tales, where the person with the biggest wink to camera normally comes out on top. The series kicks off with an Olympics-inspired tale, and is worth watching alone for a bizarre cameo by Liverpool legend Ian Rush - yes, really.

Sicily Unpacked - 9pm, BBC2

Transport yourself from the British chill into an Italian plaza - small children skipping, corks popping, garlic sizzling - as this pair of Siciliphiles (is that right?) Georgi Locatelli and Andrew Graham-Dixon continue to educate each other about food and art respectively. Locatelli may be enjoying all his new Renaissance knowledge but, judging by last week's pasta dish he knocked up for his friend, I reckon Graham-Dixon's getting the better end of the deal.

The Graham Norton Show - 10.35pm, BBC1

Our host is enthusiastic at the quietest of times, so he might have to be scraped off the ceiling tonight, landing the scoop of a TV interview with Madonna. On his couch to talk about her new film, W.E., Madonna rarely gives bad chat, especially with Norton's puppyish adoration to disarm - how will she resist?

Saturday

Borgen - 9pm, 10pm, BBC4

If you haven't discovered this Danish political thriller yet - yes, more subtitles - grab last week's debut double-bill on the iPlayer before it continues on Saturday. It sounds dry as a bone - coalition leader becomes Prime Minister after hung election, but opponents plot to reverse her triumph - but I promise it's not. A spin doctor has already been found dead in his lover's bed, and the media hornets are circling. Sidse Babett Knudsen is particularly splendid as the beleaguered Birgitte, but there's no weak spot.

Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil - 9pm, BBC2

Eccentric is an overused descriptive tool but, in a world where true individuals are becoming an endangered species, it's worth dipping into this celebration of a proper creative. Russell divided critics throughout his career, but his Women in Love and Tommy have ensured his legacy. And what other film director would enter the Big Brother house? Sit back and raise a glass.

Sunday

Call the Midwife - 8pm, BBC1

Sleeves rolled up, horsey grins at the ready, as pretty-posh-girl-on-a-bicycle Jenny Lee prepares to answer her vocation and become a midwife, under the aegis of Jenny Agutter and her wimple. This is classic fish-out-of-water fodder, as the hospital she attends turns out to be not quite the boutique Beyonce delivery suite she was expecting. The chirpiness threatens to burst out of the TV set at some points, but it's robust storytelling, and the characters are strong.

Sherlock - 9pm, BBC1

Handkerchiefs on standby, as we bid farewell to Sherlock (for the final time?) in the last of this series. We haven't seen much of Moriarty this time around, but he's here in all his dark-eyed, Bee Gee-loving glory for his fateful encounter with the tousle-haired one at the Reichenbach Falls - which, as all Conan Doyle's readers will know, is not necessarily a good thing.

This series has been short, but very, very sweet. What WILL we do? Perhaps the secret is to record it, and just watch it in ten-minute bursts over the coming weeks, savouring it like Charlie and his equally tantalising chocolate bar.

Desperate Housewives - 10pm, E4

Failing which, the Desperate Housewives can distract us with their continuing attempts to cover up a murder. Fortunately for them, they're all low-at-heel, beta-female characters who don't usually attract attention, so I'm sure it will all work out fine.

Here they all are:

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