55 Degrees North (BBC1); The Airships (C4); The Michelangelo Code: Secrets Of The Sistine Chapel (C4): ONE of the policemen in 55 Degrees North asked his colleague how he intended to spend the evening. "Getting drunk, eating crisps, watching telly," came the reply.

He might have been describing the life of a TV reviewer. Alcoholic comfort is needed to endure some programmes. Take 55 Degrees North, the Newcastle-set police series about a fish-out-of-water (or should that be fish-in-the-Tyne?) London whistle-blowing cop exiled to the North-East to plod the night-time beat. Hence its original title The Night Detective.

The first series passed the time pleasantly enough with Don Gilet making a likeable lead, surrounded by a bunch of Geordie characters and Dervla Kirwan's Crown Prosecution solicitor.

The show has now been moved pre-watershed and, while not descending into the whimsy of Heartbeat, has lost its edge and the will to take anything but the easy way out.

The opener managed to be topical - the main crime revolved around a crime connected with the local embryo stem cell research establishment - but the business about the jumped-up colleague seeking promotion at any means and the will-they-won't-they love interest with Kirwan seemed hackneyed.

Still, Newcastle locations are used well, Gilet remains a sympathetic figure and we learnt an important lesson - never mess with a gaggle of scantily-clad Geordie girls wearing high heels on a night-out in the Bigg Market.

I needed a detective to help me sift through the clues offered by art critic Waldmar Januszczak as he unlocked the secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous ceiling painting.

He attempted to retain our interest by beginning with film of the FBI storming of the Branch Davidians ranch at Waco in Texas in1993. "What has this got to do with the Sistine Chapel? Wait and see," he said tantalisingly.

Two hours later, I wasn't much the wiser although the programme enabled Januszczak to visit far-flung countries and pontificate at length about popes, Franciscans, angels, prophets and the new Messiah.

His conclusion - I think, though don't quote me on it - was that "walk into the Sistine Chapel and you are walking into the end of the world".

I was on firmer ground with the final part of The Airships although, as the subject was those great big balloons in the sky, ground isn't perhaps the right word to use.

There's something very majestic and fascinating about these flying machines. The Hindenburg was almost as long as the Titanic, had up to 60 crew and 50 passengers in 25 cabins, all with hot and cold running water. There were separate dining, lounge and writing rooms (well, they didn't have TV then).

Passenger space and amenities remain unmatched by today's aircraft, as one flyer's home movies showed. But look what happened to the Hindenburg. Thanks to film footage, people around the world witnessed it bursting into flames and crashing to the ground. The amazing thing isn't that 33 people died but that 62 survived. One of them, cabin boy Werner Franz, appeared in the programme to recall the experience.

We haven't seen the last of airships. The Japanese are testing the world's first high altitude airship. It's cheaper to send into the stratosphere than a rocket.

And a new generation of Zeppelins are taking tourists on flights around the Swiss Alps. The "ship of dreams" may yet make a comeback.

Published: 23/05/2005