Ultimate Force (ITV1); Jerry Springer - The Opera (BBC2); Sea Of Souls (BBC1): VIEWERS of a sensitive disposition should have be warned.

The sight of hard man Ross Kemp wearing a tea towel on his head was deeply offensive in the opening scene of the SAS drama Ultimate Force.

Ex-EastEnder Kemp had the courtesy to remove his tea towel - a pretty poor attempt to disguise himself on a mission in Iraq - before machine gunning down the enemy. When he shouted to a companion "Magazine", he clearly wasn't asking for the latest edition of Hello!.

Back home, his commanding officer was making offensive sexist comments about a recruit in Red Troop. "One of them has breasts," he said. Kemp's Henno Garvey pointed that the Russians and Israelis have women in their combat units.

"But they're ugly," replied his boss, adding a totally unnecessarily remark about "hairy-kneed lesbians".

In its own sexist, macho way Ultimate Force is much more objectionable than some might say of Jerry Springer - The Opera. The televising of the hit stage musical attracted some 20,000 complaints and the burning of TV licences by protestors beforehand, complaining it was blasphemous and contained a lot of swearing.

You can be certain that most hadn't seen the show, which is certainly irreverent and shows God, Jesus and Mary in what I will call unusual circumstances.

Given the amount of media coverage beforehand, coupled with BBC warning before and during the programme, you only had yourself to blame if you were offended as you were left you in no doubt what you would see and hear.

As a TV show, it work better than I expected, considering there had been no re-staging of the theatre production. This was a unfussy record of a show cheerfully sending up Jerry Springer-style talk shows in which people reveal their innermost secrets in front of an audience of millions.

What's unusual is playing it as opera. The first half is a straightforward satire on the genre. The second half has Springer conducting the talk show from hell - literally in hell as he's called on to intervene in the age-old row between Satan and God. Jesus, Mary, Adam and Eve are called as witnesses.

It's a much more serious piece than it appears on the surface. If it makes you think and even care about religion, which in our current society is something people are doing less and less, surely that's a good thing.

Yes, there is widespread (and often very funny) use of what some might call bad language. But if you watched after all the warnings, you only had yourself to blame if you were offended.

Animal rights protestors would have been alarmed to learn that in the paranormal drama series Sea Of Souls, 12 cigarettes were stubbed out on a chicken. Happily, the bird was already dead and roasting in an oven when attacked.

Unfortunately, this second series of Sea Of Souls still can't decide whether to be The X Files or Sapphire And Steel. Having set up a stories involving poltergeists putting hammers in washing machines and writing messages in steam on bathroom mirrors, they find a rational explanation for all the spooky goings-on.

I wish that, like the BBC over Jerry Springer - The Opera, they'd had the courage of their convictions and let us make up our own minds.

Published: 10/01/2005