IF there was a thump-ometer operating in my house at the moment, then estate agent Andrew Winter would come top of the hit list.

Not because, as the host of new series Selling Houses (C4, Tuesday) confesses himself, his profession ranks alongside traffic wardens and the taxman in terms of popularity. This poor man's House Doctor has joined the crusade against any colour of bathroom suites barring white and constantly referred to a Bristol couple's ablution area as foul.

"That's my avocado suite the big twit is talking about," said my wife, who comes from a generation where all suites were white, a struggle to keep clean and coloured versions were regarded as a touch of luxury. "Not everyone has £2,500 to rip out a bathroom," she added with some feeling. This is mainly because, a few years ago, a builder had put a sledgehammer through our white downstairs loo by mistake and then started a merry-go-round of trying to find two sets of sinks, toilet bowls, cisterns, showers and baths which matched. Result: avocado upstairs, pampas downstairs and colourful critic in the living room. "I wanted a white bathroom suite, which goes with anything, ten years before he came along," was her parting shot at Mr Winter.

Perhaps it was fortunate that Stephen Tompkinson turned in his best TV performance so far in Lucky Jim (ITV1, last night). Until now he was pretty high on the thump-ometer, having constantly operated as a dunderhead somewhere between Drop The Dead Donkey's Damian Day and a love-struck alien alongside Dawn French in Ted And Alice. Despite sporting a strange fringe which had a life of its own, Tompkinson was ideally cast as hopeless university history lecturer Jim Dixon in Jack Rosenthal's highly-amusing adaptation of Kingsley Amis's well-known book. The bulk of Friday night's watchers will have identified with ration-hit Britain of the 1950s and the long-suffering politeness of a culture where the many have to put up with the rudeness of the few. Two hours was certainly a test for Stockton-born Tompkinson, as he unenthusiastically dealt with the Dick Emery-style "are you married?" advances of colleague Margaret Peel (Helen McCrory) while trying to win the heart of bookship worker Christine Callaghan (Keeley Hawes). The aloof-looking Christine was also the girlfriend of Jim's boss's son Bertrand (Stephen Mangan). Thus a heart versus "I want to keep my job" head dilemma was neatly acted out against Jim's other needs for beer, cigarettes and to impress head of history Neddy Welch - Robert Hardy operating with absent-minded at full throttle. There was even a cameo for Cold Feet's Hermione Norris as Bertrand's lover, who opens Christine's eyes to the benefits of a failing academic with dodgy NHS specs.

A strange wander down memory lane came in EastEnders - Life After The Square (BBC1, Sunday). Gillian Taylforth, Tamzin Outhwaite, Mike Reid, Michelle Collins, Nick Berry, Lindsay Coulson, Bill Treacher and the always entertaining Leslie "Dirty Den" Grantham talked about their decisions to walk out on Walford. Interestingly, not one of them counted appearances in theatre as success after TV soap. Just TV and film seemed to offer the sweet hereafter.

Published: 12/04/2003