Midsomer Murders (ITV) , Nice Guy Eddie (BBC1), Inside My Head (C4)

THE sun is shining, the birds are singing, cricket's being played on the village green and plans are well-advanced for Marjorie Empson's annual garden party. "I'm in charge of salads - lots to think about there," confides Vera Hopkins in Midsomer Murders.

Poor Marjorie never gets to see what Vera does with a tomato and a bit of lettuce as she's beaten to death with her own walking stick. Then there's Ginny Sharp, bashed over the head with an ashtray, and Lady Chetwood, pushed from the roof of her crumbling stately home.

It's business - and murder - as usual in Midsomer, surely the most dangerous place to live in England. The body count's so high it's a wonder there's anyone left alive for oh-so-polite Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby and dopey sidekick Sergeant Gavin Troy to interrogate.

Few questions are needed, in fact, as people go around saying things like "you're married to the richest man in the village" so we know exactly who's who. The attraction of the series isn't so much whodunit - I knew instantly the woman in the bad wig was responsible - but watching John Nettles, a sort of Miss Marples in trousers, wandering around the countryside chatting to familiar guest stars (Anton Rodgers, Angela Thorne, Dilys Laye and Jesse Birdsall as Harry the pool man), with a fresh corpse guaranteed to drop immediately before each commercial break.

What chance has Nice Guy Eddie on BBC1 at the same time? Quite a good one, actually, because the star is everybody's favourite Ricky Tomlinson. He lifts his backside off his Royle throne to play a loveable (what else?) Liverpool private eye whose cases take a back seat to his complicated family life.

Eddie, who has a wife and three stroppy daughters, has opened the front door to a young man with a Geordie accent who claims to be his son. The series follows on from last year's pilot episode, although the signs are that the paternity issue is going to be dragged out for some time yet.

Nice Guy Eddie is, well, nice. Nothing more, nothing less.

Inside My Head (C4) is a brave new three-parter tackling a difficult subject head on - young people with mental illness. Dealing with it as a fly-on-the-wall documentary rather than an analytical programme with talking heads makes it all the more powerful.

Michael is 16 and schizophrenic. He has, he tells us, "never been normal". Only drugs keep the lid on his psychotic symptoms. His parents, clearly frustrated with the situation, hope the stress of his GCSE exams won't bring on "an episode".

They have other children but a normal family life is impossible as Michael's unpredictable condition demands constant attention and worry. "The rest of the family can't function. It's grinding us all down," says his mother.

Most remarkable was Michael himself, talking to the camera about his ambition to teach German and the voices in his head. He has to put up with taunts from fellow pupils, calling him "effing schizo". Watching Inside My Head, they, as well as us, might gain a better understanding of the illness.