Hitch in a lift

THEY may have a seemingly unhealthy obsession with killer sharks and botched surgical operations, but give Channel 5 their due, they do screen some of the best imported dramas on the box.

And over the years, few slick procedural dramas have been quite as entertaining as NCIS, aka Mark Harmon and David Mc- Callum’s high-octane naval-gazing saga.

The latter has appeared in various acclaimed and popular series over the years, including The Man from Uncle, Colditz and Mother Love, but none have lasted as long or reached quite so wide an audience as this has.

NCIS celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2013, the same year that McCallum turned 80. He surely can’t possibly have imagined that the show would stick around so long when he read his first script back in 2003.

The opening episode of the latest run is certainly one of the best episodes for many a moon and should tie up a few things following the cliffhanger ending to season nine.

Here, rescue crews sift through the wreckage of Harper Dearing’s attack on NCIS HQ. While Abby, Gibbs, McGee and Vance are okay, Ziva and Tony are stuck in a lift which is hanging by a wire.

Things aren’t looking too good for Mc- Callum’s alter ego, forensics expert Ducky, either. He suffered a heart attack after hearing news of the catastrophe.

Meanwhile, NCIS’ public enemy number one is busy seducing a woman in an electronics store. They wind up back at her place, but their liaison is interrupted by an FBI Swat team and another killer explosion.

As you may have gathered, Dearing is the instigator of lots of pyrotechnics, but manages to evade capture on several occasions.

Have Gibbs and company finally met their match?

McCallum won’t answer that question, but does reveal that there’s a major cast change on the way. Cote de Pablo’s character Ziva David leaves the show after the first two episodes, and her position as a Mossad contact will be taken by Emily Wickersham as Eleanor Bishop.

THE latest episode of the hit crime drama Midsomer Murders will feel a little bit like going back in time for some viewers thanks to the presence of two veteran guest stars – June Whitfield and Bernard Cribbins.

Both have had a resurgence in recent years, but they’re not the only famous faces making fleeting appearances alongside series regulars Neil Dudgeon and Gwilym Lee. Robert Bathurst and Laila Rouass also feature in a story involving planes and military heroes. Barnaby and Nelson are called in to investigate the death of Finchmere Airfield owner Bernard King, and it was no accident – he was hit over the head before being thrown out of a plane flying at 400ft.

IN Extreme Beauty Queens: Secrets of South America, Billie JD Porter visits the Miss Venezuela beauty contest and spends six months with contestants who go to extreme lengths to pose and pout their way to fame and riches.

But why is oil-rich Venezuela so obsessed with beauty when the country’s people are struggling with violence and poverty? Porter attempts to find out, and also meets Laura, a 20 year-old farm girl who has given up university so that she can focus on the contest.

“They want perfection, but it doesn’t exist,” she says about the demand put on the women to undergo cosmetic surgery.

We also meet troubled 18-year-old Meyer as she progresses to the final stages of the contest. As her brother and cousin were shot dead, she sees the competition as a way out of the slums. We see how Meyer works seven days a week to earn enough cash to pay for the cosmetic surgery she believes she needs to get ahead.