Cole returns to the limelight

GEORDIE Cheryl Cole spent a few months out of the limelight earlier this year (honest) and the only time she really made any impact on gossip pages was when she had a huge tattoo of roses put on her backside.

But she’s about to make a return to centre stage, because she’s making a return to the music scene with the release of her single Crazy Stupid Love, which will be available from July 20. It will feature on her fourth studio album, due out in November – and by then she’ll have returned to the X Factor judging desk.

Also appearing on this week’s show is Miami Vice star Don Johnson, who’s publicising his new movie Cold in July, but Graham may also slip in a cheeky question or two about the actor’s daughter, Dakota, who is the star of forthcoming movie Fifty Shades of Grey.

Comedians John Bishop and Brendan O’Carroll complete the line-up. O’Carroll is better-known in a skirt as creator and star of Mrs Brown’s Boys and the Irish film fan will give the lowdown on the movie spin-off he’s made, which is out in cinemas next week.

Friday Night Dinner
(C4, 10pm)

IT’S been 18 months since we last caught up with TV’s Jewish family, the Goodmans – and that’s an age in TV terms. Although it’s truly an ensemble piece, it’s Tamsin Greig who effortlessly manages to grab the spotlight – but then again, she is arguably the leading female light in British sitcom at the moment thanks to BBC2 series Episodes.

Here she plays Jackie, the matriarch who Greig discovered was true to life when she spent an evening with some Jewish friends. “I went to a mate’s house for Friday night dinner and there was a lot of food and the women were really loud,” she says. “And so I just used that.

I thought the women might be more retiring, but the women really do run the shindig and that was brilliant.”

However, she does have one problem during filming – sharing the screen with her old Green Wing sparring partner Mark Heap. A known ‘corpser’, Greig says it was “almost impossible” to film with Heap as Jim the neighbour. “I think there are some scenes where you can’t cut to me at all because I’m just laughing out loud every time he moves,” she recalls.

Seven Wonders of Brazil
(BBC2, 9pm)

ROBERT Beckford spends most of his time at Canterbury Christ Church University, where he’s a reader in theology – a subject that has fascinated him since receiving religious education lessons in school.

But when he isn’t being an academic, he can often be found presenting a variety of documentaries, including Channel 4’s The Passion: Films, Faith and Fury, The Hidden Story of Jesus and Who Wrote the Bible?

Now he’s jumping on the Brazilian bandwagon for the Beeb, but he won’t be mentioning the World Cup or the Olympics, scheduled for Rio in two years time.

Instead, Beckford focuses purely on the country’s Catholicism, concentrating particularly on seven items that embody Brazilian Christianity – if the iconic statue of Christ that looms large over Rio de Janeiro doesn’t feature, we’ll be very surprised indeed.

It’s a form of the religion that has developed over 500 years of history since the Portuguese colonised the area, and although it may sound a dry subject, Beckford manages to make it exciting with his theological enthusiasm.