Paul O’Grady: for the Love of Dogs (ITV1, 8.30pm)
FOR the third year running Paul O’Grady’s acerbic and always emotional look at lost, abandoned and unwanted dogs at London’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is in the running for a National Television Award in the factual category.
The shortlist will be revealed in January, but the series which attracts 5m viewers won an award in 2013 for its first outing, was shortlisted for a Bafta and picked up TV Choice and TV Times award before clinching a second National Television Award vote this year.
Amusingly, Pogdogs proved to be a surprise winner for some TV critics who felt that the Great British Bake Off should have taken the 2013 prize, which is decided by online and telephone voting. BBC arts presenter Mark Lawson, who was long overdue a little time to calm down, was quoted as attacking the ITV, who sponsor the National awards, for favouring its own show and sniffing on about “populist taste” being reflected in the outcome.
Oh dear, how could a few puppies who desperately require rehoming kick Mr Hollywood and Mrs Berry in the cakehole so to speak? With its higher profile on BBC1, Bake Off is pretty certain to be in the running again in January. Unlikely as it sounds, perhaps Mr O’Grady can complete a hat-trick of victories. I hope so, and I don’t care how populist that sounds.
The current run, which is affectionately known as Pogdogs, ends tonight with the comedian and chatshow host trying to raise the profile of Bailey, a shih tzu with an underbite. It wouldn’t be O’Grady without a night on the cobbles and he helps to sign up bulldog Krystal for a part in Coronation Street and finally manages to find Pepe the mischievous Jack Russell a posh new home.
The Fall (BBC2, 9pm)
JAMIE Dornan’s performance as handsome psychopath Paul Spector had turned him into a major new face - he even managed to turn the spotlight away from Gillian Anderson, who had been touted as the show's biggest draw before it aired, and that's no mean feat.
Now Spector is back in Belfast attempting to cover his tracks. He drives his ex-girlfriend Rose Stagg away from her home in the middle of the night, and when he reveals he knows she has spoken to the police, it seems her fate has been sealed...
Gibson also realises - possibly too late - that she may have put Rose in grave danger. Can she find her, and perhaps Spector too, before he carries out his latest killing?
Producer Gub Neal says: "To be continuing with everything that distinguished Allan Cubitt's first season of The Fall, and made it truly genre breaking, is a true delight.
"The excavations into character, and the dark heart of a serial killer, in a such a truthful way has been made possible only through the depth of Al's writing, the outstanding quality of the central performances and of course the unique patina of Belfast City."
George Clarke's Amazing Spaces (Channel 4, 8pm)
FOR the Past couple of years, Wearsider George Clarke has focused on more modest structures; buildings which make the most of tiny, unpromising spaces. Tonight, he presses on in his mission, heading to Cumbria to meet Harry, who wants to take a derelict Victorian railway signal box and turn it into a garden summerhouse for his home.
Meanwhile, in Derby, 22-year-old wood carver Sophie hopes to transform a campervan into a mobile home and showroom to use to sell her wares at festivals. And on his Italian road trip, George comes across a house made almost entirely of glass near Lake Lugano.
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