The Sinking Of The Laconia (BBC2, 9pm); The Good Wife (More4, 9pm); Not Going Out (BBC1, 9.30pm).

THE name of writer Alan Bleasdale, who gave us Boys From The Blackstuff and GBH, has been absent from TV credits for some time.

He’s back tonight and tomorrow with a project that has taken him six years to bring to the screen, The Sinking Of The Laconia.

This Second World War drama is based on real events when the British vessel RMS Laconia was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on September 12, 1942.

Brian Cox plays the Laconia’s Captain Sharp, while Garrow’s Law star Andrew Buchan is third officer Thomas Mortimer, who heroically risks his life so that the passengers can reach the lifeboats. “It is a huge, huge epic tale,” says Buchan.

“This actually happened, where an English passenger liner called the Laconia gets torpedoed by a German U-boat because the Germans think it’s carrying troops. And then the captain of the U-boat realises that it’s just carrying civilians and he orders a full rescue against the wishes of his boss on land.”

The Laconia is 600 miles from the coast of Africa, and on board are a mix of English civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian prisoners. All face certain death in the water, until U-boat Commander Werner Hartenstein (Ken Duken) decides to defy Nazi High Command and orders his crew vivors as they can.

It’s a bizarre situation for the passengers, as Buchan explains: “So, all us Brits get rescued by the Germans onto the deck of this submarine, which is utterly, utterly surreal, because many of our families have been bombed by the Germans and here we are getting rescued by the Germans.”

Eventually, the crews of several U-boats join forces to save 400 people; half of them crammed on board the submarines, the rest in lifeboats.

Hartenstein nobly gives orders for messages to be sent out to the Allies so they can organise a rescue of the survivors.

But, as if things aren’t bad enough already, fate has one more perilous card to deal them all when the U-boats are spotted by an American B-24 bomber, which mistakes them for a legitimate target and moves in to attack.

Buchan is full of praise for his co-stars.

“It was a co-production between England and Germany, half the cast were entirely German, so you had these bizarre scenarios. One day, when I was on set there were eight Germans on set and the director was German – so nine Germans and me and they all spoke English for my benefit.”

IT’S been a long road for crusading defence attorney Alicia Florrick (played by Julianna Margulies) since her husband, Peter, was sent to prison all that time ago, in The Good Wife.

Not only did she have to deal with his alleged infidelity and the ensuing corruption charges, but she had to rebuild her reputation as a litigator in order to provide for their two children. And now that the US legal drama returns for a second series, things aren’t likely to suddenly get any easier for her.

In the opening instalment, the attorney is appointed as a counsellor to an accused murderer who insists on defending himself, and there’s also personal strife as she faces a difficult choice between her feelings for Will and her marriage to Peter.

WHEN Not Going Out kicked off in 2006, writer and star Lee Mack hoped it would do well, but had no idea it would still be going strong five years and 22 episodes later.

In the first of a new run, Tim arrives home after a night out clubbing and realises he has picked up the wrong coat, one containing a pocket full of drugs.

After discovering the owner is Larry “The Butcher” Stubbs, he enlists Lee’s help to return the jacket without ending up in serious danger.