All the answers

HAS life ever been more complicated?

We have to remember so many account details, passwords and personal questions that we sometimes end up doubting our own existence. We can’t get a bank loan unless we don’t need one, and people have started shoplifting cheese.

Why are we in a pickle? Why don’t the trains run on time? Why do we give the postman a tip at Christmas when they’ve only brought us bills and red letters all year? Perhaps these are unanswerable conundrums. So let’s concentrate on less metaphysical riddles.

Why do all the roads get dug up in February?

Why can’t I ever get a seat on the train? Why should I bother sorting out my recycling, if the council only mixes it up again?

The BBC has all the answers, apparently.

That’s Britain is a show about the things in modern Britain that drive us all mad – hosted by Nick Knowles and Julia Bradbury and featuring comedy legend Ade Edmonson.

Broadcast live, it’s a warm-hearted studio show with a serious purpose: to try to make life better for everyone in the UK, packed with films that reveal how things really work and get to the bottom of the irritating issues that get us all wound up.

Despite doing next to nothing to promote it, the BBC has wheeled out two of its big guns for a programme that is bound to be popular with people who have had enough, but can’t be bothered to type a question into an internet search engine.

Here’s hoping it’s slightly tongue-incheek though, otherwise it’s going to be like watching one long rant. The first episode sees Larry Lamb investigating why petrol pump attendants no longer exist. Edmondson is also on hand, finding out what happens to luggage as it travels through an airport’s baggagehandling system.

IN Your Money and How They Spend It, the BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, will be looking at this contentious issue, finding out just how the Government raise their cash, and what influences the way it spends it.

He’ll be using his insider knowledge to examine the battles that go on behind the scenes as the MPs decide who will be getting the money. But it’s not just the politicians who will be under scrutiny, as Robinson will also be putting the public’s often contradictory ideas about spending under the microscope as well.

RALF LITTLE is still working hard to shake the persona of the young Anthony Royle from all those years ago. He gave it a good go in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and now he’s back, joining Michelle Terry for a seaside sitcom.

In this first episode, writer Sarah (Terry) has to leave the bright lights of London to return home and help run the family business in Weston-super-Mare.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, as childhood sweetheart Richard comes back on the scene to help cheer her up.

If you still detect a little of that unique Royle Family humour, though, that’s because Craig Cash has taken up directorial duties here.