Bankers

On this week’s Telly Addict, we bid farewell, or au revoir, to three dramas that came to an end last week. The Village on BBC1, whose first chapter took us from 1914 to 1920, took a bow via a lovely closing shot of the entire village gathered around the new war memorial; Endeavour on ITV, whose fourth mystery was called Home, scattered lots of delicious clues to future events which we have already seen, on Morse, and left Detective Constable Endeavour himself with the threat of a limp “in middle age”; and Boss, on More4, whose first season operated at such a high pitch of corruption and venality, it was a surprise to see the delicate visual flourish that I have chosen as my clip to illustrate what has been a terrific run. There’s also a peek through our fingers at The Apprentice on BBC1, whose launch episode drew its lowest audience since 2007, and something almost as horrible, NBC’s Hannibal, on Sky Living. I also find time to commend the accessible documentary Bankers on BBC2, which lines up plutocrats in suits and supplies fruit to throw at them.

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The end

Not the end of Telly Addict, thankfully, but the end of three big shows from the previous week: The Apprentice, Series 8, BBC1; The Voice UK, Series 1, BBC1; and Game Of Thrones, Season 2, Sky Atlantic. Clearly, if you’ve been avoiding finding out whose startup Lord Sugar invested £250,000 in, or who had the best “voice” according to that ragtag band of devotees still watching The Voice, don’t watch this week’s Telly Addict. (I’ve tried to steer clear of saying anything specific about Game Of Thrones, as many will see it on DVD, although the real fans have read the books anyway, and know everything. Whenever covering serials, especially those on Sky, to which many do not have access, I’ll always try to choose clips from early on in an episode.)

I’m hired

I hope. This week’s Telly Addict represents my first birthday. I am one. Happy birthday to me. This is the 52nd Telly Addict that has gone out into the world. Alright, 53rd, as the lively and hardworking Guardian contributor Stuart Heritage did it for one week when I was away. (I won’t make that mistake again. It’s a doggy-dog world etc.) But it’s been a year for me, so … as well as randomly reviewing Week 7 of The Apprentice on BBC1; Foxes Live on C4; and the delectable Grandma’s House on BBC2, there’s an intricate “previously on …” montage, which I hope you enjoy. And congratulations to Cameron Robertson, who I believe is the heroic soul who edited it together. (See how I credit other people?)

You’ve got the love

This is my 25th Telly Addict TV review for the Guardian, and a reasonable juncture, I think, to thank my two regular producers, the unseen Matt Hall and Andy Gallagher, who produce, direct, shoot and – most importantly – edit it every week. If it’s in any way slick, elegant or professional, especially in its use of the clips, it’s down to them. I just talk into their camera. This week, in an effort to deliver quantity first, I manage to talk into their camera about five programmes, without tipping over the optimum eight-and-a-bit minute mark: the end of Spooks, BBC1; the end of Celebrity Masterchef, BBC1; the return of Young Apprentice, BBC1; the start of Jamie’s Great Britain, C4 and the return of The Walking Dead, FX. It’s been tremendous fun doing this every week for half a year, and the lady at Guardian reception actually knows my name now, so long may it continue. It’s the only way I’m getting into the building. The link is here.

You’re tired!

No, I’m tired, having done two weeks on 6 Music Breakfast, plus my usual Zoe Ball breakfast slot on Saturdays, and then a Saturday morning show on 6 Music, while co-writing and script editing a new sitcom for Sky1, and fulfilling my Radio Times duties, which this week included transcribing and writing my JJ Abrams interview, and having a meeting at C4 about another sitcom pilot I’m working on. But still, with my eyelids propped open, I watch three whole television programmes so that you don’t have to and sit in a studio at the Guardian and say words about them to a camera. I love it, of course, and have no right to complain as having no work would be much worse (because, as a self-employed person, no work means no food), and the rewards are not exclusively financial: the reward for doing Telly Addict for the Guardian is the appearance, overnight, every Friday, of the little box with my tired old face in it, skilfully edited into the clips, like this one, which is, amazingly, my twelfth. In it, I review The Apprentice: The Final on BBC1, Show Me The Funny on ITV1, and The Hour on BBC2. Do not click on the … oh, you already have. What more can I do?