EASTER SPECIALS – Oh the Eggs-itement (shut up)

FRIDAY

Red Dwarf: Back To Earth
Dave, 9pm (& Sat, Sun, plus outtakes, making of etc – see Dave)
A sci-fi cult classic off the air for a decade, loved only by nerds in the meantime, returns reinvented… could Red Dwarf be the next Doctor Who? Well, unless the “smeg” and punch-in-the-nuts gags are replaced with arch humour, the laddishness gives way to ambiguous sexuality and Rimmer becomes some quasi-Jesus, probably not. Still, the scripts of early series were often clever and funny (Star Trek moral/logical connundrums solved by loaded readers), so it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out. Plus, they’ve pulled in Sophie Winkelman (Big Suze) for the Peep Show crowd.


SATURDAY

Primeval
ITV1, 6.15pm
Nah, don’t be ridiculous; we'll all be watching…

Doctor Who
BBC1, 6.45pm (see BBC: Doctor Who)
Of course it’s sad that David Tennant’s last few appearances as the Doctor have to be scripted by Russell T Davies, while Stephen Moffat (the man behind all the best episodes – "The Empty Child", "The Girl In The Fireplace", "Blink", the Library episodes) concentrates on the 2010 series. However, let’s just enjoy the romp. Here we have giant flies in boiler suits, a double decker bus on a desert planet, spaceships with mouths, and (God help us) Lee Evans as a mad professor. There’s also the unbionic woman, Michelle Ryan, who’s described as “mysterious” and set to have a major impact on the Doctor”. Worryingly, those are the same words used to describe River Song, who’s been left in limbo (and is surely set to stay there, as Alex Kingston is surely too MILFy to pair up with Matt Smith’s Timelord). Ryan seems a far more workable future companion for the 11th Doc. If she survives "The Planet Of The Dead"…


SUNDAY

Skellig
Sky 1, 7pm (see Skellig)
Sky 1 have basically abandoned the rest of the weekend, putting all their choccy eggs in this basket. It’s got elements of ET, Stig Of The Dump and The Iron Giant – lonely kid finds strange, ailing creature (Tim Roth as a sort of magical birdman/angel), friendships are built, spiritual awakening is awoken… It promises much, with the naïve kid from the excellent Son Of Rambow playing the boy Michael and even the minor parts filled with talent – John Simm and Kelly MacDonald as the parents (seems like only yesterday that she was Trainspotting jailbait).