Occupation: From left to right: L/Cpl Lee Hibbs (Warren Brown), Cpl Danny Peterson (Stephen Graham), Sgt Mike Swift (James Nesbitt). Photograph: Kudos/BBC

Peter Bowker's Occupation deals brilliantly with the complex and grim realities of the conflict in Iraq: the war as a business opportunity, the shocking lack of post-war planning and the corruption that filled the vacuum, the realities of enacting big political decisions on the ground.

Yet much of its brilliance lies in its depiction of three individual soldiers and the relationships between them: how one incident affects them differently, and the cost to each of them of participating in the war. Continue reading...

EastEnders: Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott Photograph: BBC

There will, of course, be letters. EastEnders is to feature not just a gay kiss which, as we know, will infuriate intolerant nincompoops everywhere – but it is also to present us with a love story between two blokes. So far, so blah, you might think. After all, ever since Gordon Collins came out, in the early 1980s, in Brookside and EastEnders' Colin kissed first Barry (chastely, on the forehead in 1987) and then Guido (again chastely but this time on the lips, in 1989), gay relationships have been depicted, with varying degrees of accuracy and success, from Ambridge to Weatherfield. Continue reading...

'Sometimes people do shocking things' ... Donna (Sharon Horgan, left) and the cast of Pulling. Photograph: BBC/Silver River

In a disused hospital in the wilds of west London, there's a man in a coma. Two women sit, pensive by his bedside. Outside in the corridor, there is a peppering of plastic chairs occupied by people in dressing gowns and on the wall a clock is stuck at quarter-to-eight and a poster encourages understanding of testicular cancer ("Know your balls. Check 'em out"). In the room I'm in, a gang crowd around a monitor, as a woman with an impressive array of felt tip pens scribbles on a script and make-up women nurse giant plastic holdalls. On a windowsill, sandwich edges curl like old carpet. Someone yells cut, there's a round of applause and Sharon Horgan, one of the women in the other room, comes through. She's just filmed her last scene ever of Pulling. Continue reading...

Coronation Street: Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) catches Ken Barlow (William Roache) leaving. Photograph: Rob Evans/ITV

For a moment there, it looked like the end of an era in last night's Coronation Street, when Ken popped into the Kabin to cancel his order for the Guardian. Continue reading...

Personality cult? ... Jane Tranter. Photograph: BBC

Lest you were in any doubt about the uniqueness of Jane Tranter - though after the hagiographical tribute to her at Sunday's Baftas, at which she picked up the Special Award, I can't imagine how you could possibly entertain such a notion – the BBC has confirmed it. There will be no new controller of fiction at the corporation and the post that Tranter vacated to cross the pond will be dismantled. The excellent Christine Langan steps up at BBC Films to become creative director while Ben Stephenson is now confirmed as the most important person in British drama with Lucy Lumsden as his counterpart in comedy. While Stephenson and Lumsden are quite the double act, Tranter, it seems, is irreplaceable. Continue reading...

Ben Whishaw pulls his best 'Huh, me?' face, in BBC1 drama Criminal Justice. Photograph: Mark Bourdillon/BBC

It's nearly Bafta time. Are you excited? I bet you are. Anyway, as tradition dictates, and in honour of this prestigious occasion, there follows my predictions on who'll win, and who should win, in my pick of the categories. (If I did them all, you'd be here for hours – much as I'm keen to extend your stay, I don't want to exhaust you before the weekend.)

If I get them right, I'll be whooping come Monday and boasting of my near-psychic abilities. If I get them wrong – or more accurately, if they give the awards to the wrong people – it'll be like this blog never happened, and I'll never mention it again. A bit like Gordon Brown and his claim to have ended the cycle of boom and bust. (Oopsy!) Continue reading...

The people's choice? … Sir Alan Sugar in The Apprentice. Photograph: Talkback Thames

What with it being awards season, we now turn our attention to Sunday's telly Baftas. Already, I have my legs shaved, my rollers in, and my local washerwoman trying to get the Royal Television Society-related stains out of my dinner jacket. (I am nothing if not prepared.) But enough of my (fabulous) fashion choices for the evening and more about how you can be a part of it. Personally, I'm not too bothered about you being a part of it – you'll only lower the tone – but these are interactive days and it's nice to feel involved, isn't it? Continue reading...

As it was in the beginning ... Paul Abbott's Shameless. Photograph: Channel 4

"Ordinary people with extraordinary lives", is the mantra now being chanted by television drama executives. After years of high-concept shows set in made-up worlds, the talk is of a return to the domestic, the recognisable, the everyday. (This is in no way connected to the desire to cut drama budgets, I'm sure.)

But when drama execs are making such demands, it's worrying. Because increasingly, you wonder whether commissioners, producers and writers would recognise "real life" if they were confronted with it. Continue reading...

Best granddad ever? ... Sir David Attenborough competes for the attention of a young fan. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

It was while watching the repeat of Nature's Great Events that we decided in our house that we would quite like David Attenborough to be our granddad. At the time, it didn't seem quite so creepy as it does now I write it down, but I stand by it still: it would be ace to pop round to Sir David's of a Saturday morning and hear tell of his travels, the animals he's met, the wildernesses he's wandered, the ginormous waterfalls he's seen. Continue reading...

Scowling like a petulant china doll … Glenn Close as Patty Hewes in Damages. Photograph: Sony/Bluebush

What the hell is going on in Damages? Actually, let me clarify that – I know what's going on in Damages, and that's the problem. Where the last series was murky and mazy, the plot twisting and turning, squirming like a cabinet minister caught in an expenses scandal, this series has gone a bit rubbish. Everything is explained, everything is straightforward, everything is entirely predictable. (What's in this cupboard? Oh, guns and newspaper clippings. That'll be that, then.) This is not good. Continue reading...

Is Are You Being Served? a 1970s anachronism? Photograph: BBC/PA

Isn't homophobia hilarious! Like, really funny. I don't know about you, but I wee myself a little whenever I hear a statistic such as one in five lesbian and gay teenagers have attempted suicide at least once. Bet you're moist with mirth at that one. Or how about the tale of Jody Dobrowski, the 24-year-old battered to death in a homophobic attack in 2005? Or the countless other gay men and women victimised for their sexuality in the UK? ROFL yet? Continue reading...

Hello. I is back. Have you missed me? More importantly, have I missed anything? Apart, that is, from:

the meltdown at ITV
the scandal at University Challenge (that seems like ages ago, no?)
the all-black EastEnders episode houha
Jade's Wedding
Jade's last words, somewhat prematurely, in OK!
the wonderful Robert Webb winning Let's Dance for Comic Relief
Comic Relief itself. Continue reading...

As exciting as an episode of Battlestar Galactica ... Iranian soldiers. Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters

While you may have been preoccupied over the weekend with the Oscars and/or Jade Goody's wedding – which even repeatedly made the news on Radio 4, bizarrely – two things transfixed me.

Iran and the West concluded, compelling to the last. As well as being reminded, for some reason, of Battlestar Galactica (I think it was the pure drama of it all as well as the eerie way that events suddenly made more sense in retrospect, particularly the assassination of the leader of the Northern Alliance on 10 September, 2001) I came away with the unavoidable and depressing feeling that the possibility of detente between Iran and the western world may have slipped away, thanks to the intransigence – idiotic or ideological, I'm not sure it matters now – of America. Continue reading...

Katie (Sarah Parish), Siobhan (Orla Brady), Jessica (Shelley Conn), Trudi (Sharon Small) in Mistresses. They're probably thinking about sex

Man, those BBC1 drama-promo people are on some heavy duty drugs. Have you seen that TV spot for Holby City? What do you reckon? Vicodin? Ketamine? Acid? All of the above licked off the tight, white buttocks of Rupert Penry Jones? I know what they're trying to do, but why do it with Holby City? As brand repositioning goes, it's something of an uphill battle, no? Especially when Holby is, well, sort of naff. That said, is it just me or is anyone else desperate for Stella Gonet's Holby character to exclaim: "That's silly, Tilly. You can't feed children buttons!"

Just me, then. Continue reading...

Judging doesn't get tougher than this ... Masterchef's John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Photograph: Shine/BBC

It's half-term, or so I'm told. How many days do you give it before something goes wrong at the BBC? Actually, something's wrong at the BBC already. It's called Masterchef. In fact, it's John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Continue reading...