WHERE to be at 9pm today? Easy question - in front of the telly. The harder question is: What the hell to watch?
Not because there's nothing on, but because there's too much on. Although we can discount BBC1's Traffic Cops series - after all, we've seen it all before.
Rome (BBC 2, 9pm)a> is a somewhat different proposition.
The second series of the BBC/HBO collaboration, which incidentally has been much more successful on the other side of the pond than here, is back.
To quote the BBC website: "Rome charts the difficult birth of the powerful and unconquerable Roman Empire following the death of Julius Caesar and his eminent Republic. An epic tale of betrayal and love, masters and slaves, Rome depicts a civilisation without morality where cruelty and treachery were virtues and mercy a weakness. Cue cinematic battles and tragic love stories."
It should add lots of randy behaviour and some very good acting.
Over on ITV 1 there is also a fair amoung of good acting tonight, as Cold Blood returns for its first proper series after two excellent one-offs.
Matthew Kelly, he of Stars in Your Eyes fame, was the surprise star in the one-offs, thanks to his excellent acting as a pschyo locked up in prison. He's back again, along with Russell Brand as another of the big characters, playing the role of a man who befriends a penpal prisoner upon release from prison. Sound mad? It is, but it's gripping.
But by 9pm, you could already be settled into Brothers and Sisters on Channel 4 at 8.30pm. It's one of the surprise hits from the American autumn schedule last year, starring Calista Flockhart. It's on at 8.30pm, and then at 10pm this week.
Plot goes like this: Kitty Walker is reunited with mother Nora after three years of estrangement. It is a cold and formal meeting and a source of tension for the whole family. During the course of the first episode we discover that Nora blames Kitty for her extreme right wing views and the fact that her youngest child Justin fought the war in Afghanistan. Nora describes her daughter as a “young Margaret Thatcher”...
And finally, there's Layer Cake (C5, 9pm). Anyone who saw this Brit flick in 2004 would never have thought Daniel Craig would go on to be Bond within three years.
So what am I going to do? I'm seeing Russell Howard live at Unity, and leaving the choices up to my Sky+ box!
In hindsight, it seems a logical step. Take two successful BBC formats, The Apprentice and Dragons' Den, mix them together into a hybrid reality TV show, and what what you got? Tycoon (ITV 1, 9pm).
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