It’s been a strange old week of TV, given that I haven’t watched much of it yet again. But here were the highlights.

The Cricket: I settled in for the absorbing contest of the Boxing Day Test. I’m slightly worried that one day I will be branded as un-Australian, because I actually like to see Australia lose. I believe it’s good for them to experience failure and they’ve been on top for so long, it’s satisfying to see the underdogs rise up and beat their little socks off. Sad that Ponting got out for 99. (Unlike the time some years ago when Shane Warne got out for 99…i laughed out loud for some time and still get a warm fuzzy feeling of joy when I think of it). You may have realised I have a irrational dislike of Shane Warne. I notice he no longer has the duck’s bum hairdo. Has Channel Nine insisted he comb it down so we might be tricked into taking him seriously as a commentator? I am feeling sorry for Brett Lee and his injured foot, less so for Andrew Symonds….why they are persisting with him in the team I am unsure.

Anyway, for those of you who are now freaked out at my like of watching cricket, apologies. But in my opinion it’s one of the perfect live television experiences, characterised by what I would describe as “the lure of the unexpected”. You can sit all day with nothing happening as the images flow by, just the gentle repetitive flow of bowling and batting and then suddenly, someone hits of a six, or takes a wicket, or drops a catch. It’s the spontaneity that’s inherent to the live television experience (and which is missing from so much other programming, or is artificially constructed into them) that remains in cricket broadcasting (and I guess sport more generally).

Tuesday: Father Ted…obviously. I think have said enough about my adoration of Father Ted in recent weeks.

Hamish Macbeth: Again,repetitive, but a more comic episode than in previous weeks which was good.

Wednesday: New Year’s Eve. I don’t like New year’s Eve and never really have. What is the fascination with fireworks year after year? I can’t comprehend it. That being said, I don’t mind lighting a sparkler and holding “actual fire” in my hand, but these overblown fireworks spectaculars affect me the same way as Rock Eisteddfods. Uggh.
So I watched the Edinburgh Military Tattoo like an old granny, and went to bed very happily at 10:30. A perfect New Year’s Eve actually. (Except if you don’t like bagpipes you may not have been so content).

All week: Pie in the Sky: Series one on DVD
I adore this show. Richard Griffiths is wonderful as Henry Crabbe, restaurant owner and part-time policeman. He takes his food seriously, in contrast to Maggie Steed as his long suffering accountant wife. The pies look gorgeous and while the detective plots are sometimes a little laboured and mystifying, it’s really all about the food and following your dream. An optimistic little gem from the 1990s when police/detective shows didn’t feel the need to turn deceased human bodies inside out on the TV screen and pick through them with tweezers.