WEDNESDAY nights offer some of the worst TV of the week I find, however, I think I've discovered a little gem of a series that will be taking up half an hour of my life every Wednesday evening for the foreseeable future (or until the end of the series).
Season two of Sky Cops (BBC1, Wednesday, 8pm), aptly named Under Pressure' was half an hour of action, drama, tears of joy and despair, car chases and big expensive helicopters! What more could you want?
This was episode three of eight, so I can't vouch for the entertainment value of the first two episodes, but the basic premise of the series is simple.
The Sky Cops are the team of police officers who operate the three police "choppers" in London, each costing a cool five million quid, and help the officers on the ground catch filthy criminals, mostly at night time when they can't see much.
In this episode, five normal police officers, who have been whittled down from hundreds of applicants, try desperately to join the elite Sky Cops unit, with varying degrees of success.
PC Miller drives fast police cars for the rapid response team in central London but has never flown in a helicopter before.
Cue the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-style music as he goes up in the chopper for his flight test, ooooh the tension.
It's a shaky start for Miller but he takes to the task like a duck to water, or should that be a bird to the sky, or maybe a policeman to a helicopter, I dunno.
Anyway, while that's going on the real action begins!
The Sky Cops are called in after a VW Golf has been stolen and the chase begins. Back comes that dramatic music. More Mission Impossible than Who Wants To Be A Millionaire this time, though.
Thanks to the help of the Sky Cops the driver of the car is caught by the ground officers but the passenger runs into a block of flats.
That turns out to be a foolish mistake as the Sky Cops track him into the flats and he's effectively locked himself into a premature prison as the officers on the ground gather round and break down the door. Silly boy. He hadn't accounted for the Sky Cops had he?!
Back to base and the training and testing of the new recruits. It's their first ever flight in a helicopter and they're having to navigate the chopper across London while operating a pin point camera, called the "Helly Telly." I know Helly Telly shouldn't make me chuckle but it does.
There were tears as one female Sky Cop hopeful, PC Bearman, completed her flight test but felt she'd let herself down as she got flustered and couldn't work the zoom on the Helly Telly.
Next up is PC Stanley, who gets lost very easily while hovering over central London. He attempts to direct the pilot by saying, "aim for that big white building ahead." Not a good move as the pilot correctly points out that he can see a lot of big white buildings ahead of him.
PC Brandon is scared of flying! I think I can see where this one is going. "He's excellent at reading maps and is passing all the tests, but will he be able to conquer his fear," says the voiceover man. I fear not.
The unsympathetic pilot decides to test PC Brandon to his limit and pulls a few quick manoeuvres as Brandon fights to keep his lunch inside him, much to the joy of the examiners, pilot and the viewers.
He sounds like a dying chicken as the chopper veers left and right, up and down, and naturally, his map reading suffers and soon he is very lost and feeling very sick.
However, the other three recruits are all passed on to the next stage, even PC Bearman, who was left in tears after her flight test - much to her surprise and elation.
The successful officers now face three more weeks of tests and examinations, but only two, if any, will become sky cops.
Back comes that dramatic music and you know that action is afoot. The Sky Cops are called into a mock riot in central London where they work with the Fire, Police and Ambulance services to help calm the fake hoards of hooligans and/or terrorists, I wasn't quite sure.
After weeks of intensive testing and training, PCs Miller and Bearman (now crying tears of joy) were offered jobs as Sky Cops. Roll on next Wednesday, and roll on tonight when at last, Big Brother will finally be over.
Now I hate Big Brother (C4, Tues, 9pm) with a passion but not nearly as much as I hate myself when I eventually get sucked into it and actually start caring about who goes or stays in the final weeks.
Tuesday saw the surprise double eviction of Mohammed and Katreya during a party where the housemates were all dressed in Afro wigs and wearing dressing gowns.
Probably not the way Kat or Mo had envisaged making their glamorous exits from the house, but leave the house they did, and to very mixed receptions.
Tonight will see someone walk away £100,000 richer, onto the front cover of Heat Magazine and then off into obscurity where they belong.
Just when you think it's finally ending though, there'll be Big Brother's Big BBQ over the weekend and Housemates Revisited, followed by Big Brothers Big Little Small Huge Waste Of Time!
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