I watched the HD version of Encounter at Farpoint, the show’s pilot episode, tonight, and was impressed – it genuinely does look lovely. TNG was shot on film but then transferred to videotape for editing, resulting in a slight but noticeable loss of picture quality. To get the best picture quality possible, CBS have gone back to the original film footage and painstakingly re-edited the episodes exactly as they were first time around, guided by long-serving Star Trek guru Michael Okuda. Pleasingly for TV purists, the episodes are still in 4:3 (the temptation to go widescreen must have been immense).

The YouTube clip below is a promotional clip from CBS, but I can say that it genuinely does look that good. It’s safe to say that TNG has never looked better.

The special effects have also been redone, but the producers, thankfully, have resisted the urge to do a complete CGI makeover or add in pointless extra guff for the sake of it (Star Wars and Red Dwarf, I’m looking at you). For the most part, they have stuck with the original model shots (space jellyfish and all), re-composited in HD. All in all, it’s a wonderful upgrade to a wonderful series, remaining utterly faithful to the original while taking advantage of today’s TV technology.

The consequences of this are that I will probably be parting with my hard-earned cash for TNG on Blu-ray, despite spending a considerable amount of money buying the DVD box sets a few years ago. Well played, CBS. Well played.

As ever, the TV companies wheel out the big guns at Christmas. I’ve been through the Radio Times, although the traditional circling of programmes with a red biro has been replaced this year by the setting of the digital TV recorder. Here’s what my TVonics box will be recording over the next few days.

Tonight

Lapland (BBC One, 10pm): An obnoxious Birkenhead family go on a trip to Lapland and along the way learn the true meaning of Christmas. It doesn’t sound incredibly promosing, but the wonderful Sue Johnston is in it, so it won’t be a total waste of time.

Les Dawson Night (BBC Two, 9pm): Well, it’s actually just a profile of the rubber faced Blackpudlian, followed by a compilation of sketches. One of my earliest TV memories is watching Dawson messing around on Blankety Blank, and it’s a shame that he seems to be remembered as a purveyor of cheesy mother-in-law jokes.

Father Ted (Channel 4, 11.55pm): One of those festive repeats that the Daily Mail bleated on about. It’s A Christmassy Ted, which has been on a million times before, of course, but it’s always welcome to see it again.

Christmas Day

The Snowman (Channel 4, 2.30pm): With the news that Channel 4 are revisiting this film next year (either a remake or a sequel, depending on which article you read), it never hurts to see the original, as long as it’s not the ballsed-up “remastered” version they screened a few years ago which was cropped to 16:9 so half the picture was missing.

Matthew Bourne’s Christmas (More4, 9pm): I will be watching this film about the famous choreographer, because I am interested in ballet as an art form, and certainly not because Bourne’s productions have a habit of featuring nubile men in not much clothing.

Victoria Wood with All The Trimmings (BBC Two, 11.30pm): Away from the Doctor Who/Strictly/Downton trifecta, brilliant telly is actually thin on the ground on Christmas Day. This special from 2000 is not vintage Victoria Wood, but worth a look.

Boxing Day

Jim’ll Fix It (BBC One, 5.40pm): This one-off revival/tribute could be great, but Shane Richie is hosting, so it probably won’t be. I’ve been trying to think of someone more appropriate, but let’s be honest, is there anyone quite like Jimmy Savile around these days? More importantly, do we want there to be?

Mrs Brown’s Boys (BBC One, 10pm): The first series of this sitcom polarised opinion, with praise from some quarters and brickbats from elsewhere. Certainly it is loud and lowbrow, but then so is a lot of TV. And it is nice to see that in the post Lily Savage-era, a foul-mouthed, cross-dressing man can still command a huge prime-time audience.

Wonders of the Universe (BBC4, 7pm): I wonder how many of these series Brian Cox will have to make before the press stop referring to him as “former D:Ream guitarist”? He can wax lyrical over a rousing soundtrack forever; he’ll always be the brains behind Things Can Only Get Better as far as I’m concerned. A repeat run starts here, and I will try to watch it without thinking of Adam and Joe’s parody.

So that’s what I’ll be watching. All programmes, of course, subject to change if the stent procedure doesn’t work for the Duke of Edinburgh.

Look around online and you’ll find Scrooge-like characters describing this as being a cheesy waste of money. Well, maybe, but you could say that about 90% of the things that happen at Christmas time. As for me, I love the idea of all of BBC1′s stars getting together for a knees-up, where they sing, dance and unconvincingly pretend to play the piano. It’s a lovely effort which cements the BBC’s reputation as the only broadcaster worth bothering with on December 25th.

That said, it’s not a new idea – flash back to Christmas 1993 and a near-identical concept was used, although the cheese factor is ratcheted up by a factor of 10. There are no Christmas jumpers in sight, the producers of this magnum opus preferring the Birds of a Feather women in glittery dresses. Look out for a cameo from Andi Peters, which – despite its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nature – was the source of much good-natured ribbing on Live & Kicking.

Warning: contains Jim Davidson.

Note the heavy presence of Bruce Forsyth in both trailers. There is simply no stopping the man.

I once wrote to Jim’ll Fix It. I can’t remember exactly when, but it must have been towards the end of the show’s run when it was being flung out in graveyard slots.

My request was, in retrospect, quite unambitious. I didn’t want to have tea on a roller coaster or appear in a specially-written Doctor Who mini-episode. No, I just wanted to ride in the cab of a train.

Not an exciting train like an HST or Flying Scotsman, mind, but a common or garden class 507. I did go so far as to specify the journey I wanted: Southport to Liverpool – presumably worried that the BBC would try to penny pinch and send me to Kirkby.

I think what I really wanted was a drivers-eye view of the Link tunnel, an ambition I later (sort of) realised by purchasing a Merseyrail cab ride video. The video was disappointing as the tunnel section was just 10 minutes of pitch darkness and loud echoey rumbling noises (with a caption “Paradise Junction” helpfully superimposed over the blackness at one point).

Where was I? Oh yes – I misspelled the word “often” on my letter, and I remember Mum told me to leave it uncorrected as it would make me look like a sweet innocent child, rather than the obnoxious smart-arse I already was by the age of seven. Bless.

I never got on Jim’ll Fix It, which was probably a good thing, as appearing on national television with the nation’s favourite slightly odd uncle character would surely have added to my already bulging package of childhood neuroses.

It’s a ludicrous state of affairs, and Stewart’s response (reproduced below) is exactly appropriate.

Also, I really want a Mattessons Pork Sausage for some reason.

It got me thinking – Sky likes to claim that it shook up the “cosy duopoly” of the BBC and ITV by bringing much-needed innovation to British TV. There’s not much doubt that a shake-up happened. But is Sky One really innovative, or is their success largely based on programmes that have built an audience on free-to-air channels?

It’s not a new phenomenon. I remember back in 1992 or thereabouts, when LA Law, a modest success on ITV, was snatched by Sky One, causing much consternation (although not with my family, as we had cable by then and I felt quite smug about the whole thing).

Friends, Lost, House and Mad Men all built up audiences on terrestrial channels before Sky opened up their chequebook and locked the rights away on their pay channels.

On the other hand, there have been cases where Sky fell down and the free-to-air channels came to the rescue. Family Guy failed to find an audience on Sky One (largely due to lamentable scheduling – 6.30pm on weeknights and cut to ribbons). The BBC took a big chance by picking up the rights, but it is now one of the bedrocks of BBC3′s lineup.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer did not perform well when Sky first showed it. It rated so badly, in fact, that Sky One dropped it halfway through its initial run. The BBC showed more faith, and built it into a cult hit. Oddly enough Sky then quickly found a slot for it again.

This isn’t an anti-Sky rant. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Sky doing this – it’s business, after all – but to claim it is “innovation” is a step too far.

Anyway, please enjoy this incredibly cheesy Sky promo from 1990.

As Frances Ryan pointed out in the Guardian, some EastEnders fans will “happily park their children in front of fictionalised drug abuse, prostitution and murder without batting an eye, yet regurgitate their own dinner at the sight of two people of the same sex lying on a mattress.”

It’s a sad reminder, that despite achieving near-full equality under the law, gay people are still seen as “unacceptable” by many parts of society.

In any case, surely the bigger problem with this scene is that the couple actually look happy, which as any EastEnders fan knows, is an unacceptable emotion for any resident of Albert Square.

There are two lazy received opinions about Eurovision which get aired endlessly around this time of year. One is that it is a dated, cheesy waste of money which is irrelevant to modern life and should be scrapped forthwith. You could say the same thing about the Royal Family, and look how popular they are at the moment.

The other complaint is that the contest is ruined by political voting, where countries vote for their nearest neighbours, especially in recent years as a horde of Eastern European countries have rushed to join in the fun. One person expressing these opinions is James Ball in the Guardian who writes, “an examination of Eurovision voting data has confirmed a persistent voting gripe – the eastern European voting bloc indeed exists, and is now all but unbeatable.”

Ball cites some statistics to back up his theory, but even as I read his article my mind was full of doubt. I did some extensive research of my own and have concluded that, even if Eastern European countries do vote for each other, it doesn’t make that much difference. To prove my point, here are the Eurovision winners since 2000, which is around the time that His Royal Highness Lord Sir Terry Wogan started complaining about the “Eastern block voting”:-

• 2010 – Germany (not Eastern Europe – bits of it were, but not any more)
• 2009 – Norway (not Eastern Europe)
• 2008 – Russia (Eastern Europe – and quite a bit of Asia too)
• 2007 – Serbia (Eastern Europe)
• 2006 – Finland (not Eastern Europe)
• 2005 – Greece (not Eastern Europe)
• 2004 – Ukraine (Eastern Europe)
• 2003 – Turkey (not Eastern Europe)
• 2002 – Latvia (Eastern Europe)
• 2001 – Estonia (Eastern Europe – also, yay!)
• 2000 – Denmark (not Eastern Europe)

To summarise, in the last decade, 5 out of 10 winners have been from Eastern Europe. But that figure (50%) is roughly what you’d expect, considering the number of Eastern European countries who now enter the contest.

In conclusion, the “Eastern block vote” is a canard, invented to “explain” why the UK has done so poorly in recent years. The real reason is much simpler: we enter bad songs. When we scored 0 points in 2003, it wasn’t because the Ukraine always votes for Russia, it was because Jemini sang out of tune. When Cyndi Scooch came second-to-last in 2007, it was because their song (actual lyric: “Would you like something to suck on for landing?”) was an embarrassment.

On the rare occasions recently when we make the effort, we do quite well (qv Jade Ewen) and sometimes even win! (qv Katrina and the Waves).

Anyway, good luck to Blue. Your song has an actual tune, which is a step up from some of our recent attempts. I hope you do well — and Anthony, please remember that cashpoints are for withdrawals, not deposits.

Well done to me as well, for getting through a Eurovision 2011 post without mentioning Jedward… oh.

Although he praised some BBC managers, including Mark Thompson, the director general, Mr Buerk said some of his bosses were “totally transparent t******.”

Mr Buerk, 65, has previously criticised BBC newsreaders, saying their role was “the only job that actually requires no talent at all”.

Mmm… How much talent does it take to provide the voiceover for Louie Spence’s Showbusiness, Michael?

I had quite low expectations, in spite of the top roster of talent we were promised: Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell, Charlie Brooker and Lauren Laverne. All good in their own right, but would they work well together in the high-pressure environment of live telly? I wasn’t convinced.

I sat down in front of the first episode with a very jaded eye. I fully expected to hate it, and the first few episodes were shaky, but I decided to stick with it in the hope that it might improve. I’m glad I did, because the show has overcome its initial nervousness and after nine episodes has built up confidence, to the point that I now look forward to it each week.

Topical news-based comedy like this is quite difficult to do. If you’re tackling serious issues through humour, great care must be taken to avoid treating a subject too lightly — or even worse, looking smug. It’s hard to get right, but 10 O’Clock Live manages to pull it off, most of the time anyway.

As for the Daily Show comparison, well… to be honest, the show is different enough that direct comparisons with Jon Stewart’s programme are meaningless. Many of the targets — evil politicians, corrupt bankers, media distortions — are the same, but the presentation is completely different.

Truly though, the great thing about it is that Charlie Brooker gets to do what amounts to a mini-version of Newswipe for weeks on end. In this clip from Thursday’s show, he attacks the TV and newspaper coverage of the Japanese earthquake, the ensuing tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The absolute stand-out for me though has been — surprisingly — Jimmy Carr. He’s always been a bit of a contradictory figure for me. I enjoy his contributions on panel shows such as QI, but don’t really care for his stand-up. On 10 O’Clock Live however, he has been excellent, not only at delivering the topical monologue at the top of the show, but also throwing himself into silly sketches as a range of characters, from Silvio Berlusconi, an SAS operative, even a (female!) Barclays bank teller.

The show isn’t perfect by any means. The political interviews and panel discussions, presumably designed to inject a bit of gravitas into proceedings, are rarely very enlightening. This is probably because they are not allocated enough time in the show, and the presenters are forced to end them just as they threaten to get interesting. Lauren Laverne, meanwhile, never seems to get anything worthwhile to do.

The show is also a victim of odd scheduling by Channel 4 – at 10 o’clock on Thursday, which clashes with the main news on both BBC1 and ITV1, as well as the first 25 minutes of Newsnight and Question Time.

The show is nine episodes in to a 15-episode run. I hope it comes back again for another run. If Channel 4 stick with it, they could have a genuine hit on their hands. If you watched the first few episodes and gave up, I strongly recommend you give it another go.