EastEnders 7.30pm, BBC1
EastEnders is often criticised for being more plot-driven than Coronation Street, and it's true that when the soap hasn't the momentum of a big story to propel it, its characters seem flimsier than their Corrie counterparts. It's a bold move, then, to eschew propulsion with this reflective episode in which Dot delivers a monologue to her ailing, absent husband Jim. While not as convincing as it should be, it's still compelling and brave.
The Art of Spain 9pm, BBC4
Spanish art, explains Andrew Graham-Dixon, holds the key to under-standing all of Europe and its culture: in this country of extremes, so many of the continent's great battles - Christianity versus Islam, Catholicism versus Protestantism, fascism versus socialism - were played out. Beginning his journey in Cordoba and ending it at the majestic Alhambra in Granada, Graham-Dixon explores the debt that the west owes Moorish civilisation, along the way visiting the single largest Christian cathedral in the world and wandering through intricate forests of decoration.
Never Better 10pm, BBC2
While still bending characters to fit plot, so that the comedy feels contrived, Finton Ryan's grey (as opposed to black) comedy still has its laugh-out-loud moments - albeit well-signalled ones. Stephen Mangan's blundering Keith is still on the wrong side of pathetic but, as he ponders the sadness of a discarded Christmas tree, the question you never ask someone lately released from prison, and the differ-ence between a drunk and an alcoholic, he becomes a little more endearing.
Journeyman 10pm, Sky One
Cancellation has decreed the journey is well and truly over for Kevin McKidd's time-travelling, square-jawed journalist Dan Vasser (I don't know what's more unrealistic - the time-travelling or the square jaw). Rather aptly, Dan faces redundancy here, though he won't be the only one disappearing from British screens shortly if the US writers' strike continues. Desperate Housewives is yet to return to Channel 4 on account of only 10 episodes having been made, and even fewer episodes of CSI, Ugly Betty, Prison Break and Grey's Anatomy are in the can. We look forward, then, to reruns of Cover Up.
Source: guardian.co.uk
