I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! UTV, nightly at 9pm
You know you’re in the run up to Christmas when minor celebrities are screaming in the Australian jungle and next year’s contestants are getting ready for the finals of X-Factor.
To prove the point, Fleur East, a former X-Factor runner up, is currently fighting her way through the dank jungle.
To be fair to I’m A Celebrity, it’s gone a bit wider than other reality shows to recruit its cast.
One time favourite to be England football manager, Harry Redknapp is bringing a bit of cockney directness, Emily Atack is reminding us how great the Inbetweeners was and and in a nod to the Zeitgeist of equality, we’ve got one each from Eastenders, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks.
But star of the show has been Anne Hegerty, the Governess from the Chase.
Anne, we have discovered, suffers from Aspergers and it has been been touching watching her triumph over her difficulties.
And I suspect viewers believed her when she explained that she didn’t enter the show to make an issue of her disability.
"I didn't raise the autism issue. It's not like: 'I want you to know I have this interesting disability that you have to accommodate'," Anne explained.
"If someone else raises it then I make it quite clear that I'm happy to talk about it."
She also told us that she only got diagnosed in 2003 when she was 45 and gave an in depth explanation about how she required the alignment of the synapses in her brain to complete new tasks.
It’s a good day indeed when you are learning by watching reality TV.
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Ireland v New Zealand, Channel 4, Saturday at 6.10pm
Congratulations to Channel 4 for making one of Ireland’s greatest sporting moments available free-to-air.
Since the BBC abandoned live sport so that it can spend our money on Strictly Come Dancing, sports fans have had to rely on subscription services and trips to the pub to see the top events.
And it’s not like we can rely on RTE, because their sports service is blocked for the vast majority of viewers in Northern Ireland.
Channel 4 started broadcasting European rugby in recent months, with one live match each weekend and a highlights show. It will also broadcast one quarter-final, one semi-final and the European Champions Cup final.
What a bonus to find out that Channel 4 was also providing coverage to Ireland’s autumn internationals, including the clash between the top two teams in the world.
It was a momentous, emotional occasion and just leaves one question: If Channel 4 can afford it why can’t the BBC?
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Martin Lewis Money Show Live, UTV, Monday at 8pm
Martin Lewis has made a fortune from saving other people money, but he needs to be careful about his shopping advice.
It has become traditional in the build-up to ‘Black Friday’, the equivalent of the shopping addicts free-bar, that Lewis gives forewarning of all the retailers’ deals and when they are likely to appear.
To be fair, Lewis does warn that that you should only buy things you were going to buy anyway, but the celebratory tone is contradictory.
There is nothing financially savvy about snapping a bargain in the high street or online if it is for goods you do not need.
‘Black Friday’ is just another marketing tool for retailers to generate false hype to get you into their stores and onto their websites to spend money you may not have.
Lewis has a responsibility to tell his viewers that.
