Countdown

Countdown returns on Monday, C4, with its all-new presenting team – Jeff Stelling (“Stelling is the name -  six consonants, two vowels”) at the desk, and the very smiley Rachel Riley wrangling the letters and numbers.

We’ll have a full review from our Countdown correspondent Ian Jones, but – briefly – how’s the relaunched show looking? Read more

Merlin

Britain doesn’t have a particularly deep well of folk myths to draw from, so it’s not surprising TV screens have for so long been empty of even low-key attempts at tales of myths and legends.
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The Family

“There’s nothing remarkable about this family at all, except one thing…”

So runs John Simm’s narration at the top of C4′s keenly anticipated new fly-on-the-wall series. Very much posited as a successor to Paul Watson’s 12-part documentary of the same name – which followed the fortunes of the Wilkins of Reading over two months in 1974 – this series, unbelievably, proves itself equal to the task. Read more