The weird thing is, I actually preferred Brainiac when Hammond presented it. I've been a fan of Vic Reeves since his early appearances on Saturday Night Live, but somehow Brainiac didn't quite work for me - maybe because it wasn't his from the outset and his influence didn't go as far as it should. Enjoyable certainly, the Benny Hill elements notwithstanding, though since we moved to Lancashire back in '07 I've lost touch with Sky rather. We get Sky 3 but we rarely look at it - and for Life on Mars USA we rely on Rapunzel's folks with their super duper home cinema Sky Plus HD.

What would be the ideal vehicle for Vic Reeves' singular genius these days? We got glimpses of it in the recent Shooting Stars, but are the glory days of Big Night Out, The Smell of..., and (my favourite of all) Bang, Bang well and truly behind us? Though Monkey Trousers dumbed it down & diluted it, it had its moments too; and I really don't think the world was quite ready for Catterick which is up there with Oh Whistle as some of the best British TV ever. We saw Vic Reeves performing as part of the Durham Literature Festival a few years back, supposedly reading from his autobiography Me : Moir but halfway through he gave up on the idea and treated us to some new fiction* he was working on at the time, much of which featured his character Inspector Fowler, aka the American Eagle, from Catterick (who'd appeared in Bang, Bang as club entertainer Kinky John Fowler). To do the voice he needed some paper hankies to stuff in his mouth, and we were delighted when he accepted our offer, though we didn't retrieve them when he spat them out afterwards - fandom only goes so far after all! Though we did wait in line to get our books signed by his remarkably taciturn private alter-ego, including my cherish copy of Sun Boiled Onions at which he looked surprised. You like this? said he; My only complaint is that there's not enough of it, said I, at which he smiled. Reeves as an artist I regard as a master, and the appearance of The Vast Book is an utter joy for me. His approach is that of the shamanic curator of The Nature Table; his genius is in his juxtaposition of the common place in the creation the surrealistic sublime that inspires both awe and hilarity, though I myself wouldn't draw any sort of line between the two.

Top Gear is, for me, an hour on another planet. I've even taken a shine to James May, whose recent series celebrating vintage toys I found similarly inspiring. I have no interest in cars nor of vacuous celebrity, but I love the extended features and travelogues which I have found to be the most absorbing, and entertaining, TV for too long a while. That said, I'm not complaining about TV standards these days - in fact on certain respects I think we're in something of a Golden Age thanks to BBC3. I love The Mighty Boosh, and I think Ideal is the greatest sitcom ever - more Manchester! But any sitcom that kicks off with the characters miming to The Fall's Popcorn Double Feature, or features Mark E. Smith as God is bound to get preferential treatment in Chez Sedayne!

Maybe this should be on the re-Imagined Village thread?   

* These featured in his recent series on Radio 2 House Arrest, essentially a low-key solo vehicle it featured some memorable contributions from Bob Mortimer and Noel Fielding.