Love & Loathe

This feel-really-bad drama about a pandemic flu virus that kills off most of the UK's population is the antidote to all those cheery shiny floor shows.

After all, one way of helping viewers escape the current recessionary gloom is to show them how much worse things could be.

Despite occasionally stretching credibility - is it really feasible that millions could be wiped out in the space of a few hours, or that the few survivors would bump into each other as easily as they seem to? - this was an exciting, fast-paced drama.

Watch out for the wonderful comedic exchanges between Phillip Rhys who plays selfish playboy Al Sadiq and 11-year-old Najid played by Chahak Patel who Al is forced to take under his wing.
Poppy Brech

Miss Naked Beauty
Channel 4, Tuesdays, 8pm

While I am normally a Gok Wan fan, this show truly gets my goat. Just because you are famous and gay, does not mean you should be able to grab any “bangers” you like whenever you wish to demonstrate something. This programme may be billed as a search for someone with true inner and outer beauty and confidence, but most of the “challenges” do little to really test participants' characters or personalities.

In fact, throughout the series, the goal appears to be trying to get participants to cry about their personal flaws rather than celebrating differences. To top it all, the “prize” for the winner for a competition that is about “inner beauty” is a modelling contract and a magazine column. It certainly empowered me - to turn off the TV.
Kate McMahon