Saturday TV - it's a family thing....

Thanks to Dr Who, Saturday evenings in our house have become a family watching tv time. Which is of course a bit of a problem when the series ends.

However in the absence of the good doctor, we had Robin Hood in the autumn, which the children (who let's face it lack discernment) love. Although the last series got so silly I have to fess up I left the bosom of the family a fair few times as I couldn't cope with the stupidity of Marian not shagging Guy, the really crap way they depicted Elinor of Aquitaine as some lecherous old bint, and the nonsense of all of them ending up in the Holy Land in the last couple of episodes. Still they did have the sense to finish Marian off for good this time, and I can't imagine that even Jack can a) bring her back from the dead again and b) resurrect her from the tomb she's incarcerated in in the desert. But you never know I suppose....

With Robin Hood over we were facing a bit of a vacuum, and were all wondering what had happened to Primeval, which comfortably filled the Family Viewing slot till Dr Who was back, last year. To our delight it returned to our screens few weeks ago, complete with weird anomalies, strange creatures, and Dougie Henshall's evil missis. Hurrah, hurrah. Saturday evenings are fun again.

Primeval is of course a load of old tosh. But such enjoyable old tosh that it doesn't really matter. The kids get a bit fed up with us saying but what about X? and look behind you you idiot! when the characters are particularly dumb. And there always seems to be some confusion about whether to kill the creatures that come through the anomaly - at the beginning of the series it was a no no, because you might change time (fans of Primeval will know that poor old Nick Cutter, the hero, came back from an anomaly to discover that things had altered so much his putative girlfriend had disappeared, only for her to reappear as someone completely different) - but now they seem to be killing prehistoric animals with gusto, and zipping in and out of anomalies with not so much as a by your leave, and NOTHING much happens....

That carping aside though, last night's episode was a real roller coaster, and I had two sprogs on my lap for most of it as we wondered whether Abby was going to get eaten by a predecessor of the shark (who looked more walrus like then anything, but never mind), and whether Conor was going to stop being so wet and useless for once and actually save her (which he did of course).

We also had the fun of wondering which hero Spouse resembles. In one scene Stephen (the metrosexual foil to Cutter's maverick lead) stood facing Cutter in a bit of a stand off (there is TENSION between them you see on account of Stephen having shagged Mrs Evil ) . Which one am I most like? Asked Spouse. Given that Stephen sports as much hair on his chest as my husband does, but Cutter was wearing the exact same jacket he possesses. The children pondered this dilemma before Spouse asked which of them had his tummy - er neither I think is the answer to that. I rather suspect he resembles the walrus most....

Another enjoyable thing about it though is the intrigue - so far we know that the guy who played Martin Dear in Green Wing isn't all he seems, and is in cahoots with the woman who is trying to worm her way into Conor's affections for what nefarious purpose remains to be seen. But judging from the end of last night's episode, it's going to involve Mrs Evil.

The best thing about Saturday Family TV is that it allows you to be a kid again. So like a five year old, I really really can't wait for next week.....