Liz Nicholls talks about two new shows on Sky Living: Ladyboys and Doll & Em

Telly this week offered a breathless mix of: glitz! Glamour! Gowns! Bitchy presenters on the lookout for visible panty lines and starlets falling over in their heels!

No, not the Oscars: Ladyboys, which is only marginally less ridiculous, also aired on Sunday night on Sky Living.

Now, the plinky-plonk music does not bode well: this does not at first glance seem to be the “sensitive and thought-provoking” documentary Sky claims it to be. In fact, you half expect the odd cheeky nipple to pop out.

But most of the contenders who have travelled from all over the world to be crowned top transsexual at the Miss International Queen in Pattaya, Thailand (some are pre, some post-op princesses) are so ruthlessly determined that there are no wardrobe malfunctions. In fact, they make Tyra Banks look like a slob. And there are no Simon Cowell judges featured; in fact, you are not sure what the judging process prides most.

For example, Miss China wins the first round of the contest by treating onlookers gawping at the gawdy pink stage with a rendition of a popular Mandarin duet, singing both parts convincingly. (Miss Cuba, on the other hand, has had her vocal chords tightened which leaves her sounding unnervingly like the late Michael Jackson.) The most entrancing aspects of the show are the supremely bitchy jostling between the pageant hopefuls and the real-life journeys that have brought these fighters to the ring.

Nigerian-born and London-raised Miss Sahara has been ostracised by her parents and was beaten as a boy in her native Africa for being effeminate. She is a truly inspiring figure and her choice (in one of those toe-curling on-stage Q&As) of Shirley Bassey as her idol, sharpened and shaped by pain, puts all her insipid Asian contenders in the shade.

But Mokha, who was born Tyrell Franklin in downtown Chicago, despite winning Miss Congeniality title (a sympathy vote, effectively, voted by her fellow ladies by virtue of not being overly catty) says, at the end: “Would I do all this again? HELL NO!”

Women are complicated at the best of times, but good on besties Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells for putting their childhood friendship under the lens in Doll and Em (Sky Living, Tuesdays, 10pm). The pair have been at great pains to point out that the drama is only partly autobiographical, the fictional story following the real childhood actor friends during Emily’s launch into the big time in America and Dolly following her over the pond after a nasty break-up.

As mates do, they come up with the brainwave of Dolly being Emily’s assistant to allow them to hang out together. And, cleverly, the situation sets the angst between the friends to simmer almost immediately, with Doll agonising over whether it’s all part of the job to fetch her new boss ice cream and cater to hilariously divaish coffee orders.

So respected is Mortimer (the daughter of late Rumpole of the Bailey creator John Mortimer) that the series attracts an almighty stellar galaxy of the A-list sending themselves up as caricatures, including a fabulously intense Chloe Sevigny and pain-in-the-backside Susan Sarandon.

And competitiveness? My God, they play it well, with the second episode featuring a genius battle between the two, in a hot tub competing over whose father’s death was more tragic, in order to attract the party host (whom neither of them properly fancy, but that’s not the point).

I for one can’t wait for Dolly to steal Em’s thunder in the last three episodes.

It’s Friends, with benefits.