Who needs telly critics when you’ve got Gogglebox? Seriously? Even the living room favourite Harry Hill stopped doing his TV Burp when Gogglebox (Fridays, 9pm) landed on Channel Four in 2013.

Yes, it’s a random assortment of British families and mates sat in front of their screens watching the week’s telly. And this might sound like one of the most idiotic pitches for a television series in history, but it’s ended up winning a Bafta – and our hearts – for good reason. When I first tuned in, I compared Gogglebox to some mad idea from the film Inception, with endless loops of people watching people watching people like an Esher painting. Where will it end?

But what you can never underestimate is how refreshingly honest and funny British people are – when they’re in their own living rooms, that is.

In last Friday’s episode, I delighted in my favourite gogglers – Brixton ladies Sandra and Sandy – bumping and grinding around their home while watching Strictly Come Dancing. As Jake Wood (aka the ginger whinger from EastEnders) shook his thang (“looks like everyone underestimated the ginger baldy bloke,” said everyone), Sandy and Sandra got up to join him in jiving around. You had to be there, but this programme is a party everyone is invited to, so why not give it a whirl?

Whatever’s happened in the week, whether it’s illegal dog meat trading in Asia (“mind you… if it was in a nice black bean sauce…” – hairdresser Chris) or Lady Mary boffing Lord Gilligan (“she really is the slut of Downton” – the Michaels), you will be entertained by it regardless.

This evening (from 7pm), Channel 4 serves up Stand Up To Cancer, which features the Gogglebox stars probably upstaging professional comedians. In the grand style of Comic Relief, C4 aims to use laughter to raise awareness and cash for fighting deadly serious issues. And, seeing as they have that well-known mirthmeister Andy Murray involved (I’m going to try to withhold my distaste and see what the lovely Richard Ayoade does with him), the Last Leg trio and the mesmerising Derren Brown, this definitely has to be worth a squizz.

Meanwhile, this week also heralded the arrival of a new channel (ITV Be – avoid Real Housewives Of Atlanta at ALL costs if you value your remaining brain cells and your eardrums) as well as a fresh new batch of human replicants to do battle with Lord Alan on The Apprentice (Tuesday and Wednesday night primetime – worth catching up on iPlayer). The Apprentice is a true telly highlight for me, even though it’s a fairly masochistic indulgence. As most of us have to work in an office, it’s a sometimes soul-crushing landscape we’re pretty much all used to.

Each series delivers us a fresh team of unbelievably arrogant, steely-eyed hopefuls ready to do battle with their egos in the boardroom. The BBC has rustled up 20 newbies instead of the usual 16 for this, the tenth competition. Yes: 20! That is how disposable these gel-haired, sharp-suited psychopaths are. But, what I find most interesting (and strangely I read this in an interview with Mr Grumpy Bear of Amstrad himself) is how wrong first impressions can be.

This is just as well because, when we viewers are first introduced to this bunch of Apprentice wannabes, you do start thinking where on earth have they been dragged up from. But, they grow on you, every time.

Lip-wobbling moments, tearful backstabbing and botched attempts at toddler tasks? You bet. And I’ll be watching all of it unfold until the man in charge says “you’re fired”.

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