Lewis Carroll's White Queen sometimes believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Well, I can't - even after breakfast. Television keeps presenting me with things I find impossible to believe, and it did it again this week.

The Qur'an (Channel 4) took a detailed look at the book which Muslims believe is the word of God dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. The programme pointed out that the book is full of ambiguities - even contradictions, which may account for the extremely diverse interpretations by various Muslim groups. The most worrying thing is that some believers use the book to justify killing other people and considering themselves superior to certain groups (for example, women and homosexuals).

You might think that there is something improbable about a God who tells his followers to kill or mistreat other humans (all, presumably, created by that same God). Yet this seems no hindrance to certain fundamentalists, whose interpretations are as disturbing as those of Christian fundamentalists who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God (even though it also contains many contradictions). At least the documentary provided some clear exposition of the intricacies of Islamic belief, although it was hard to reconcile the many conflicting views expressed by interviewees.

The complexities of religious belief are illustrated by A Match Made in Heaven (ITV1), a new series which follows the experiences of a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian trying to find marriage partners by using Internet dating websites specially set up to cater for people of particular faiths. Daniel seeks a Jewish partner but he calls himself "a not-very-Jewish Jew". Berihan is a Muslim woman seeking dates through SingleMuslim.com but she wants a partner who shares her "Muslim and non-Muslim values". She observes daily prayers but also goes out unveiled and drinks alcohol. Tracey, a born-again Christian, has a successful date with a man called Moses - even though, on her website, she lies about her age.

Who would have believed that so many Germans would regard Hitler as a saviour in the 1930s? We have seen film of those Nuremberg rallies where the ludicrous Führer was hailed with near-religious fervour. Hitler's Secret Bunkers: Revealed (Five) was a reminder of how Hitler's autocratic notions led to the destruction of Germany - in particular, Berlin. The programme visited the "vast complex of newly-discovered bunkers and tunnels" beneath the city. These are virtually all that remain of Hitler's vision of Germania: the "world capital" he planned to build in place of Berlin. The bunkers and tunnels were used as air-raid shelters but many German citizens committed suicide there or died when the Russians shelled the city, 90 per cent of which was destroyed. It was a salutary lesson in the dangers of believing in dictatorial politicians.

d=3,3,1Many detective dramas on TV expect you to suspend your disbelief, but it was difficult with George Gently (BBC1). Having just returned from a holiday in Northumberland, I was intrigued to watch a film set there, but Sunday's drama had no sense of place: it might have been anywhere in the countryside (someone said it was filmed in Ireland!). No explanation was given for Insp George Gently being there, or why he and his sidekick (John Bacchus) had such strange names. George had to solve a convoluted series of murders involving Irishmen all called O'Something. The scene where a man ingests a ring was hard to swallow.

New Tricks (BBC1), another whodunnit which often stretches credulity, is back for a new series. This week's episode expected us to believe that someone who used a typewriter to forge a letter would have kept the typewriter at home. At least New Tricks has some good acting from the 'old dogs' brought in from retirement to help solve old crimes, and it salts its plots with wry humour, which may be why it has reached its fifth series. At any rate, that's what I believe.