have often commented in this column on the way that TV producers steal or copy one another's ideas. Another common occurrence is the recycling of an original idea to provide a potentially limitless series of programmes.

One such idea was to send David Dimbleby on a tour round Britain, seeing pretty scenery and commenting on it. In A Picture of Britain, Dimbleby looked at bits of our countryside and chatted about how they were pictured by various artists. Now How We Built Britain (BBC1) sends him off again, this time looking at lovely buildings and dispensing platitudes about them, accompanied by portentous music.

David continually gets in the way of the buildings he talks about. We see a lot of him driving around in a Land Rover and the focus is constantly on him, not on the architecture. So he visits a hamlet called Dimbleby, not to look at its buildings but to ramble on about his ancestors. He tells us several times that buildings are "magnificent" and "breathtaking" but the information he provides sounds as if it came straight out of a guide book. Why not send an architectural expert to look at Britain's buildings?

Coast (BBC2) is the third series of a tour round Britain's coastline: a journey that seems to have endless possibilities. Like the Dimbleby programme, it includes some beautiful views but it is different in being presented by people who know what they are talking about. Long-haired archaeologist Neil Oliver enlists the help of geologists, zoologists and other experts to reveal some of the intriguing things that can be found around our shores. It makes for a much more enlightening programme than the Dimbleby nonsense.

In Battlefield Britain, Peter and Dan Snow told us about some ancient British battles. Now the idea is recycled as 20th-Century Battlefields (BBC2), in which Peter and his son Dan revisit such conflicts as Vietnam, the Falklands and Korea, as if these subjects hadn't already been done to death.

They started with the familiar theme of the First World War, describing the Battle of Amiens in 1918.

Like David Dimbleby, they drive around in a 4X4 and, like him, they supply a commentary stuffed with clichés (for example: "When the First World War began, nobody had expected the conflict would turn out the way it did"). Peter began by saying that "for all our advances, we still haven't eliminated the scourge of war". Perhaps this is partly because people like the Snows employ the euphemisms which help to sanitise war, like "softening up the German defences" (which means killing lots of Germans).

Brian Sewell didn't mince his words in Dirty Dali: A Private View (Channel 4) but one rather wished he had. Given his general antipathy to 'modern' art, Brian surprisingly admires the work of Salvador Dali - at least, some of it. But he explained this by comparing Dali's pictures of the twenties and thirties with the work of High Renaissance artists, aptly describing Dali as "the last of the great Old Masters".

Sewell's personal reminiscences of the man were less palatable, concentrating on Dali's most outrageous qualities. Brian revealed that "his hair was by no means fastidiously clean" and "staring was the one thing he did more intently even than masturbation."

d=3,3,1Two documentaries at the weekend showed how - and how not - to make a good programme about pop music. Sgt Pepper - It was 40 Years Ago Today... (BBC2) remembered the Beatles' most celebrated album by getting modern bands to record the songs. Turning groups like the Kaiser Chiefs and the Stereophonics into mere tribute bands was a pointless exercise, especially as the Magic Numbers murdered She's Leaving Home by singing out of tune.

Making the Monkees (Channel 4) was more informative, charting the history of the quartet manufactured to replicate the Beatles' success. The interesting revelations included the fact that the Monkees' hit Last Train to Clarksville was inspired by the Beatles' Paperback Writer. have often commented in this column on the way that TV producers steal or copy one another's ideas. Another common occurrence is the recycling of an original idea to provide a potentially limitless series of programmes.

One such idea was to send David Dimbleby on a tour round Britain, seeing pretty scenery and commenting on it. In A Picture of Britain, Dimbleby looked at bits of our countryside and chatted about how they were pictured by various artists. Now How We Built Britain (BBC1) sends him off again, this time looking at lovely buildings and dispensing platitudes about them, accompanied by portentous music.

David continually gets in the way of the buildings he talks about. We see a lot of him driving around in a Land Rover and the focus is constantly on him, not on the architecture. So he visits a hamlet called Dimbleby, not to look at its buildings but to ramble on about his ancestors. He tells us several times that buildings are "magnificent" and "breathtaking" but the information he provides sounds as if it came straight out of a guide book. Why not send an architectural expert to look at Britain's buildings?

Coast (BBC2) is the third series of a tour round Britain's coastline: a journey that seems to have endless possibilities. Like the Dimbleby programme, it includes some beautiful views but it is different in being presented by people who know what they are talking about. Long-haired archaeologist Neil Oliver enlists the help of geologists, zoologists and other experts to reveal some of the intriguing things that can be found around our shores. It makes for a much more enlightening programme than the Dimbleby nonsense.

In Battlefield Britain, Peter and Dan Snow told us about some ancient British battles. Now the idea is recycled as 20th-Century Battlefields (BBC2), in which Peter and his son Dan revisit such conflicts as Vietnam, the Falklands and Korea, as if these subjects hadn't already been done to death.

They started with the familiar theme of the First World War, describing the Battle of Amiens in 1918.

Like David Dimbleby, they drive around in a 4X4 and, like him, they supply a commentary stuffed with clichés (for example: "When the First World War began, nobody had expected the conflict would turn out the way it did"). Peter began by saying that "for all our advances, we still haven't eliminated the scourge of war". Perhaps this is partly because people like the Snows employ the euphemisms which help to sanitise war, like "softening up the German defences" (which means killing lots of Germans).

Brian Sewell didn't mince his words in Dirty Dali: A Private View (Channel 4) but one rather wished he had. Given his general antipathy to 'modern' art, Brian surprisingly admires the work of Salvador Dali - at least, some of it. But he explained this by comparing Dali's pictures of the twenties and thirties with the work of High Renaissance artists, aptly describing Dali as "the last of the great Old Masters".

Sewell's personal reminiscences of the man were less palatable, concentrating on Dali's most outrageous qualities. Brian revealed that "his hair was by no means fastidiously clean" and "staring was the one thing he did more intently even than masturbation."

d=3,3,1Two documentaries at the weekend showed how - and how not - to make a good programme about pop music. Sgt Pepper - It was 40 Years Ago Today... (BBC2) remembered the Beatles' most celebrated album by getting modern bands to record the songs. Turning groups like the Kaiser Chiefs and the Stereophonics into mere tribute bands was a pointless exercise, especially as the Magic Numbers murdered She's Leaving Home by singing out of tune.

Making the Monkees (Channel 4) was more informative, charting the history of the quartet manufactured to replicate the Beatles' success. The interesting revelations included the fact that the Monkees' hit Last Train to Clarksville was inspired by the Beatles' Paperback Writer.