on the box

Anything you can do... In the week of the revival of The Liver Birds, ITV is set to match the BBC in bringing back comedy shows from the dead. LWT have announced that it is reviving Saturday Live, which in the mid-1980s launched Ben Elton, Julian Clary, Fry and Laurie and Harry Enfield on an unsuspecting world. The new version will be hosted by the ubiquitous Lee Hurst. Not content with his slot on They Think It's All Over and his loo paper ad campaign, he cropped up as a guest on The Gaby Roslin Show last Saturday. He reacts to the news of his call- up to Saturday Live with a gleaming smile to mirror his pate. "If nothing else," he muses, "it will mean that I can afford to buy some new trainers for my daily run and replace my track-suit bottoms, which are falling apart. That will be giving my neighbours in East London a treat."

The ratings for the week ending 14 April bear out the contention of Simon Quinlank on Fist of Fun that we are a nation of hobby-addicts. Gardeners' World dug up more than five million viewers (only outstripped by coverage of the US Masters), while two foodie programmes - Food and Drink and Ready, Steady, Cook - simmered just under the five-million mark. Top Gear revved in with close on four million viewers and the DIY fest, Home Front, nailed down 3.8 million. We should all take a swig of weak lemon drink to celebrate.

Steve Coogan (above) has been decorating the front pages of the tabloids again this week. No doubt he'll tackle with especial relish the role he has been given in The Fix, part of the recently-announced pounds 13m production slate for new BBC single dramas. Directed by Paul Greengrass (whose eclectic CV includes the co-authorship of Spycatcher), the film concerns the real-life football match-fixing scandal of 1963. Coogan plays an investigative tabloid journalist...