Thursday night is a big night for TV in this house. We’ve got Wednesday’s Great British Sewing Bee (9pm is too late for us to watch live now), then enough of a gap to watch a half-hour episode of something (right now it’s a rewatch of Catastrophe and remembering how much I wanted to be Rob Delaney) and finish it all off with Taskmaster (9pm is not too late for us when tasking is concerned).

Friday gets a bonus mention because we watch Thursday’s episode of This Is My House (9pm, so it clashes with Taskmaster and not even the Taskmaster high can push us to start an episode of something at 10pm). I think we just had the final episode but I hope there is another series. If you’ve not seen it please trust that the explanation I’m about to give does not do it justice. Stacey Dooley interviews four people in a ‘nice’ house. Each of those four people are trying to convince us that the ‘nice’ house is their house. A ‘celebrity’ panel watches this happen, comments and guesses. If they guess the right person, the person wins £1,000. The format throws a lot of curveballs.

I think the show wouldn’t have held our interest without Jamali Maddix. He makes astute observations, throws wild accusations and plays the game like he wants to show the producers their efforts are meaningless. He’s also a contestant on the latest season of Taskmaster and it’s very easy to draw the conclusion that he’s not putting on an act at all. Other participants are well worth a mention though: Mike Wozniak in Taskmaster and Judi Love in This Is My House especially.

None of it is all that challenging or stimulating or meaningful. But in a way they all feel like they sidle up to the profound. The Sewing Bee has motivated us all in the flat to be more ambitious, patient and forgiving with our desires to craft. Taskmaster shows the pleasure and fun that can be had in the process of an act, elevating it in contrast to the capricious way the act’s results are judged. This Is My House constantly reflects on what it means to judge people purely on their appearance and the discussions are around the breadths of human possibility and our desire to conform to an image.

This profound-adjacent strand has run through my podcasting lately as well after listening to Lee Mack’s appearance on the Adam Buxton Podcast, talking about his meditation practice and dalliances with Buddhism. I went on to listen to his podcast on the subject: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha. It has far less useful content than I was hoping or expecting, but their bickering and joking encourages a lighter and more reflective approach to meditation.

But anyway, this Thursday to celebrate the night of TV delights we also had a great Aubergine Donburi (much love to Meera Sodha again) and a whole Colin the Caterpillar cake because, and I’m saying this a lot lately, FUCK IT!

Here’s a few books I’ve got on order:

Plus Fitzcarraldo Editions are doing a spring sale so was advised to get: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, The Appointment, Surrender, Animalia and It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track.