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In a field of its own: the Dillon Panthers are the springboard
for the drama in 'Friday Night Lights' - but the action extends way beyond the gridiron

Friday Night Lights: Touchdown at last for a scorching sporting saga

It may be based around a high-school American football team, but this TV series is no saccharine teen drama: it's a vivid, very human treatise on small-town US life

Ian Burrell: There aren't enough female comics on TV – and the BBC knows it's not funny

Viewpoint: The Sarah Millican Show will be the first comedy-entertainment show made from the BBC's new Salford studios
China Anne McClain, aged 13, star of Disney's A.N.T. Farm, was spotted at age eight

Meet the mini-mice: What does it take to make a Miley Cyrus?

Britney and Justin started there – and so did Ryan Gosling. Glittering careers begin in the Disney tween machine. So how does the House of Mouse keep cranking out the pre-teen talent?

Cultural Life: Sidse Babett Knudsen, actress

Television: Before I started on 'Borgen', people introduced me to some great American box-sets to convince me that TV could be good. I now watch them all the time. Amy Poehler is very funny in 'Parks and Recreation' and 'In Treatment', with Gabriel Byrne, is also really good. How can one room with just two characters be so captivating? For more laughs I watch 'Modern Family'. Rico Rodriguez is very funny as the son, Manny Delgado.

Family man: Jason Byrne is the star of Radio 2's 'Father Figure'

The Week In Radio: No domestic bliss from these safe suburban sitcoms

What pops into your head when you think of sitcoms? Middle-class households filled with Ikea furniture? Acne-dappled teenagers slumped on sofas delivering withering put-downs to their parents? Neighbours with personality disorders who don't knock before coming into the house? Scripts so rotten that their terrible stench lingers in the memory for years to come?

Sue Cook

Sue Cook reflects on two decades of broadcasting at the BBC

Imagine turning on the TV to watch I’m Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan’s celebrated sitcom, and hearing your name mentioned over and over again. It’s something Sue Cook has had to get used to. The comedian constantly talks about her in his show, although she insists their association is pure fantasy.

Carry on, nurse: Miranda Hart in 'Call the Midwife'

Slapstick to serious can be a bumpy ride

Miranda Hart has made the best of moving from comedy to drama, says Gerard Gilbert

Right side of the tracks: Clare Balding

The Week In Radio: Balding's golden moments win over a sports cynic

I've never liked sport. As a person whose job basically involves listening to stuff, and whose spine has become embedded in the sofa like an ancient fossil, the last thing I want to do is have my nose rubbed in other people's physical accomplishments. I know what you are going to say: that I'm missing out, that I'm denying myself a wondrous sense of communality with my fellow human beings. There are indeed times when I wish I could lose myself in the glorious highs and gut-wrenching lows of other people's physical endeavour. But where you might see athletes bravely breaking the pain barrier in the name of international sporting achievement, I just see a group of loons running around in circles.

Why mystery man Marlow's return is music to the ears

Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective is back on TV. Don't miss it.
Thinker, soldier, spy: Claire Danes and Damian Lewis star in 'Homeland'

Homeland: Beyond the call of duty

The Golden Globe-winning spy thriller Homeland is coming to Channel 4. Its creators explain why it's more John le Carré than Jack Bauer

John Walsh: Stand by your four-posters, this soap could get steamier

Just as we're suffering from Downton blues and First World War fatigue (think also War Horse and Birdsong), this new saga of the family and servants at 165 Eaton Place hurtles us forward to autumn, 1938.

Blonde ambition: Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee star in Steven Spielberg's 'Smash'

Spielberg's NBC TV venture Smash is set to divide and multiply

Steven Spielberg's upcoming NBC TV venture, Smash, suggests a whole new future for the story-within-a-story device. Due to air in the UK on Sky Atlantic later this year and starring Anjelica Houston, Debra Messing, and Katharine McPhee, this comedy drama, which premieres in the US on 6 February, presents the backstage politics behind the production of, and the drama of the production process of, a fictional Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe.

Making waves: 'Desert Island Discs' presenter Kirsty Young

The Week In Radio: Still lapping up the delights of a shore-fire success

How has Desert Island Discs done it? How has it survived decades of culls and re-branding to become a broadcasting institution, seemingly impervious to change and yet still crushing the competition with ease? Of course, despite its shades of grandeur and infallibility, being an institution can be dangerous. They are liable to be remodelled or torn down altogether. You can just imagine some pipsqueak controller, desperate to ingratiate themselves with a younger audience, replacing presenter Kirsty Young with Fearne Cotton and rechristening it "Desert Island Downloads".

Lynch says: 'I couldn't have coped with fame when I was younger'

Jane Lynch: 'I couldn't have coped with fame when I was younger'

My life has changed since 'Glee' I recently went to my doctor and had no make-up on. I didn't look great, and had to put my bag in front of my face when someone tried to take my picture. Then again, when I first picked my daughter up from school, the kids were like, "It's Sue Sylvester." Now I'm just another mum.

'Vi er alle i samme båd,' or, roughly 'we're all in this together'

A telegenic prime minister holding together a shaky coalition and fighting a battle over independence for a smaller neighbour arranges "date nights" to ensure harmony at home. What could be a description of David Cameron's hectic lifestyle sums up the challenges facing Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional prime minister in the hit Danish TV series Borgen, which has become essential viewing in Downing Street.

Career Services

Day In a Page

Apple admits it has a human rights problem

Apple admits it has a human rights problem

After years of complaints and workers' suicides in China the technology giant faces up to the human cost of its gadgets
Peter Moore: 'I feel guilty I'm the only one alive'

Peter Moore interview

'I feel guilty I'm the only one alive'
Sellafield faces nuclear option as overspending threatens plant's future

Sellafield faces nuclear option

Overspending threatens plant's future
Israel blames Iran for embassy bomb attacks

Israel blames Iran for embassy bomb attacks

Tehran rejects Netanyahu's 'lies' after diplomats in India and Georgia targeted
Former manager enjoying Apoel crack at the big time

Tommy Cassidy interview

Former manager enjoying Apoel crack at the big time
James Lawton: Patience may not be a virtue this time, Roman – Andre Villas-Boas looks all at sea

James Lawton: AVB looks all at sea

Abramovich's visits to training reinforce the idea of a coach feeling pressure from above and below
The 10 Best sledges

The 10 Best sledges

Not all of them require snow...
Procrastination: Not now  – I'm busy

Procrastination: Not now – I'm busy

Confronting the real reasons for puttting things off can help us beat it
Fun in the sunset years

Fun in the sunset years

A new movie follows retirees moving to India for low-cost care and a culture of respect for the elderly. For many Britons, it's already a reality
Picture preview: Lucian Freud drawings

Lucian Freud drawings

Picture preview
Silent revolution at the Baftas as the French take top awards

Silent revolution at the Baftas

The Artist wins in seven categories, with Meryl Streep the other big success story
Whitney Houston: The diva who had – and lost – it all

The diva who had – and lost – it all

Nick Hasted charts the highs and lows of Whitney Houston's life
How Picasso won over (some of) the British

How Picasso won over (some of) the British

Winston Churchill and Evelyn Waugh hated his work, but Picasso provided inspiration for a whole generation of UK artists
Topshop: A Decade Of Design

Topshop: A Decade Of Design

When London Fashion Week starts on Friday, Topshop will celebrate 10 years backing its brightest young stars
John Prescott: 'My wife thought I'd just retire, but I'm not a slippers man'

'My wife thought I'd just retire, but I'm not a slippers man'

At 73, John Prescott isn't mellowing. In fact he's taking a shot at becoming a police commissioner