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Last night's viewing - America's Serial Killer: True Stories, Channel 4; Protecting Our Children, BBC2

America's Serial Killer: True Stories was a little baffling. There's that title for a start. America only has one serial killer right now? That seems implausible, and in any case you'd think people might be wary of stirring the murderously competitive element that sometimes seems to drive serial murderers. Or was it supposed to suggest that this serial killer – an unknown man who has been murdering sex-workers and dumping their bodies on Long Island – is archetypally American in his modus operandi? And then there's the film itself. What are we supposed to do with it other than feed our appetite for narratives of depravity? Perhaps that, and that alone, is the point. Audiences find serial murder fascinating, and although this particular story can't supply the catharsis of a monster brought low (the perpetrator is still out there somewhere), it can scratch our itch to know the worst.

Review of Being Human: ‘Being Human 1955’

Following on from an episode tinged with tragedy, this week lifted the mood with something lighter.

The Weekend's Viewing: Home of the Future, Sun, Channel 4
Toughest Place to Be...a Train Driver, Sun, BBC2

In Home of the Future, Channel 4 has gutted a standard family house and filled it with the kind of technology that is "predicted to turn our lives into the stuff of sci-fi dreams".

Robin Scott-Elliot: Plenty of country and western, but no taking your partners by the hand

View From The Sofa: Manchester United v Liverpool, Sky / Country at the BBC, BBC 2

World Have Your Say, World Service, Tuesday Outlook, World Service, Tuesday
Soul Music, Radio 4, Tuesday

A cry for help on air from Homs as the bombs fall...then silence

Inspector Montalbano, BBC4, Saturday
How to Grow a Planet, BBC2, Tuesday

Who would want to fill the 'Borgen' slot on BBC4? Sadly, mouth-watering views of Sicily and oodles of pasta do not a detective drama make

Last Night's Viewing: Super Smart Animals BBC1<br />Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War BBC4

In today's cliché verification news: Scientists reveal old dogs can learn new tricks and new findings suggest elephants really never forget. Well... one old dog anyway, a canine Einstein called Chaser, who has acquired a vocabulary of more than 1,000 different names for different toys and can fetch them on demand. Chaser can go further still. If you stick a new toy down in a pile of familiar ones and use a name she's never heard before, she'll mill about a bit anxiously before figuring out that that must be the one her handler means. In the second of Liz Bonnin's series Super Smart Animals, Chaser was the first act up, in a variety show programme intended to showcase the fuzziness of the once-sharp demarcation between our intelligence and that of animals. The elephants were next on, thanks to their ability to remember the location of food sources and waterholes in the Botswana bush, a knowledge they appear to be able to pass on to strangers.

Last Night's TV: Kevin Bridges: What's the Story? BBC1 / Roger and Val Have Just Got In BBC2

It's supposed to be fatal to explain a joke, but Kevin Bridges doesn't seem unduly anxious that he's going to kill his comedy.

Last night's viewing - Death Unexplained, BBC1; Alex Polizzi: the Fixer, BBC2

It's always pleasing when programmes contain practical advice and Death Unexplained delivered fairly early. It came from the police and was passed on by coroner Alison Thompson: "If by any chance you do kill your partner without meaning to, of course the best thing you can do is actually ring and say you've done it as soon as you can. Once you start prevaricating you've had it." Very understanding, the police. These things happen, just don't tell fibs about it. What's the best thing to do if you meant to kill your partner, they didn't say, but then you can't have everything.

Last night's viewing - Coppers, Channel 4; SuperScrimpers, Channel 4

"Is it funny or is it tragic?" asked one of the policemen in Coppers. "I don't know." Cruelly, I'm guessing that it isn't an either/or for most people. In quite a lot of instances, it's funny and tragic, as was the case with Barbara, arrested by armed response unit officers after turning up at someone's house and pointing a gun through the window. Most people, faced with four or five agitated armed police officers, might decide that a certain amount of diplomatic retreat was in order. But not Barbara, who was heavily soused on vodka and seemed to believe the police had turned up to back her up: "He's robbed my watch!" she screamed repeatedly, a picture of outraged innocence. And she didn't much help her cause when she got back to the station: "I don't believe in robbing people and hurting people," she said reasonably, before suddenly remembering the injustice of her situation, "but I'll kill that bastard!"

The Diamond Queen, BBC1

Republicans beware: this is no time for controversy

The Weekend's Viewing: Cricklewood Greats, Sun, BBC4
Bomber Boys, Sun, BBC1

Pastiche is a pretty unforgiving form of comedy.

Robin Scott-Elliot: BBC is badly out of kilter with its endless Scottish stereotyping

View From The Sofa: Six Nations, BBC

Inside Men

Prisoners' Wives, BBC1, Tuesday
Inside Men, BBC1, Thursday

Weeping women quickly grate on the nerves, but a counting-house heist is a guilty pleasure

Stars of India: A brass band at a wedding in New Delhi

Sport and the British, Radio 4, Monday-Friday
World Class Brass, Radio 2, Monday
Great Lives, Radio 4, Tuesday

No tickets for the Olympics? Time was, you could roll up and join in

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