The Chicken Connoisseur goes from YouTube to prime time –TV preview

The laughs this summer are courtesy of Channel 4, with a trio of strong comedies – none of which involve the former shadow chancellor climbing into a wrestling ring

Poultry in motion: Elijah Quashie (centre) and twin mates Nelson and Wilson hit the streets to test out some of the most deluxe experiences money can buy (Channel 4)

Hey, boss! I have extremely high hopes for Elijah Quashie’s new series Peng Life, which debuts on Channel 4 on Friday night. If you’ve not encountered Elijah yet, allow me to introduce him to you. Aged around 25, but with the looks and demeanour of a kid bunking off school, he has become the leading expert on London’s ’hood chicken shops, the sort of unpretentious establishment where a meal deal will rarely exceed £2.99 for your strip burger, a couple of wings, chips and maybe even a juice too. His “Chicken Connoisseur” YouTube reviews of the likes of Maxy’s on the Old Kent Road, Dixy, the renowned foodie magnet in Tufnell Park, and Eden’s Cottage, Finsbury Park’s answer to Heston Blumenthal, are some of the finest ever seen on YouTube. Elijah likes his chicken succulent, but serves his wit very, very dry, and spicy with it.

Here he will be taking his critical faculties out of the chicken shop and into the worlds of the kebab, cars, hair salon, and celebrity. Should be banging, and we’re blessed to have him. Calm viewing. Not too shabby.

Who’s the (Big) Daddy?: Ed Balls enters the ring (BBC/Expectation Entertainment) (BBC/Expectation Entertainment Ltd)

In fact Peng Life joins the brilliant Who is America? in Channel 4’s remarkable summer comedy offensive, taking the battle for comic supremacy to the BBC, and particularly to BBC3, who seem to have disappeared for their hols. Here, armed only with prosthetic disguises, Sacha Baron Cohen takes another satirical chunk out of the United States, and can be credited as one of the few, along with Barack Obama, to have successfully made a fool of the most brittle ego on the planet.

Talking of which, by the way, and by contrast, Travels in Trumpland with Ed Balls succeeds only in humiliating our former shadow chancellor. Had politics played out a little differently he might be running the country now and meeting President Trump on equal terms as a head of government. Instead he’s in a leotard. I ask you.

Mirror, mirror: Sue Johnston as Ivy-Rae in ‘Age Before Beauty’ (BBC)

The third prong in the C4 comical fork is Hang Ups, a promising sitcom co-written by and starring Stephen Mangan, about a therapist who treats his patients online, and who is himself headed for a nervous breakdown. With Katherine Parkinson, Monica Dolan, Charles Dance and Richard E Grant.

Not quite so amusing is Age Before Beauty, which has many tasty ingredients, such as a cast featuring Robson Green and Sue Johnston, and some zinger one-liners – but thus far has somehow contrived to be less than the sum of its parts. That’s down to an unbelievably cumbersome plot device which I can’t actually remember the full workings of. It’s fresh, and lively, though, so fingers crossed that Debbie Horsfield’s latest offer soon starts to reveal its own inner beauty.

Something in the air: Tony Robinson’s curious machine (Channel 4)

I must say I am looking forward to Hidden Britain by Drone, which hovers somewhere between human geography and a Sir Cliff Richard-style gross invasion of privacy as Tony Robinson, God bless him, takes his little motorised machines to poke into places usually unseen by anyone: except, well, reasonably enough, the people who own or live in them. Novel.

I can also thoroughly recommend two rather different factual series. £10k Holiday Home is a sort of “guilty viewing” treat, where you can indulge yourself in the idea that you could actually buy a little slice of real estate in some sun-kissed corner of Portugal for less than the price of a used Ford Fiesta. Julia Bradbury even puts her own money into a scheme of her own, which may or may not exceed her fee for the series.

The reel deal: Mark Kermode (BBC)

Unrestrained praise, here, for Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema, which represents the very best of public service broadcasting. I mean it. You get entertained with well-judged clips of favourite and obscure films; you get educated about the art and craft of film-making; and you get some science, social history and politics spliced in. This week’s penultimate episode covers the science fiction genre, and is one of the best.

Topical doc of the week: The Foreign Doctors Are Coming. As Brexit looms and the crisis in the NHS shows little sign of improvement, we follow medics from Brazil, Egypt and Europe as they get to grips with the world’s most mysterious people and their pagan faith – the British and the National Health Service. I can only wish them luck.

Dr Swamy gets ready to save the NHS (Channel 4)

Last: athletics. I can’t really summon up the energy to go running round this particular track, so I’ll leave it that BBC1, BBC2 and Radio 5 Live for that matter have got loads of coverage of the inaugural European Championships (including swimming, cycling and gymnastics) from Glasgow and Berlin each day this week.

Peng Life (Channel 4, Friday 11.05pm); Who is America? (Channel 4, Monday 10pm); Travels in Trumpland with Ed Balls (BBC2, Sunday 9pm); Hang Ups (Channel 4, Wednesday 10pm); Age Before Beauty (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm); Hidden Britain by Drone (Channel 4, Sunday 8pm); £10k Holiday Home (ITV, Tuesday 7.30pm); Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema (BBC4, Tuesday 9pm); The Foreign Doctors are Coming (Channel 4, Tuesday 10pm); European Championships 2018 (BBC2, Saturday from 9am)