Lena Weber writes… Last week I received a subpoena from the State of New Jersey.

I was told in no uncertain terms I had to take part in an important undercover operation to bust a gang of liquor smugglers which required me to dress in original Twenties gear, drink gin, watch the first episode of Boardwalk Empire Season 2 and have fun.

It was a hard decision but I decided to comply, which is how last night I found myself at a secret North London location where I was whisked off into a boudoir full of vintage to be dressed up – sorry, disguised – in a beautiful, heavily beaded mint green Twenties gown. Once my hair and make-up had been done in period style, I was deemed ready to infiltrate the suspects in a candle-lit bar.

Inside the Speakeasy

The party was already in full swing with girls in feather headdresses tapping away to music played on a gramophone, while men with slicked-back hair and checked Tweed suits sat together – surely to plot breaking the Prohibition law.

I decided to have some gin cocktails, you know, as to not raise any suspicion, while listening to a wonderful band play the Charleston followed by a very sultry fan dance by showgirl Sophia St Villier.

How terribly immoral!

Inside the dressing room

We were then ushered to another room decked out as a cinema where we got to watch the brand new first episode of Boardwalk Empire Season 2.

It was a fascinating viewing – with more pace and thrills-per-second than the first season. The new story lines draw you in with a perfect mixture of suspense and humour, and topics that are still relevant today (racism, women’s position in society, marital infidelity) – not to mention the incredible costumes.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep up the pace of the new season — the last series got criticised for becoming a little more “bored walk” than boardwalk. But with some great actors on board, including Steve “Nucky Thompson” Buschemi and Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar in The Wire, Chalky White in this), as well as some serious production and writing chops (writer Terence Winter worked on the Sopranos and Martin Scorsese directed the pilot), there are worse ways to spend your Saturday evening TV sessions.

Boardwalk Empire, Sky Atlantic HD (Saturdays 9pm, Wednesdays 10pm, Sundays 11.20pm)

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This being the era of the iPlayer, we’re not necessarily expected to watch series as they go out, even big glossy psychological dramas with insane casts, as is the case with Sky 1‘s Mad Dogs. So I’m not in the least bit ashamed to admit that I’m a week behind on this show (ok, I am a little) — and have my fingers ready poised by my ears lest I come across any pesky spoilers…

I have to say that, while going all fangirly over the strength of the cast — which brings Life On Mars dream team John Simm and Philip Glenister back together, plus the always-excellent Marc Warren — I had my ‘only the Beeb tends to make good drama’ blinkers on when it came to approaching Mad Dogs. But, while far from perfect, there’s a lot more to this drama than good actors phoning it in while on a jolly in a rather beautiful-looking Majorca.

Perhaps it was a case of the trailers giving the wrong impression, but I thought this was going to be a whole lot more laddy and lairy than it turned out to be. The four middle-aged gents visiting their old friend’s villa do go out for a big night on the town, but they can’t really be bothered with it any more and, in fact, this story of a boys’ holiday gone wrong had a genuine menace to it, thanks to a sedate pace (perhaps at times a little too sedate) and lingering, quiet direction.

And the script was surprisingly subtle.

There were some lovely, techy exchanges between the characters; such as Simm and Glenister (I like seeing them acting together again, what I can I say) bickering over whether it’s ok for an Englishman to use the deeply American phrase ‘take a cappuccino’, and old grievances slowly coming to the fore.

Nice performances and gorgeous to look at, this may have been a low-key start, but actually, that was Mad Dog‘s greatest asset.

Kane got us lookin’ so crazy right now

When the production team for this year’s Let’s Dance for Comic Relief sat down for the first time, you just know what was top of the agenda: which male comedian is going to dress as a woman, and how the hell are we going to top Robert Webb’s Flashdance and Rufus Hound as Cheryl Cole?

They answered the first question with the name Russell Kane, Edinburgh Comedy Award winner and all-round top bloke who slipped into a wig and fake boobs (and, one imagines, instantly bagged himself the trophy) as Beyonce in her fabulous Crazy In Love video. As for the second question, he was probably a little more tentative than Webb and Hound (and, the forgotten couple in all this, the genuinely joyous performance from Keith and Paddy) but he was still pretty ruddy marvellous.

The others were, and were always going to be, also-rans, but whoever came up with the idea of having Katie Price do I Want To Break Free deserves a medal (even if it was better in theory than in practice) and Ed Byrne put in a great turn as Billy Elliott, with Arlene Phillips guesting in the Julie Walters role.

Next week, hold onto your hats because Boosh and Buzzcocks star Noel Fielding is going to dance….

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In terms of November dates to remember remember, people get stuck on the fifth, since that’s when the fireworks get let off. But that happens every year, and there’s a petition to ban then anyway. Far more uniquely, on the third of November 2010, the BBC1 HD channel launches.

In case that wasn’t self-explanatory, it’s BBC1, right? But in HD! A new announcement from the Beeb, in case we felt left out when Sky unveiled video-on-demand recently. Those of you who brought HD-ready TVs all those months ago finally have something to look at, aside from the gaping hole in your bank account.

The BBC has operated the BBC HD channel for a while now, but only for certain programmes. This will continue to provide non-BBC1 shows such as Top Gear in HD, as well as the golf coverage. (Yes, HD golf coverage. In case you miss the finer details of that most frantic of sports.)

The new channel, on the other hand, is a mirror image of BBC1, except in HD. Well, the programmes produced in high-definition will be. Which should mean our beloved Doctor Who, since that has been on the HD channel since the beginning of the Matt Smith series. I don’t have a HD TV, so cannot let you know whether this destroys the special effects.

Programmes not yet shot in HD, such as EastEnders, will be shown in “upscaled” SD, so a better quality picture but not the full glorious HD experience. More technical details and a trailer for the channel, which resembles the time I tried to watch daytime television while drunk, are all available in the BBC blog post on the subject.

Are you HD-ready? Can you tell me whether the special effects in Doctor Who survive the transition?

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Tomorrow is the launch of Sky’s video-on-demand (VoD) service, which will be rolling its way round all Sky+HD subscribers.

The service is similar to the Anytime service already in place, but instead of programmes being downloaded automatically to your box, you’ll be able to select the ones that take your fancy and download to watch at your leisure.

Sky is promising over 600 “films, popular entertainment and drama ‘box-sets’ (including iconic series from HBO), documentaries, the arts and much more besides”.

It comes at no extra cost and it’ll integrate with your current EPG menu system. Once you’ve selected a show to download, you’ll be able to start watching it before it has fully downloaded (called ‘progressive download’), and Sky promises that content “for most customers” is ready to watch in less than a minute.

This is great news for me personally, because I hardly ever watch anything ‘live’ on TV any more. It’s like I’ve forgotten it’s even an option. Hopefully, the shows on offer will be better than the current selection you get on your weekly Anytime.

Sky Anytime+ will be appearing on Sky+HD boxes from 26th October onwards. The majority of Sky’s HD boxes should have the service by the end of the year, with the the final bunch getting their service early 2011.

Have you got your service? Let us know what your initial thoughts are!

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This week we’ve got a guest post from Heather Hughes.

For years Lost has confused us with its time-travelling island, sinister smoke monsters and seemingly misplaced polar bears. With every season comes new, often unsolved, mysteries that stump even the most loyal of Lost fans. Until now, that is. Lost’s sixth, and final, season has kick-started, and it promises to give us answers. Finally!

“I think there are people who have certainly figured out significant pieces, but they don’t have enough information yet,” Damon Lindelof, the show’s co-producer, has explained: “Starting with the season première this year, the remaining clues necessary to figure out where we’re going to end the show are going to begin to fall into place.”

When we last saw the castaways they had just detonated a hydrogen bomb, which they hoped would destroy the island and thus change their past (or should that be future?). Of course, as is always the case with TV shows, things didn’t go to plan. Shots were fired, Sayid was hit and Juliet was dragged into a well of explosives. The finale left viewers with no end of queries. Is Juliet dead? Has the island been destroyed? And to the extra-observant, why was the title screen white instead of black?

The big question on most people’s lips, however, is not about the kamikaze castaways, but on how the Other’s leader (John Locke) is still walking around when he’s dead, strangled by Ben back on the mainland.  At first it was assumed that Locke had somehow come back to life, but later this was proven far too preposterous an idea – even for Lost – when his carcass was tipped out of a coffin at the end of season five. So, who exactly is the intruder? And why is he so eager to kill island boss Jacob? Come to think of it, who the hell is Jacob anyway?

Kudos to the show’s creators: this season’s double-bill début has already started to answer some questions. Infuriatingly, it’s also unearthed more mysteries too. One thing’s clear; deciphering them is not going to be easy. The newly-scripted shifts between alternate realities will make sure of that.

It would take hours to list all the theories and unanswered questions amassed throughout Lost’s lifetime.  There’s talk of it being a dream, or a form of hell, but no one really knows — well, except the show’s creators (you’d hope).

So, what do you think of the first few episodes? Any theories on how it will all end?

Heather is a shameless TV addict who writes for, and runs, the UK version of TV.com. She played a key part in bringing the fansite to British soil and remains the main driving force behind the publication’s production.

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I’ve lost count of the amount of time I’ve spent puzzling over why a gadget is refusing to work. A recent study suggests I’m not alone in this area.

Research carried out by Confused.com has discovered that consumers constantly come across problems and confusion with their gadgets. And what was the biggest offender? The Wireless Router, of course.

Having spent hours in my old student house sitting on the phone to BT after conceding defeat to my router, I can sympathise with this top choice.

Coming in a close second is the iPod or MP3 player. I’m assuming this is more down to the actual set-up rather than the day-to-day use.

Perhaps one of the reasons behind all this confusion is that in our excitement to try out our latest purchase, we skip past reading the directions. Of the 2,000 participants in the survey, 48% admitted that the instructions book sits gathering dust. This leads to 55% of participants connecting up the leads incorrectly, and 45% incorrectly inserting the batteries (seriously? How hard is it to insert batteries?).

So, aside from the Wireless Router and MP3 player, what other gadgets made it to the list?

1. Wireless router (27%)
2. iPod/MP3 player (16%)
3. Mobile phone (20%)
4. Digital camera (19%)
5. Sat Nav/GPS (14%)
6. Sky+ (10%)
7. DVD Player (9%)
8. iPhone (7%)
9. Ninendo Wii (6%)
10. Video camera (6%)

Source: Confused.com

What gadgets have caused you the most confusion?

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