Easter TV: will Fargo be the only show worth watching?

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/apr/17/easter-tv-fargo-worth-watching

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This Easter weekend, television has something for everyone. Or does it? The lack of effort on the part of the broadcasters this year is staggering. We're basically getting a normal weekend of telly, with a cursory amount of quasi-festive programming chucked in as an afterthought.

Don't ignore your television completely though. Alongside the barrage of Don't Get Done, Get Dom, Flog It! and repeated Benny Hill retrospectives (and snooker; my God, there's a lot of snooker on this weekend), there are a few bright spots. I've scoured the schedules and found 10 shows that are either Easter-specific or decent enough to count as festive programming. Don't have time to watch them all? Luckily for you, I've ranked them in descending order of importance.

10. Sunday Brunch (Sunday, 9.30am, Channel 4)

Yes, it's the same show as always, with Tim Lovejoy doing his best to talk passive-aggressively over any women he happens to be sharing a screen with, but this is Easter Sunday so he might be wearing a pair of rabbit ears while he does it.

9. All About TWO (Sunday, 9pm, BBC2)

To mark the channel's 50th birthday, Dara Ó Briain hosts a special panel show. It's a mixture of tedium, self-congratulation and the world's most misplaced McFly pun.

8. The Great North Passion (Friday, 12 noon, BBC1)

Remember The Gospel of Us, Michael Sheen's three-day performance of The Passion in Port Talbot? This is exactly the same, except it lasts an hour and stars Fern Britton.

7. Food Unwrapped Easter Special (Monday, 8pm, Channel 4)

This is the sort of Easter special that's perfect for people who violently oppose Easter, since a large portion of it is given over to a segment where the presenters watch a load of rabbits being murdered. Still, a valiant effort.

6. Urbi et Orbi (Sunday, 11am, BBC1)

The equivalent of the Queen's Christmas speech at Easter, the pope delivers his seasonal message from the Vatican. Even better, it's from a pope we are actually allowed to like.

5. Easter From King's (Saturday, 5.45pm, BBC2)

The Christingle of Easter. A candlelit service with classical music and poetry from the chapel of King's College that you can watch in quiet reverence before continuing to monomaniacally block up your colon with Lindor/Lindt.

4. Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This (Monday, 9pm, ITV)

ITV's highly anticipated move into BBC4 territory. This is a star-studded, feature-length Tommy Cooper biopic that – if the promos are to be believed – is as unrelentingly bleak as any television programme could be. Happy Easter!

3. Jamaica Inn (Monday, 9pm, BBC1)

A three-part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel that probably should have run across the weekend instead of starting on Easter Monday. If nothing else, it's a chance for Jessica Brown Findlay to progress from being known only as that woman from Downton Abbey.

2. Fargo (Sunday, 9pm, Channel 4)

Excitement levels are almost uncontrollable for this 10-part companion piece to the Coen brothers' 1996 black comedy. The cast is impeccable, reviews from America have been good and it's already guaranteed to be the smartest Channel 4 import since The Returned. This would have taken the top slot on any other week, were it not for the fact that this is Easter …

1. Deal or No Deal (Friday, 3.30pm; Sunday, 4.30pm; Monday 3.30pm, Channel 4)

A show so brimming with Easter spirit that Channel 4 is broadcasting three different episodes on three different days. It's not hard to see why – after all, what is Deal or No Deal if not the story of a misunderstood bearded man with magical spiritual powers whose calling in life is convincing strangers that they have control over their own destinies? This is easily the most Eastery thing on TV all weekend.