TELEVISION. As Lord Reith never said, it cannae see green cheese without wanting some. There is the Edinburgh festival, a celebration of all things theatrical, and come every August television insists on muscling in on the action. As was amply demonstrated by The Festival Show (STV, Tuesday, 7.30pm), it really should try to resist.

The first instalment was a mess. Three comedians perched on a sofa, being interviewed by David Farrell and Jennifer Reoch on another sofa. Five excitable sorts talking over each other and making zero sense. Something about taxis? Or show titles? The quadratic formula? Who knows.

Worse was to come in a filmed segment with Ewen Cameron talking to another comedian (just for a change), Stephen K Amos. In recognition of Amos’s middle initial, Cameron decided to quiz him on Scots words and phrases beginning with K. Who is King Kenny, asked Cameron. “Is he a penguin?” came the reply. What is a kelpie? “A bird?” When it was finally all over, a clearly relieved Cameron asked for a hug. After being subjected to camera angles that grew ever more bizarre by the second, I think we all needed one. Four “video journalists” were credited. Perhaps try one skilled camera person next time?

Saving Poundstretcher (Channel 4, Monday, 9pm) brought the old Ken Dodd joke to mind about Poundstretcher holidays: you could go anywhere you wanted in the world on a stretcher for £1. I reckon Doddy would have had a smile at some of the banter being traded in Anouk Curry’s three part documentary about the discount chain. The rest of it, however, dealt with the serious business of saving jobs and shops. Poundstretcher, one of the oldest in its field, was beginning to show its age, with stock that would not shift and stores that had seen better days.

Time to call in former rival Chris Edwards, who made a mint out of Poundland. He in turn brought in one of his old muckers to take a tour of some shops to find out what was on the shelves. A right old guddle was the answer, with hairbrushes beside the toothpaste for a start. Everywhere there were Pontefract cakes. “If you’re a Pontefract cake addict we are the company for you now,” said the not so secret shopper.

In the Bolton shop Tracy the manager said she saw more of her colleagues than her kids. She was so keen to save her store she took to walking the streets with a sandwich board comparing Poundstretcher’s prices to those in the major supermarkets.

At the end of it all, the shop takings were below target, but they were enough for Tracy and her staff to be granted a temporary reprieve of six months. Tracy thanked her lads. “We like to work hard for you,” one of them replied shyly. As a lesson in how to motivate staff, it was priceless.

Hang Ups (Channel 4, Wednesday, 10pm) is the latest comedy off the Channel 4 production line, this one a new model version of Web Therapy, a 2011 sitcom created by Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe in Friends).

Stephen Mangan takes the lead as an online therapist working from his home in London. Richard has a rum lot of clients, including a posh, foul-mouthed lady who has hang ups about sex and her cats. When Richard is not treating them, he is dialling up his own therapist (Richard E Grant).

The joy of Hang Ups is that it moves as fast as a sketch show. If you don’t like one client, the next one will be along in a minute. Among next week’s batch will be David Tennant. Fresh from Episodes, Mangan looks like having another hit on his hands, and I have high hopes, given his character’s slippery ways, of seeing a darker side to him emerge. If anyone can bring it out it will be Richard’s monstrously arrogant father, played by Charles Dance.

There is daddy-daughter trouble unfolding in Unforgotten (STV, Sunday, 9pm). DCI Cass Stuart (Nicola Walker) is worried her elderly father is being used by his new girlfriend. She was so stressed about this, she left a police file in a coffee shop. Walker’s face when she realised was the stuff of anyone’s nightmares. From big stuff to small, Walker the actor gives everything her utmost attention.

Okay people, one week warning to catch up with The Handmaid’s Tale (Channel 4, Sunday, 9pm), before the season finale tomorrow night. This series has been hard going, with the level of violence and distress enough to make some wish the programme makers had finished where Atwood’s novel did, at the end of the first series. Do we think a happy ending lies around the corner? Let us pray.