TV: Damien Love reveals his pick of the week's TV

Remember Me

9pm, BBC One

The final episode of Gwyneth Hughes's supernatural mystery is the least successful, largely because the mood the programme has managed to build through atmosphere and suggestion begins to evaporate, as it feels the need to get into the business of wrapping up, explaining what's been happening and providing "resolution" - always dodgy ground when it comes to the fundamentally daft territory of the ghost story.

That said, there are still some Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water-esque chills as Hannah and Mark rush to get to the truth of old Tom's long, mysterious (and mysteriously long) life, and try to solve the riddle that will prevent his jealous spectre from claiming any more victims.

One victim, in particular. Great stuff again from Michael Palin in this episode, although they surely missed a trick by not having the ghostie lady turn into Terry Jones dressed as a woman at the very end: "He's not a lonely old man. He's a very naughty boy."

Monday December 8

Jack Irish: Dead Point

9pm, FOX

It's Guy Pearce in a new Jack Irish film, and that's a very good thing indeed.

Buried on the Fox channel, this shaggy Australian import is almost unknown in the UK but has been one of the best things on TV over the past couple of years.

Based on Australian crime writer Peter Temple's books, it stars Pearce as Jack, an ex-lawyer who now floats around Melbourne as a reluctant private detective, although all he really wants to do is work as a cabinet-maker.

This is the third film so far, and not the best place for the uninitiated to begin: the first two, Bad Debts and Black Tide, are easily found on DVD, and I'd urge anyone to give them a go.

The plots of Temple's books are dense to the point of impenetrability, but they're basically only there as an excuse for riffs on local atmosphere and an examination of the hero's bemused attitude to life.

In this one, agreeing to help a judge with whom he has a personal connection (an understated Barry Humphries), Jack is plunged into a shady underworld of private clubs, drugs and psychos.

Excellent news for the faithful: next year, rather than a single film, Pearce will be doing a full six-part series.

Tuesday December 9

The Missing

9pm, BBC One

Man, it's a busy old Tuesday. Brainiac science type Jim Al-Khalili has a new two-parter starting on BBC Two, The Secrets Of Quantum Physics (9pm), in which he promises to fully explain the nuts and bolts of that subject in just less than two hours, or your licence fee back.

Later, Simon Day returns with another season of his mock-rock-doc Brian Pern (10pm, BBC Two), which, in a scenario even more befuddling than Schrodinger's famous cat-in-a-box paradox, some people actually seem to find funny. However, the pick of the night has to be the penultimate episode of The Missing, chiefly because they play John Cale's version of Heartbreak Hotel over the end credits, and that's not something you see often on primetime BBC One. There's other stuff going too. The flashbacks have now reached 2009, when, three years after their son's abduction, Tony and Emily's marriage lies in shreds - and then comes news that another young boy has gone missing in Chalons Du Bois.

Meanwhile, in the snowy present, the two come together to follow up the latest lead.

But getting information out of disgraced ex-cop Ziane doesn't prove easy.

Main Event: Wednesday December 10

The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies

9pm, STV

Dramas based on real crimes are hardly rare, and over the past decade we've had a steady flood, reconstructing, picking apart and speculating on some of the most notorious in our culture.

These have been of varying worth, but compared with the schlock and sentiment of the True Crime movies that are a staple of American network TV, the UK's broadcasters have maintained a fairly good strike rate, managing mostly to produce decent programmes for decent reasons.

The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies is an honourable addition to Britain's careful True Crime genre, but also stands slightly apart from it.

The circumstances surrounding another awful murder are again restaged: the killing in Bristol of the 25-year-old landscape architect Joanna Yeates by her neighbour, Vincent Tabak, around Christmas 2010.

But this is not the crime that writer Peter Morgan wants us to focus on.

Rather, it's the eager press lynching that Jefferies, her landlord, was subjected to when he was briefly arrested as suspect: branded weirdo, pervert, Peeping Tom, denounced as friend of paedophiles and suddenly linked to another murder from decades before.

None of which - with the possible exception of weirdo, because which of us is not? - turned out to be true.

Jason Watkins is quite brilliant as Jefferies, or at least the version of Jefferies the programme presents.

Beyond pictures in the papers and on TV, I know nothing of the real man, but by the end of this two-part film, I felt I understood something about the character at its centre.

With his wild silver comb-over, a sharp mind and prissily supercilious, pedantic manner left over from a career teaching English, and neither awareness nor knowledge of popular culture, his real crime is a lack of interest in male grooming and all the other stuff that keeps our Sunday supplements busy.

Building the role from inflections of voice and of hand, and an ear for the strange humour Morgan allows among the deep sadness of the piece, Watkins suggests Brian Sewell and Quentin Crisp sharing residency inside the body of Andy Warhol.

Morgan, of course, is a master of biographical drama, thanks to Frost/Nixon and his often incisive Tony Blair trilogy, The Deal, The Queen and The Special Relationship.

He's near his best with Lost Honour's first episode, covering Jefferies's arrest and vilification in a deft, flowing manner that moves quickly to Kafkaesque nightmare, all the more horrifying for feeling so real.

The second, broadcast on Thursday, charting how Jefferies finally set out to reclaim his name, first through the courts and then as active member of the Hacked Off campaign, is satisfying, even slightly inspirational as biography, but perhaps less good as drama.

The villain, of course, is the British media at its worst, but Morgan goes easier on the other villains - all of us who, still, despite everything, remain willing to be fed daily by that beast and, in turn, keep feeding it.

Anna Maxwell Martin has a small role representing all of us decent souls who should have known better than to simply believe what we choose to read, but Morgan inserts this soothing, symbolic character rather heavy-handedly.

His masterpiece in this field remains Longford, his stunning 2006 examination of the relationship between Lord Longford and Myra Hindley, a drama to debate and be haunted by.

This is a tidier affair: the parting message seems to be that, of course, we know now, and we'll never hunt witches again. We'll see.

Thursday December 11

The Fall

9pm, BBC Two

We're at the penultimate instalment, and it's another absolute cracker. Her high-tech surveillance operation didn't go exactly to plan last week, but Stella Gibson still has many, many eyes watching Paul Spector, and is preparing to spring her trap when the moment is right. Meanwhile, new information is coming to light about Spector's background, his parents and his childhood, spent shut away at an orphanage run by a ghastly priest. But Spector can sense the net closing in, and is busy drawing up his own plans in preparation, with the assistance of his deluded sidekick Katie. The nail-biting really kicks in around the 20-minute mark, and doesn't let up from there, even though creator Allan Cubitt throws in a slightly clunky high-horse moment when the programme literally stops in its tracks to ask us why we keep watching this stuff. Best of all, by the time the episode is over, it's still impossible to predict exactly how this is all going to end next week. Meanwhile, prepare for the internet to be wiped out by a tsunami of X-Files/Merlin/50 Shades Of Gray crossover fan fiction.

Friday December 12

Canterbury Cathedral

9pm, BBC Two

Friday night is, of course, Documentaries About The Church Of England Night. Eyes down, then, for this new three-part documentary, charting a year in the life of the grand stone heart of the Anglican Communion.

It was filmed across 2013, as everybody's favourite new Archbishop Of Canterbury, Justin Welby, settled in for his first Christmas in the new gaffe.

It's not all Archbishops, though. The series follows the day-to-day running of the magnificent place, with particular focus on the restoration of the Great South Window, which, given that it is almost 600 years old and measures 55 feet high by 25 feet wide, is no simple matter.

Elsewhere, in a political-correctness-gone-sane break with 1,400 years of all-male tradition, the Cathedral's first-ever girls' choir prepares to perform its debut evensong.

In an ideal world, BBC Two would be showing Michael Powell's mischievous but visionary A Canterbury Tale right after this every single week. But in this world, we get QI instead.

Saturday December 13

Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History Of Science Fiction

9.45pm, BBC Two

'Tis the season for old traditions, and Britain's networks are getting into the spirit by wallowing deep in the age-old custom of making sure Saturday night TV is, mostly, a barren wasteland of crap.

The concluding part of the Perry And Croft documentary (8pm, BBC Two) is good value, though, and the accompanying Dad's Army (8.30pm) is, of course, eternally excellent (this week, the one where the platoon break down and spend the night in a deserted house, feeling scared).

Elsewhere, though, Atlantis, and repeats you didn't want to watch the first time.

Pick of the day, then, must be the concluding part of Dominic Sandbrook's decent enough sci-fi jaunt.

This week, time travel, meaning lots of Doctor Who, Back To The Future, Bill And Ted and other stuff you knew already.

As is usually the case, HG Wells started it all, but there come mentions for Ray Bradbury's classic story A Sound Of Thunder, Chris Marker's mould-breaking un-movie La Jetée and, going off-subject, some brilliant interview clips with JG Ballard, who didn't write about travelling into the future, so much as troublingly predict it.

It's followed by, eh, a film about vampires. Who's in charge around here, anyway?.