WHAT are you in the mood for right now? A bleak drama set in a world where innocence and hope are lost? Thought not. That did not stop Devs (BBC2, Wednesday) from trundling off the conveyor belt and into viewers’ increasingly cushiony laps.

Schedulers, please: for the foreseeable, if it is not a rerun of Dad’s Army or high quality escapist drama starring Mark Bonnar (Guilt and now Quiz, of which more later), forget it.

Devs was set in Silicon Valley in one of those firms that is supposed to be hippy dippy liberal but is in fact ruthlessly capitalist, and run on dictatorial lines by a charismatic founder. In this case, a chap called Forest (played, coincidentally, by Nick Offerman of Parks and Recreation fame. Spooky).

Forest had recently promoted hot shot young Russian coder Sergei to the top secret development, or “devs”, section. Sergei was delighted, as was his girlfriend Lily, but you could only surmise this because they were too cool to show it.

Between the experimental jazz soundtrack and the cutting edge architecture, Devs oozed trendiness. It was one of those dramas where Everyone. Spoke. Very. Slowly. In. The. Hope. Of. Appearing. Deep. When. What. They. Really. Were. Was. Lethally. Boring.

Devs was unlucky to come along in the week Quiz (STV, Monday-Wednesday), James Graham’s take on the Coughing Major scandal that hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, shimmied on to the schedules.

A winning combination of low morals and high farce, Quiz was directed by Stephen Frears (Philomena, Dangerous Liaisons) with an equally A-list cast including Mark Bonnar as a telly executive, Michael Sheen as presenter Chris Tarrant, and Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford as Charles and Diana Ingram, the Wiltshire couple who scooped a million and brought a ton of trouble on their heads.

Quiz was not afraid to bite the telly hand that fed it, portraying the world of programme makers and channel bosses as something straight out of W1A. The press took a mauling, too.

In a drama about questions, Quiz dared to pose the biggest one of all: did the Ingrams do it? The answer was ultimately left hanging.

Hard to choose a standout performance, but if I’m ever in court charged with procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception, as the Ingrams were, I want Helen McCrory to be my barrister. A smashing piece of telly about television.

The Nest (BBC1, Sunday-Monday) came to a close amid much flapping. This Glasgow-set surrogacy drama had a tricky beginning, with viewers being asked to believe that a smart, well-off pair like Emily and Dan (Martin Compston and Sophie Rundle) were so crazed with baby hunger that they would invest their future in a clearly troubled teen. But hey, it was Glasgow, it was Compston, it looked great, and the writer was Nicole Taylor (Three Girls) so initial misgivings were put aside to see where the story would go once it settled down.

But having set off on an unpromising path, The Nest kept ploughing on, doing its best to hack through the thickets of improbability and ignoring the “TURN BACK, THIS IS SILLY” signs. Each far fetched twist came with a welter of excuses and special pleading. The failure of the Ukranian clinic to do anything as basic as a pregnancy test on Kaya, for instance, was put down to them being the only place dodgy enough to do the implantation.

Between this, the misdirection and the pulling of rabbits from the hat late in the day, The Nest, like Kaya, was at it. There was one moment, the scene where Dan’s devoted sister tore a strip off spoiled, entitled, Emily, when you glimpsed the kind of quietly compelling, outstanding drama this could have been if it had not been so keen to show off. A fine cast, I loved Kate Dickie’s copper (even if she did behave in ways no real detective would), but The Nest was ultimately cracked.

I’ll Get This (BBC2, Wednesday) was just the sort of fluffy nonsense these days demand. Don’t know about you, but I’m finding Have I Got News For You (BBC1, Friday) unwatchable. The problem is not just the visually dull bank of screens and the complete lack of atmosphere caused by having no audience present. It’s the increasingly desperate attempts to find the funny in a situation that is first to last tragic. Too soon, chaps, too soon.

I’ll Get This brought celebs together in a restaurant to play games with the loser paying the bill. They were not exactly the creme de la creme, with the best known among them being Jonathan Ross. Once upon a time it would have been a big deal to have Ross around. He was the one left with a bill for £625.45. Wonder if he left a tip. Also wonder what the fee was for taking part.