Do you remember the good old days when Channel 4’s Father Ted featured a Craggy Island disco that only had one record? For a bonus point, what was the name of that sole single? Well done if you answered Ghost Town, by The Specials.

Thinking back now it was sacrilege to use the soundtrack to the 1981 riots in England for a gag. But it was funny, each time the record stopped and started again more hilarious than the last.

The Ted clip doesn’t feature in a new documentary, Record On: The Specials - A Message to You (free to air Sky Arts, Tuesday, 9pm), so you’ll have to visit YouTube to remind yourself how Craggy Island and The Specials collided to unforgettable effect.

Director Joe Connor’s film is the place to go for a straight-up tribute to a band that brought politics into British pop like no other before or since. The Specials, a seven-strong band of black and white musicians, were the original rockers against racism, only in their case it wasn’t rock playing but a mix of punk, reggae and ska.

The Sky Arts documentary comes along to celebrate what would have been lead singer Terry Hall’s 65th birthday on March 19. The lyricist and legend died in December 2022.

The film opens with Hall, guitarist Lynval Golding and bass player Horace Panter being filmed in New York during another get-together. The three are in a car, Hall is in the driver’s seat, but he’s not too sure about the pedals, and in particular which one is the brake. A member of the film crew advises, “When in doubt just slow down and jump out.”

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The line neatly fits the band’s first break up. It was 1981, The Specials had been at number one for three weeks with Ghost Town. They marked the occasion with an appearance on Top of the Pops on July 9 and called it a day the same night.

Reunions followed, Hall started and finished other bands, and songs came and went. There is no clear timeline in the Sky Arts film, but the overwhelming message it sends, as per the title, is that The Specials produced some great songs, made a landmark first album, and were unforgettable live.

It’s all here, from Gangsters (“Why must you record my phone calls? Are you planning a bootleg LP?”) to Too Much Too Young, which might have done more to prevent teen pregnancies than any government campaign, and A Message to You, Rudy.

The 1979 album was produced by Elvis Costello, who is one of the talking heads on the film together with Pauline Black of The Selecter, Rhoda Daker, lead vocalist of Bodysnatchers, Damon Albarn, who worked with Hall on Gorillaz, plus of course Golding and Panter.

The film hops back and forth through the decades, eventually reaching the night the band made the video for Ghost Town. The car was a 1962 Vauxhall Cresta, remembers Panter, and he drove it back and forth through the Blackwall Tunnel all night while the boys sang Ghost Town. And yes, it still sounds great.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A dreadful crime takes place in a faraway land involving a tourist. A detective flies out to assist, friction and culture clashes follow before both sides pull together to see justice done.

The Gone (BBC4, Saturday, 9pm, 9.50pm) is not a million miles from that scenario but there is more to it than first appears. A young Irish couple have disappeared while travelling in New Zealand. The woman’s mother is a high-profile judge who recently jailed a crime boss for life. Could this be revenge exacted abroad, or are the police looking in the wrong place for a motive? That’s the puzzle facing Dublin detective Theo Richter (Richard Flood) and DS Diana Huia (Acushia-Tara Kupe).

Fabulous scenery, chewy subplots, and two good finds in Flood and Kupe make The Gone worth a look.

Fans of Schitt’s Creek (who isn’t?) need no introduction to the man at the centre of The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy (Apple TV+, Friday). This is the second series and already Levy has sauntered his way around parts of Sweden, Scotland (where the Canadian’s roots lie), and southern France. Next week finds him on the German island of Sylt for a “wellness” break.

Sylt is the holiday haven for a million visitors a year and is known as the “Hamptons of Germany” for its prime properties. Levy stays in the Lanserhof, described by one of the staff as a clinic, spa, and five star hotel rolled into one. All the hotels in the series have been stunning, and this one is no exception.

But Levy has been placed on a fasting diet which means broth, tea, dry bread and going to bed hungry. Not for him, but he keeps smiling and making gently mocking observations (not least about himself). At 76, his idea of wellness is everything in moderation. Wise man.