TONY ON TV: Spotlight shines bright on Mansfield ‘celebs’

TV’s a worldwide phenomenon, but for the next few weeks the focus looks as if it could be on Mansfield.

That’s because two of the town’s celebs will be in the national limelight on two very different programmes in the run-up to Christmas.

For Olympic gold medallist swimmer Rebecca Adlington it’s life on dry land for the foreseeable future as she and an assorted band of “names” are now bunked up in the Australian jungle in the 13th series of ‘I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here,’ which opened for business on ITV1 on Sunday.

Nearer to home, radio and former ‘Blue Peter’ presenter Richard Bacon hosts a five-week run of ‘Show Me the Telly,’ (ITV1), billed as a TV archive-fuelled quiz that pits the wits of telly lovers against telly legends.

This daily show, screened between 4 and 5pm, kicks off next Monday as host Richard tries to keep a check on the “know it alls,” captained by Chris Tarrant, as they try to outwit a team of friends, family or colleagues with their knowledge of TV trivia and hopefully win £3,000.

I’m not sure what TV gems are in store, but there’s a galaxy of telly favourites out to impress, including showbiz queen Denise Van Outen, kids’ TV star Andi Peters, Ricky Tomlinson from ‘The Royle Family’ and the king of the lie detector and DNA tests, Jeremy Kyle.

However, I don’t think Mr Kyle’s “agony uncle” help will be needed in ‘Last Tango in Halifax’ (BBC1, Tuesday) which sees Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid returning to the screens in the BAFTA-winning series as love-struck septuagenarians Alan and Celia, who rediscover their love for each other later in life, 60 years after they first met.

This heart-warming series was the BBC’s highest rating new mid-week drama of 2012, regularly attracting more than seven million viewers with its captivating mix of effervescent humour and moving drama.

With some stunning Yorkshire scenes as backdrops, this second series pick up from where we left off with Alan regaining consciousness from his heart scare, much to Celia’s relief and delight. She promises to never fall out with him again and reflecting that life’s too short, they decide to get married . . . in just a fortnight’s time!