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Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke star in The Chicago Code

Reviewed: The Chicago Code (Thursday, Sky One)

We've a had a few high-profile American shows this season, and the latest is 'The Chicago Code', which began the other week on Sky One. Given that the show's already been cancelled in America, viewers would be forgiven for giving it a lmiss, but that could be a mistake. Quite often, cancellation so early for an American show can have nothing to do with a lack of quality.

Take the other two big US cop dramas that have crossed the Atlantic in recent months: 'Blue Bloods' and 'Detroit 1-8-7'. The former's been on Sky Atlantic for a while, and recently arrived on RTÉ Two, while the latter's been keeping me up late on Thursdays, also on RTÉ Two.

Both are fun, but between the two, 'Detroit 187' has got much more meat than 'Blue Bloods', which - despite having an excellent cast that includes Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Nicholas Turturro and Jennifer Esposito - can rely a little too much on cliches, is a litrtle preachy, and - like 'Hawaii 5-0' - is pretty much off-the-peg, "God bless America" programming.

Location plays a blinder in the former show, as 'Detroit 1-8-7' is filmed (or at least it was, until the show got cancelled last week) in the Motor City, giving it a gritty authenticity. It's also a show with more interesting characters, not least Michael Imperioli's Louis Finch, a cop with a history and a lot on his mind.

'Blue Bloods' may be the most formulaic of the three, but it's also the only one that'll be back next year as the two other shows were recently cancelled. As for 'The Chicago Code', it got off to a flyer after a well-paced pilot that set everything up, with Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke leading the charge as part of a group of principled and motived Chicago cops trying to clean up the infamously corrupt city.

A permanently sour-pussed Clarke chomps through the scenery as Jarek Wysocki, a battle-hardened Chicago Polish-American homicide detective who's considered a legendary figure in the department. His personal ticks includes a hatred of profanity, and he has a hard time finding a suitable partner.

A liitle less wired but equally motivated is Jennifer Beals' Teresa Colvin, Chicago's first female police superintendent. She's not afraid to take on the big political hitters (who can also destroy her) or make enemies in the police department.

It's early days for 'The Chicago Code' on this side of the Atlantic but the first two episodes showed a lot of promise, not least in the shape of Delroy Lindo as Alderman Ronin Gibbons - a Chicago politician who makes Charlie Haughey seem like a saint in comparison.

While it's not hugely original, 'The Chicago Code' rolls along nicely, the characters are engaging, and it wears its self-righteousness a lot more convincingly than Selleck and co over at 'Blue Bloods'. I'm almost missing it already.

New this week

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood (Friday, BBC TWO)
Oooh, yes please! The deadpan Merton has reinvented himself as a bit a buff on the subject of silent comedy, and in 2006, he made an excellent four-part documentary series about Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd. Here he expands into the early days of Hollywood, when many New York-based film makers uprooted to Southern California. A must for anyone interested in the history of movies.

World's Tallest Man: Looking for Love (Thursday, Channel 4)
Fair play to Channel 4's 'Bodyshock' strand: they just keep coming up with the stories. This time around we're off to Turkey, where the world's tallest man, Sultan Kösen, lives. This documentary follows the 8-foot-plus 27-year-old on his journey around the world in search of a cure for his Gigantism. But while many people would just regard him as a freak, all Sultan wants from life is to find love.

Going this week
It's that time of the year, when many of our favourite shows take off for the summer. This week alone sees shows such as Desperate Housewives, Glee, House and The Late Late Show all saying goodbye until September, at least. Boo!

Worth waiting up for
Bad time. Great show.

Outnumbered (Monday, RTÉ One)
What's a good time for a family show? Well, fun super hero drama 'No Ordinary Family' is/was the best of the recent American imports, and that goes out at around 3am. So I suppose 11.40pm on Monday nights isn't so bad, after all. Anyone who's seen this sitcom on the BBC will vouch for the quality of the comedy; anyone who's ever had kids will laugh at the familiarity of it all: thre kids who can buy or sell their parents, who are frazzled by the trials of keeping it all together. Much praise has been heaped on the show, with Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner excelling as parents Pete and Sue. But the show's real star is Ramona Marquez as the chatty and inquisitive seven-year-old Karen. It's very London and particularly middle class, but Outnumberered rings true and deserves a more family-friendly timeslot.

Guest stars of the week

The final programme in the current run of 'Later Live . . . with Jools Holland' (Tuesday, BBC TWO) has Mercury Award nominees Friendly Fires, soul legend (and Later fave) Beverley Knight, the ageless Blondie, and Ireland's own Vincent McMorrow in studio. Verteran actress Joan Collins and 'X Factor' contestant Olly Murs are on 'Paul O'Grady Live' (Friday, UTV), but it's Hollywood central on 'The Graham Norton Show' (Friday, BBC ONE) as the guests are Hangover II stars Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms.

Casting Couch Corner
Who's heading to what show

Derry actress Roma Downey (probably best known for Touched by an Angel) works mostly behind the camera these days. Together with husband Mark Burnett (America's reality TV king, producer of Survivor and The Apprentice), she's producing a new, ten-part docudrama about the Bible for the History channel . . . Christine Tremarco (Waterloo Road, Clocking Off) will be back on the Beeb's hospital drama Casualty from June 4. Last time we saw her she was impulsive school secretary Davina on Waterloo Road, but here she's fun-loving nurse Linda who returns to Holby following a miscarriage . . . Jennifer Love Hewitt's not been up to much since Ghost Whisperer was cancelled last year, but it looks she may be back on primetime TV pretty soon. Mariska Hargitay has been looking to cut back on her hours manning the Special Victims Unit on Law & Order: SVU, and it looks as though Love Hewitt will be drafted in as a mid-season replacement when Hargitay's Olivia Benson gets promoted . . .

Sat Nav
Satellite Highlights

The Joy of Easy Listening (Friday, BBC FOUR)
Sneered at during the 60s, 70s and 80s, Easy Listening enjoyed an ironic revival in the 1990s, but is as worthy of this special as any of the other modern music genres that have wended our way since World War II. Amongst those documented are the great Jimmy Webb ('Witchita Lineman' and 'Up, Up and Away' are just two of his gems), Herb Alpert and Richard Carpenter. Afterwards you can get even more into it all by watching Easy Listening Hits at the BBC and a profile of legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach.

Human Target (Thursday, SyFy)
Boston Legal's Mark Valley stars in this comic book adaptation as Christopher Chance, an assassin-turned-security contractor whose team is hired out by people who are under the threat of attack. If you like tension and action sequences, this will provide both, and in spades. Human Target was recently cancelled, but there are two seasons to get through here, so it's worth the investment.

What You Watched
RTÉ's top 20 programmes (viewed as live) for the week ending 17.04.2011
Figures in multiples of a thousand (eg: 588 = 588,000)

RTÉ One
1 The Late, Late Show Friday 625
2 Prime Time Thursday 511
3 Fair City Tuesday 503
4 The Saturday Night Show Saturday 490
5 Fair City Wednesday 475
6 Roomers Sunday 464
7 Fair City Sunday 461
8 Dragons' Den Sunday 457
9 EastEnders Thursday 440
10 EastEnders Tuesday 434
11 EastEnders Friday 421
12 Charlie Bird on the Trail of Tom Crean Monday 411
13 EastEnders Monday 408
14 Fair City Thursday 400
15 Room to Improve Tuesday 397
16 Off the Rails - On Tour Wednesday 378
17 Reeling in the Years Sunday 358
18 Nationwide Monday 357
19 Winning Streak Saturday 355
20 Prime Time Tuesday 346

Still at the top, The Late Late Show picked up 37,000 more viewers to finish comfortably ahead of Prime Time and Fair City, the only other programmes to get more than 500,000 punters. Elsewhere, there's not a huge amount of movement, although Room to Improve feel heavily from last week's 468,000 to 397,000 - a loss of 71,000.

RTÉ Two
1 Desperate Housewives Tuesday 389
2 Katherine Lynch's Wagons Den Tuesday 245
3 Champions League Live Wednesday 228
4 Anonymous Monday 213
5 Home and Away Monday 192
6 The Republic of Telly Monday 178
7 Magners League Live Saturday 169
8 The Bone Collector Sunday 158
9 Criminal Minds Monday 158
10 Home and Away Tuesday 151
11 Home and Away Wednesday 145
12 Home and Away Thursday 142
13 ICA Bootcamp Tuesday 138
14 CSI Thursday 138
15 Shameless USA Thursday 129
16 Home and Away Friday 121
17 The Simpsons Monday 117
18 League Sunday Sunday 114
19 The Simpsons Wednesday 109
20 The Simpsons Tuesday 104

No change at the top as Desperate Housewives still finished miles ahead of the rest despite shipping 38,000 viewers. The most impressive performer, though, was Katherine Lynch's Wagons Den, which climbed five places after a week-on-week increase of 48,000 viewers, which is more than 25%.