I failed to do any work after getting home last night, because two of my favourite celebrities were on TV. John Peel was on Room 101, and, by the standards of the show, failed miserably, taking most of the items he was trying to have cast into the room home with him. Following more or less straight on from that, Billy Connolly‘s new show, on of his “World Tour” series, this time visiting Ireland, England and Wales.

Peel’s a marvellous chap, combininng a real love of new music with a sort of reassuring steadiness, and a dry sense of the ludicrousness of, well, everything. There’s something immensely comforting about his presence in British media – as longs as he’s around, there’ll be someone with some sense on air…

Connolly, as well as just being screamingly funny, has a similar sort of sense, and a psychogeographer’s instinct, a knack for finding the interesting places, the slices of history and art and touches of the weird that make a place interesting, along with an eye for the things that bind a community together, make a place what it is. Well worth your attention.