The Rebel (Gold, 10pm)

BASED on Andrew Birch's comic strip in the Oldie magazine, the always entertaining Simon Callow is a 67-year-old playing the 70-year-old Henry Palmer who is an odds with society and the passing of time.

Anita Dobson and Bill Paterson co-star with Callow's widower, who is fed up with the conventional life he's led for the past 50 years, and starts rebelling against authority, and reconnecting with the mod of his youth.

"He's not like Victor Meldrew, who just dislikes the modern world because it's the modern world," says London-born Callow, known for his roles in Four Weddings And A Funeral, Shakespeare In Love and Amadeus. "Henry dislikes the modern world because it isn't sufficiently anarchic enough. On the other hand, he wants it to be anarchic in his way."

Henry's daughter has just given up teaching children because she can't stand them any more and, without any prospect of becoming a grandfather, he decides to fight the imbecilities of modern life.

Although Callow claims not to be especially rebellious in real life, he told Radio Times he's just about to marry 33-year-old management consultant Sebastian Fox on the Greek Islands. "Sebastian had both a hen do and a stag do as it were," says Callow, who is aware that Stephen Fry's marriage to 30 years junior Elliott Spencer last year led to some unpleasant comments. "This will happen. People aren't angels; they say stupid things, ugly things. I've had my share of hate mail. I was in a show with Christopher Biggins, who I'm fond of but have no intimate relationship with, and I got the most extraordinary letter saying, 'You and Biggins, you perverts etc etc'. Not attractive. It's an extraordinary thing altogether for gay people to get married. To do it publicly and be witnessed not only by family and friends, but by our society.

"I have no desire to be an outlaw. Resistance to gay marriage by conservative elements of society is one of the the great paradoxes of our times. They should have the ones supporting it, unless they actually say homosexuals are indefensible and must be put out into the middle of the ocean and drowned. I'm sure there are some people who think that."

A perfect point to move on to Gareth in 1994 Richard Curtis hit Four Weddings And A Funeral, garnering a Bafta nomination and recognition among cinemagoers.

"That Scottish dancing very nearly killed me. Do that three times in a row and you don't have to fake a heart attack."

Despite it being 22 years since its release, Callow continues to be reminded of the romcom. "There's a generation that doesn't know Four Weddings And A Funeral, but from 30 years old to the grave, everyone seems to watch it about twice a year. I've only ever seen it once, so I don't know the film nearly as well as they do."

Long Lost Family (ITV, 9pm)

FORTY-year-old mother of three Samantha Whyte turns to the programme for help as she searches for the Swiss father she has never met. Raised by her single mother in Glasgow, she was told the story of her parents' whirlwind romance in Zurich, and became desperate to know the man behind the myth. Meanwhile, Vanda James seeks to end a secret that has haunted her family for more than 50 years. When she was a child, a new-born baby was taken away at a few days old, and her mother never spoke about it. She discovered the baby was her brother and had been adopted.

Boy Meets Girl (BBC2, 10pm)

LEO gets a job as a dispatch driver and meets his match in his new prankster-loving boss. Meanwhile, Pam invites Peggy over for dinner now that they are "virtually in-laws", with the catering to be provided by Tony's cafe. Charlie gets thrown out of his lodgings, leading to Pam offering him Leo's room.

Viv Hardwick