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SIMON AMSTELL has never been the sort of comedian to play it safe. Even when he was the host on C4’s Popworld, his acid-tinged comments suggested a man desperate to break out and do bigger things.

After hosting Never Mind The Buzzcocks, he returned to BBC2 in Grandma’s House, a sitcom he co-wrote with Dan Swimer.

The tale of a TV presenter (Amstell) quitting his job so he could do something more meaningful with his life was received favourably enough for a second series to happen.

While Amstell looked about as comfortable in the show as a man with itching powder in his shorts, co-star Samantha Spiro left many chuckling over their cocoa, and landed a British Comedy Award for Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist.

Alas, co-star Geoffrey Hutchings died a month before the first series aired, so the shadow of his loss looms large over this second run.

The rest of the cast, including Linda Bassett and Rebecca Front, are as good as ever, though Amstell admitted in a recent interview that the reaction to the first series was so mixed he didn’t know whether he would have to “leave the country in shame”.

“I’m still here, I guess, so it must’ve been okay in the end,” he remarked.

As for criticism that his performance was awkward, he replied: “I just play myself... brilliantly.”

This week, Simon’s few seconds of calm lying on the living room floor are interrupted when grandma starts cleaning up. To make matters worse, his mum makes inappropriate comments after his nan forces him to take his trousers off for her washing pile.

Liz’s husband, Barry, makes a rare appearance, but his post nasal drip (aka snorting like a pig) immediately winds Simon up.

WE know all about the September 11, 2001 atrocities in the US, as well as those that occurred closer to home on July 7, 2005. They were truly horrific, and cost many people their lives.

But if a group of young British men from Walthamstow, east London, had successfully carried out their plan, a new date in 2006 would have been added to that list.

They worked out a way to blow up multiple airliners departing from Heathrow simultaneously in mid-flight, using explosives disguised as soft drinks.

If successful, it would have potentially killed more than 2,000 people and crippled the world aviation industry. What they didn’t realise is that, thankfully, MI5 were keeping a close eye on their activities.

During the summer of 2006, the British authorities faced a nerve-shredding race to gather enough evidence to make arrests before the terrorists could launch their devastating attacks.

The documentary The Plot to Bring Down Britain’s Planes reveals how they did it.

THE Kidnap Diaries is a new drama based on the experiences of Sean Langan. In 2008, he was kidnapped while trying to shoot footage of Taliban training camps in a remote area of Pakistan for a proposed documentary for C4’s Dispatches strand.

Langan believed he would be killed, went through several mock executions and lost three stone during his 12 weeks in captivity.

What’s extraordinary about his story – and that should come through in this dramatised version of events – is how Langan eventually found common ground between himself and his captors, an Islamic family with deeply-held beliefs.

Douglas Henshall is on fine form in the lead role, ably supported by Jimi Mistry.

An interview with Langan will be aired immediately afterwards.