A Picture of Britain (BBC1); Doctor Who - Boom Town (BBC1); THEY were a timid lot, our ancestors. If you'd ever thought of them bravely struggling to eke out a living in the most wild and inhospitable conditions these islands can throw up, then you should think again.

Instead, they saw the countryside as a wild and dangerous place. In fact, they were so fearful they could barely look at the landscape around them.

But then along came the artists and the poets, who pointed out how lovely the hills and mountains and lakes and tarns were, and how people should really look at them, because they were rather beautiful. And lo, the people looked at the hills, and found that it was true.

At least that appears to be the thinking behind A Picture of Britain, David Dimbleby's new series, which aims to show how we only learned to appreciate the countryside through pictures. It seems rather a shaky theory to me, based on the assumption that because nobody wrote about or painted the countryside, they can't have admired it.

Still, it didn't seem to detain Dimbleby much. After making a brief appearance at the start of the programme, the theory was elbowed aside in favour of a tour of some of the most spectacular scenery Britain has to offer, and how it has been represented through art. The first programme concentrated on the North, from the wilds of the Lake District and Northumberland, to the rather more sedate charms of Knaresborough, and then to the moors above Haworth, the setting for Wuthering Heights, although presumably Emily Bronte wasn't talking about the wind turbines which now march across the landscape.

All theories aside, the programme was really an excuse for some stunning photography and an absorbing exploration of the beginnings of landscape painting, and was none the worse for that. We also had a glimpse of a Dimbleby home movie, shot on a trip to the Lakes nearly 50 years ago, although the quality of the film gave rise to the suspicion they had somewhat better equipment than my dad's cine camera. We also learned that William Gilpin's rules for landscape painters, followed rigidly in the late 18th century, included the stipulation that scenes should feature cows instead of horses, on the grounds they were more angular and better suited for drawing.

As Dimbleby's series began, the successful revival of Doctor Who drew to a close. Saturday's episode, the 11th out of 13, saw the Doctor pitched against a foe from earlier in the series, the flatulent Slitheen, this time trying to destroy Cardiff. Apparently, Cardiff lies on top of a fault in time, which won't come as news to anyone acquainted with Charlotte Church's previous boyfriends.

As in some of the earlier episodes, plot took a back seat to character. In what EastEnders would call a four-hander, it revolved around heart-to-hearts between the Doctor and the Slitheen, and Rose and on-off boyfriend Mickey, while the innuendo and shots of John Barrowman in a top tighter than Kylie's corsets kept the gay fans happy.

It's all good rollicking fun, of course, and the Doctor doesn't forget to save the world in between some manic grinning, but you can't help feeling it would be nice if there was a little drama here and there. And surely it can't be just coincidence that Billie Piper is the one with the long, multi-coloured scarf. Is someone trying to tell us she's the real star of the show?

Published: 06/06/2005