Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1); Mysterious Creatures (ITV1): They'll have to change the title of Strictly Come Dancing to Strictly Come Fighting before long.

It used to be the judges on The X Factor that squabbled and threw glasses of water over each other. On Saturday, there were no arguments when Louis Walsh used his deciding vote to eliminate Kerry. The whole thing passed off without incident.

How different from Strictly Come Dancing, where professional dancer Brendan Cole declared war on the judges, accusing them of being inconsistent and using a four-letter word to describe their decisions.

Cole was only enhancing his bad boy reputation, having been subdued this season by partnering former Emmerdale and Bad Girls actress Claire King, a feisty female who's more than his equal. All this talk about her taming him must be irking him, so he needed to do something to restore his reputation.

Despite being marked down and Cole being told by judge Arlene Phillips to "keep your mouth shut and dance", the pair got through to the next round.

As the couple learnt the news, you could hear King say to Cole: "Big gob". I look forward to the next round in Cole v The Judges, as well as Cole v King.

Now ITV1 has abandoned its liking for two-part psychological thrillers that you can't tell apart, its much-improved drama slate is showing itself willing to tackle subjects that don't scream out "ratings hit" but which, by dint of strong script and acting, suck the viewer in.

In Mysterious Creatures, writer Gwyneth Hughes took an emotional, tragic real-life story and turned it into high-class TV drama without trivialising either the subject or the people.

Bill Ainscow (Timothy Spall) and his wife Wendy (Brenda Blethyn) were struggling to cope looking after their grown-up daughter Lisa, who suffered from Asperger's syndrome.

It's a condition demanding endless patience and understanding in the face of the victim's emotional insecurity, spending sprees and tantrums.

These were "ordinary people, private people" who did everything they possibly could for their daughter, only to have her throw it back in their faces with such comments as, "they lie to me, they don't love me".

Bill was driven to embezzle money to pay off the debts he'd built up through Lisa's uncontrollable spending.

But still, there was no solution for what was described as not so much mental illness as a mental handicap. The Ainscows were driven to make a suicide pact, taking a trip to the Canaries to end it all by taking pills and walking into the sea.

"Lisa's got such a hold on me, the only way I can get rid of Lisa is to get rid of myself," said her mother.

This was a first-rate drama, compellingly told and acted by Spall, Blethyn and Rebekah Staton as the uncontrollable Lisa. This was more than could be said of Robin Hood - this week sub-titled Parent Hood because the outlaw turned baby carer.

A colleague assured me that the series, which began lamely, had improved. They were wrong. This was just plain silly as Robin, clutching the baby - played by an unconvincing doll - to his not-very-manly chest, fought the Sheriff's men.

There was more convincing antagonism in Strictly Come Dancing.

Arlene v Brendan, now that would be a dancefloor duel worth watching