Monday

We are reliably informed that the new series of Man vs Food starts tonight on the Good Food channel - which immediately appears to be a complete contradiction in that Man vs Food is a celebration of all that is revolting, offensive and bad about the things we as a species do to the stuff we use as fuel. If you haven't seen it before, it's a well-padded 30 minute show following a chubby, likable New Yorker as he takes on the ridiculous over-eating based challenges present at, seemingly, most American restaurants and sporting arenas. In one of the episodes I had seen prior to tonight's new one, he took on a six-pound burrito at the Nascar Cafe in Las Vegas (man lost, in more ways than one). It's compelling, disgusting television that represents all that makes people want to fly aeroplanes into the financial centres of the Western world. It's also, fortunately, rather funny and impossible to stop watching.

Before tonight's episode, Rick pops round so that K can alter a football shirt for him - an Aston Villa shirt that he has to wear for a stag do, apparently - and so joins us for Man vs Food while K sweats over a hot sewing machine. Tonight, "Man" (I think his name's Adam) is at a baseball ground somewhere in the Southern US, warming up for an enormous burger challenge. This particular "burger" is in fact five one-third-pound beefburgers on a one-pound bun, covered in nacho cheese, chilli, tortilla chips, salsa and sour cream. It sounds as awesome as it is an affront to all that is right and true about the world - and sure enough Adam ploughs through the giant bastard with aplomb.

Afterwards Rick heads home, and K and I sit down with Faye (our house guest for the week) to watch the new episode of Mad Men, something we're even more excited about than Man vs Food - albeit in a very different, less voyeuristically disgusted way.

Mad Men, as ever, exudes class and quality writing from the beginning - bringing us back into the story around a year later as the new ad company is getting onto its feet. Don Draper is just as magnetic and combustible as ever and there's some brilliant one-liners from the rest of the excellent cast. As we're following it through US broadcast dates, it's going to be weird watching this series week-by-week, having previously been able to session several episodes in a row. As with Sherlock last night, truly great TV like this is evidence that 'event television' still exists and should be savoured.