TV Week: Battlestar Galactica and Friday Night With Jonathan Ross

Adama (Edward James Olmos) tries to bait his former-friend Tigh (Michael Hogan) into shooting him, President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) burns the religious tome she put so much faith in, and a generally downbeat hour greets audiences. Tough viewing, but also rewarding in mythological terms...

Excavated Earthlings are medically tested and found to be Cylon in nature; an old-style centurion's head is even unearthed. It seems the Thirteenth Tribe was a Cylon splinter group, who founded Earth after fleeing Kobol along with the original Twelve Tribes (who later settled on Caprica). Not only that, but Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) traces the origin of the colonial beacon that guided the fleet to Earth: her crashed Viper, containing her own decomposed body! But if that dead body is "her", then who is she? And the Final Four secret-Cylons (who have spent their lives believing they were human), begin experiencing latent memories of living on Earth two millennia ago, just as the planet was destroyed.

If none of this makes any sense to you, you've obviously been missing out on one of television's better sci-fi series in many years. A lot of people can't get past the grandiloquent title, or its lineage to '80s kitsch, but BSG is actually a fantastic, dense and superbly-acted allegory of modern times. If you've yet to see it; please, do yourself a favour and seek out the box-sets. If you've come this far; with just nine episodes left and a whole heap of answers promised, sit back and enjoy the final journey. TUE, SKY1, 9PM.

Over on BBC1, this week saw the return of FRIDAY NIGHT WITH JONATHAN ROSS after Ross' suspension for making a lewd phone call to actor Andrew Sachs with Russell Brand. The incident caused uproar in the media, who delighted at being able give both Brand and Ross a public whipping. In the fallout, Brand quit his Radio 2 show and fled to the warm bosom of his burgeoning Hollywood film career, while Ross was suspended from the BBC for three months, and pulled out of hosting the British Comedy Awards.

Ross' return to the airwaves was guaranteed a sizeable audience, with everyone wondering how he'd broach the touchy subject. Opening with "so, where were we?" to rapturous applause, he greeted the several thousand viewers watching for the first time, but his monologue was never specific about the elephant in the room. However, it did take a late shift into solemnity when he compared George W. Bush's verbal gaffes with his own, and pledged to be more careful in future.

Beyond that, this was essentially the same show as before. Commenter's were worried Ross would find himself castrated by the BBC's eagle eye, snooping for anything that might offend license-fee payers, but "Sachsgate" has probably helped him. I've always liked Ross (particularly on radio), but his style of interviewing had started to overstep the mark in recent years. I suppose that's what happens when you're the BBC's golden boy being paid $18 million a year.

The big-name guest of this comeback show was Tom Cruise, which resulted in another of Ross' signature interviews – half-mocking, very cheeky, quite sycophantic, but undercut with wry digs and fun diversions. Where else can you see Cruise asked if he forces wife Katie Holmes' head under the duvet after he farts wind in bed? Okay, so it's hardly Parkinson, but in an era when audiences already know celebrities' lives inside-out thanks to magazines, reality shows and tabloid scoops, it's enjoyable to see celebs brought down to the common man's level. Compare and contrast to the bland US chat-show circuit – where guests plug their wares like zombies, and deliver pre-planned anecdotes.

Personally, I'm glad to have Jonathan Ross back on Friday nights. Hopefully he'll develop a sharper interviewing style now he can't go for easy shocks, but still manage to make his guests look like real people who aren't afraid to laugh at themselves, and just want to have a bit of mischievous fun. On the evidence of this opener, I'm relieved he doesn't seem to have made many concessions. He had a terrible lapse of professional judgement, he apologised, he's promised to mend his ways, so let's just move on. FRI, BBC1, 10.35PM.

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