Alison Rowat

Pat McFadden, the Scottish MP for Wolverhampton South East, certainly has a tendency to rock up when the going gets tough for his boss, which turns out to be rather a lot. And it is being noticed. Diane Abbott, a panellist on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (this week with Victoria Derbyshire presenting), described McFadden as a “recycled Blairite” who was always wheeled out when the leadership had a problem.

Susan Calman's Grand Day Out: Arran, After the Party, Irresistible: reviewed

Angela Merkel's Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021 is published this week by Pan Macmillan, which is also behind Nicola Sturgeon’s autobiography due in August next year. Might the ex-First Minister of Scotland be able to pick up a few tips from the former Chancellor of Germany? Reviewers will hope she doesn’t follow Merkel's example when it comes to word count. At more than 700 pages, the Merkel memoir is one of the more heavyweight offerings from political leaders in recent years.

No words are more guaranteed to ruin a TV reviewer’s day than “and now a new six-part comedy series from BBC Scotland”.

Glenn Campbell has done countless pieces to camera in the two decades-plus he has been reporting on politics for BBC Scotland. Political births, deaths, the occasional marriage, he has looked directly into the lens and told viewers what’s what. Nothing, however, will ever have as much impact as the reports he delivers in a new documentary showing tonight on BBC1. My Brain Tumour and Me is a first-rate dispatch from the front line of the cancer battle, and contains some of the most extraordinary scenes you are likely to see on television this year.

From all corners of the kingdom they came, determined to have their say about inheritance tax. A sea of waxed jackets and jeans as far as the eye could see, and among the polite protesters stood their unofficial leader, risen from his sick bed to be there. Jeremy Clarkson, TV presenter, celebrity farmer and now folk hero. He’s not been well lately. Had a heart op. But he defied doctors’ orders to stay home and avoid stress, so incensed is he at 20% tax being levied on farms worth more than £1m if they are handed down the family.

Being clueless about pop music brought them perilously close to shaming Scotland in the first round of University Challenge. But now St Andrews had a chance to regain some R.E.S.P.E.C.T by bagging one of the last places in the second round of the UK’s longest-running quiz. Starter for ten: could they do it?

Appearing on Sky News's Sunday with Trevor Phillips, Fiona Hill said: “I was sent to Washington last time around to tell Reince Priebus, who was then Trump’s chief of staff, that there was no way in the world that we’d have Nigel Farage in any way involved, and I was happy to give that message.”

Reviewed: Until I Kill You, Asia, The Day of the Jackal, Hollywoodgate. Until I Kill You (STV, Sun-Weds) was one to approach with caution, despite the obvious quality of the cast and the “this is a true story” billing (with the usual qualifications). Another story of women being terrorised by a man? Seen plenty of those, and no matter how well-intentioned they often come across as exploitative.

Shetland returns for ninth series despite the loss of a key character in Douglas Henshall’s Jimmy Perez