It is the early 1990s, winter, and a pea-souper in London. We are waiting to see Vic and Bob at the Hammersmith Apollo. I’m here by invitation only. I don’t mind the booted and suited duo for a half hour on telly, but there is only so much surrealist comedy a Glaswegian can take in one evening and this is already looking like a bad idea.

The place is packed. The cover of Dizzy by Vic Reeves and the Wonder Stuff was at number one for a fortnight. It’s all happening for Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Cut to three decades later and Vic and Bob are now the Morecambe and Wise, or possibly the Mick and Keith, of middle-aged lifestyle programming. Bob has a new oppo, fellow comic Paul Whitehouse. Both have had heart problems and Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is a way to kick back, tour wonderful scenery, stay in nice B&Bs, and shoot the breeze. In the process, Bob falls down a lot. Viewers love it, the show wins awards by the armsful and the two become national treasures.

Meanwhile, Vic Reeves and his missus, Nancy Sorrell, are also travelling around the UK, only they are after birds, not fish. Like Bob and Paul, who return everything they catch to the river (“And away …”), Mr and Mrs Moir mean no harm and leave no trace. They merely want to note down sightings of birds and paint some pictures along the way. For that they too are rapidly acquiring NT status.

All of this is taking the long way round to saying Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir (Sky Arts, free to air, Wednesday, 9pm) is back for a new series. Next week finds the Moirs in Cairngorms in search of the crested tit, described by Jim as “the punk rocker of the bird world” for its striking plume.

Jim takes up the role of tour guide as the mountains come into view.

“They were formed 40 million years ago,” he tells Nancy.

“What, like you?” she replies.

It’s back and forth in banter and to their home in Kent where Jim is at work on a paint and ink drawing of a crested tit. He is a pretty impressive artist, as is one of their guests in Scotland, Ronnie Ancona, actor, impressionist, and writer. Jim and Nancy also enjoy a masterclass with Chi Zhang, artist and calligrapher. All lovely interludes but where is the crested tit?

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It’s off to RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Nature Centre to seek the help of visitor officer Gareth Powell. Is their luck in? What’s Jim going to do with all those paintings? And where can I get a cheap-o version of Jim’s dreamy garden studio?

D-Day 80: the Unheard Tapes (BBC2, Sunday-Tuesday, 9pm) is showing as part of commemorations across the channels. No matter how many times it is told, the story of the Allied invasion of France loses none of its power to shock and humble.

The Allies knew from early in the war that the best way to get to Germany and end the war in Europe was through Northern France. Planners were also aware of the potentially huge human cost. As one historian says, the D-Day plan needed hundreds of thousands of men if it was to succeed.

The filmmakers use interviews, some never aired in public, from archives around the world. Black, white, men, women, infantrymen and officers, do their best to describe those days, weeks and months in “hell”.

One British soldier recalls getting off the beach and past the German machine gun posts only to find his captain injured. He helped him to a Jeep and once it had gone the young soldier stood there feeling utterly alone. “I cried my eyes out,” he says, “just stood there and cried.”

The beach landings were hellish, but worse was to follow on dry land as Allied troops fought the Germans for every yard. It would take just short of three months and 73,000 Allied lives before a pathway that would lead eventually to Paris was opened.

The three-part series uses a method you may have come across before, with actors lip-syncing audio interviews. This marriage of television and radio is a highly effective way of bringing testimonies to life. I last saw it used in a series about the Aids crisis, and wondered why every other filmmaker wasn’t following suit. Judge for yourself whether it works just as well here.

Celebrity Gogglebox (Channel 4, Friday. 10.10pm) welcomes some new faces into the mix, including Jennifer Saunders and her daughter Beattie Edmondson. Any resemblance to Ab Fab’s Edina and Saffron is non-existent, though Saunders looks like a cool mum, with hints of June Whitfield.

As in the “civilian” version of Gogglebox, some pairings are easier to warm to than others, though I have to say the regular edition seems to have achieved a perfect mix with, finally, a terrific Scots pair in Glaswegians Roisin and Joe.