AFTER a summer of wildfires and flooding, it is hard to fathom there are still climate change deniers out there. Ahead of some green conference or other in Glasgow, what better time, then, for TV to provide incontrovertible proof that yes, Mr Billy Joel, we did indeed start the fire.

First stop was Shetland (BBC1, Wednesday), where DI Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall) continues to stoat around without a hat, scarf and gloves despite living half-way to Norway.

As series six opened, Perez was on the mainland at his mother’s funeral, reciting a Maya Angelou poem and doing so rather beautifully. He looked in sore need of a break, yet he could not even have this day off, with DS Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) calling to tell him that Shetland’s murder rate per head of population had once more shot past El Salvador’s. “I’ll be on the next flight over,” he sighed.

The list of those who might have had a grudge against the victim was long and, lucky for us, it included Stephen McCole as an ex-soldier with a hair-trigger temper. First Mark Bonnar as Perez’s odd couple housemate, now McCole: it's a measure of the drama's quality that it can attract such first rate actors to secondary roles.

After an hour the place was hoaching with suspects and red herrings, enough to keep viewers gripped for another five episodes. Now that Perez has brought his ailing dad to live with him I expect this series will have something to say about the trials of getting older and the child becoming the parent. Forecast for Perez: more tears before bedtime.

The Trick (BBC1, Monday) was the true story of a world renowned scientist, Professor Philip Jones (played by Jason Watkins, we like him), who found himself accused of exaggerating the case for global warming.

While the question of whodunnit was left open (the Saudis, big oil, the Russians?), the impact on the academic was clear. His name would in time be cleared completely, but not before he came close to being broken.

The script and actors did their best to generate some excitement. The score swooped up and down, a deadline was imposed (only three weeks till a crunch Commons select committee hearing!), and a sense of jeopardy injected (“We’ve got one shot at it, to clear their names!”).

Honestly, though, two public relations types coaching a bloke how to answer questions does not the heather set alight, even if the trio are played by Watkins, Jerome Flynn and George Mackay.

At times it was like double geography on a wet Wednesday, with every now and then someone popping up to remind you of a key concept or provide an explanation. We got there in the end, and I may even have learned something. Took its sweet time, though.

How We Forgot to Save the Planet (Channel 4, Tuesday), the third in this week’s green trio, was created and written by Kieran Hodgson. You remember him? The cheeky monkey who made How Europe Stole My Mum, the funniest and clearest guide to Brexit ever? Well he has now done the same for COP26 in Glasgow, and brought the equally ridiculously talented Morgana Robinson (Pippa, or “Puppa” in The Windsors) along for the ride).

Using the same mix of archive, impersonations (from Churchill to Joanna Lumley), skits and lashings of sarcasm, Hodgson manages the impossible task of getting a laugh out of environmentalism. Sure, a couple of cliches sneak in (mention of lentils, etc), but the rest is a hoot, as an owl (protected species) would say.

I loved the gay Victorian makeover show, the Pathe-style Ministry of Agriculture Film titled, “If in doubt, kill it – the future of farming”, and Danny Dyer as Wordsworth. Hodgson can come again, anytime, any subject, just don’t leave it another two years, please.

Right, who ordered Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker (Channel 4, Thursday)? It is not enough that the schedules are full of competitive baking, dressmaking, jewellery-making and the rest. Now, in what you might think is the surest sign yet that the ideas cupboard is bare, we have nine “woodwork enthusiasts” sawing and hammering for their lives (as RuPaul would say).

It was as entertaining as watching people glue bits of wood together sounds, and you did wonder why it had been commissioned. Then host Mel Giedroyc arrived, formerly half of Bake Off’s soggy-bottomed Mel and Sue, and everything made sense.

I hope to be proved wrong, but it

seemed the

entire series had been built around the need to generate double entendres featuring the words “wood”, “tool”, and anything else that might raise a snicker.

This, for another couple of months? Really? We shall be stiff with boredom.