WHEN I spied the question mark in The 80s: Music’s Greatest Decade? (BBC2, Saturday, 8.55pm), I assumed the four-part series was going to be a battle of the pop stars. You know the type of thing: singers from the 1980s are pitted against names from the noughties, with the survivors slugging it out on a giant inflatable that looks like a record player.

But the presenter turned out to be Dylan Jones, journalist, author, style guru, and a man who would never come within a mile of a giant inflatable. After taking a peek ahead, all four hour-long programmes are indeed about the decade that stretched from the New Romantics to Madchester.

Mr Jones is very serious, then, about exploring his thesis. To wit: the period is often dismissed as a joke, the pop era that style forgot, yet in reality 80s artists were pioneers, paving the way for all that followed. Without the 1980s there would be no modern pop, no rap, hip hop, dance, electronica, guitar driven indie – you name it, the 80s were its parents.

Jones has been writing about music for 40 years which has earned him (a) a nice flat (b) access to a lot of big names. He need only mention Nile Rodgers, Trevor Horn, Mark Ronson, or two thirds of Bananarama and lo, they appear in chairs the requisite two metres away.

Rodgers and Horn illustrate the phenomenon of the super-producer, another 80s invention (discuss). With sounds that could be manipulated and sampled, bands could forget about anything so quaint as playing instruments.

Rodgers and Horn’s counterpart today, Mark Ronson, pays testament to the “sonic genius” of Horn by taking us through all the elements that went into Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax, some of which would one day be used in his Uptown Funk.

After the super-producer section it is on to how tech revolutionised pop. For the price of a Walkman you could walk along the street to the accompaniment of your favourite band! Just like the pop stars in those new MTV videos!

Besides interviews, the hour is packed with archive, with some real treats in store (next week’s episode starts with Bowie’s comeback press conference at Claridge’s). Even if you remain sceptical about the creative force of the 1980s there is much to enjoy here, including the sight of Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, one of Jones’s interviewees, smiling.

It has been such a busy autumn so far I’ve neglected to mention that Portrait Artist of the Year (Sky Arts, free to air, Wednesday, 8pm), is up and running again. Yes, it’s another competition, and celebs feature as models, but it is presented by Joan Bakewell and Stephen Mangan and there is a lot of genuine talent among the mix of professional and amateur artists.

This week’s models are the actor Philip Glenister (Life on Mars), Alexa Chung, designer, writer and, Mangan informs us, “muse to designers around the world”, and Nish Kumar, the comedian. Predictably enough, Chung makes a stunning subject, with her fresh as dew skin and coltish legs. “She reminds me of a Picasso,” says one of the judges.

The winner of the competition receives a £10,000 commission, this time to paint Nicola Benedetti for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. A serious prize for a competition that takes great delight in celebrating art and artists.

If you have ever rented, especially in London, you know the guy at the centre of the comedy Stath Lets Flats (Channel 4, Tuesday, 10.15pm). Written by and starring Jamie Demetriou as the titular lettings agent, Stath has the guile of a toddler and the smarts and sophistication to match. Think of him as a noughties Frank Spencer, but without the stunts.

Now in its third series and with Stath about to become a father, Demetriou’s Bafta-winning sitcom is your classic “annoying idiot turns out to be lovable sweetie” kind of deal.

Demetriou is perfect, as is the rest of a cast that includes Katy Wix (Not Going Out, Ghosts) and Natasia Demetriou, Jamie’s sister. Give it a chance and it will grow on you, like mould on the walls of a studio flat in Camden (£2k a week). The series is on All Four after the first episode airs.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, comes the return of The Good Fight (More 4, Thursday, 9pm). A spin off from The Good Wife, this superior legal drama also touches on the politics of the day, often picking up on trends before they break big (it was on to Trump, #MeToo, and fake news quicker than most). Christine Baranski plays Diane Lockhart, a partner in a Chicago law firm with a reputation for sticking up for the underdog. From opening titles to endings, this Ridley Scott-produced drama is a class act.