WHEN Ralf Little was 18 he was cast as a tea boy. Not just any tea boy, though. As Antony Royle he served television blue bloods no less. Barely an episode of The Royle Family passed when he was not despatched to the kitchen by dad Jim, mum Barbara or Our Denise, to fetch a brew and biscuits (but not the Wagon Wheels unless it was a special visitor).

Now 42, Little has been around in the TV game long enough to be the subject of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1, Thursday, 9pm). Nothing says “you’ve arrived” in British telly like meeting a white-gloved historian clutching a piece of paper with illegible writing on it.

Originally from Bury, Little now spends half the year in the Caribbean filming that prime slice of Friday night escapism, Death in Paradise.

The climate is a little different in the Orkneys, where he ventures in search of more information about his grandad, Arthur, who was sent there at the start of the Second World War to serve on a naval base.

On the ferry over, Little wonders how Arthur must have felt as this strange and wild place came into view. “I’ll tell you what I bet he was – cold,” he says, chittering. “Although it was in July so maybe he had an easier time.” (Well, Ralf …)

After four years fixing aircraft, Arthur was sent to Sri Lanka, where he took part in the Battle of Okinawa. His ship, the Indefatigable, was the first British vessel to be hit by a kamikaze pilot. Little is amazed. Like many a Who Do You Think You Are subject before him, he wishes he had got to know his grandad better.

Little has a few leads he wants to chase with the help of the experts. Family lore has it that there was another accomplished footballer before Little, once a semi-pro, and that somewhere in the family tree, probably on his dad’s side, there was “poshness”.

You can see for yourself how he gets on. Little’s programme may not be one of the classic Who Do You Thinks in terms of revelations, but his general amazement at the thought of all these people who went before him is touching.

Here’s a treat, all the way from 1990. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (BBC4, Wednesday, from 10pm) was one of those BBC dramas, like The Singing Detective, that was the talk of the steamie when first broadcast.

Adapted by Jeanette Winterson from her semi-autobiographical novel, it’s the story of Jess and her fanatically religious mother. The two rub along awkwardly enough through the years, but when Jess grows up and wants to follow her own path in life an almighty falling out ensues.

The late Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan (for my money still the best Jean Brodie) were superb as the duelling mother and daughter, and Kenneth Cranham pops up as Pastor Finch.

After all three parts you can see Winterson’s interview with Jeremy Isaacs.

If you have been hanging on the telephone this week waiting for someone, anyone, please, to answer, Call Centre Chaos: Britain on Hold (Channel 5, Thursday, 8pm) might soothe the pain by showing you are not alone. Host Alexis Conran asks why customer service has become a nightmare and wonders if it has grown worse since the pandemic.

Not sure I can remember any halcyon days for customer service, but you were generally in with a fighting chance of speaking to a real live human being. Today, assuming you get through at all, your tale of consumer woe will be handled by a computer chatbot.

While the programme tends to wander away from the title to be a more general look at consumer rights, there is some invaluable advice from one expert on how to beat the chatbots. Another must-see section looks at the current wave of all too convincing phone scams, including the “you have postage to pay” con. One young woman recalls her horror as the fraudsters she thought were helping her empty her bank account. If in doubt, don’t.

This is MY House (BBC1, Friday, 8.30pm) is the gameshow/property programme that puts four people in one home and asks a celebrity panel to identify the genuine owner. It’s supremely silly, but it is also, Gogglebox aside, one of the most reliable providers of Friday night laughs.

Much of this is due to a panel that includes Judi Love, Richard Madeley, and Harry Hill. Just as impressive are the acting skills of some of the impersonators. It is quite unnerving how convincing they are.

This week the panel meet four women who all claim to run a swish yoga retreat. Much good-natured joshing at the expense of yoga bunnies ensues, and how could anyone say no to a Madeley-Hill partnership?