HERE are some fun facts to amaze the grandchildren. A long time ago in tellyland, there used to be a show that did good deeds for good people. The team would phone builders and other suppliers and ask for free stuff, which a lady called Anneka and a chap named Dave the Soundman went to collect. Dave and Anneka often ran while doing so, though no one can remember why.

Yes, was a lot like DIY SOS The Big Build, now you mention it. But the new Challenge Anneka (Channel 5, Saturday) is on a different channel, one we did not have back then. Otherwise, it is just the same and there is no shame in that.

Anneka and Dave arrived at an animal rescue centre in Kent which was itself in need of some TLC. The mission they had no hesitation in accepting was to build new kennels and play areas, help the centre rehome dogs, and organise a reunion for former clients. All this was to be done within a ridiculously tight timeframe to add what telly calls “jeopardy” to the proceedings.

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Anneka’s skills as a builder-whisperer were as sharp as ever. She jollied the safety-helmeted gangs along and played music to keep morale up, and it worked. The centre reopened bang on time. Britain may be broken, but it can’t be all bad if we can still knock up a kennel in a week.

Anneka had even lined up a surprise for Lisa, the centre's manager – a hot tub. Not for her, but for those dogs in need of hydrotherapy. The fire brigade came round to fill it up, though Lisa’s tears would have probably done the job on their own.

Given the choice of living in Anneka’s world or the one where Grace (STV, Sunday) takes place, give me Annie every time. Crime dramas are hardly known for being a barrel of laughs, but there is something particularly miserable about Grace. Maybe it’s the lead character, Roy Grace, played by the always exquisitely mournful John Simm, or the slightly seedy Brighton setting. Despite its new-found coolness there will always be a touch of the Graham Greenes about Brighton.

Whatever, this was not the show to send you peacefully to bed, featuring as it did a masked rapist whose MO was abducting women in a van, or breaking into their homes or hotel rooms. The attacks were long and detailed and the two-hour run time was spent waiting in dread for the next one to happen. As Sunday night entertainment, as any night entertainment, it was disturbing viewing.

The only high point was the presence of Craig Parkinson, aka Line of Duty’s Dot Cottan, as DI Norman Potting. Norm is old school, a bit of a geezer, can’t stand political correctness and all that malarkey, but heart of gold. More of him, less of the sleaze, and Grace might turn out fine.

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For more wholesome entertainment who could ask for more than Anton and Giovanni: Adventures in Sicily (BBC1, Tuesday)? Er, me. For a start, we’ve only just waved arrivederci to Alan & Amanda’s Italian Job, also set on Sicily. It’s a stunning place, but other islands are available, BBC.

The boys from Strictly showed us around, Giovanni supplying the local knowledge since he was born and brought up there, Anton playing the part of the wide-eyed visitor from England.

Both, alas, felt the need to try their hand at comedy. Oh how we didn’t laugh when Anton’s hat went into the sea, or when he tried to order a coffee with his meagre Italian. Or how about that taxi racing, or singing in the car to the Spice Girls?

This watery nonsense was stretched across a whole hour, complete with a surprise dance demonstration at the end (don't you just hate when that happens on holiday?) At least Alan and Amanda did their thing in half the time, had a renovated house at the end of it, and provided a few genuine laughs along the way.

The Dry (STV Player/ITVX) proudly touts itself as being from the same production company as Normal People. The two share a classy look and location, but The Dry takes place in the badlands of thirtysomething disillusion rather than the sunny stretches of youth.

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Roisin Gallagher plays Shiv Sheridan, a recovering alcoholic with nearly six months “on the dry” behind her. Back home in Dublin after a decade in London failing to make it as an artist, or anything else, Shiv’s arrival unites her family in a weary sigh. The Sheridans have secrets and sorrows aplenty, and Shiv’s return threatens to shatter their collective denial.

An excellent cast, including Ciaran Hinds as Shiv’s father, freshen a familiar story. Some parts ring truer than others and the tone is generally downbeat, but with each episode just half an hour, the tale flies by. Plus, it is not set in Sicily.