Lilyhammer, BBC 4, 10pm

Let’s try and sell this idea. You get a guy that's like an American gangster. I’m thinking Robert de Niro here, but someone a lot cheaper. So we get Steven Van Zandt. We put him in the witness protection programme, but we don’t send him to Detroit or New Jersey, we send him to Lilyhammer. Get it. That’s in Norway. It’s not a gangster in New York. It’s a gangster in Lilyhammer. Not surprising the locals don’t understand him. They speak Norwegian after all, but they’re very courteous and everybody also speaks English. Would be gangsters are full of these quaint ideas that a man with a bit of chutzpa can soon sort the shit from the bull. In one scene, for example, Van Zandt shames a few of the town’s deadbeats to go wolf hunting, which is illegal. They’ve got a rifle and travel on skis. Van Zandt has some snowshoes and a handgun. Guess who nabs the wolf? I won’t spoil it for you. Oh, yeh, and let’s make it a comedy. I’m reminded of Mel Brooks playing the impresario that can’t lose with hits like ‘Spring Time in Hitler for Germany.’ Now that was a comedy.