Weekend TV

By Sian Brewis

Sometimes, TV programmes just remind you vaguely of old shows. Not Burn Notice (FX, Sunday, 9pm).

This slick US spy drama is not simply inspired by what’s gone before, it’s positively related.

Imagine the offspring of Miami Vice, the A-Team and MacGvyer, and you’re about there. Which, naturally, makes it fantastic fun.

Its hero is Michael Westen, an ex-CIA agent who’s been “burned” – spy for sacked – and ends up back home in glamorous Miami.

He has to a) find out who done him wrong, b) earn a living as private eye and c) put up with his mother.

Cue lots of action, sharp suits, saving the day and lots of put-downs, mostly set to an obligatory bouncing soundtrack.

Star Jeffrey Donovan also does a natty line in voiceovers, giving it just the right blend of weariness and sarcasm: “Spend a few years as a covert operative, and a sunny beach just looks like a vulnerable tactical position with no decent cover.”

He’s MacGyver, without the 80s mullet. In the pilot, he rigs up a listening device using a mobile phone and gets rid of his drug dealing neighbour using duct tape.

Bruce Campbell is on top form as the lardy louche lounge lizard “guy who knows a guy” Sam, who helps him through the Miami underworld. “Good news for you. I’m drunk and a washout, and I don’t care.”

But while it might seem lighter than an air souffle, it’s deceptive. There’s substance with the style, a fast-paced witty script and proper characters which for the most part, works.

What’s bad about it? Too many Baywatch-style swimwear shots, and Gabrielle Anwar’s Irish accent is easily the worst since Tom Cruise’s in Far and Away.

What’s good? It’s escapist froth for dark nights, you don’t have to concentrate, and it’s a programme set in Miami which doesn’t have anyone called Horatio in it.

* Even Don Johnson’s worst Miami Vice excesses paled besides James May’s wardrobe in Big Ideas (Sunday, BBC 2 9pm).

He started off with a terrible blue striped rugby shirt, moved on to a green flowery one and then topped it all with a pink, lime green and black floral number.

Don’t ask me what the programme was about. Something about robots. I think. All I could think was, Good Lord man, do you never see a mirror?