TO be on the box last weekend it helped if your name was Tess. They were all over the place!

First of all Tess Daly surfaced on BBC1 in a pointless curtain raiser to the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Along with a drawn out review of last year's contest, we were introduced to the poor souls ready to don the lycra and strut their stuff on the dance floor.

Already I know which contestants are going to annoy me most over the coming weeks - Gary Rhodes, Jessie Wallace and Jodie Kidd have a high 'grate' factor, with Andrew Castle not far behind.

Their bodies may be tortured and twisted on the show, but they are unlikely to find themselves impaled on a metal post like the second Tess of the weekend, Casualty's Mrs Bateman.

The first episode in the new series of BBC1's hospital drama featured the worst and most irritating display of preaching at the viewing public I can remember (apparently, all the NHS staff work as a team - pity Holby's finest are better known for boozing, gambling, taking drugs and committing adultery).

We were also treated to the sight of a Tess kebab, when the po-faced nurse plunged on to a post, while chasing a former patient. Being a stalwart of the nursing staff and one of Charlie's friends, she survived, of course.

By Sunday the Tess phenomena had gone back in time. Gemma Arterton took the title role in BBC1's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a drama that should be better than it is.

It is well cast, the script is fine and the performances good, but somehow it just didn't live for me. Perhaps it was just a case of a surfeit of Tesses!