AS A child of the ’80s, I was excited to learn of the return of The Muppet Show (Disney+, released Wednesday). This is a one-off special of the beloved family sketch and variety show, to celebrate 50 years since it first aired. Some of its hugely successful special guests included Dame Shirley Bassey, Johnny Cash, and Sir Roger Moore. The 2026 version is joyfully faithful to the old format, in which hugely respected and inaccessible stars were honoured to work with luminaries who shone even brighter: a cast of spongy Muppets.

Back in the original upper theatre, it comfortingly looks and sounds almost exactly the same as it always did, although Kermit doesn’t quite the hit the mark. He was made famous by Jim Henson, of course, but is currently voiced by Matt Vogel, and it’s just not the same. Most of the original Muppet cast are present and correct: Rowlf the Dog, Scooter, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Beaker, Dr Bunsen, and, most important of all, the star of the show, Miss Piggy.

Seth Rogen and Sabrina Carpenter are the celebrity guests, playing it deadpan serious and with all the proper respect due to the Muppet performers. As with Sir Michael Caine’s excellent turn in A Muppet Christmas Carol, the fiction works only if the human actors enter into it wholeheartedly, with no knowing looks to camera or sly breaks of the fourth wall.

I wasn’t sure what I needed to improve my February, but it turns out that it was Sabrina Carpenter singing a duet with Miss Piggy: “I modelled my whole look on you.” You’ll have to watch the show to see who is saying that to whom. Muppets are for life, after all, not just for Christmas.

The Fabulous Funeral Parlour (Channel 4, Wednesday) has a similarly kitsch and quirky aesthetic. Butterflies Rising Funeral Care, in Liverpool, is operated by Hayley McCaughran, who entered funeral directing after the death of her mother in 2019. Described as “one of a kind”, she offers funerals that are deeply personal and unique. The funeral parlour resembles a cross between a beauty salon and a spa; this is funeral directing with a distinctly feminine — and Scouse — feel to it. Everything is carried out with enormous attention to detail, but, crucially, it is all done with great love and care.

The programme is moving and poignant, including difficult personal stories. It is set in a place where the paradox of poverty and ornate send-offs may seem strange, but the lines between life and death are often blurred in tough places. An elaborate final goodbye is a way to honour a relative who might have been unsung by the world during life. It is an extravagant way to declare “This person was loved.”