TONY ON TV: There’s plenty of quality among the rubbish

CAR insurance never seems to go down, and with the advent of a new gizmo it looks like going up . . . possibly each and every day you drive.

It’s a black box attachment to the car, which, thanks to your insurer, records very driving movement from the way you accelerate, change gear or what lane you are in to whether you are speeding.

Going over the limit might also be a double whammy with a ticket from the police plus the insurers beefing up premiums after reviewing the black box’s record of your driving performance.

Such technology would be a godsend to TV bosses who would be able to check on what viewers were watching, or avoiding, which in my case includes:

* Muting the sound on morning TV on ITV1 so I don’t have to listen to Lorraine Kelly asking long questions and then answering it herself.

* Fast forwarding through the ads, especially the ones where drivers zig-zag through deserted streets and exploding paint bombs

* Hoping the Foxy Bingo bus will run out of fuel as it keeps interrupting ace social worker Jeremy Kyle at his morning clinic.

These all want consigning to ‘Room 101,’ but amid all the TV trash there’s still plenty worth watching.

Friday night is one example with the return of oddball investigator ‘Jonathan Creek’ (BBC1) up against a bracing comedy drama ‘Edge of Heaven’ (ITV1) set in a 1980s-themed bed and breakfast joint in Margate.

This seaside saga got off to a gag-filled start, especially when the owner’s gormless son, carpet salesman Alfie (Blake Harrison from ‘The InBetweeners’) was jilted at the altar by the girl of his dreams, hairdesser Carly -- although this didn’t stop her from going on a husband-free honeymoon.

There are no such hitches in the fifth series of ‘Jonathan Creek,’ which sees Alan Davies (back in the title role after a 10-year break) with his new wife, Polly (Sarah Alexander) although it seems she doesn’t share her husband’s zeal for solving puzzles and mysteries.

One secret that can be shared ahead of the first of the three episodes (in which the sleuth investigates the case of a West End singing diva found stabbed inside a locked dressing room) is that Jonathan’s new home is, in fact, the early Tudor manor house of Dorney Court near Windsor in Berkshire, a few minutes away from Junction 7 of the M4. Further details can be found at www.dorneycourt.co.uk