Bushell on the Box: VJ Day on the BBC, Celebs go Dating and the big Mastermind question

Children aren't taught about the courage and sacrifice of the British and Commonwealth soldiers who stopped Japan's invasion of India in 1944. BBC2's VJ Day 80: We Were There reminded us of the merciless savagery of the enemy. Decapitated heads were put on spikes, prisoners were beaten to death, emaciated PoW slave labourers, looking like living corpses, were forced to build the Thai-Burma death railway... Robin Rowland, ex British India Army, recalled Japanese soldiers bayoneting 31 British soldiers in a field hospital.

The Battle of Britain and El Alamein are part of our collective memory. Yet the battles of Kohima and Imphal - "the Stalingrad of the East" - were some of the fiercest and most decisive of World War II. Winning them, at a huge cost, turned the tide of the eastern conflict before the A-bombs dropped. The surviving men of the 14th Army called themselves the Forgotten Army. Few ever spoke about the horrors they endured. Even decades later, words did not come easily.

BBC1's Antiques Roadshow: VJ Day Special reminded us of their story through mementos passed down the generations. Poignant keepsakes ranged from a chess set carved with a penknife by Jack Jennings, the last death railway survivor, to a Japanese officer's ceremonial shin gunto sword, acquired at Kohima. Historian Robert Tilney called it, "history in your hand...a hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck job".

The heirlooms brought the past to life, but the words, carved in stone in a Kohima war cemetery said it all: "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today."

What would those old boys would make of what we've become? A country with porous borders, undermined by dripping wet judges, where courts hound ex-servicemen and terrorists walk free. We should be ashamed.

Television often plays fast and loose with the truth - but enough about BBC News. The latest irritation is the fashionable oxymoron "reality star". A star is someone talented, classy and accomplished enough to whisk us (itals) away (roman) from life's grim realities. Laurence Olivier, Sinatra, and Tommy Cooper were stars. Beyonce, Billy Connolly, and Florence Pugh are now. Not some numpty who came third on a dismally cynical TV dating show.

Love Island losers can be seen underperforming in a range of shallow formats, along with unknown drag queens, tiresome self-publicists, has-beens and never-weres. One of them, bit-part actress Olivia Hawkins, is on Celebs Go Dating rubbing suntanned shoulders with fallen pop stars and Christine McGuinness, best known for once being married to Peter Kay's mate Paddy.

In fairness, three-times-divorcee and former Atomic Kitten Kerry Katona, 44, is entertaining in a bawdy, unfiltered sub-Benidorm way. She mocks her own "car crash" love life and says of a 30-year-old would-be suitor, "He's too young, I'll end up breast-feeding him". She'll be calling herself Atomic Mutton next.

Ex-model Christine, a woman who makes Keir Starmer appear decisive, dithers constantly. Marriage to Paddy seems to have put her off men for life. Pretty boy Louis Russell from Netflix's Too Hot To Handle is not the sharpest arrow in the quiver. Louis forgot he came from Hampshire. He also forgot the name of his intended date - "pretty sure it's Catherine...or Jenny" (it was Caitlin).

Lou can barely get through a sentence without referencing his genitals. Yet the only spark in the opening episodes was between him and Olivia.

If ITV book the pair for their optimistically named Cooking With The Stars they'd be advised not to let Louis rustle up his stuffed bell pepper. Love Islander Ekin-Su appeared on Sunday's episode and was swiftly eliminated - her "éclair", a shrivelled biscuit, was only marginally worse than the gooey horror interior designer Kelly Hoppen dished up.

ITV's Ridley is another dog's dinner, a long, slow plod starring Adrian Dunbar as the titular long, slow plod. Retired DI Alex Ridley has been drafted back to help his old force. Sunday's episode was two hours of cliches, with cardboard characters, contrived casting, insipid dialogue, and zero warmth. It started with a fast-paced robbery but rapidly lost momentum. The only thing more snail-like than the pacing is Ridley's non-romance with Julie Graham, who is wasted.

Quick question: why do Mastermind contestants say "pass"? Passes count against you in a tie, wrong guesses don't.

On The Walking Dead - Dead City callous manipulator Dama was revealed to have been a theatre critic before the zombie apocalypse hit, and was burnt to death. It makes you wonder if the showrunners had once felt the pain of Frank Rich's theatrical reviews. He wasn't called the Butcher of Broadway for nothing.

In streaming news, Alien: Earth, the Disney+ prequel to the 1979 Alien film, packs in horror, humour, and rational warnings about the possible downsides of AI. Jenna Ortega still sparkles as withering Wednesday (Netflix).