Mother and Practice

How I Met Your Mother, the acclaimed CBS comedy, begins on BBC2 on Sunday May 7th at 7.35pm. This hit sitcom stars former Doogie Howser Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan. The second episode will air on BBC3 the following night at 10.30pm.

Meanwhile Channel Five will begin airing the Stockard Channing/Henry Winkler comedy Out of Practice in May. Living will also air the show beginning June 27th. Both will hope CBS don't cancel the show before it starts airing in the UK, ratings have been poor in the US

Schedule stuff and lots of love

More 4 will begin airing season ten of NYPD Blue on Monday, May 8th, with new episodes airing three times a week. Seasons eleven and twelve will follow........Without A Trace is back on More 4 next Thursday, airing at 9pm opposite ER on E4 and House on Channel 5. Both of the first two get plenty of repeats though.....Channel 4 will air the first two episodes of the second series of Lost on May 2nd with episode three straight after on E4.....Good news for Channel 5, their new HBO drama Big Love has been picked up for a second season. The Bill Paxton starrer about polygamy begins in the UK this summer.

A lot more 24

Kiefer Sutherland has signed on for THREE more seasons of 24 with 20th Century Fox and will also become an executive producer on the show.

This signals a lot more of Jack Bauer than previously announced, officially the show has only been ordered for one more season and there has been speculation about a 24 movie.

Sutherland has also bagged a two year development deal for his own production company.

Special FX

FX have retained the rights for the fourth season of NCIS despite competition from elsewhere. The navy drama has just started screening on terrestrial Channel Five.

They have also picked up the UK rights to E-Ring starring Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the NBC military drama is likely to be cancelled by NBC before FX screen it in September.

FX have also picked up ABC's new crime series the Evidence, and more interestingly Dexter, the much talked about serial killer drama from Showtime which stars Six Feet Under's Michael C Hall. The network will begin screening Showtimes Sleeper Cell next week which has been renewed for a second run.

Charmed I'm sure

Channel Four have stolen the rights to the eighth and final season of Charmed. A rather bizarre move given that the series has always previously been on Living and Channel Five

Further bad news for Five. Greys Anatomy managed only 1.8 million in its first outing despite unprecedented hype by the network. Nearly a million more watched House that was on just before it but didn't feel compelled to stick around

Lost found and NYPD returns at last

Channel Four will screen the second season of Lost on Tuesday nights beginning in early May.

We will find out what is in the hatch in about five weeks time.

NYPD Blue will also be back although after a much longer absence. The remaining three seasons, a total of 68 episodes, will begin screening nightly Monday through Thursday on More 4 next month.

Alias vets in new pilots

As Alias airs its final season on Bravo, some notable names from the series are in high profile pilots.

Ron Rikin and Patricia Wettig will re-unite in ABC's Brothers & Sisters which also stars Betty
Buckley and, remarkably, Calista Flockhart, who has been rarely seen since Ally McBeal folded. Six Feet Under star Rachel Griffiths also seems to be attached to this.

Melissa George, who met her maker in season three, stars alongside Gina Gershon in the drama pilot Lipstick Jungle based on the Candace Bushnell book.

Meanwhile Jack Bristow, better known as Victor Garber, is destined to uphold the law in a courtroom rather than in the field, he is part of American Crime, a new Fox pilot from Jerry Bruckheimer.

Bada Bing for summer

Its not true that the new season of the Sopranos will not see the light of day in the UK until 2007. The current run airing on HBO in the US will air on E4 over the summer. It had been thought the show might be held back longer. Additionally More 4 will screen the new season of Without A Trace in late April, with a Channel 4 screening later in the year.