With the Christmas holidays on the way, it's a good time to start thinking about the end of the world.
Both those unfortunate events are fast closing in, and yes, both will be televised.
For those who want to make the most of both, an excellent tourism venture has been dreamed up, and that venture is brought home in The End of the World Bus Tour (Documentary Channel, Thursday, December 3, 8.30pm).
This cheerful tour is lapped up, in a surprisingly cheerful manner, by a group of apocalyptic trainspotters from. who travel to what will apparently soon be a grand barney between the forces of evil and God.
The reason for the happy demeanour of our tourists is their unwavering belief they will not be there, with another sort of bus tour - the rapture - having taken them directly to heaven moments beforehand.
There is a clear lack of compassion among the tourists for the rest of us, but there you go.
An important core belief for the group, which travels to Israel for a plane trip over the Valley of the Apocolypse, and, strangely, spends a day helping out at an Israeli army base, is that scriptural warnings of the end of the world as written in the bible are true.
Apparently, the final battle will be fought in the valley, a pleasant spot currently devoted to agriculture.
"It's going to be a very bloody battle," one tourist tells us.
"Very bloody".
More Yuletide cheer comes our way on December 20, when The End of the World as we Know It (Documentary Channel, December 20) explains why the end of the world is actually nigh.
Travel writer and journalist Louis Theroux's son Marcel takes us to the hot spots of global warming, and provides compelling evidence we are all going to die. Soon. Enjoy.
Never mind all that though, there's Christmas to worry about.
It's never too early to start planning for the annual joys of trees, presents, and most of all, the joy of spending time with family.
If you can't get out of it this year, and have to spend the day with your dysfunctional family watching TV, you can join them in watching another dysfunctional family putting up with their family, and spending Christmas watching TV.
Sort of like looking in a mirror.
The Royle Family Christmas Special: The New Sofa, lights up UKTV on December 25 at 8.30pm.
It is the Christmas 2008 special, but never mind.
The day starts on the sofa, with some conversational gems.
"How's your Dad, Dave?"
"Aw, he's all right, yeah."
"Has he still got that dry crevice?"
"Yeah."
A Bafta award-winning comedy, it is well worth a look - if you're still alive, that is.
