There's also a quicker skip through his time covering and participating in politics, and a colourful anecdote about the decidedly inauspicious start to his stint as press secretary for Prime Minister Bob Hawke. True to Zemiro's introduction, Cassidy can sound a little gruff, but here he's also hospitable and giving and this warm reflection offers a sense of the shyness that might still lie beneath the toughened exterior. DE

Instinct

Ten, 8.30pm

Instinct tells one that a drama starring the reliably colourful Alan Cumming as an author turned detective with supposedly brilliant insights into deviant behaviour would be worth a look; unfortunately, Instinct isn't that show. A by-the-book police procedural, it takes a bunch of cliched tropes better used elsewhere – the dapper Dr. Dylan Reinhart is clever but erratic and comes complete with a clutch of Daddy Issues, while his fetching sidekick, played by Australian Bojana Novakovic, is shadowed by failures in her love life – and throws them into a case that can be conveniently cracked in 46 minutes.

The dialogue is of the tin-ear variety, and while there's a certain amount of fun in playing along with the detectives as clues are revealed piece by piece, the leaps in tonight's case are too ludicrous and irrational to become invested in. As for the cloying finale. the less said the better. PK