We have entered the TV doldrums - the period in early December when the broadcasters cram the schedules with all kinds of dross because they are saving their most prestigious programmes for Christmas. For example, last Sunday Channel 4 filled six hours by repeating the two parts of 100 Greatest Family Films, while ITV1 gave us an inept two-hour 'comedy drama' called Who Gets the Dog? in which Alison Steadman overacted (as usual). The dialogue was clunking and stilted (for example, "Stop throwing your judgement around and start thinking outside your own self").

Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work (BBC1) may strike cynics as a contradiction in terms, as this much-publicised five-part series shows that the Royal Family has a staff of 350 to do most of the work at Buckingham Palace (plus a team of voluntary ladies-in-waiting to answer the Queen's letters). The Royals' hardest work seems to involve shaking hands and chatting with people. This documentary series approaches royalty with the sort of wide-eyed reverence the Royal Family seems to expect from everyone, and doesn't dare to question if we are getting value for the millions of pounds it costs us.

During the pre-Christmas doldrums, one searches desperately for worthwhile programmes. The South Bank Show (ITV1) offered us the rare chance to see a programme about music, although it was obviously set up as a chance for Eric Clapton to plug his new autobiography. Melvyn Bragg interviewed Eric, mainly about his middle years when Clapton was constantly stoned with drink or drugs. Bragg seemed too starstruck to ask some obvious questions, such as why Eric said he had written Wonderful Tonight out of irritation rather than love. At least the programme contained some film of musical performances, including brief sightings of such Clapton idols as Muddy Waters and B.B.King.

A more in-depth musical offering is Brasil, Brasil (BBC4), a three-part series which is examining the history of popular music in Brazil. The first episode traced the music's development from samba to bossa nova, and this week's episode showed how the music was affected by the military regime which oppressed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Non-political composers like Jorge Ben had great success with such songs as Mas Que Nada, an international hit for Sergio Mendes despite its lyrics being in Portuguese.

On the other hand, politically-oriented musicians like Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento thought the music should reflect social injustice and the harsh realities of life in the favelas. Eventually their belief that music should be "a shout for freedom" led to an increasing awareness of its African origins, and the samba beat was blended with reggae. These programmes have been eye-opening as well as including a lot of excellent music.

In fact BBC4 has been a ray of light in the surrounding gloom: providing intelligent, watchable programmes. It often offers themed evenings, like David Renwick Night on Monday. This paid tribute to writer David Renwick by showing episodes of his shows such as One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. Mark Lawson Talks to David Renwick (BBC4) elicited some of David's motivations, as he confessed that the misanthropy of Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave was very similar to his own pessimistic outlook on life. And he noted that "comedy is such an amazingly fragile commodity".

d=3,3,1Some people who can't expect a happy Christmas are those affected by the floods in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, and still suffering the after-effects. Dispatches: Britain Under Water (Channel 4) and Tonight: After the Floods (ITV1) both came to the same conclusions: that the government is failing to provide enough money for adequate flood protection and the Environment Agency hardly inspires confidence. Both programmes also reported that local authorities are still allowing new houses to be built on floodplains and that flood damage costs more to repair than installing proper flood defences. Will any of the authorities listen?