Careless Whiskers: The Unseen George Michael (five); Inside The Priory (five): Television, not wanting to deny the public's obsession with celebrity or wanting to be left behind by all those gossip magazines, has developed its own brand of tittle-tattle documentary.

All you need is an old friend or confidante willing to spill the beans about the personal habits of someone famous, old film clips showing them behaving badly, a psychologist or other expert to offer a professional opinion and a jokey title.

Careless Whiskers: The Unseen George Michael fulfilled the requirements nicely - the star exhibit being home movie footage courtesy of his former best friend, Andros Georgio - and with friends like that, you might think, who needs enemies.

Not that he shed light on the sexuality of the singer, who was in the closet for the first 20 or so years of his career. Andros may have been young George's best friend - describing him as "a pretty fat kid" - but had no idea he was gay.

There were hints that no one picked up, like the singer visiting gay clubs and Wham making their first live performance in such an establishment.

"George and Andrew went down quite well as two good-looking young men," noted one observer.

Michael's problem in coming out was that he was being promoted as a love god adored by female fans. Nowadays, pop videos for songs like Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go appear so camp you wonder how anyone missed the clues.

And, in hindsight, any singer who stuffs shuttlecocks down his shorts, takes them out on stage and bats them into the audience during the performance - as Michael did - is clearly trying to tell us something.

Then came the infamous LA toilet incident in which Michael was arrested for lewd behaviour. He turned from being intensely personal about his private life to stridently public about being gay. He even phoned Richard and Judy to sound off on air.

George Michael himself didn't contribute to last night's programme but several reformed characters queued up to confess to their past sins during Inside The Priory, a gossip-fuelled programme about life inside the trendiest drying out clinic in the world.

If you have a problem with drink or drugs, the Roehampton clinic, known as The Priory, is the place to be seen. There was even the suggestion that celebrities whose careers need a boost book in to raise their profile again. Instead of dining out at The Ivy, they dry out at The Priory.

At £600 a night, it costs more than posh hotel The Dorchester but the celebs aren't impressed by the facilities.

Big Brother winner Nadia only stayed one night, presumably because there weren't cameras in every room and there was no diary room. Another inmate described it as being like a very cheap motel without a TV and mini-bar.

What they seemed to forget was that this is a mental health unit, not a five-star hotel and that they are there to be cured as habit turns into rehab.

Never mind, when they come out - not in the George Michael sense, you understand - they can write a book about the experience and do the rounds of the TV chat shows. As the programme pointed out, a stay in The Priory is "great box office".