Another week, another gritty northern drama. Adapted from a novel by Jonathan Trigell, Boy A (Channel 4) is set in Manchester, where many gritty dramas take place, although this one gets away from some of the stereotypes. It concerns a boy named Jack who has spent his adolescence in prison and is now trying to make a life for himself in the strange outside world. We gradually discover that he was in prison for abetting a friend in murdering a young girl. The story has obvious similarities to the James Bulger case, but it sets out the dilemmas of freeing such young offenders back into the community. Jack has been reformed, yet the tabloid newspapers still try to track him down and ruin his life.

All this raises some interesting questions but the delivery of the story was flawed in several ways. Some of the characters were not delineated clearly, so that the action was sometimes puzzling, and the actors often gabbled or slurred their lines, rendering comprehension even more difficult. Clarity was also obscured by irritating music and frequent flashbacks. It was a thought-provoking and well-acted drama but its two hours seemed overlong.

That play made a good case for giving people a second chance when they have really changed. Tonight: Don't Take My Baby (ITV1) revealed the cruel way that some pregnant women are treated by social services when they have had problems as teenagers. Despite evidence that these mothers are no longer any danger to anyone, child protection agencies put their children into care. Some mothers are even informed that their child will be taken away as soon as the umbilical cord is cut. The programme suggested that this heartless behaviour may result from the government setting over-ambitious targets for adoptions.

Evicted Update (BBC1) reminded us of another area where the authorities are often unsympathetic: dealing with the homeless. The programme was basically a repeat of last year's Evicted, with an update tacked on at the end. The horrifying statistics were also updated: for example, 125,429 children were homeless in March 2007, and 135,000 people's mental health deteriorates because of homelessness. One family was evicted from its home because the Benefits Agency failed to pay housing benefit on time - an error which was only rectified months later. No doubt many more families will be evicted as homes are repossessed because of the 'sub-prime' mortgages scandal.

The statistics in Evicted Update were disturbingly credible but In Search of Mr Average (Channel 4) provided a useful lesson about the reliability of statistics. Filmmaker Tim Wardle went in search of the average Britisher as portrayed by statistics. Surveys make generalisations like "the average British person drinks 1,000 cups of tea a year" (as well as hating Brussels sprouts, being 40 years old and living in Colchester). After interviewing several people who seemed to have 'average' qualities, Tim concluded that these claims are meaningless because "people are too different".

Mindless generalisations were rife in This is Civilisation (Channel 4), Matthew Collings's faltering attempt to emulate Kenneth Clark's Civilisation. Matthew made sweeping statements about religious art and jumped confusingly from one subject to another, often returning to a piece of film we had already seen. Maybe the series will improve for its remaining three episodes but, on this showing, Collings was unwise to take on such an ambitious theme.

Having recently had my first experience of flying by easyJet, I am prepared to utter several generalisations about their service, which are substantiated by All New Airline (ITV1). This docusoap is back for another series illustrating the airline failing its customers. Last Friday's episode showed easyJet staff being extremely unhelpful to passengers who had been held up by traffic jams. Staff also rerouted two passengers to Dortmund, 140 miles from their intended destination of Bremen. The filmmakers might have spent half the 30-minute programme showing the long walk I had to take at Luton Airport from the check-in to the departure gate.