Mistaking plagiarism for copyright (for TV format protection)

Mark Lawson gets it wrong on the ideas-expression dichotomy in the Guardian when comparing Raymond Blanc's Restaurant with Alan Sugar's Apprentice. But others have long made the case for - and mooted options regarding - the protection of TV formats under UK and EC law (1,2,3) (...under French law? - 1,2; Australian law? - 1), not least resulting from the sheer scale of the international trade (£1.6B in 2004 according to FRAPA and ScreenDigest).