It’s fair enough that 15 million people are tuning into a TV talent contest (it’s good fun, right?) but elsewhere on television – specifically last night – there’s some seriously good serious telly about too. While loads of people were watching people sing and dance, on BBC One and BBC Two two of our heaviest heavyweight cultural presenters were, erm, presenting programmes at the very same time. Who came out on top?

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Thank the lordy lordington for iPlayer and PVRs, eh? How else could we have watched both Sir David Attenborough narrating Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link over on BBC One and Simon Schama properly presenting Simon Schama’s John Donne.

Attenborough’s show was hardly flagged up by the BBC, which was well weird. Anything featuring the great man is normally flagged up within an inch of its life, but no – we’ve heard little more than a squeak from this in the previewing world.

Still, Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link was, nonetheless, an Attenborough show, even though it was his voice that took centre stage. To be fair it wasn’t the greatest Attenborough show that has ever been, but was still pretty interesting.

It told the story of a team of fossil experts who had come into contact with the Rosetta Stone of fossils – the beautifully preserved skeleton of a 47 million-year-old primate they called Eida. Found in Germany, Eida’s fossil was so detailed (there was a soft body imprint, imprints of bacteria in the fur could be seen, and even some of the gut content)that the crack group of scientists felt that this could be the missing link between humans and the animal kingdom.

The whole programme was leading up to the revelation that yes, Eida was a link to humans, mainly thanks to a specific bone they found in her feet. The scientists concluded, after months of study, that she was part of a transitional species. A fusion of the lemur line and the anthropoid line – an animal that links us not only back to apes but also to the rest of the animal kingdom. Darwin must be doing cartwheels and getting drunk on pear cider as I write this.

So good news all round then and a real breakthrough in genetics and science and all that kind of stuff, and it was an entertaining enough watch. I did wonder why they strung it out for so long though – it was like an hour-long news story if I was being harsh. Still, Attenborough’s

Simon Schama, meanwhile, was in full, effusive flow over on BBC Two. In Simon Schama’s John Donne (he always has to have his name in the programme title!), he profiled the extraordinary 16th century poet John Donne (pronounced Dunn), who lived quite a life – saucy philanderer, saucy poet, saucy saucepot, rule breaker, soldier, Catholic, Anglican, MP, butcher, baker, candlestick maker (I made those last three up) and then, latterly, Dean Of St Paul’s.

In terms of a biography, it was really a fascinating watch. Actress Fiona Shaw did a great job bringing to life Donne’s poems, while Schama himself was in top form, bescarfed and walking across a snowbound London with his customary swagger.

As ever with Schama it was his, flowery, descriptive (but accessible) language that was the winner. “The sheer conversational effrontery of it.” “The ground under his feet subsided and a terrifying pit opened.” “When the precocious fall they fall hard.”

Yes Simon, shower my face with your Schamaness! Love it.

It’s unfair to compare both broadcasters, who are very different, but it was Schama who was the winner last night. Simons Schama’s John Donne was simply a terrific programme, full of “electrifying poetry”, windswept landscapes and some great bits of old London. Attenborough’s show was good enough, but the key point was that it wasn’t a complete Attenborough show.

Still, two top cultural shows for some noggin love.