On the Box: Lost: The Final Journey | Lost: The End, parts 1 & 2 | Opera Italia Stephen Fry On Wagner | Diva Diaries | The Marriage Of Figaro

Once upon a time there was a magical land, where there were scary things and strange things and scary people who acted in strange ways. There were beautiful heroes and heroines, tangled up in epic, convoluted romances.

There were jesters for comic relief. Sometimes the heroes seemed like villains and sometimes the villains turned out to be heroes and sometimes they went back and forward till you really didn't know. And everybody spent most of their time going from one place in the land to another place, then back again, on a circuitous quest which was its own meaning.

And nobody in this place ever asked any questions, for it was against the Law. Even when everyone was screaming at them to do so, they would let the people who seemed to know things get away with gnomic statements which explained nothing, instead of pinning them down and making them speak plainly.

But there were those who lost faith in the magical place and they said, this is silly. And they were sick of spending hours upon hours watching pretty people react to bizarre circumstances without finding out what was going on and they said, I am giving up and watching 24 instead.

Others kept the faith and they said, no, I am going to stick with it because one day there will be answers which explain everything, even the polar bears, so we will sit through bits which tell how the boring doctor got his tattoos or watch the bland fugitive fail once again to decide whether she likes him or the hunky conman best. The faithful puzzled over every clue, reading novels glimpsed in the corners of the magical land, studying up on the philosophers whom some inhabitants were named after, pondering the nature of reality, of parallel time streams and the duality of the universe.

And when they got fed up doing that, the faithful tackled the question of who was the sexiest in the magical land, a challenging task involving comparisons of people in wet vests running from explosions, a task which could never be resolved.

But at last, as inevitable as lights out at bedtime, even if you want just one more story, the end comes this week, with a two-and-a-half hour long episode (bookended by documentaries: organise your LOST Finale viewing parties now, fans!).

As one who has happily stayed with Lost through all its infuriating, brilliant, messy 119 episodes so far, I will be sad to see this fairy tale end. For that is what the show has been, a woolly, magical story from the folklore and myth tradition rather than the science fiction genre or that of conventional TV drama.

Those who gave up on it over the years may just have been bored, but perhaps part of the problem was misplaced expectations: if you expected neat, plausible answers for all of the island's mysteries, you would inevitably be disappointed. Fairy tales don't work that way: you don't ask where Cinderella's godmother got her powers from, or what happened to the hare after he lost the race to the tortoise (a descent into alcoholism and bitter regret, probably).

But if you are one of those who got fed up along the way, what you probably want to know is, what was it all about? Are the producers really going to explain everything in the end?

To which I say, it was about good vs evil and faith vs science and action versus passivity and, perhaps most importantly, about which of the pretty people looked sexiest in a wet vest running from an explosion. And yes, it will be explained, in a fairytale way, which means you will have to make half of it up yourself, but isn't that one of the most glorious pleasures of fiction?

Oh, and they explained the polar bears ages ago. Do keep up.

For some, opera is as impenetrable as Lost, but for others, also as magical. The BBC's new opera season attempts a tricky balancing act: satisfying the already knowledgeable, who are not generally well catered for on TV, if you don't count the cheesy likes of From Popstar To Opera Star and I'm sure they don't. But it also must attempt to open up the art form to those who can only recognise Nessun Dorma.

Flagship series Opera Italia tries to do both by foregrounding presenter Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera and a vivacious screen presence who brings enthusiasm to this history of the music's role in Italian culture. But, inevitably, in beginning with its origins as palace entertainment for dukes, the programme can't help but reinforce that image of elitism.

Enthusiast Stephen Fry – is there anything he's not into? – is a lifelong fan of Wagner and so an astute choice to explore the composer's difficult legacy, though the access Stephen Fry On Wagner has to preparations for the Bayreuth Festival leads to an ultimately upbeat view of the man and his music.

Diva Diaries, which follows Australian-American singer Danielle de Niese's rehearsals for a role at New York's Met, is more for the cognoscenti, with much musing on the strains of her art and the pressures of her vocal regime. The season culminates with a performance of the Royal Opera House's The Marriage of Figaro.

Lost: The Final Journey

Friday, Sky One, 7pm

Lost: The End, parts 1 & 2

Friday, Sky One, 9pm

Opera Italia

Monday, BBC 4, 9pm

Stephen Fry On Wagner

Tuesday, BBC 4, 9pm

Diva Diaries

Wednesday, BBC 4, 9pm

The Marriage Of Figaro

Friday, BBC 4, 7.30pm

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on 22 May.