What’s on TV tonight: Changing Ends, High Country, Aretha Franklin at the BBC and more

Saturday 13 July

Changing Ends
ITV1, 9pm & 9.30pm
The first series of Alan Carr’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy had the warm feel of a British sitcom classic. Set in the Northampton of the 1980s, it recounts the comedian’s childhood as the cartoonishly camp son of a macho football manager (Shaun Dooley). Carr occasionally pops up as himself to offer catty meta commentary, but the star is young Oliver Savell, whose take on Carr is a pitch-perfect impersonation. 

Series two, which premieres tonight with a double-bill, is no less charming. The first episode follows Alan as he attempts to fool a cinema into letting him watch a film that he’s not old enough to see. Cue a plan involving a fake ID, bought from local rebel Donna (Missy Haysom), a girl who “had a fringe you could lay an egg in”. The second episode is the stronger of the two. Alan is turning 12 years old, which of course means an Agatha Christie-themed party. This dovetails nicely with the mystery of a local pervert who has been stealing knickers from washing lines, leading to the hysterical scene in which Alan’s mum (Nancy Sullivan) competes with neighbour Angela (Gabby Best) to see who can titillate the peeping Tom the most. SK

Jay Blades: The West End Through Time 
Channel 5, 9pm
Having already explored his native East End, Jay Blades goes west – to London’s glittering hub of theatre and shopping. In tonight’s episode, the first of two, he charts its history. He learns how Charles II granted the patents that would lead to the West End’s first theatre and visits Fortnum & Mason to sample their scotch eggs. 

End of Summer
BBC Four, 9pm & 9.50pm
The Swedish thriller continues with another double bill. Tonight, Vera (Julia Ragnarsson) visits the place where her brother, Billy – who was kidnapped as a child – was believed to have been killed. Once again, however, she finds the mysterious Isak (Erik Enge), who claims to be Billy. Time for a DNA test. 

Kings from Queens: The Run-DMC Story
Sky Documentaries, 9pm 
Run-DMC, the rap group best known for songs such as It’s Like That and Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way, are one of the most influential artists in hip-hop. This three-part documentary tells the story of their rise, starting tonight with how Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell took rap music by storm. 

High Country
BBC One, 9.10pm & 10.20pm 
This moody, if familiar Australian drama follows city cop Andie Whitford (Leah Purcell) as she makes a fresh start in a remote “alpine” town in Victoria. Her life is interrupted though when, in the first of tonight’s double bill, she is caught up in a series of mysterious disappearances. The full boxset is on the iPlayer. 

Aretha Franklin at the BBC 
BBC Two, 9.10pm
A compilation of archive BBC appearances by Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul. The highlight is a spellbinding 2015 performance of You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman) that had then-US president Barack Obama in tears. This is followed by a welcome repeat of concert film Aretha Franklin in Amsterdam 1968. 

Tom Allen: Completely
ITV1, 10pm
The eternally suited and booted Tom Allen is in effervescent form in this stand-up special. Filmed at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, it is themed around the comedian having finally moved out of his parents’ house. Expect gags about his latest obsession, a vegetable patch, and the protocol around inviting friends with children for dinner. 

Film of the Week: The Eagle Has Landed (1976) ★★★★
BBC Two, 3.20pm
Best known by his pen name Jack Higgins, Henry Patterson set out to create “adventures that make people think”. The action-thriller readership welcomed such moral ambiguity: the book earned him £1 million within a week of its publication, and he became a superstar of the thriller genre, eventually selling more than 250 million copies of his books. A year later, Great Escape director John Sturges made this top-tier film version of the story of a crack team of German paratroopers who infiltrate a Norfolk village and try to kidnap Winston Churchill. Michael Caine plays it as straight as he can as a Nazi colonel, alongside an OTT Robert Duvall in an eye-patch, Donald Pleasence as Heinrich Himmler and the late Donald Sutherland as an IRA terrorist who falls for a plucky Jenny Agutter. The Germans, led by Caine’s Colonel Steiner, are noble, meaning that the audience half-wants them to succeed in their task, even as the Allied forces track them down. It all ends with an ingeniously unexpected conclusion that allows Caine’s character a moment of triumph, before historical accuracy is restored. It’s also on Thursday (BBC Four, 8pm) followed by Scene by Scene: Donald Sutherland.

Shazam! (2019) ★★★★
ITV1, 5.30pm  
This infectiously silly DC superhero film stars Zachary Levi as Shazam, a scarlet-suited, lightning-powered he-man, whose alter ego happens to be a 12-year-old (comparisons to Penny Marshall’s classic 1980s body-swap comedy Big are entirely deserved and deliberate). Mark Strong sends up his own villainous gravitas as a flunked superhero out for revenge. A fine antidote to the current glut of 
po-faced caped crusaders.

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) ★★
Channel 4, 6.45pm  
A feeble retread of the 1996 original, just with more aliens in an even bigger ship and intergalactic laser cannons. Cue a new generation of hunky fighters, alongside familiar faces such as a game Jeff Goldblum as hero David Levinson and Bill Pullman’s ex-President Thomas Whitmore, but not Will Smith. The scale of the carnage is so preposterous that the human drama feels as low-stakes as a flea circus.

The King’s Man (2021) ★★★
Channel 4, 9pm  
Matthew Vaughn’s larky, vulgar Bond pastiche – a First World War-set prequel to his ribald Kingsman spy capers from 2015 and 2017, in which Taron Egerton’s tearaway was recruited into the elite world of the British secret service – expects us to take it seriously. Ralph Fiennes plays it straight (save for a farcical, trouser-dropping clinch with a mad monk) as the spy ring’s head, as early 20th-century Europe goes into tinderbox mode.

The Last Stand (2013) ★★★
Channel 4, 11.40pm  
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s leathery, rust-nibbled comeback vehicle is a fun mulch of action and Western clichés, playfully directed by Kim Jee-woon. Arnie plays a small-town sheriff – with a sidekick played by Johnny Knoxville – with the armoury of a small country, in pursuit of a fugitive gang. You can guess the rest, but the action powers along in the loud, stylish fashion you expect from the very best Arnie movies.

Sunday 14 July

Euro 2024 Final: Spain v England
BBC One & ITV1, from 6.30pm
The men’s Euro 2021, the women’s Euro 2022, the women’s World Cup 2023 and, now, the men’s Euro 2024 – that’s four major tournament finals in as many summers for England. Three Lions fans, have you ever had it so good? Well... Gareth Southgate’s side are back in the Euros final – and in a men’s final on foreign soil for the first time ever – but not everyone has been convinced by England’s occasionally tepid football. Spain, however, have looked ominously convincing. Still, England stand 90 minutes (or 120 and penalties) from history.

We know we’ll all be watching – but on which channel? The BBC usually wins the ratings battle when they share a final, but it’s ITV who have impressed more this tournament. Their punditry line-up of Gary Neville, Roy Keane and (snaffled from the BBC) Ian Wright has put the BBC’s more lumpen efforts – Jenas, Shearer, Ferdinand – into the shade. The addition of ex-referee Christina Unkel has been inspired too. Expect the BBC to call upon old friend and ex-Spain star Cesc Fabregas for punditry duty, while ITV has been using former Spain international Gaizka Mendieta. Kick-off is 8pm at the Olympiastadion Berlin. Good luck, England. CB

Countryfile
BBC One, 5.40pm
The team visit Hengistbury Head, a nature reserve near Bournemouth, where a pioneering large-scale engineering project is underway to save the headland from erosion. Plus, Adam Henson meets a wool campaigner passionate about finding commercial uses for this plentiful resource.

Gavin & Stacey
BBC Three, 8pm
As part of its sitcom revival, and ahead of the Christmas finale, BBC Three airs a masterclass in romcom set-ups – the opening two episodes of James Corden and Ruth Jones’s comedy, in which Stacey (Joanna Page) from Barry Island and Gavin (Mathew Horne) from Billericay anxiously embark on a first date in London. And later deal with the fallout of their first lovers’ tiff in Wales.

Summer Night Concert from Vienna
BBC Four, 8pm 
Twenty years on, the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual concert in the grounds of the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace is bigger and more atmospheric than ever. This year’s focus is on works of the late-19th and 20th centuries with Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, and Andris Nelsons conducting. 

The Turkish Detective
BBC Two, 9pm
Despite a near-criminal disregard for Istanbul’s rich history and culture, the storylines in this new crime series just about hold attention. Tonight, the murder of a rap music manager leads Ikmen (Haluk Bilginer) and his team to one of the city’s richest families. And Suleyman’s (Ethan Kai) efforts to reconnect with his father fall short of expectations. Continues tomorrow. 

Karl Jenkins: The Composer Behind the Moustache
BBC Four, 9.20pm
A free-to-air showing (it’s on Amazon and Apple TV+) for this portrait of the man often cited as the most successful British composer of his generation. It takes in Jenkins’s upbringing in Wales, his years with cult jazz-rockers Soft Machine and his extraordinary career as a writer of everything from advert tracks to phenomenally popular classical works.

Ibiza Narcos
Sky Documentaries, 10pm
Episode two takes us into the 1990s when club culture exploded in Ibiza (thanks in part to refugees from Britain’s clamped-down-on rave scene seeking a safer place to have fun) and, with it, a competitive drugs trade. Personal testimony and atmospheric archive convey a strong sense of hedonistic times. GO

The Band Wagon (1953) ★★★★
BBC Two, 1.50pm  
Vincente Minnelli’s tip-tapping treat features Fred Astaire, this time as Tony Hunter, a movie star whose career is in the doldrums. He decides to perk it up by starring in a Broadway musical but is unprepared for his charismatic co-star Gabby Gerard (Cyd Charisse). He thinks she’s too tall, she thinks he’s too old. Naturally, they patch up their differences and quickly fall head over heels in this irresistible comedy.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) ★★★★
ITV1, 3.30pm  
Another Lewis Gilbert humdinger, this was Roger Moore’s third outing as Bond. From the opening ski chase sequence to its climactic underwater battle, this was Bond as big, splashy box-office fun. Moore has Daniel Craig’s cool self-possession as he glides through a plot which involves KGB double agents, nuclear weapons and megalomaniac fish lovers. Also showing tomorrow at 10.45pm.

Titanic (1997) ★★★★
Channel 4, 6.15pm
Having won 11 Oscars (including Best Picture for producer Jon Landau who died earlier this month) and taken home more than a billion dollars at the global box-office, James Cameron’s opulent blockbuster about the sinking of the RMS Titanic is an unparalleled success, uniting critics and cinema-goers. At its heart is the romance between poor artist Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and rich girl Rose (Kate Winslet), as the deadly iceberg drifts ever closer.

Point Break (1991) ★★★★
BBC One, 11pm  
This cult surfing noir from Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), a landmark in homoerotic action, elevated Patrick Swayze’s status from heartthrob to leading man. Keanu Reeves (though Johnny Depp, Matthew Broderick, Val Kilmer, and Charlie Sheen were all considered for the role) plays an FBI agent who must infiltrate a gang of bank robbing surfers led by the charismatic Bodhi (Swayze). Soon they find they share an affinity for danger.

Monday 15 July

The Jetty
BBC One, 9pm
Stick around in British television long enough and you will eventually find yourself playing a haunted, no-nonsense detective. Tonight it is the turn of Jenna Coleman, who stars in this moody four-part drama about a Lancashire town brooding with secrets. She is Ember, a 34-year-old detective with a teenage daughter who has been sent to investigate the suspected arson of an old boathouse. The property has significance for Ember – it used to belong to dead husband Malachy (Tom Glynn-Carney). 

This ostensibly mundane case coincides with the arrival of podcaster Riz (Weruche Opia), who is investigating the historical murder of a young girl. The two crimes may or may not be connected. Coleman doesn’t quite have the edge to sell the jaded small-town detective, but that doesn’t stop The Jetty from being a deftly constructed mystery full of knotty themes. The big one concerns Ember re-evaluating her relationship with Malachy, an older man who got her pregnant when she was 17. It was legal, of course, but an encounter with a sexual-abuse victim makes her question if it was moral. SK

House of the Dragon
Sky Atlantic, 2am & 9pm
Last week’s epic dragon battle ended in calamity for both sides. Tonight, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) mourns the death of Eve Best’s Rhaenys, while Alicent (Olivia Cooke) reels from the aftermath. All good, strong stuff, even if it does feel like an episode of moving chess pieces around. 

Jamie: What to Eat This Week 
Channel 4, 8pm  
In Jamie Cooks Spring, cheeky chappy chef and air-fryer enthusiast Jamie Oliver cooked meals depending on the seasonal produce in his garden. This new three-part series is essentially the summer incarnation. Tonight, for instance, he picks some young fennel for a succulent roast loin of pork. Ditto the seasonal oozy pea risotto, bolstered by carrots from his vegetable patch. 

Ghosts US 
BBC Three, 8.30pm 
The US remake of BBC sitcom Ghosts is still alive and kicking. The third series (stripped across the week and available as a boxset) begins tonight with the moving loss of one of its core ensemble – a ghost who has been “sucked off” into the afterlife. Meanwhile, Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) must relocate an owl to turn the barn into Jay’s restaurant. Not as good as the original, but what is? 

Long Lost Family
ITV1, 9pm 
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell’s first case tonight is that of 74-year-old Paula, who had to give up her son for adoption when she was 17. There is also the upsetting story of Sharon, who has learned that her late mother had a second child (her brother) that she never knew about. 

Classic FM Live: Classical Anthems
Sky Arts, 9pm 
Alexander Armstrong and Myleene Klass host a concert of classical anthems, filmed in April from the Royal Albert Hall. Expect the likes of Zadok the Priest and Ode to Joy, as well as a moment of genius from pianist Hayato Sumino, who turns a ringing phone to his advantage during a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. 

Spent 
BBC Two, 10pm; NI, 11.05pm 
The second episode of Michelle de Swarte’s whirlwind dramedy, about a model who has returned to London desperate and broke, follows Mia (De Swarte) as she sets her sights on a plush party – potentially the key to reviving her career. Again the highlight is Matt King (Peep Show’s Super Hans), who plays her cynical agent. 

Aporia (2023) ★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.25am; midnight  
The familiar warning of “be careful what you wish for,” is pertinent in this time-travel weepie. Judy Greer stars as a widow whose friend, Jabir (Payman Maadi), a former physicist obsessed with past wrongs, has been building a time machine that could enable the past to be corrected. Of course, there are consequences. If only this had a touch of Christopher Nolan’s Inception. 

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) ★★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 10.45pm  
This sensual, visually gorgeous and chilling drama is about a small group of students from an all-female college at the turn of the 19th century who vanish without trace, along with a chaperone, while on a St Valentine’s Day outing. Based on an acclaimed 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, it put director Peter Weir on the map and heralded a new era of Australian cinema.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) ★★★
Film4, 11.35pm  
This sequel to the belly-laugh blockbuster Will Ferrell comedy is set 10 years later, with the newly founded rolling news channels cottoning on to the ratings-grabbing power of silly, cute journalism, often starring animals. In this context, Ron (Ferrell) looks like a media visionary, and the film plays as an unexpected satire on 24-hour news culture. That’s enough to justify a second visit.

Tuesday 16 July

Whitstable Pearl
U
UKTV channels have been on quite the journey since UK Gold launched in 1992. Who could forget UK Horizons, UKTV Style Gardens or indeed UKTV G2 (renamed Dave in 2007)? The latest has seen its channels and online platforms brought under the umbrella of U, with the free-to-air channels becoming U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Yesterday and U&W. U get it? To mark this rebrand a small glut of new shows arrives today, including series two of fun crime drama Whitstable Pearl, available as a boxset on U (also airing on U&Drama next Thursday), with Kerry Godliman returning as the restaurateur who becomes a private detective.

Also boxsetted on U is Orlando Bloom: To the Edge, as another famous face does death-defying things in the name of self-discovery: this time, it’s wingsuits, deep diving and extreme climbing. While Ragdoll is a derivative but pretty compelling crime thriller uniting a PTSD-ravaged DS, up-and-coming DI and painfully millennial DC to catch a serial killer. Finally, Battle in the Box (U&Dave, 9pm), yet another game show from Jimmy Carr, locks two pairs of celebrities inside a box for 24 hours, where they undertake physical and mental challenges to earn them extra floor space. Trifling, but fun. GT

Worst House on the Street
Channel 4, 8pm
A second series for this presentable property show in which sister and brother developers Scarlette and Stuart Douglas help families to transform scruffy houses on a budget. They begin with a couple who have bought a tumbledown cottage in Cardiff.

Midsomer Murders
ITV1, 8.15pm
Tom Conti guest stars as Barnaby’s old boss in the latest absurd whodunit from the English countryside, when a colleague is found dead shortly after her own leaving do – in suspicious circumstances, of course.

Daley: Olympic Superstar
BBC Two, 9pm
One of the greatest athletes in British history, Daley Thompson remains oddly unloved. Certainly, his supreme self-confidence could come across as brash and provocative, but as he explains in Vadim Jean’s definitive profile, it was born of a difficult childhood which forged an enduring self-reliance. A stellar line-up pays tribute, while the footage of his Olympic decathlon golds illuminates his extraordinary achievements, as well as the moments when gleeful iconoclasm tipped over into something less admirable. Crucially, Thompson is on fine form, addressing professional triumphs and personal failings with equanimity and insight.

Secrets of the Sun with Dara Ó Briain
Channel 5, 9pm
Dara Ó Briain once again proves an excellent voice of popular science in this accessible two-parter where he meets articulate solar experts who tell him all about our 4.5 billion-year-old star. He begins by visiting Texas for a solar eclipse, before learning how the Sun was born and dropping by on a project working on the construction of a fusion reactor. More tomorrow.

Kyle: The Gunman Who Divided America
BBC Three, 9pm
In 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin, later claiming to be there to protect businesses. If his murder trial polarised the USA, the verdict did so deeper still. This worthwhile film examines the enduring implications.

Dispatches
Channel 4, 10pm
Neighbourhood crimes are on the rise, with goods stolen in broad daylight and in such quantities that the police cannot keep up. With exclusive analysis of police data, Isobel Yeung explores how this has come about and what is being done to stop it. 

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) ★★★★
ITV4, 9pm  
Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo’s on-screen chemistry comprehensively upstages that of Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in the 1960s original version of this heist thriller. In this stylish remake, Brosnan replaces McQueen as the playboy millionaire-cum-cat-burglar Thomas Crown, with Russo as the sultry female investigator Catherine Banning, with whom he has a whirlwind face-off-cum-romance.

Legend (2015) ★★★
BBC One, 11.40pm  
Tom Hardy gives a solid, convincing performance as east London gangster Reggie Kray but his caricatured portrayal of twin brother Ronnie lets him down, and his inconsistent performance leads to an entertaining though muddled film. Emily Browning, however, gives just the right mix of defiance and despair as Frances Shea, Reggie’s put-upon wife. Watch out for some particularly gory scenes.

An Education (2009) ★★★★
BBC Two, 11.45pm  
Lone Scherfig’s gorgeous film, adapted by Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber’s coming-of-age memoir, returns us to a 1960s more square than swinging. Jenny (Carey Mulligan, in a career-launching role) is a bright sixth-former being prodded towards Oxford by her parents, until she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), an older wheeler-dealer with the kind of secrets for which no textbook could prepare her.

Wednesday 17 July

Mr Bigstuff
Sky Max, 9pm
Danny Dyer has spent a lifetime perfecting the art of playing the hardman, bringing a rough, gruff charm to even the most threatening characters that he incarnates. A great choice, then, to front this debut comedy series by Plebs and Brassic star Ryan Sampson, about chalk-and-cheese brothers – nervy Glen (Sampson) and neanderthal Lee (Dyer) – forced to overcome estrangement when Lee turns up on the Glen’s doorstep looking to lie low. Dyer is the perfect macho foil to Sampson’s timid, neurotic, impotent Glen, living the suburban not-quite-dream with his kleptomaniac fiancée Kirsty (Harriet Webb) and desperately hoping to make it big – or at least to assistant manager level – as a carpet salesman in Essex. If his quietly unhinged boss, Ian (Adrian Scarborough), ever gets round to listening to him, that is. 

Sampson’s comedy writing certainly hits all the marks in tonight’s opening double-episode, pushing his handful of oddball characters to some brutally funny extremes. Even treating us to one of the most bizarre naked punch-up scenes ever to grace the small screen. If you loved Holly Walsh’s BBC One comedy The Other One, this is for you. GO

Will Trent
Disney+ 
A second season for Disney+’s – via Hulu – classy adaptation of Karin Slaughter’s novels featuring the fastidious Atlanta-based crime-fighter. This time, Special Agent Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) is plunged into a high-stakes investigation when a car bomb rocks the city; and a prison visit opens up new questions about his nebulous past. 

State Opening of Parliament 
BBC One, 10.30am   
Reeta Chakrabarti presents live coverage from Westminster as the King proceeds from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords to outline, in the King’s Speech, the new Labour government’s plans for the coming parliamentary session. 

Cumbria: The Lakes & The Coast
Channel 5, 8pm
A series showcasing the scenery and people of the Lake District and beyond begins in Ulverston where two distillers are adding zest to a new gin. We also take in typically breathtaking views during a hike up Helvellyn, while, in Keswick, a veteran breeder of fell ponies prepares to hand over the reins. Pun intended.

The Great British Sewing Bee
BBC One, 9pm
It’s semi-final time and judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant up the ante with tasks inspired by design icons. First, the four contenders’ must reimagine a pattern by Balenciaga, then channel their inner Jean Paul Gaultier by transforming a selection of neckties into a garment. Finally, there’s a full-on Coco Chanel challenge to create an exquisitely tailored, made-to-measure outfit. 

Suspect
Channel 4, 9pm & 9.30pm
The overwrought crime drama returns, though without its original lead, James Nesbitt, who played off-kilter cop Danny. Instead, the focus is on Susannah (Anne-Marie Duff), Danny’s therapist ex-wife who, in this opening double-episode, makes a terrifying discovery about a client (Dominic Cooper) who’s under hypnosis. The full series is on Channel4.com now. 

Battle of the Bagpipes
Sky Arts, 9pm
The end of the piping season is approaching as the concluding episode begins, with just days to go before the World Pipe Band Championship. With the rival bands gathering in Glasgow, pipers prepare for fireworks as the bands charge their chanters for the last time before launching last-gasp bids to win bagpiping’s ultimate accolade. 

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) ★★★★★
Film4, 9pm  
The cinematic event of the post-Covid era proved that Tom Cruise is still Hollywood’s brightest star; returning as Maverick, he gets recalled to his old stomping ground, where a group of graduates – Glen Powell’s smug Hangman, Monica Barbaro’s Phoenix and Miles Teller’s (superb) loose cannon, Rooster (son of Maverick’s former wingman, Goose) – have been assembled for a mission overseas. Pure turbo-charged fun.

And Then There Were None (1945, b/w) ★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 10.10pm
René Clair directs Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel – a much better version than the 1974 one with Charles Aznavour – although Christie herself did not think much of it. It was, however, Clair’s adaptation that ended up on Broadway and lit the touch paper that would engulf Christie’s career. It tells the dark tale of 10 people being systematically murdered on an island off the Devon coast.

BlacKkKlansman (2018) ★★★★
Channel 4, 1am  
Based on US police officer-turned-KKK infiltrator Ron Stallworth’s acclaimed 2014 memoir, this rollicking Oscar-winning period piece is a blazing return to form for Spike Lee. It is the story of a black detective in 1970s Colorado – played by John David Washington (Denzel’s son) – who managed to enrol in the Ku Klux Klan. Lee attacks white supremacism in America, and thrusts his grievances through the letterbox of Trump’s White House.

Thursday 18 July

Why Trains Crash
BBC One, 8pm
From the director of Why Ships Crash and producer of Why Planes Vanish and When Bridges Collapse, Alessandra Bonomolo’s This World film uses an appalling collision on India’s railway system, in which two passenger trains hit a stationary goods train in June last year, for a wider survey on rail safety and how to avoid recurrences. Nearly 300 were killed and more than 800 injured near Bahanaga Bazar station in the east of the country – a catastrophe caused in part by signal failure and faulty wiring at a level crossing. The human experience of the crash itself and the aftermath are related sensitively and effectively here.

Taking in other tragedies in Greece and Germany, as well as at Clapham Junction and Paddington, Bonomolo’s film illustrates how such events are rarely the result of a single factor and, while digitisation and improved inspection processes have helped radically reduce their frequency, climate change and associated drainage issues are intensifying concerns around already ageing rail networks. As ever, it boils down to money: is replacement more affordable than renewal, and at what pace and scale? Why Trains Crash poses timely questions but no easy answers. GT

Cobra Kai
Netflix
Unapologetically cheesy, this entertaining Karate Kid spin-off begins its long goodbye with part one of the sixth and final series. With Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny (William Zabka) reconciled and ready to take on the world, they consider sending their students to participate in the Sekai Taikai – where foes old and new await.

Donald Sutherland Night
BBC Four, from 8pm
Following the great Canadian actor’s death last month, BBC Four has eccentrically chosen to celebrate his career with two of his lesser film roles: at 8pm, he plays an IRA man recruited by the Nazis to kidnap Winston Churchill in The Eagle Has Landed, before reuniting with Don’t Look Now co-star Julie Christie in baggy 1993 romance The Railway Station Man at 10.55pm. The movies, however, bookend an illuminating conversation with Mark Cousins in Scene by Scene at 10.10pm.

Armenia, My Home
PBS America, 8.40pm
Taking an unusual subject for a film but beautiful on both eye and ear, this documentary uses the voices of prominent Armenian-Americans – Pulitzer Prize-winner Peter Balakian and actor Eric Bogosian among them – to tell the tumultuous and frequently tragic story of their homeland.

Douglas is Cancelled
ITV1, 9pm
Steven Moffat’s divisive series reaches an intense conclusion as the contents of Douglas’s (Hugh Bonneville) “joke” are revealed and Madeline (Karen Gillan) works to ensure a reckoning for those who let her down so badly.

Accelerate or Die!
Sky Arts, 9pm
Jake Chapman examines the phenomenon of “accelerationism”, whereby capitalism and technology are speeding out of control towards disaster, notably in the shape of the climate crisis. Subtitled You Get the Dystopia You Deserve, Mike Christie’s troubling film considers different interpretations of the concept across the political spectrum. Jeanette Winterson, Tim Crosland and Will Self are among the talking heads.

Election: Behind the Scenes at Sky News
Sky Documentaries, 9pm
Beth Rigby and Kay Burley pull the curtain back on the most challenging of live broadcasts, looking back on how the Sky News newsroom adapted to the seismic events of the General Election a fortnight ago. 

My Spy: The Eternal City (2024)
Amazon Prime Video  
Peter Segal, known for Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and Get Smart, directs this spy-comedy sequel (to 2020’s My Spy) in which hardened CIA operative JJ (Dave Bautista) chaperones young Sophie (Chloe Coleman) on her school choir trip to Italy. They both unwittingly end up pawns in an international terrorist plot targeting CIA Chief David Kim (The Masked Singer’s Ken Jeong). Anna Faris co-stars.

The Sun Is Also a Star (2019) ★★★
BBC Three, 9pm  
Based on Nicola Yoon’s YA novel, this is the sweet story of an earnest young couple with their heads in the stars, as they meet and fall in love in a single day against a grey, breezy and beautifully shot Manhattan skyline: a Before Sunrise for millennials.The grit of the tale is that Natasha (Yara Shahidi) and her family are due to be deported the next day. John Leguizamo plays the sympathetic immigration lawyer.

The Phantom of the Open (2021) ★★★★
BBC Two, 11.05pm  
Craig Roberts and Simon Farnaby’s, Ealing-esque film is a hoot, the strange-but-true story of Maurice Flitcroft – a shipyard crane-operator from Barrow-in-Furness who bluffed his way into the 1976 British Open golf championship and went on to play the worst round in 116 years. Mark Rylance invests the buffoonish Maurice with a soulfulness that undergirds the silliness.  Rhys Ifans co-stars.

Friday 19 July

First Night of the Proms
BBC Two, 7pm
It’s that time of year again. As summer begins to – finally – heat up, the BBC takes us inside London’s historic Royal Albert Hall to marvel at another packed programme of stunning classical music, patriotic harmony and more modern, innovative events. Clive Myrie is our host tonight, along with guests including Sandi Toksvig. Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan will make her First Night of the Proms debut, presenting Beethoven’s timeless Fifth Symphony, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and a world premiere from 27-year-old British/Japanese composer Ben Nobuto, with the assistance of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Renowned soprano Sophie Bevan is sure to enrapture in the lead vocal performance of Bruckner’s Psalm 150, while gifted pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason – part of the prodigious musical family – will play Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto. 

All in all, it promises to be an excellent introduction to another brilliant season, with the BBC broadcasting from a range of events – from pop with Sam Smith and Florence and the Machine to services dedicated to Nick Drake, disco and Doctor Who – over the next two months. PP

Those About to Die
Amazon Prime Video
A terrific cast – led by Anthony Hopkins – and Hollywood director (in Independence Day’s Roland Emmerich) make this vicious historical epic a must watch for any fans of Rome, Gladiator or Vikings. Over 10 episodes, dive into the bloodthirsty world of ancient Rome – whether that be its gladiatorial games or equally cut-throat politics.

Lady in the Lake
Apple TV+
Oscar-winner Natalie Portman is spellbinding in this gripping thriller, centred on the hunt for a missing girl in 1960s Baltimore. Portman is a housewife trying to make it as a journalist; Moses Ingram is a local mother trying to stay afloat who finds herself caught up in the tragedy. The first two episodes are available today; the other five follow weekly.

Omnivore
Apple TV+
What links all of humanity, from the vast, isolated plains of Serbia to backwater towns in the Southern US or exotic beaches of Thailand? Food, of course. Chef René Redzepi takes a bite of some of the world’s most popular ingredients and dishes, from bananas and pork to coffee and chillies, revealing their history and the surprising similarities between how they’re prepared in different nations around the globe.

Champions: Full Gallop
ITV1, 9pm
This entertaining docu-series follows the drama on and off the racetrack as both jockeys and horses prepare to compete at Kempton. In tonight’s opener, it’s Boxing Day, and it’s looking like a close fight between reigning champion jockey Paul Nicholls (with last year’s winner, Bravemansgame) and newbie horse Shishkin.

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
Channel 4, 9pm
Jimmy Carr is back with more loaded questions and fun-filled challenges, as the comedian welcomes Dan Tiernan, Jon Richardson, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Ryan to the studio.

Terror at 30,000 Feet
Channel 5, 10pm
On 29 December 2000, a mentally ill passenger stormed the cockpit of a British Airways flight from London to Kenya and attempted to crash the plane. This formulaic documentary recounts the event using archive footage and new interviews with crew and passengers – including Ben Goldsmith and pilot Bill Hagan – who thought they were going to die. 

Find Me Falling (2024)
Netflix  
Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr (Independence Day) plays a lonely, ageing rock star in this run-of-the-mill romcom. His John Allman decides to take an extended break in Cyprus, but keeping a low profile proves tricky when a stream of characterful locals, and an old flame, pay frequent unwanted visits. Mamma Mia, does this sound familiar? The Grammy-winning Connick Jr, who is currently on a world tour, wrote two songs for the film.

Mean Girls (2024) ★★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm
Twenty years ago, the original Mean Girls pinned down a new millennial strain of adolescent narcissism and pettiness, and because of that – as well as the fact it was very funny – it soon became one of the definitive high-school comedies of the age. Tina Fey’s musical remake, starring Reneé Rapp, translates to the TikTok age and still manages to remain a complete scream. Mean Girls: The Musical is on Paramount+ from Tuesday.

Non-Stop (2014) ★★★
Channel 5, 10pm  
This is the second of, to date, five action films that Liam Neeson has made with director Jaume Collet-Serra (The Commuter and Run All Night among them). Neeson is the dolorous air marshal who spends most of this film bounding up and down the aisle of a hijacked plane with a time-bomb under his arm in a plot so absurd that you can’t help but smile. Every passenger is a suspect, even Julianne Moore’s sweet heart-surgery patient.

Planet of the Apes (2001) ★★★
BBC One, 11.20pm  
An alarmingly ordinary movie, and as such a crushing disappointment from maverick director Tim Burton. His “reimagining” of the 1968 classic, with Mark Wahlberg sullenly crash-landing in the original Charlton Heston role, allows all its fascinating conceits to be melted down into a bland, gelatinous mass. On the plus side, it’s visually splendid: Ape City is a magnificent hilltop habitat of vine-entangled buildings.

Television previewers

Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)