CRITICS’ CHOICE
Pick of the day
Britain’s Secret Slavery Business (BBC2, 10pm)
A year on from the Modern Slavery Act becoming law, Darragh MacIntyre interviews Kevin Hyland, the independent anti-slavery commissioner, and roams Britain investigating forced labour, mostly involving migrants. He learns of foreign workers being trafficked to the West Midlands, and exploited at a factory in Yorkshire, on Scottish trawlers and in a London car wash. Mildly autistic Darrell, the only British victim he meets, was compelled to work unpaid on a Welsh farm for 13 years.
Although MacIntyre clearly has plenty of further examples he could report on — he refers briefly to slavery in nail bars and the food industry — his film comes to a sudden, unexpected stop after 30 minutes. When so many programmes on fluffier themes are padded out to fill an hour, it is disconcerting to find one confined to a sitcom-size slot when you consider the seriousness of its subject.
John Dugdale
Tooth and claw crime
Bosch (Amazon Prime)
Adapted from the novels of Michael Connelly, this crime drama does not break much new ground but it is hard to complain when Titus Welliver is so effectively grizzled as LAPD detective Harry Bosch. The plot (a body in a boot, porn-industry intrigue, illicit surveillance) is diverting, but what makes this compelling are the smooth surfaces and rough undersides of the city, oppressive sunshine and traffic-clogged freeways, all of which adds to an atmosphere of corruption and incipient violence.
Pulling the right strings
Virtuoso Violinists At The BBC (BBC4, 8pm)
Nicola Benedetti introduces clips of a personal pantheon including Gidon Kremer, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Isaac Perlman, Isaac Stern and Maxim Vengerov. Covering almost 70 years, from a Menuhin wartime performance to her own 2012 gig at the Last Night of the Proms, the selection is a showcase for composers, too, featuring violin concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn and Mozart. Nigel Kennedy is the sole British-born star besides Benedetti in her elite, and only three other women win places: Sarah Chang, Janine Jansen and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
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To the manor bought
Land Of Hope And Glory — British Country Life (BBC2, 9pm)
Operating as cheery propaganda for the rural life, this series looks at the work of Country Life magazine, following its staff as they visit grand houses around Britain. The general tone of this first episode is one of admiring indulgence, encouraging viewers to see struggling landowners and huntsmen alike as engaging eccentrics who are as much part of Britain as hedgerows and stiles. Watch carefully, however, and the film is not as generous to those who are able to buy their way into the lifestyle. There is wonderful architecture and landscape on display, but the human aspect remains more problematic.
Stilted comedy
Stop/Start (BBC1, 10.35pm)
In a pilot based on his Radio 4 series, Jack Docherty interweaves the stories of three couples: two squabbling middle-aged duos, Cathy (Kerry Godliman) and Rob (Docherty), and Evan (John Thomson) and Fiona (Sarah Hadland), and the May-to-December pairing of David (Nigel Havers) and Georgy (Laura Aikman). The show’s gimmick is that its characters interrupt dialogue to address us, not just occasionally but often. As its title oddly acknowledges, this is not a recipe for flowing fun; and adding to the potential for irritation is a phoney-sounding laughter track crammed with unearned cackles. Only the likeability of the actors saves you from choosing a full stop
Make his day, punk
Artsnight (BBC2, 11pm)
Punk rock is “celebrating its 40th anniversary” this year, although the assumption that it began in 1976 is debatable, and Ramones, Patti Smith and New York Dolls devotees might feel aggrieved about “punk” being tacitly equated to “British punk”. Chosen to blow out the candles on Artsnight’s birthday cake is Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, a long-standing admirer of the UK’s snarlers and gobbers. He garners anecdotes from Chrissie Hynde and Pete Shelley, hears about a 1970s Glasgow fanzine, discusses Poly Styrene (as an X-Ray Spex fan) with her daughter, and talks to Julien Temple about his two Sex Pistols films.
John Dugdale and Helen Stewart
Sport choice
T20 Cricket (Sky Sports 2, 9am) Netherlands v Oman, Bangladesh v Ireland
Rugby Union (BT Sport 1, 7pm) Harlequins v Bath
Match Of The Day (BBC1, 7.30pm) FA Cup sixth round
Super League (Sky Sports 1, 7.30pm) Wigan v Leeds
Radio pick of the day
Live From C2C — Country To Country (R2, 8pm)
Bob Harris and Jo Whiley introduce three hours of music from the country festival at the O2. Live from Swansea, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays great baroque pieces by Handel, Bach and Vivaldi in In Concert (R3, 7.30pm). Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia editor of The Times, reports on those who claim to have seen Ghosts Of The Tsunami (R4, 11am), five years after the disaster; and Drama: Burn Baby Burn (R4, 2.15pm) pokes fun at the likes of Charles Saatchi and Damien Hirst.
Paul Donovan
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You say
The X-Files (C5) is an embarrassing codicil to its own legacy. The truth can stay out there.
Letty James
The repetitive calling each other, followed by the most inane po-faced exchanges, makes The X-Files difficult to beat for sheer idiocy. What do people see in it?
Gian Banchero
I can only conclude that Gillian Anderson has been substituted by an alien replicant. It is impossible to imagine that the real Gillian would even consider appearing in such tripe.
Dave Sones
As Call The Midwife (BBC1) is set in 1961, Doctor Turner must have been able to see into the future when he volunteered to sing a chorus of Cliff’s Summer Holiday — that was not released until 1963.
David Roberts
FILM CHOICE
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Son Of A Gun (2015)
Sky Movies Premiere, 12 noon/10pm
Julius Avery’s unruly mash-up of prison drama and wannabe-Tarantino-style crime caper casts Ewan McGregor as a hardened jailbird who involves a raw convict (Brenton Thwaites) in his robbery plans. The Scottish actor is abetted by a gruff charisma, but not aided by the erratic plot.
San Andreas (2015)
Sky Movies Premiere, 4pm/8pm
Dwayne Johnson lives up to his wrestling sobriquet, “the Rock”, not for his solid acting, but for his subtle-as-a-brick heroics playing a helicopter pilot who comes to California’s rescue in an earthquake. While no great shakes, Brad Peyton’s CGI-heavy blockbuster is dumbly enjoyable.
Kill List (2011)
Film 4, 10.45pm
Ben Wheatley’s sinister chiller finds two Pinteresque hitmen (Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley) handed a cryptic assignment that is beyond their ken — and perhaps ours, too — and propels them towards a surreal climax that makes The Wicker Man seem sane. The film is as slewed as it sounds, and doesn’t bear close scrutiny, yet is brilliantly terrifying.
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997)
BBC2, 11.30pm
Telling the story of a journalist (John Cusack) who is sent to Savannah, Georgia, to report on a society function but is sucked into a murder trial when Kevin Spacey is accused of killing his lover, Clint Eastwood’s stately drama is deft at portraying the demimonde world beneath the South’s patrician facade, but the languid pace drags.
Previews by Trevor Lewis