CRitics’ choice
Pick of the day
Zero Day — Nuclear Cyber Sabotage (BBC4, 9pm)
The film-maker Alex Gibney is drawn to the covert, the furtive, the conspiratorial: his previous films include Going Clear, a study of Scientology, We Steal Secrets — The Story of WikiLeaks, and Enron — The Smartest Guys in The Room. This documentary, however, enters an even more shadowy labyrinth, tackling the timely subject of cyber-warfare.
He hangs his film upon the sinister case of Stuxnet, a malevolent computer worm that appeared to have a taste for chomping through the systems of Iranian nuclear facilities. While the story surrounding Stuxnet is a fascinating tale of top-secret nation-state wrangling, Gibney widens out the example to ask how the global rules of engagement have changed in the cyber era, and whether countries can ever create nuclear-style inspections regimes and treaties to regulate this new style of conflict.
Victoria Segal
Broadening the mind
All Over The Place – Asia (CBBC, 7.45am)
This travel show is one way of knowing who’s hot in the CBBC presenting “family”, as the opportunity to muck about in foreign parts for a weekend must be one of the more appealing gigs the channel has to offer. Lucky Ed Petrie is the host, and today he eats in Osaka with Cel Spellman, rides a rollercoaster in Abu Dhabi with Iain Stirling, sings about the Great Wall of China with Naomi Wilkinson, visits a superhero museum in Bangkok with Lauren Layfield and dresses up as a tiger in India with a newcomer to the show, Inel Tomlinson. Remember this programme the next time BBC lectures about carbon footprints.
Three colours Michael
Great British Railway Journeys Goes To Ireland (BBC2, 6.30pm)
Brandishing his trusty copy of Bradshaw’s Descriptive Railway Handbook of Great Britain and Ireland, Michael Portillo puts on another brightly coloured blazer and begins the latest stage of his train odyssey in Wexford, a Victorian transport hub. On his way to Wicklow, he explores the resurgence of Irish culture in the late 1800s, telling the stories of Commodore John Barry and the poet Thomas Moore, the author of The Meeting of the Waters. He also briefly ditches rail for a drive in a horse-drawn caravan.
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Road to nowhere
Coach Trip — Road To Marbs (E4, 7.30pm)
It seems unlikely there is anyone on Earth who will actively need to be seeking out more reasons to despair of humanity, but if there are any sunny-natured Doris Days who require one nudge to topple into full-on misanthropy, then this on-the-road popularity contest is just the ticket. There is a veneer of old-fashioned charm thanks to the Hi-Di-Hi-like tour guide Brendan, on hand to help the competing couples find their way from Mallorca to the place only ever referred to as Marbs, but it soon falls away at the first mention of “banter” and the first gratuitous shirt removal.
Sins of the family
Silent Witness (BBC1, 9pm)
When the body of a young woman is found floating in a London dock, Jack Hodgson can’t identify where she has come from (because so many of the capital’s rivers cross in that area) until traces of weedkiller are found that tie the location to recent sprayings. Media coverage of the search leads to a connection with an unsolved disappearance from three years previously, but the missing girl’s mother (an impressively raw performance from Sarah Smart, who acts Emilia Fox right off her implausibly high heels) refuses to believe that her child might also be dead.
Any answers?
Britain’s Ancient Capital — Secrets Of Orkney (BBC2, 9pm)
Viewers must hope that the lively collaborative chats that go on beneath the car awning are not too staged, as watching the presenters throw theories around and bicker about what prompted the beginning of the Neolithic stone-circle cult is one of the most appealing aspects of this terrific history series. “What we are trying to do here is find out what people did,” warns the curmudgeonly Chris Packham as he reins in the altogether more poetic Neil Oliver. “Trying to find out what people thought is obviously a lot harder.” This has been a worthy project and it would be good to think the team will be reunited for further work.
Victoria Segal and Helen Stewart
Sport choice
Australian Open Tennis (Eurosport, 6am/12 midnight)
Test Cricket (Sky Sports 1, 7.55am) South Africa v Sri Lanka
Masters Snooker (BBC2, 1pm)
Africa Cup Of Nations Ivory Coast v Togo (Eurosport, 3.45pm); DR Congo v Morocco (Eurosport, 6.45pm)
Radio pick of the day
Nell’s Kitchen (R2, 10pm)
A clever play on words, since Hell’s Kitchen is part of Manhattan and Nell Bryden, the host of this new four-part series, comes from New York. Illustrating the musical life of her native city, the 39-year-old chanteuse begins in Harlem, which has been indelibly associated with jazz for more than 100 years. She will go on to explore Greenwich Village (where Bob Dylan started), East Village (the birthplace of punk rock) and Midtown (the home of Broadway and the theatre district round 42nd Street).
Paul Donovan
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You say
The BBC4 programme featuring Flying Scotsman was informative, beautifully filmed and refreshingly free of any asinine personalities. Truly excellent.
Rick Jarvis
What a super programme: no celebrities, no background music, no vacuous presenter reciting drivel from an autocue, no dubbed whooping and clapping, just a few well chosen and interesting comments from the train crew and the locomotive steaming quietly through the countryside.
John Chapman
Please, can something be done about the intrusive “music”. Sometimes the commentaries are blocked out by background noise. Watching Michael Portillo in the programme on Flying Scotsman, the engine sounds were blotted out as well as his voice.
Mrs J Bailey
Send your comments to: telly@sunday-times.co.uk
Film choice
Focus (2015)
Sky Cinema Thriller, 10.05am/7.10pm
A tale of con artists who know all about misdirection and distraction, this caper takes a lesson from that sort of work. Thanks to its glamorous locations and its good-looking stars, Will Smith and Margot Robbie, it has a fair chance of diverting your attention from its plot’s flimsiness. Co-dirs: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Film 4, 11am
George Marshall’s thriller about a war hero (Alan Ladd) investigating his wife’s murder has a couple of features that secure it a place in the pantheon of classic noirs. A Raymond Chandler script provides hard-boiled dialogue, and the story’s mystery woman is played by Veronica Lake. (B/W)
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Lifeboat (1944)
More 4, 11.40am
In this thriller about Americans stuck in a boat with a sly Nazi (Walter Slezak), Alfred Hitchcock confines the story to that vessel, setting himself a challenge as far as creating varied drama is concerned (not to mention the task of doing his usual cameo). In the event, the film does drag, but its curiosity value compensates. (B/W)
Mad Max 2 — The Road Warrior (1981)
TCM, 11pm
No knowledge of Max’s prior history is required by this sequel’s viewers. After all, dialogue and plot are as scarce in George Miller’s film as oil is in the story’s future world. What matters is the action that kicks off after Mel Gibson’s hero joins the defenders of a besieged refinery: it is both wildly flamboyant and nicely low-tech.
Edward Porter