Pick of the day
Critics’ choice
Artists In Love (Sky Arts, 8pm)
Before going on his first date with Gala, his future wife, Salvador Dali smoothed his hair with a stinking preparation of fish glue. When he knocked on her door, she was already naked behind it. Such are the legends behind the couple’s courtship, yet this film tries to look beyond the outrageous myths and discover what made their 53-year relationship so enduring.
Presented by Samantha Morton, the documentary traces the pair from their first meeting, in Catalonia in 1929, a when Gala was still married to the artist Paul Eluard, to the difficult final days of their marriage when she would only allow Dali to visit her in her castle with handwritten permission. The artist’s later muse, Amanda Lear, offers insights into their lives, but what comes through strongest is Dali’s desire to immortalise his wife in his work. “I care for her more than I care for myself,” he said, “because I know without her it will all end.”
Victoria Segal
Best rehabilitation
Invictus — The Road To The Games (BBC1, 7pm)
The BBC has secured the rights to broadcast the sporting contest for injured armed-service personnel set up by Prince Harry two years ago. BBC1 will show nightly coverage on May 9-13, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies in Orlando, which will feature the musicians James Blunt, Flo Rida and the soprano Laura Wright. Tonight’s film is presented by Nick Knowles and follows the British men and women as they compete for a spot on the UK Armed Forces Team. Many are still dealing with the repercussions of the events that caused their disabilities but find that the focus on Invictus helps their rehabilitation.
Snapping to it (again)
Wild Australia (ITV, 8pm)
Australia’s salt-water crocodiles must have one heck of an agent — there are members of the EastEnders cast who are on TV less than they are. Here, they have secured a deal to meet Ray Mears, who heads to Australia’s wetlands to encounter these prehistoric creatures alongside the imported pig population and the jacana, or Jesus bird, so called because it appears to walk on water. The adventurer also shows an interest in the people who live in the region, examining ancient Aboriginal artwork and helping to catch and cook a barramundi in traditional style.
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All the world’s a kitchen
Masterchef (BBC1, 8.30pm)
We are into finals week, and the remaining contestants are shipped to Bristol to make dinner for starving actors who once trained in the city’s Old Vic Theatre School. The cooks are delighted, not only because they get to meet Samantha Bond, Greta Scacchi and Stephanie Cole, but also because they will be working with the wunderkind chef Michael O’Hare, whose recipes include edible eggshells, potato custard and a bolognese sauce made from sea urchin gonads. The methods he uses are weird and wonderful. “Hairdryers will be involved,” he warns.
Serious crime drama
Marcella (ITV, 9pm)
Weaving a tangled web is good, but this drama has so many dangling threads it is in danger of strangling itself. It is a world of gloomy underpasses, grey skies and insufficient lighting that the elegantly parka clad Marcella (Anna Friel) and her associates inhabit, and while there seems to be the tiniest glimmer of hope breaking through the grey tonight, it is quickly shut out by more human misery as Yann (Tobias Santelmann) and Matthew (Ben Cura) argue and Ronnie (Toby Weir) makes a terrible mistake. The series is all very stylish and atmospheric, but five episodes in, it is starting to feel like they could get a bit of a move on.
A husband spurned
I Want My Wife Back (BBC1, 10pm)
In creating this high farce, the writers Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni are unashamedly picking over the bones of their most successful sitcom. The Worst Week of My Life, which ran for three series on BBC1, starred Ben Miller as a bumbling man trying to get — and stay — married. This series sees the same actor as the hapless Murray, stalking his wife in order to persuade her to return to their home. “There’s all sorts of weirdos hanging around this time of night,” he tells her this week, emerging from behind a wheelie bin.
Victoria Segal and Helen Stewart
Sport choice
County Cricket (Sky Sports 2, 10.55am) Notts v Yorkshire
ATP Tennis (Sky Sports 3, 11am)
Football Walsall v Fleetwood, Brighton v Derby, Burnley v QPR, Chelsea v Spurs (Sky Sports 1, 12 noon); Dundee v Dundee United (BT Sport 1, 7pm)
Snooker (BBC2, 2pm/7pm)
Radio pick of the day
Jamie Cullum Live At Cheltenham Jazz Festival (R2, 12 noon)
Jeremy Vine makes way for jazz in a bank-holiday special: Darius Brubeck (Dave’s son) and Corinne Bailey Rae join Cullum backstage. A Patriot For Us (R4 Extra, 2.45pm) marks the 60th anniversary of Look Back in Anger with a repeat from 2006 of John Heilpern’s biography of its author, John Osborne, starting with his unhappy childhood in Fulham. Ana Matronic, in Do Not Erase – A Little Respect For Erasure (R2, 8pm), pays homage to an enduring pop duo.
Paul Donovan
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You say
Can anybody explain why the BBC shows abysmal programmes like How To Stay Young on BBC1 when their Line Of Duty (far better than any of the others) competes on BBC2. Switch it around and they would get fantastic ratings.
Sam Harris
I am impressed by Bill Turnbull’s transition from the breakfast sofa to the radio. Lucky Classic FM. Shame the Beeb couldn’t have found a spot for him on one of their many radio stations.
Lynny Wills
Is it that Mr Turnbull’s pension isn’t up to much? A quiz show (BBC1’s Think Tank)? Why? Where is the new talent?
Adrian Burt
Drive (ITV) has been running for a while now. On reflection, perhaps Vernon Kay looks more like an aardvark.
Ellen Gardner
Send your comments to: telly@sunday-times.co.uk
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FILM CHOICE
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
ITV, 11pm
Pierce Brosnan’s second mission as 007 confirms him as the true heir to Sean Connery, and gives him an arsenal of gadgets and a lethal Bond girl (Michelle Yeoh) his predecessor would envy; but his tussle with an insipid media baron can feel like a licence to kill time before a decent villain turns up. Dir: Roger Spottiswoode
In Search Of The Castaways (1962)
BBC2, 8am
A message in a bottle from a shipwrecked captain is the rum premise of this Disney yarn about a quest for a lost mariner. Given that the intrepid rescuers face a menagerie of perils, from condors to crocodiles, and dodge sundry natural disasters, there is rarely a dull moment — or, indeed, a remotely credible one. Dir: Robert Stephenson
Postman Pat — The Movie (2014)
C4, 9.55am
Return to sender was the verdict in some critical circles on this spin-off of the children’s TV series, which features evil robot doppelgangers of the postie hero. Toddlers not cowering behind the sofa will no doubt appreciate director Mike Disa’s deft cinematic flourishes.
Camelot (1967)
BBC2, 10.25am
While hardly the holy grail of musicals it likes to think it is, Joshua Logan’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway hit is a regal-looking slice of Arthuriana, and it would be unchivalrous not to applaud the enthusiasm of Richard Harris’s king and Vanessa Redgrave’s Guenevere, even if the warbling is less than majestic.
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Previews by Trevor Lewis
LIVE FOOTBALL
Premier League Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur (Sky Sports 1, 7pm) Kickoff at 8pm