Stranded in the Snow
Channel 4, 4.45pm
Time seemed to stand still during this programme. It describes what happened when a young couple and their baby set out to drive the 800 miles from San Francisco Bay to Pocatello, Idaho on December 29, 1992, to go to a family funeral. The weather wasn’t great, but they set out anyway. “We weren’t experienced enough to know that things could get really bad, really fast,” said the husband. Along the way, they took a wrong turning and their truck got stuck in the snow. They were lost in the middle of a 5,000-acre wildlife refuge in sub-zero temperatures without food. From there, everything got worse and worse. By the end of their ordeal, I had virtually stopped breathing myself.
Divorce Shariah Style
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Channel 4, 7.15pm
Many Muslims want Shariah to be incorporated into British law, despite being associated in the public imagination with barbaric and medieval punishments. This invaluable programme will not dispel that prejudice entirely, but it shows how a Shariah court in London deals with divorce.
A Muslim man is able to divorce his wife verbally, but a Muslim woman must apply to the court. One man in this programme “divorced” his wife after he had taken a second wife in Pakistan, but his family insisted on a reconciliation, and he had to apply to the Shariah Council to find out if his divorce was binding. The court’s tools – compromise, counselling and what is perceived to be a divinely inspired morality – are anything but barbaric.
Around the World in 80 Gardens
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BBC Two, 8.45pm
On the second leg of his world tour of spectacular gardens, Monty Don travels to Australia and New Zealand. He visits gardens ranging from those inspired by a nostalgia for the old country – epitomised by Kennerton Green in New South Wales, which might as well be an English country garden – to those made up entirely of indigenous plants, such as Te Kainga Marire in New Plymouth.
Along the way, he meets Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, the 99-year-old mother of you-know-who, who sets off in a buggy around the garden she has been cultivating since the 1920s. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a gardener,” he says, “who has quite so much personal charm.”
The South Bank Show Awards 2008 ITV1, 10.40pm
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Melvyn Bragg hosts the South Bank Show Awards, which is generally the most reliable awards ceremony around. Thirteen awards across the artistic spectrum will be handed out by the likes of Kevin Spacey, Martine McCutcheon, Kelly Osbourne and Tracey Emin. Eclectic, don’t you know.
Live Super Bowl BBC Two, 10.50pm; Sky Sports 1, 10pm
Live coverage of the 42nd Super Bowl from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona, where the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants. The Patriots are looking to win the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven years and become the first team since the Miami Dolphins in 1972 to go the entire season undefeated. History awaits.