TV choice
GRUMPY OLD WOMEN
BBC Two, 10pm
The women who appear in this programme are astute and self-deprecating and frequently hilarious, but are they truly grumpy? Well, maybe a little. Janet Street-Porter is distressed about turning into her mother. Germaine Greer gets irritated at being unable to buy clothes that fit, and Ann Widdecombe sounds like Ann Widdecombe. The contributors give vent to their feelings about the middle-aged body, the problem with thongs and the way they are made to feel invisible. Kathryn Flett, Dillie Keane and Arabella Weir steal the show, but no one has yet walked away with The John Sessions Award for Outstanding Grumpiness. DC
THE WEST WING
Channel 4, 7.40pm
Last week, the Vice President resigned. That’s a hard act for a political soap to follow, and viewers might reasonably expect to spend most of tonight’s episode twiddling their thumbs while the characters regroup. And that, up to a point, is what happens. The President’s daughter is preparing to go to France for three months and there are more hints that Donna is in love with her boss. But just when you start to wonder where all this is headed — it is, after all, the penultimate episode of the series — the bomb drops and Leo McGarry literally sprints towards the Oval Office.
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IN SEARCH OF MYTHS AND HEROES
BBC Two, 9pm
The final episode of a series in which Michael Wood goes travelling around the world in search of the origin of myths. For the most part, these were upmarket wild-goose chases that involved taking a camera crew to exotic locations — which is as good an excuse as any. But tonight, Wood remains closer to home as he examines the myth of King Arthur. He goes to Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Scotland, searching for the truth behind a man he variously describes as a shadowy Welsh freedom fighter, a medieval Superman, a Dark Age Che Guevara and the model of a Christian hero.
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NATHAN BARLEY
Channel 4, 10pm
This is the most extreme episode to date, filled with the kind of foul behaviour that uncompromising satirists use to show why such behaviour is foul. Tonight, the repulsive Barley tries to seduce one of the only two characters who are even remotely sympathetic, which is suitably unpleasant. Curiously though, all the best moments in this series (the job interview from hell in the first episode, for example) have been the most acutely observed and the least offensive. Likewise, the strongest performances (the journalist and his sister Claire) are the least exaggerated. Less is always more. DC
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Multichannel choice
FOYLE’S WAR
ITV3, 8.30pm
In a move sure to prove popular, ITV3 is repeating the first series of the tightly plotted and atmospheric Foyle’s War on Friday nights. We begin in May 1940, when Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) is feeling that his time could be better spent in the Army, fighting the Germans, rather than policing the home front on the South Coast. But his application is turned down and, instead of action, he is appeased with help in the winsome shape of a new chauffeur, Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks, above left, with Kitchen and Anthony Howell). He may not be able to drive, but the oh-so-English detective solves a mean murder. GS
DAY OF THE WARRIOR
National Geographic, 8am-8pm
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A full 12 hours of stirring stories about proud fighting races kicks off with two episodes of Genius of the Vikings (right) and includes programmes about Alexander the Great (10am and 4pm), priestess warriors from Russia (11am and 5pm), Zulus (midday and 6pm) and samurai (1pm and 7pm).
AMERICAN IDOL
ITV2, 8.30pm/9.20pm/10.10pm
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With the auditions over, it’s time to get down to the competition proper. Over the next three weeks the judges will whittle down the 24 rookie contestants to just 12 finalists. They compete in double bills of shows — one for the boys and one for the girls — and then, at the end of each Friday night, two boys and two girls will be going home. The final 12 will then go on to the live studio performances and audience vote. With Simon Cowell and his cohorts listening out for every warble and bum note, the heat is on.
CELTIC CONNECTIONS/ EUROPEAN ROOTS: LIFE WITH A HUNGARIAN GYPSY BAND
BBC Four, 9pm/10pm
There’s a distinctly folky feel to tonight’s primetime line-up on BBC Four, starting with the first of Mary Ann Kennedy’s reports from the Celtic Connections festival, which took place in the last two weeks of January in Glasgow. Unlike most festivals, inclemency of weather actually adds to Celtic Connections’ charms, encouraging woolly gatherings around roaring fires in pubs. Tonight’s sessions include the wonderful Eddie Reader and the award-winning flautist Michael McGoldrick. Following that is part two of the European Roots series, which began back in December, looking at traditional music in four countries. Tonight’s subject is the band Parno Graszt, offering an insight into life in northeast Hungary, where gypsies live in simple houses and play their music outdoors in a style reminiscent of hillbilly settlements in America. But with 80 per cent unemployment, anti-gypsy sentiment is rife, threatening the villages and their bands. GS