TV choice
WIMBLEDON 2004
BBC Two, midday & 5.35pm/BBC One, 1.40pm; also BBCi
While Wimbledon fortnight could normally be seen as the TV event of the year, this summer it has some stiff competition from Euro 2004 and the Olympics. Still, there’s nothing quite like the genteel SW19 atmosphere coupled with the agony and ecstasy involved in “Come on Tim!” Henman’s progress. He looked masterly for much of the French Open, so much so that Roger Federer, the clear men’s favourite here, has put Henman at the top of his danger list. Federer opens play on Centre Court, John McEnroe will commentate and Sue Barker will be in that upstairs studio. Welcome the sound of summer. See John McEnroe. James Jackson
DEATH OF AN IDEALIST
Channel 4, 8pm
Rachel Corrie was the 23-year-old American student from a comfortable, middle-class home in Washington State who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. She was acting as a human shield to stop it destroying a Palestinian home. The Israelis claim that it was an accident, but also that she was disrupting a military operation. In this shocking film, her parents visit the Gaza Strip and experience at first hand precisely what their daughter meant when she wrote: “The world should be ashamed of this.”
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SECRET HISTORY: THE ROYAL MUMMY
Channel 4, 9pm
The strange story of how of a Pharaoh’s mummy found its way from the Valley of the Kings to a museum in Niagara Falls, where it was exhibited as a curiosity alongside a two-headed calf. A German engineer first pointed out its significance when he saw the blackened body with folded arms and became convinced that it was Queen Nefertiti. The poor old thing was bombarded with CAT scans, X-rays, and radiocarbon dating, before being returned to Egypt to lie in state alongside other family members in the Cairo Museum.
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PANORAMA
BBC One, 10.35pm
Bill Clinton holds court to David Dimbleby in an exclusive interview. No preview tapes were available.
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Euro 2004
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CROATIA v ENGLAND
BBC One, 7.30pm
As we go to press before the Swiss game — and England are the most unpredictable side — it is hard to know the significance of this game. The agonising defeat by France means that no further slip-up can be afforded, but the only guarantee is that Sven’s side will find ever more interesting ways to make their fans suffer right until the end. John McNamara
Multichannel choice
SPORT IN THE SIXTIES: A TV REVOLUTION
BBC Four, 10pm
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In this interactive, sport-saturated age, armchair fans are spoilt for choice so it’s hard to believe that programme planners for the 1966 World Cup were initially wary of giving the championship too much airtime. This race down memory lane shows how televised sports coverage took off in the 1960s and has improved in leaps and bounds ever since. All the big events on the small screen are here, including the 1960 Grand National, the launch of Grandstand, Harry Carpenter’s interviews with the then Cassius Clay and, of course, England’s World Cup triumph over West Germany (captured in colour for cinema news). Anna Frame
ART AND ISLAM/WORLD IN ART
BBC Four, 8.30pm/9pm
A treat for art lovers begins with an exploration of the exhibition of Islamic art at the Hermitage Rooms in London, pondering how this type of work should be curated post 9/11. A brisk yet engrossing new series, World in Art, follows, taking a year in history to examine the artistic output of six diverse cultures. The opener flashes back to 1517, when the Renaissance was as its height and religion was a defining force for everyone. While Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were creating their masterpieces, West Africa’s Edo people were producing bronze castings that elevated their subjects from human to the divine, and the Japanese painter Soami was creating his mystical Zen gardens in Kyoto. Don’t miss.
OUT OF THE BLUE
Granada Plus, 9pm
A re-run of the character-driven police drama set in Sheffield starts tonight with John Hannah’s detective investigating the murder of a terminally ill man inside a hospital.
THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE
Sci-Fi Channel, 9pm
Forest Whitaker’s The New Twilight Zone is more hammy than haunting, but it still manages to draw you in. Tonight’s double bill begins with a bunch of young adventurers unearthing an Aztec relic, causing the Sun to disappear. Jason Bateman stars in the second episode as an agoraphobic who won’t leave his home, despite its ghostly presence.
MARTIN LUTHER KING WEEK
UKTV Documentary, from 11pm
A week-long tribute to the great civil rights activist Martin Luther King begins with a Reputations biography. Other highlights include a two-part assessment of whether his famous dream of an integrated America has come true (Tuesday and Wednesday) and an Inside Story profile of another assassinated black campaigner, Medgar Evers, on Friday. AF