TV choice
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CHOREOGRAPHY
Channel 4, 7pm
Having danced for 12 years with the Royal Ballet, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt set up by themselves a small company performing eclectic and challenging work by leading contemporary choreographers. At the start of this new four-part series, they decide to do their own choreography, hoping that “something must have rubbed off at some point”. They don’t want to copy anyone else or produce dance that is false, average or nice. So in a programme that will appeal mainly to hardcore dance enthusiasts, they seek the advice of key ballet and contemporary dance makers before trying to go it alone. David Chater
SATURDAY BRUNCH
BBC One, 11am
Advertisement
This is one of those Saturday morning shows (it’s an alfresco version of BBC Two’s Saturday Kitchen) that can burble away peacefully in the background as you ease your way into the weekend. Antony Worrall Thompson will be serving dishes with a Portuguese theme, while Oz Clarke will be getting cheerfully sloshed on various wines. Someone has to do it.
30 MINUTES
Channel 4, 6pm
Advertisement
Under English law, a person is innocent until proven guilty — unless a doctor accuses you of abusing your child. In tonight’s 30 Minutes victims of such allegations, later exonerated, describe how difficult it was to prove their innocence. It is widely believed that doctors are always right, even though the frequency of allegations is related to where a person lives. Children of parents living in Wirral, for example, are 13 times more likely to be put on the “at risk” register than children of parents in Oldham.
BBC SUMMER OF OPERA: FAUST
BBC Two, 6.30pm
Advertisement
Peter Brook’s terrific production of Don Giovanni last week is a hard act to follow, but the BBC’s summer season of opera shows no sign of flagging. Tonight, David McVicar’s sell-out production of Charles-François Gounod’s Faust is broadcast live from the Royal Opera House. Conducted by Antonio Pappano, the stellar cast includes Bryn Terfel as Mephistopheles, Robert Alagna as Faust and Angela Gheorghiu as Marguerite. Gounod’s strange, romantic tale of magic and menace is one of 16 operas based on the Faust legend. First staged in 1863, it had been performed more than 2,000 times in Paris alone by 1934. DC
Euro 2004
Advertisement
LATVIA v GERMANY/ HOLLAND v CZECH REPUBLIC
ITV1, 4.30pm/BBC One, 7.30pm
The group D matches from Porto and Aveiro.
Multichannel choice
ART SCHOOL
BBC Four, 9.20pm
According to Prof Christopher Frayling, of the Royal College of Art, “contemporary culture owes almost everything to the art-school culture in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s”. So continues BBC Four’s 1960s season with a delve into the engines of the counter-culture — the RCA, Goldsmiths College and Ipswich College, where brave new approaches to art, fashion and graphic design initiated the pop makeover of drab postwar Blighty. Peter Blake, Mary Quant, the RCA’s Ark magazine and Pete Townshend’s guitar smashing all crop up as we discover who influenced whom. Nostalgia for those who were there; an enriching trip for all others. James Jackson
Advertisement
LIVE INTERNATIONAL RUGBY UNION
Sky Sports 1, from 8am; Sky Sports 3, 6pm
England, the world champions, were cut to pieces a week ago by the All Blacks’ startling first-half display at Dunedin’s “House of Pain”. Which means that Sir Clive Woodward’s men — not least captain Lawrence Dallaglio — have much to prove in this morning’s second encounter in Auckland (kick-off in Auckland at 8.35am). Live rugby coverage continues as Scotland try to overhaul Australia for the first time in 22 years (kick-off 11.05am), Ireland take on South Africa in Cape Town (kick-off 2pm), and Wales meet Argentina in Buenos Aires (kick-off 6.10pm).
NIGELLA BITES
UKTV Food, from 1.30pm
Billed by UKTV Food wags as a Father’s Day present, here is a two-day extravaganza of Nigella Lawson doing her finger-licking-culinary- seduction thing. Recipes will no doubt be “simply divine”.
HAIG: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
UKTV History, 7pm
An unbiased reappraisal of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the so-called “butcher of the Somme”. Extracts from Blackadder Goes Forth actually act as useful expositions.
FRANKIE HOWERD
UKTV Documentary, 8pm
There have been a couple of profiles of the comedian of late, but this one — originally a BBC Reputations — is distinguished by amusing contributions (from Jonathan Ross, Eric Sykes and the like) and an intriguing exploration of his brush with LSD-assisted psychotherapy. JJ
kids’choice
GARFIELD AND FRIENDS
Boomerang, 6am/8.30pm
The sarcastic, lasagne-guzzling fat cat has just been given the big- screen CGI treatment (voiced by Bill Murray — who else?), which is receiving iffy early notices. This cartoon version from a decade or so ago is more the ticket. JJ