TV choice
THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ
BBC One, 9.15pm
This won’t be the best, but it may be the most important drama on TV this year. Written by Richard Curtis, it uses the story of an affair between a shy senior civil servant (Bill Nighy) and a girl he meets in a café (Kelly Macdonald, above, with Nighy) to hammer home a message. The message is as important as messages get — that 30,000 children are dying every day and it is within the power of the G8 to end this casual holocaust. The story is engrossing and the cast (including Ken Stott and Corin Redgrave) is magnificent. Message dramas are always fatally flawed, but — under the circumstances — who cares? DAVID CHATER
GLASTONBURY 2005
BBC Two, 3pm/10.25pm
Saturday habitually provides the musical climax of Glastonbury — recall Pulp in 1995 or Radiohead in 1997. While there is a decent range of acts to dip into today (Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight), the weekend’s essential moment arrives with the wonderfully communal atmosphere at the main stage that builds through the evening. If there was ever a band with the potential to transport that crowd to festival nirvana, it is Coldplay. Whatever you think of their emotive brand of epic melancholy — expressly designed for mass outdoor singalongs, dramatic lighting, overhead fireworks, etc. — this’ll be the moment you watch and wish you’d bought a ticket. JAMES JACKSON
Advertisement
UNREPORTED WORLD
Channel 4, 6.15pm
Small tribal wars have been taking place in Papua New Guinea since the Stone Age. The locals regard it as a sport (“like rugby”) but modern weapons have escalated the violence. The bow and arrow has been replaced by the M16 and AK47, and potentially rich provinces have been laid waste by a cycle of killings and revenge killings. The fighting is financed by the cannabis crop, which is smuggled into Australia in exchange for hard currency and weapons. The reporter Sam Kiley provides another valuable insight into a wholly unfamiliar world.
Advertisement
TV ADVERTS’ GREATEST HITS
Channel 4, 10.05pm
Noël Coward talked about the potency of cheap music, and Beaumarchais said that anything too silly to be said could always be sung. Combine those two quotations and it is not hard to see how popular music became a powerful weapon in the armoury of manipulative advertising. Like it or not, who can forget Coca-Cola’s expressed desire to unite the world and teach it to sing in perfect harmon-eee? In its latest list programme, Channel 4 provides a roll call of the best, and worst, songs that have helped to shift everything from jeans to iPods. DC
Advertisement
Page 2: Multichannel choice ()
Multichannel choice
LIVE INTERNATIONAL RUGBY UNION: NEW ZEALAND v LIONS
Sky Sports 1, 7.35am
After months of speculation, seven warm-up games and some voracious pom-bashing by the local press, it’s finally time for the Lions to play the first international against the All Blacks. Clive Woodward’s side have not looked wholly convincing thus far, but the challenge of taking on the world’s top-ranked side should bring out the best in captain Brian O’Driscoll and his men. The Lions must win this first match to have any realistic chance of taking the three-match series. It will be tough against a team bristling with talent, but New Zealand have been known to choke in big games. They don’t come much bigger than this. ED POTTON
GLASTONBURY 2005
BBC Three, 7pm/BBC Four, 11.30pm
Advertisement
Keane, Echo & the Bunnymen, New Order and Coldplay are on the bill as Colin Murray, Edith Bowman and Dougie Anderson present eight hours of rolling coverage from Britain’s greatest music festival. Of course, the most captivating performers can often be found away from the rock-loving hordes. Take Senegal’s Baaba Maal, a searingly soulful singer-guitarist who fuses African music with reggae and blues. His set is broadcast this evening on BBC Four.
GLADIATOR WARS
National Geographic, 8pm
Advertisement
Established to reflect the Roman Empire’s militaristic ethos, gladiatorial contests were the Hollywood blockbusters of their day. But judging by the graffiti scrawled by doomed gladiators before they were led into the arena, it is clear that they would have gladly traded places with Crowe and co.
CLARKSON’S EXTREME MACHINES
UKTV People, 9pm
Jeremy Clarkson is such an engaging broadcaster that even motorsport-phobics will warm to the array of ridiculous vehicles he investigates in this series. The first episode features hydroplanes going head-to-head at 200mph on Colorado’s Lake Mead and souped-up Second World War fighters duking it out over the Reno desert. One of the great things about Clarkson is his willingness to drop the machismo when necessary. “That was the most uncomfortable I’ve been in my entire life,” he groans queasily after emerging from an epic powerboat ride. EP
Kids’ choice
MATILDA
Disney Channel, 1pm
With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fox on the way, here’s another Roald Dahl adaptation to whet the appetite. Danny DeVito directs and stars in the dark tale of a neglected young genius. EP