SECRET LIFE OF THE CLASSROOM
Channel 4, 9pm
The simplest ideas are usually the best, and this one is simplicity itself. Thousands of children are dropped off each year for their first day at school, and most parents would love to be a fly on the wall to see how they get on in their new environment. And that is exactly what happens here. For months, the cameras filmed the children during their first term in reception class at Moorland Infant School in Bath. The children soon forgot about the cameras, and they are filmed learning how to play, make friends, exchange ideas and be kind to one another. It is like a very English version of the Oscar-winning 2002 French film Être et Avoir,and it is utterly enchanting.
SORTED
BBC One, 9pm
The last episode of the series revolves around Barmpot (Will Mellor), the endearing new Labour activist who is suddenly forced to put his life on the line in order to stand up for what’s right. It may not be the sort of thing that happens to a postman every day of the week, but this is a series that — for all its many qualities — has always tended to hold a mirror up to TV drama rather than to life. Dialogue such as: “It’s all such a mess. Why isn’t anything simple any more?” are lines written rather than overheard. Not that I’m complaining. The series has been filled with vivid characters and powered along by a bloke-ish energy and a tremendous soundtrack. You just have to suspend disbelief, that’s all.
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ACCUSED
BBC Two, 9pm
In 1991 police and social workers took nine children into care from South Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands during a dawn raid, believing the children were being sexually abused during satanic rituals. The shocked and frightened community called a meeting to discuss what had happened. “I listened to what these parents said,” the local doctor recalls, “and I thought the police and social work departments had gone mad. Berserk. Completely bonkers.” This definitive documentary describes — in as even- handed a way as possible in the circumstances — exactly what happened, with contributions from all parties involved. It is a gripping, horrifying and almost unbelievable narrative that explains, with the benefit of hindsight, how the authorities got it so dreadfully wrong and how the islanders fought back.
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ANGELA’S DYING WISH
Channel 4, 11pm
When the television producer Angela Howard-Bent was told last year that she had terminal breast cancer, she decided to keep working on a project in Majorca and, at the same time, make a film about her own death. She did not want to die in excruciating pain like her mother; she was determined to retain her dignity, and she wanted to choose where and how she died. Four months and seven days later she was dead, and this film documents the bravery, anger and suffering of those last months. When the pain makes it impossible for her to continue working, she says simply: “I wish I was well. I wish I was well.”
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BEST OF THE REST . . .
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THE ULTIMATE BIKINI GUIDE
Channel 4, 8pm
A fun-packed celebration of 60 years of fashion’s most revealing garment.
Multichannel choice
LITTLE MISS JOCELYN
BBC Three, 10.30pm
Jocelyn Jee Esien one third of the 3 Non-Blondes, crashes back on to BBC Three with a solo series that could easily be described as a black Catherine Tate Show. Featuring a range of madcap characters, the humour is loud and exaggerated and, on this evidence, likeable enough.
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GREAT WRITERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Artsworld, 9pm
Tonight’s profile turns to the author who said “show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy”: F. Scott Fitzgerald.
STORYVILLE: RIOT ON!
BBC Four, 9.30pm
To paraphrase the advert, if Carlsberg made corporations, they would probably be something like Riot-E. At least, until it fell apart spectacularly in 2002. This amusing, playfully edited and fairly sweary (for a Storyville) documentary details how a bunch of Finnish nobodies managed to create a mobile- game technology company in 2000, cajoling $20 million in investments from media giants. These billion-dollar wannabes employed their friends and family, created a laid-back party climate at work (including group sex sessions for the IT geeks in the in-house saunas) and won over Hollywood players. The sky was the limit, until the lies caught up with the hubris and everything came crashing. This often hilarious account is how it all unfolded.
BIG RON MANAGER
Sky One, 10pm
Ron Atkinson has been creeping back on to our screens lately, apparently having done his time for the racist comment that cost him his ITV job in 2004. This new series puts him back on the touchline, too, as a trouble- shooter for lower league clubs, starting with Peterborough. But it’s a rocky start as Ron’s hands-on approach sees him banned him from the dressing room before matches. JAMES JACKSON
Daytime choice
THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE (2005)
Sky Movies 2, 11am
King Neptune’s crown has been stolen and all claws point towards Mr Krab, so loyal SpongeBob sets off on a mission to prove his boss innocent. Kids will love the colours and mayhem, their parents the surreal wit. GABRIELLE STARKEY