James May’s 20th Century, BBC Two, 8pm/8.30pm
James May, best known as a co-presenter of Top Gear, is scruffy, bloke-ish and likeable — someone who doesn’t take himself seriously, disguises his intelligence, cracks sardonic jokes and treats life as a Boy’s Own adventure. In the first episode of a new series, produced in association with the Open University, he offers a clear, simple and entertaining guide to the main developments in the 20th century that shrank the world, starting with the aeroplane, the car and communications technology. He’s like a cool version of Adam Hart-Davis.
Tagging Undercover: A Panorama Special, BBC One, 9pm
Electronic tagging seemed to offer a humane solution to Britain’s overcrowded prisons. Last year, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee came out in its favour, saying that tagging was a cost-effective alternative to custody. “Curfews,” it said, “can help with the rehabilitation of offenders by allowing them to have contact with their families and to work or attend education or training.” It’s also cost- effective. On average, it costs £70 less a day than keeping an offender in prison. Britain embraced the idea and now tags twice as many people as the rest of Europe put together. But there is a downside, not least the fact that prisoners released on tags have committed more than 1,000 violent offences. In this Panorama Special, Paul Kenyon — the Yorkshire terrier of investigative journalism — investigates whether tagging is as effective as the Government claims.
Sensitive Skin, BBC Two, 10pm
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One of the many wonderful aspects of the BBC’s production of Bleak House was the way familiar faces — actors such as Johnny Vegas — gave such unexpected performances. Something similar happens tonight with Anthony Head, who in the past has always seemed too smooth by half. Davina (Joanna Lumley) is, in her own words, sitting there like Elsa the lioness without a clue what to do with her freedom. Along comes Head, full of charm and laughter, and it isn’t long before the two of them are bobbing up and down on the Thames. This is the one occasion when, if Anthony Head offered you a cup of coffee, it would be churlish to refuse.
Cape Wrath, Channel 4, 10pm
Imagine a self-contained community called Meadowlands — a sort of Brookside touched by Twin Peaks — where all the residents belong to a witness protection programme. The place is filled with people who are miserable, dysfunctional and paranoid. Nobody from the outside is supposed to be able to infiltrate the community; but inside it, the inhabitants’ neuroses can flourish like poisonous fungi. In Channel 4’s unpredictable and fascinating new drama series, which has the potential to become cult viewing, David Morrissey arrives with his wife and children in the hope of making a fresh start. Trouble is, you can change your name and your past — but you can’t change what goes on inside your head.