Tuesday

Mothers’ ruin
In The Club (BBC1, 9pm)
Kay Mellor’s drama about a group of pregnant women who become friends after attending antenatal classes together returns for a second series. Enough time has elapsed to ensure some of them are already back in the clinic, with Jasmin (Taj Atwal) receiving bad news about her imminent twins. The heart of the story, however, is Katherine Parkinson’s Kim, a character whose struggles with her changing body and relationship would induce more sympathy if she didn’t keep going on about her blog. It is odd, too, that such a maternity-focused series would subscribe so fully to the sitcom model of childbirth: waters break, immediate baby, cord and placenta mysteriously vanish.

Backstreet’s back
Dead 7 (Syfy, 9pm)
This is a zombie western written by the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, who stars alongside bandmates AJ McLean and Howie Dorough, as well as boyband peers from ’N Sync, O-Town and All-4-One (a double dose of the undead). Sensible people will grab tinned food, a rifle and a generator and head off to the nearest bunker to wait out the apocalypse, but those lured in by the promise of “it’s so bad it’s good” and future cult status will find endless gory splatter and acting that is only marginally less than offal. Those needing proof of quality will want to note that it is made by the company behind Sharknado.

The blame game
The Conspiracy Files — Who Shot Down MH17?
(BBC2, 9pm; BBC2 Scotland, 11.45pm)
This thrilling investigation into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, uses many of the visual tropes of modern spy dramas, but at its heart this is a serious investigation of the events that led to the deaths of the 298 crew and passengers who were flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur until their flight was shot down over Ukraine. “The world is watching,” said David Cameron and, in response, Russia insisted it was a Ukrainian fighter jet that brought down the Boeing 777. The Ukrainians were equally insistent that it had been a surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed rebels in the disputed Donbass region.

Homes from home
Britain’s Billionaire Immigrants (C4, 10pm)
This documentary about the children of wealthy Chinese people settling in London is a no-frills affair, offering little insight into what motivates them to leave home. It is perfectly clear, however, that businesses springing up to service their needs are only interested in one thing. The propagandist narration strikes an odd note, though. Lines such as “Even the Chinese super rich don’t have the British sense of entitlement” suggest that it might not even have been written with a UK audience in mind.

Lurid drama
Penny Dreadful (Sky Atlantic, 10pm)
As the third series of this horror drama begins, the action takes place in Zanzibar, the Arctic and the Wild West, as well as the streets of Victorian London. Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) meets Kaetenay (Wes Studi), a Native American who tells him his destiny; and Ethan (Josh Hartnett) is on a train bound for justice with two English policemen. Miss Ives (Eva Green) misses them, but having vanquished Lucifer she must wait at home for his brother to show.
Victoria Segal and Helen Stewart

Sport choice
County Cricket (Sky Sports 2, 10.55am) Notts v Yorkshire
IPL Cricket (Sky Sports 3, 3pm)
Uefa Champions League (BT Sport Europe, 7pm) Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid

Radio pick of the day
From Our Home Correspondent (R4, 9am)
Mishal Husain presents this new monthly series, spawned by the popular From Our Own Correspondent. She becomes the domestic counterpart to FOOC’s Kate Adie, introducing dispatches from around the UK. Drama: Julius Caesar (R4, 2.15pm), Shakespeare’s study of power and the cruel men of Rome, is the afternoon play today until Thursday: strong and taut, it has reassuring RP accents and a cast led by Tim Pigott-Smith as Caesar and Robert Glenister as Brutus.
Paul Donovan

You say
The thing about caravaners was much worse than anything J Clarkson and co could contrive. Not embarrassing in an ironic, clever clogs, Edinburgh Fringe way. Just embarrassing. In fact mainstream Wednesday evening TV is worse than flu. An hour of the One Show! That means the ‘off’ switch.
Ewan Campbell

Was this really meant to be a serious programme or the best charade ever transmitted? Someone should surely tell the proud presenters that there is no fair way to compare chalk with cheese, let alone such disparate caravans.
Jeff Grigg

My wife and I seem to spend more and more time watching Scandinavian dramas these days. I guess it’s our age. Thirteen was also gripping. No one seemed to notice it.
John & Helen Walker

Send your comments to: telly@sunday-times.co.uk

FILM CHOICE

Paycheck (2003) BBC1, 11.45pm; Scotland, 12.45am

Paycheck (2003)
BBC1, 11.45pm; Scotland, 12.45am
Cynics might suggest the title holds a clue to why John Woo chose to direct this jumbled sci-fi thriller, starring Ben Affleck as a computer genius whose role in a hi-tech intrigue requires him to have his memory wiped. The film is likely to vanish from the mind just as quickly, yet it is slickly produced and stylishly choreographed.

Blazing Saddles (1974)
Sky Movies Greats, 3.55pm
Westerns never looked the same after Mel Brooks’s spoof about the first black sheriff (Cleavon Little) of a lawless town and a pickled gunslinger (Gene Wilder) who lends him a shaky hand. The film is little more than a roped-together series of ad-hoc skits, though its famously flatulent cowboys alone are worth the admission price.

Unbreakable (2000)
Sky Movies Greats, 6pm
The story of a crippled comic-shop owner (Samuel L Jackson) who tries to convince the lone survivor of a rail crash (Bruce Willis) that the latter has superhuman powers, M Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to The Sixth Sense weaves a rich skein of mystical ideas before tying them up in a dime-store finale.

Jaws (1975)
ITV4, 9pm
Steven Spielberg’s thriller about a shark at large near a resort is a finely crafted exercise in suspense. It is ratcheted up to heart-thumping levels via a percussive score, predator’s-eye-view camerawork and a narrative that wisely leaves the rubbery-looking behemoth largely unseen amid its skilful use of suggestive power.

Previews by Trevor Lewis

LIVE FOOTBALL

Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid (BT Sport Europe, 7pm)

Uefa Champions League Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid (BT Sport Europe, 7pm)