Critics’ choice
Pick of the day
Our Dancing Town (BBC2, 9pm)
There is no real reason for this programme’s existence. The residents of the four Yorkshire towns featured were probably not yearning to stage a dance spectacular through their streets, or writing letters demanding a Hollywood-style production number reflecting their history and heritage; yet, inspired by the 2012 London Olympics, the choreographer Steve Elias decided that a dance pageant was just what these towns needed, culminating in a collective display through the streets of York.
In this second episode, he visits Skipton to create a parade honouring farmers and market traders. Both groups are slow to get involved, but what makes this programme so engaging is the number of people Elias finds who are waiting for an excuse to dance after years of being unable or unwilling to try. It is the pleasant face of Britain’s Got Talent — nobody dancing for celebrity or gain, just the sheer joy of it.
Victoria Segal
Watch TV — save cash
Save Money — Good Health (ITV, 7.30pm)
The programme title might sound rather Confucian, but keeping a close eye on the cost of its many recommendations does feel like a new approach. This is a traditional magazine in all other respects, with Sian Williams (at pains to remind us that she is a journalist by training) looking at the best and cheapest product on the market to deal with head lice that have out-evolved traditional medications, and Dr Ranj Singh trying out self-testing kits. The pop star turned personal trainer Michelle Heaton talks about the number of young women using diet pills and says she feels it was her own use of ephedrine that resulted in her heart problems.
Out of place
Islands Of Australia (ITV, 8pm)
In the second episode of this enjoyable travelogue, Martin Clunes shows off his slightly embarrassed Prince Charles-like clapping technique as Tiwi islanders sing and sway in front of him. They have dances for all occasions, says Clunes, “and I guess that includes visits from pasty white actors”. He does not seem entirely comfortable, refusing to taste the bush tucker foraged by the elders on a trip to a mangrove swamp and pulling faces at the cooked “longbum” whelks. It is a disappointing note to strike with his elderly hosts, and Clunes sometimes gives the impression he finds animals easier than people.
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Breaking the rules
Sugar Free Farm (ITV, 9pm)
The celebrities are barely four days into their two-week diet- and-fitness challenge and communal food is going missing. The nutritionist Hala El-Shafie has calibrated each meal so that everyone will lose weight, so she is furious to find out that Gemma Collins and Alison Hammond have been helping themselves to eggs. Ann Widdecombe is proving a tricky nut to crack as well, loudly proclaiming her devotion to low-fat margarines, but soon changes her mind when she is given the ingredients and told to make her own. “Looks like something from Breaking Bad,” Stavros Flatley Jr tells her.
Middle East horror 1
The Secret History Of Isis (PBS America, 10.15pm)
This sombre documentary investigates the growth of Isis in the context of the war on terror, exploring the role the American government played in allowing the militant group to flourish in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and explaining how both George W Bush and Barack Obama missed chances to stop their violent spread. The film focuses on the stories of leaders Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, moving from the events that unfolded post-9/11 to the war in Syria, to show how the terrorists gained momentum in their pursuit of a caliphate.
Middle East horror 2
Stacey On The Frontline — Girls, Guns And Isis (BBC1, 10.45pm)
Filmed in September 2016, two years after Isis took more than 5,000 Yazidi women captive in northern Iraq, this harrowing film follows Stacey Dooley as she spends two weeks with a battalion of female soldiers who are preparing to fight on the frontline near Mosul. Many of them were previously captured by Isis and they share their stories with Dooley, describing unimaginable brutality. Their preparations are as much about facilitating a rescue mission for the 3,000 Yazidi still held as they are about retribution.
Victoria Segal and Helen Stewart
Sport choice
Australian Open Tennis (Eurosport, 6am/12 midnight)
Africa Cup Of Nations Ghana v Uganda (Eurosport, 3.45pm); Mali v Egypt (Eurosport, 6.45pm) MOTD (BBC1, 8pm)
Radio pick of the day
Laura Mvula’s Miles Davis (R4, 11.30am)
“One of the greatest inspirations of my musical life” is how the British singer-songwriter describes the American jazz trumpeter, improviser and bandleader. She and three fellow fans, Laura Jurd, Jason Yarde and Kevin Le Gendre, offer pithy insights into his iconic, innovative, shape-shifting status. Another programme in similar vein, Great Lives (R4, 4.30pm), sees the former head judge of Strictly, Len Goodman, extol Lionel Bart, composer of Oliver! and Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be.
Paul Donovan
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You say
What ruined Vienna (BBC4) for me was the sight of Simon Sebag Montefiore looking like a homeless person. A disgraceful presence abroad purporting to represent the UK and British television. Unbelievable. Can the man not afford a decent shirt (ironed preferably!)? A middle-aged man should never wear low-slung jeans, especially the scruffy ones Mr SM decided to inflict on the viewers. And don’t mention his scuffed shoes: for goodness sake, hasn’t he watched Mr Michael Portillo? Exemplary in every way.
Michael Chee
Neil Oliver, one of the best historical presenters around, who can make even the driest archaeology come alive with his enthusiasm, has teamed up for Britain’s Ancient Capital (BBC2) with an irrelevant duo (I exempt Shini Somara) who were not only out of place but out of time.
Alan Carroll
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Film choice
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Film 4, 2.50pm
Unusually for a movie of its era, Robert Wise’s stately film invents a visitor from outer space who is not a conqueror but a moralist. Played by Michael Rennie, this adviser doesn’t even look alien, though he does create a bit of typical sci-fi jeopardy by bringing along an ominous robot. (B/W)
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Stalag 17 (1953)
More 4, 11.15am
Billy Wilder’s prisoner-of-war movie, the story of a cynical American sergeant (William Holden) who clashes with other inmates, is a mix of japes and satire that provides a sardonic alternative to films of the Great Escape school. It comes with the bonus of Otto Preminger as the camp’s commandant. (B/W)
Hellboy II — The Golden Army (2008)
ITV2, 9pm
Having given us Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006, Guillermo del Toro was on top form when he set to work on this showcase for the monstrous Hellboy. The director’s visual brilliance, with its tinge of Arthur Rackham, makes the film’s fantasies more entertaining than those of most other comic-book movies.
The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
Film 4, 9pm
The spiritual questing in Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Silence, takes him long way from the activities of his previous feature, this biopic of the corrupt broker Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). The movie does have a kind of morality, but its attraction is the brio with which it depicts bad behaviour.
Edward Porter