WIMBLEDON 2004
BBC Two, midday and 5.35pm/BBC One, 1.40pm
While Wimbledon fortnight could normally be seen as the TV event of the year, this summer it has some stiff competition from Euro 2004 and the Olympics. Still, there’s nothing quite like the genteel SW19 atmosphere coupled with the agony and ecstasy involved in “Come on Tim!” Henman’s progress. He looked masterly for much of the French Open, so much so that Roger Federer, the clear men’s favourite here, has put Henman at the top of his danger list. Federer opens play on Centre Court, John McEnroe will commentate and Sue Barker will be in that upstairs studio. Welcome the sound of summer. JAMES JACKSON
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MATCH OF THE DAY LIVE: EURO 2004
BBC One, 7.30pm
After victory over Switzerland, England’s fate is back in their own hands. Another win over Croatia and Sven’s men can look forward to the quarter- finals. Easy. Well, it’s not actually. Croatia pushed France all the way last week and that draw means that a victory for the Croats will see them into the last eight at the expense of England. So it’s all to play for at the Luz stadium in Lisbon where Wayne Rooney will be looking to carry on his exceptional form while David Beckham will be trying to recapture his.
DEATH OF AN IDEALIST
Channel 4, 8pm
Rachel Corrie was the 23-year-old American student from a comfortable, middle-class home in Washington State who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. She was acting as a human shield to stop it destroying a Palestinian home. The Israelis claim that it was an accident, but also that she was disrupting a military operation. In this shocking film, her parents visit the Gaza Strip to see where their daughter died, and to visit the Palestinian families she had befriended. They experience at first hand precisely what their daughter meant when she wrote: “The world should be ashamed of this.”
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SECRET HISTORY: THE ROYAL MUMMY
Channel 4, 9pm
The strange story of how of a pharaoh’s mummy found its way from the Valley of the Kings to a museum in Niagara Falls, where it was exhibited as a curiosity alongside a two-headed calf. A German engineer first pointed out its significance when he saw the blackened body with folded arms and became convinced that it was Queen Nefertiti. The poor old thing was bombarded with CAT scans, X-rays, and radiocarbon dating, before being returned to Egypt to lie in state with other family members in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
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ART AND ISLAM/THE WORLD IN ART
BBC Four, 8.30pm/9pm
A treat for art lovers begins with an exploration of the exhibition of Islamic art at the Hermitage Rooms in London, pondering how this type of work should be curated post 9/11. A brisk yet engrossing new series, World in Art, follows, taking a significant year in history to examine the artistic output of six diverse cultures. The opener flashes back to 1517, when the Renaissance was at its height and religion was a defining force for everyone. While Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were creating their masterpieces, West Africa’s Edo people were producing bronze castings that elevated their subjects from human to the divine, and the Japanese painter Soami was creating his mystical Zen gardens in Kyoto. Don’t miss.
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SPORT IN THE SIXTIES: A TV REVOLUTION
BBC Four, 10pm
In this interactive, sport-saturated age, armchair fans are spoilt for choice so it’s hard to believe that programme planners for the 1966 World Cup were initially wary of giving the championship too much airtime. This race down memory lane shows how televised sports coverage took off in the 1960s and has improved by leaps and bounds ever since. All the big events captured on the small screen are here, including the 1960 Grand National, the launch of Grandstand, Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, Harry Carpenter’s interviews with the then Cassius Clay and, of course, England’s World Cup triumph over West Germany, captured in colour for cinema news.
ANNA FRAME