BIG IDEAS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Five, 7.15pm
No one could accuse Joseph Stiglitz of being an under-achiever. He was a senior economic adviser to the White House during the Clinton years; he ran the World Bank and has a Nobel Prize for Economics. A staunch believer in capitalism, he is also one of its fierce critics. In the latest in this excellent series, he explains the philosophy of free-market economics and describes its chequered history. He argues persuasively that unfair trade agreements and Third World debt prevent the system from being equitable or secure.
Advertisement
ANN WIDDECOMBE TO THE RESCUE
BBC Two, 8.30pm
As a rule, it makes sense to avoid any programme in which the Hamiltons, Laurence Llewelyn- Bowen or Ann Widdecombe appear. But here she is, bustling around the country like a bad-tempered partridge, telling people how tosort out their lives. Her advice, as you might expect, belongsto the no-nonsense school of crass common sense. Warring couples are told to compromise and recalcitrant smokers are threatened with a dose of the Army. But this is the bit that hurts. While giving advice to a motherand her teenage daughter, she is sympathetic and helpful and kind. My prejudice against her has taken years to cultivate. I wish she would leave it alone.
RAMSAY’S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
Channel 4, 9pm
It’s a bit cheeky. Two programmes in the new series — last week’s and the one tonight — are repeats, with an eight-minute update tagged on at the end. It is the TV equivalent of reheating leftovers with a scattering of parsley, or — as Gordon Ramsay might say — “It’s taking the ****ing p***”. Tonight, he goes back to the Walnut Tree Inn in South Wales. Can Ramsay persuade the owner to lower his prices? “It’s like talking to a ****ing breeze block,” he says.
Advertisement
ONE LIFE
BBC One, 10.35pm; Wales, 11.05pm
The Son-Rise Programme in the US has had remarkable success helping autistic children. The course begins with parents mirroring every move of their child — copying their actions rather than trying to stop them. The idea is that the child will respond to this powerful empathy and gradually reciprocate. ONE Life follows two parents as they travel to the US with their severely autistic son, hoping that he will learn to speak. DC
Advertisement
BADDIEL AND SKINNER UNPLANNED
ITV1, 11pm
A new series of improvised chat (first shown on ITV2 last night) from the slobs on the sofa, prompted by a live audience’s questions. It remains a no-frills affair, one that usually provides a chuckle — even the occasional guffaw — but, as ever, it’s dependant on how amiable or irksome you find the lads. JJ
Multichannel Choice
By Siân Morgan
The midweek Lions get a run-out looking to push their claims for a place in the side for Saturday’s second international.
Advertisement
AFRICAN ROCK’N’ROLL YEARS
BBC Four, 9pm/12.55am
The second episode in an excellent series exploring the rich and diverse sounds of Africa opens the page on the vibrant music scene that developed in South Africa during apartheid, when songs were used to strike back at repression. Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela were the first artists to find success in the West thanks to their fusion of American jazz with mbaqanga, and today a new generation of artists mixes local influences with black American music. Makeba and Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the newcomer Thandiswa contribute.
Advertisement
ALIEN PLANET
Discovery, 9pm/2am
“It isn’t conceivable, really, that there would not be life (on other planets),” says the film-maker George Lucas in the introduction to this heart-racing science-fiction animation, which uses sophisticated graphics and CGI to illustrate life on a virtual planet, Darwin IV. Two futuristic probes take the viewer on a simulated journey to a planet 6.5 million light years from Earth, where two suns shine and gravity is only 60 per cent of ours. Speculating on the flora and fauna that might survive in such an environment, this mesmerising series is the futuristic equivalent of the BBC’s magnificent Walking with . . . strand. SM
THE OFFICE: AN AMERICAN WORKPLACE
BBC Three, 9.30pm
Still not quite matching Ricky Gervais’s original, the US Office clone is nevertheless one of the more enjoyable comic offerings of the week. Tonight, Michael Scott (made oddly sympathetic by the wide-eyed Steve Carell) upsets everyone when finding a health plan for his employees. James Jackson
HORIZON
UKTV Documentary, 10pm/12.35am
Project Poltergeist is not a lowdown on the science of the supernatural but a popularised look at particle physics. For 40 years scientists tried to trap elusive particles known as neutrinos and to count argon atoms in a vat of cleaning fluid buried underground so as to determine why the Sun shines. This Horizon is one for science fans with at least an A level in physics — or insomniacs. SM