THE BAD FOOD GUIDE
BBC Two, 7pm
First shown on BBC Four, The Bad Food Guide tells the story of how British gastronomy slowly and painfully emerged from the privations of the Second World War. During wartime, it mattered only that food was cheap and nutritious. The cost of a meal in restaurants was capped at five shillings a head and whale, snoek, porpoise and horse appeared regularly on menus. But nothing improved once the war was over. “The last excuses have ceased to be valid,” wrote Raymond Postgate, who published the first Good Food Guide in 1951. “Food is ill-cooked, insufficient, or badly and rudely served up — or all three.” This fascinating programme describes how Postgate spearheaded a campaign that transformed eating out in Britain.
SUMMER EXHIBITION
BBC Two, 8pm
In the first of three programmes going out on consecutive nights, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen joins the comedian and amateur artist Vic Reeves, the curator Sacha Craddock and David Mach, a sculptor, to guide viewers through the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. More than 8,000 artists have submitted their work to what has now become the largest open art exhibition in the world, and the cameras have been allowed to film the selection process as 1,500 works are chosen. Art valued at more than £2 million was sold last year, and this year the BBC’s Mr Moneybags, Alvin Hall (who usually advises people on how to save their money), hands out advice on what to buy and how much to pay.
CHINA
BBC Two, 9pm
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This is an eye-opening documentary about the conditions women face in the countryside in China and Tibet. Women make up two-thirds of China’s rural workforce; they have to work in the fields from dawn to dusk for a pittance, while at the same time looking after a household and taking care of the children, the elderly and the sick. Marrying a woman, according to many Chinese men, is like buying a horse — they are there to be ridden and beaten at will. China is the only country in the world where more women than men commit suicide. Not surprisingly, country women are desperate to improve their lot by getting an education and finding work in the city, but the transition is proving to be slow and painful.
WORLD CUP WATCH
ECUADOR v GERMANY
ITV1, 2.30pm (Kick-off 3pm)
One for English fans to watch with a gnawing sense of fate. The outcome of this result will affect who England play after Sweden. Surely a second-round showdown with Germany seems too early in the competition? On the other hand, Ecuador have looked stylish and often explosive in their first two games.
COSTA RICA v POLAND
ITV2, 2.30pm (Kick-off 3pm)
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Both teams have already been eliminated, so the result here is academic.
ENGLAND v SWEDEN
ITV1, 7pm (Kick-off 8pm)
Sven-Göran Eriksson wants England to finish top of their World Cup group, even if that means a turbulent confrontation with Germany. England haven’t beaten Sweden since 1968 — a draw will secure top place in the group. Wayne Rooney is expected to start.
PARAGUAY v TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
ITV4, 7.30pm (Kick-off 8pm)
The other match in England’s group may at least provide a less stressful watch.
MUTICHANNEL CHOICE
by Gabrielle Starkey
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LIVE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
Sky Sports 1/Sky Sports HD (Channel 405), 10.30am
After the first NatWest Series one-day international at Lord’s on Saturday, England’s latest stand-in captain, Andrew Strauss, crosses the Thames to lead an experimental side in the second match of the series against Sri Lanka at the Brit Oval.
ERIC HEBBORN: PORTRAIT OF A MASTER FORGER
Artsworld, 8pm
This fascinating Omnibus, from 1984, constitutes part of the publicity offensive launched by Eric Hebborn, a previously little-known art dealer, when he was revealed to be the forger of thousands of drawings purported to be Old Masters. A bitter and complex man, Hebborn avoids taking full responsibility for a case that rocked the art market, preferring to bitch about greedy and incompetent dealers, but he delights in showing off his prodigious artistic skills. Twelve years after this film he was murdered in Rome.
TALES FROM . . .
BBC Four, 9pm
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Kirsty Wark begins her second series of cultural travels around Europe in hip and happening Berlin. She meets the fashion designer Wolfgang Joop and a hair stylist to the stars, Udo Walz, while her travelling companion Toby Aimes takes the alternative route, hearing from the DJ Paul Van Dyk about the resurgent city’s new-found confidence.
BRITISH ARMY: BE THE BEST?
Sky One, 10pm
Three years ago, Colonel Tim Collins made front page news after a morale-boosting speech to troops in Iraq about the fine ideals of the British Army. Now retired, Collins gives an insider’s view of what he considers to be the best fighting force in the world, contrasting its policy of minimum necessary force and hearts-and-minds-winning charm offensive with the US’s heavy-handed, all-guns-blazing style. Agreeing with him are contributors ranging from American and French generals and Kate Adie to the former soldiers Kris Akabusi and Lord Brocket.
It may be propaganda, but at a time when news stories about the Army tend to be negative it is refreshing to hear the other side of the argument.
STORYVILLE: FLYING DOWN TO KABUL
BBC Four, 10pm
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Talk about lofty ideals. Since 9/11, pilots of small aircraft have found their airspace restricted by over-cautious governments. But Simone Aaberg Kaern, a vivacious young Dane with a passion for flying, is determined to reclaim the skies. After seeing a newspaper report about an Afghan girl who wants to become a fighter pilot, she and her boyfriend set off in her tiny plane to fly from Copenhagen to Kabul to meet her. This wonderful film charts her grand adventure, crossing war zones, negotiating red tape and, on occasion, flouting the rules, to reach Afghanistan and offer the astonished girl a flight.