ABERFAN: THE UNTOLD STORY
BBC One, 9pm
Forty years ago the side of a huge coal waste tip in South Wales turned to sludge and engulfed a village primary school. There were 144 fatalities, including 116 children. As this haunting film reminds us, it was the first British disaster to receive massive TV coverage as the villagers struggled with shovels, buckets and even bare hands to dig out the victims. Witnesses, including two of the few who were pulled out alive, recount their experiences. But the real point of the programme is the little-known story of the villagers’ struggle for justice from a National Coal Board unwilling to accept responsibility and a government that did not want the expense of removing the remaining tips.
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LOW WINTER SUN
Channel 4, 9pm
These are not the kind of cops you would want to meet on a dark night — or a dark day, for that matter. The Edinburgh setting of this intelligent, stylishly murky police thriller is even gloomier and bleaker than in Rebus. Mark Strong and Brian McCardie star as detectives who take the law into their own hands over the deeds of a particularly nasty colleague, but when things start going awry, a tangle of pay-offs, enforced prostitution and a trade in dodgy meat is exposed. Extreme violence lurks in the shadows but the strength of this two-parter comes from the pervasive sense of mistrust, of moral compromise and corruption, and intense performances from Strong and McCardie.
EXTRAS
BBC Two, 9pm
Some Ricky Gervais fans never thought the first series of Extras as funny as The Office. At least they needn’t worry whether the second series will be as good as the first. On the evidence of the opening episode it is better than ever. Gervais’s hero Andy Millman has his big break as writer and actor in a terrible new sitcom, torn between his sense of artistic integrity and the pressure to be “broad”. As ever the guest stars are prepared to mock themselves cruelly. A stupendously vain Orlando Bloom tries to hit on a deeply unimpressed Maggie (Ashley Jensen) and Keith Chegwin appears as a bigoted moron incapable of acting. The show is laugh-out-loud funny.
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THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK
BBC Two, 9.30pm
After the success of the wonderful Peep Show, David Mitchell and Robert Webb return to the sketches of their radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound. All sketch shows are patchy (Monty Python and The Fast Show included) and this is no exception, but there’s enough inventively daft nonsense to keep their fans chuckling contentedly. Look out for Numberwang, a manic but meaningless number-based game show; the Waffen SS officers who begin to wonder if that death’s-head insignia on their caps might not be sending out the wrong signals; and the unevenly empowered superhero partnership of BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner. Peep Show’s Olivia Colman takes the female support roles with her trademark wide-eyed but good-humoured common sense.
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MULTICHANNEL CHOICE
By Angus Batey
UEFA CUP LIVE
ITV4, 7pm/British Eurosport, 7pm
West Ham United’s first European campaign in seven years kicks off against Palermo on ITV4, while Derry City’s European adventure begins — and may well end — at home to Paris Saint-Germain.
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40 MINUTES ON
BBC Four, 9pm
Between 1981 and 1994, 40 Minutes was required viewing. This new series looks at some of its classic documentaries, and returns to the sources to update the stories. Tonight’s film revisits the child arsonist Michael “Mini” Cooper: he was incarcerated at the age of 8 for trying to burn down his home while his father was inside. But, as this programme shows as it catches up with the 42-year-old, this was not his last fire.
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HORIZON: EARTHQUAKE STORM
UKTV Documentary, 9pm
The idea that earthquakes might be related to one another in the way that storms are seemed preposterous, until 1999, when the theory’s main proponent predicted a ‘quake that killed 25,000 people. This documentary examines the concept.
THE JANICE DICKINSON MODELLING AGENCY
Living TV, 9pm
Dickinson, with 37 Vogue covers and four years judging America’s Next Top Model behind her, has decided to start an agency. This show charts the trials, tribulations and, inevitably, the tantrums that attend the endeavour. After kicking a religious male model out of a casting call when he refuses to drop his trousers, she blasts: “I got two words for people who don’t want to work with me — out!”
THE SOPRANOS
E4, 10pm
As Tony clings to life, deep within his coma his dream self undergoes surreal crises. So while Big T voices his existential doubts to the Buddhist monks who are suing him over a faulty heating system, back in the real world Silvio’s health suffers while his wife plays Lady Macbeth, Paulie and Vito consider ripping off Carmela, and Chris “persuades” a writer to help him make a supernatural Mob slasher movie. Just another everyday episode, then.
JONATHAN ROSS’S JAPANORAMA
BBC Three, 11pm
Ross’s televisual love letter to Japanese culture is being somewhat undersold: curious, considering how much the BBC has spent on securing the presenter’s services. In this second episode he examines otaku, the nerds who are into manga and model collecting. A regular slot on the show features the rock band the Magic Numbers, who are trying to bridge the cultural gap on their first tour of Japan: tonight they get to grips with some localised Japanese cuisine.
THE ADVENTURES OF CHICO AND GUAPO
MTV, 11.30pm
This new animated series follows the fortunes of two Puerto-Rican cleaners trying to break into the music business.