NELSON’S TRAFALGAR
BBC One, 9pm
To mark the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar, Michael Portillo presents a light, accessible version of Nelson’s life –— a study of heroism that is not complicated by too many awkward contradictions of character or details about naval strategy. At the age of 19, Nelson wrote in his diary: “Well, then — I will be a hero. I’m confiding in Providence. I will brave every danger.” This is the Nelson that Portillo concentrates on — a man whose genius was based on courage, clarity of purpose and a rare ability to delegate authority and trust his subordinates. This is history-lite, made up of broad generalisations and illustrated with comic-book dramatisations.
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CUTTING EDGE
Channel 4, 9pm
Bad behaviour is not limited to yoof. The three elderly folk featured in this film are all, in their different ways, spectacularly difficult. A lady of 86 faces eviction for filling her sheltered housing with drug dealers and drunks. An 88-year-old man on Merseyside, who believes the entire world is against him, has been served with an ASBO for relentlessly harassing his neighbours, while a 69-year-old is running an excessively vigorous campaign to keep Battersea Park free of private functions. There is no denying that life has dealt them some hard blows, but their behaviour is bloody-minded, ridiculous, selfish, malicious and unpleasant to watch.
IMAGINE: FANTASTIC MR DAHL
BBC One, 10.40pm; Wales, 11.15pm
Members of Roald Dahl’s family were sufficiently impressed by John Bridcut’s documentary, Britten’s Children, that they agreed to co-operate fully with the making of this film. The celebrated children’s writer was a complicated character who never allowed facts to get in the way of a good story. His personal life was marked by tragedy; his son suffered severe brain damage after a taxi hit his pram; his daughter Olivia died from encephalitis at the age of 7; and he nursed his first wife, Patricia, back to health after a stroke. Without ignoring the dark side, this is a sympathetic portrait of a storyteller whose life and work was anything but ordinary.
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THE APPRENTICE USA
BBC Two, 11.20pm
Donald Trump’s US original returns for a second series. See Multichannel choice, below
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Storm of the Century is an epic three-part thriller by Stephen King that lasts for six hours. When aired on US television five years ago, it was dubbed “The Story that Lasts a Century”. As a small island community off the coast of Maine braces itself for the mother of all snowstorms, a demonic stranger arrives in town and starts killing old women. A mixture of horror story and morality tale, it is a wintry alternative to Wimbledon.
MULTICHANNEL CHOICE
By Anna Frame
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LIVE TWENTY20 CRICKET
Sky Sports 1, 5pm
The third expanded season of Twenty20 competition promises to be the best yet. With everyone treating the format seriously last season, and experimentation adding to the excitement, only the fiercest traditionalist remained unmoved. With Australia in the country for what is shaping up to be the most open Ashes series for years, 2005’s competition should help to underline cricket’s resurgence. Today’s match from Grace Road pits the defending Twenty20 champions, Leicestershire, against Nottinghamshire. ANGUS BATEY
THE MAZE
History Channel, 8.30pm
This bleak portrait of life inside the Maze Prison reveals how it was used to contain the Troubles but inadvertently became the very centre of the political struggle itself. To many, the prison represented a microcosm of Northern Ireland, with inmates continuing to fight from behind the prison walls. Monsignor Denis Faul, who witnessed the vile conditions, recalls the “disastrous non-communication between the British mind and the Irish mind”. The impasse resulted in the deaths of ten hunger strikers and 29 guards before the Maze was closed in 2000 as a result of the Good Friday agreement. AF
THE APPRENTICE USA
BBC Three, 9pm
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The weekly scowlings of Sir Alan Sugar in the British Apprentice were such a success that it seems entirely logical that the BBC should quickly follow up with the original Donald Trump version (this is the first show of the second series). Once again a group of business wannabes strut around New York trying to prove their success before congregating in a sepulchral meeting room for the pronouncements of King Donald. Each week, one of these budding entrepreneurs hears those fateful words “You’re fired!” For fans of the British show, there’s also fun to be had from noting the disparities in style. (This show is repeated on BBC Two tonight at 11.20pm.) JAMES JACKSON
THE L WORD
Living TV, 10pm
The glamorously groomed drama focusing on Los Angeles’s lipstick lesbians continues, and there’s not a pair of dungarees in sight. But viewers hoping for an undemanding hour of what has been hailed as a lesbian version of Sex and the City may feel slightly cheated — this second season is in danger of becoming a little preachy. Tonight Tina and Bette’s split promises to turn nasty after Tina takes Alice’s advice and hires a famous lawyer to take on her case. AF