For full TV listings for the week, see thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner
Viewing guide, by Joe Clay
Dragons’ Den
BBC1, 8pm
The “pressure cooker for commerce” is back for a 20th series, a bona fide business reality show, not like that other returning series (see below), which increasingly resembles a panto cast made up of Love Island rejects. Since it started in 2005 about 1,800 entrepreneurs have entered the Dragons’ Den, with 350 deals secured and more than £28 million invested in those businesses. There have been 19 Dragons since it began, with Peter Jones the only survivor from the original line-up. Jones believes that the series has been partly responsible for “an explosion in new businesses and young people believing that they can start their own venture and take control of their futures”. For the 20th series, Jones, billed as “the titan of tech”, is joined once again by “the sustainability champion” Deborah Meaden, “the Queen of crafts” Sara Davies, “the fashion industry maverick” Touker Suleyman and the “social media mogul” Steven Bartlett. “The new series reflects the state of the world we live in,” Bartlett says. “People are struggling, the tectonic plates underneath them have moved, but despite that there is a huge amount of entrepreneurial hope and optimism in the Den.” So will any of tonight’s budding entrepreneurs follow in the footsteps of Levi “Reggae Reggae Sauce” Roots and get the Dragons to invest their cash in their fledgling businesses? There’s a stylish pill case that aims to take the stigma away from taking medication; a company promoting “self-care for the mandem” (grooming products for men of colour); a unique travel bag fitted with rollerskate wheels; and a clairvoyant peddling wellness products under the brand name Psychic Sisters. “Is that a crystal ball?” Bartlett asks. “So, how does this pitch end up going for you?”
The Dog House
Channel 4, 8pm
It is estimated by experts that there are at least 100,000 dogs without a known home at any time in the UK. So organisations such as Woodgreen Pets Charity perform an invaluable service in helping to find homes for abandoned dogs — as well as making for enjoyable and emotional telly. In the first episode of series four, deaf parents Hannah and Craig and their lively sons, Oliver and Felix, meet their match in Percy, a cheeky cockapoo puppy. We also see Woodgreen’s dog behaviour expert Sue in action, working with Lola and Bailey, a pair of Yorkie terriers.
The Apprentice
BBC1, 9pm
It’s series 17 and Lord Sugar goes in search of another company to invest in. No previews were available, with even the identity of the new batch of “chancers, posers, brown-nosers, moaning Minnies, big-time Charlies and half-pint Harrys” (copyright Lord Sugar) being kept under wraps. His trusted adviser Karren Brady returns, as does his chief attack dog, Claude Littner, back after a series break. For their first task the 18 candidates are sent to the Caribbean island of Antigua and tasked with selling and running bespoke tours. Tom Allen picks through the wreckage in You’re Fired (BBC2, 10pm).
The Real Stonehouse
ITV, 9pm
After the drama (available on ITVX if you missed it this week), here’s the real story of the former Labour MP John Stonehouse, a rising star of Harold Wilson’s government whose clothes were found on a Miami beach in December 1974. His wife, Barbara, assumed that he had drowned at sea, and his case prompted speculation about an extramarital affair with his secretary, corruption and spying before he was found alive in Australia. This documentary explores his life through interviews with his family, former colleagues and the UK and Australian police officers who brought him to justice.
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The Madame Blanc Mysteries
Channel 5, 9pm
Another case for our antiques dealer/part-time PI Jean White (Sally Lindsay), this one involving her friend, Jeremy (Robin Askwith). After a heavy night on the sauce, he is banished to sleep on the boat by his irate wife, Judith (Sue Holderness). He wakes up the next morning with a raging hangover, but what he finds up on deck is even more upsetting than his pounding head: a woman’s body. Sacrebleu! Jean takes time off from running her new antiques business to investigate, with the only clue a Victorian comb found in the dead woman’s pocket.
Catch-up TV, by James Jackson
Sherwood
BBC iPlayer
The long shadow of the 1984 miners’ strike is an inescapable presence in this superior detective series from James Graham (Brexit: The Uncivil War). It turns what could be a standard northern gloomfest, set in a north Nottinghamshire town, into a series with much to say about the wounds that persist in red-wall communities. Resentment lingers everywhere, like a polluting slick of oil on the surface of an otherwise ordinary neighbourhood. It means it’s less important whether or not you care much who has committed the murder of a community stalwart. David Morrissey is the detective in charge, while Robert Glenister, Lesley Manville and Adeel Akhtar offer high-calibre support. It’s crime drama as social commentary and more rewarding for it.
Film choice, by Ed Potton
Ice Cold in Alex (PG, 1958)
Film4, 4.25pm
A stoic John Mills leads a small team of Brits (and one dodgy accented South African) on a desperate escape across the Libyan desert to Alexandria in J Lee Thompson’s sometimes silly, but often stirring Second World War drama. The acting is at times stagey and the film won’t be claimed by the Time’s Up movement. In one scene a nurse played by Sylvia Syms looks on while the men fix the ambulance and simpers: “They tried to explain it to me, but I’m hopeless at that sort of thing.” Yet there’s a mythic quality to the way in which the obstacles stack up — mines, bombers, quicksand — and the final, famous beer-drinking scene is probably the best advert for Carlsberg that you could wish for. (124min)
Weird Science (15, 1985)
BBC1, 11.40pm
Written and directed by the Brat Pack founding father John Hughes, this adolescent twist on Frankenstein mythology partly takes place in the same fictional high school as the more celebrated The Breakfast Club, which Hughes also scripted. Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith play a pair of high school nerds with a less than glorious record with the ladies who design what they think is the perfect woman on a computer. A freak electrical storm brings her to life — and Kelly LeBrock va-va-vooms her way into every schoolboy’s smutty fantasy. It’s a silly sci-fi sex comedy, but there are enough amusing moments to warrant revisiting. However, the intended audience — teenage boys — will find it impossibly dated. (94min) Wendy Ide
Radio choice, by Ben Dowell
6 Music Goes Back to the 80s
6 Music, from 5am
If you’re in the mood for a nostalgic voyage back to the era of shoulder pads and hairspray, 6 Music is your destination station today. There is music from the 1980s all day, starting with Chris Hawkins (5-7.30am) and Lauren Laverne (7.30-10.30am), Tom Ravenscroft (10.30am-1pm), Craig Charles (1-4pm) and Steve Lamacq (4-7pm). Each show will have a half-hour guest mix from artists including Jeremy Healy of Haysi Fantayzee fame. The electronic duo Coldcut, who had hits with People Hold On featuring Lisa Stansfield and Doctorin’ the House featuring Yazz, will appear on Lamacq’s show.