For full TV listings for the week, see thetimes.co.uk/tvplanner
Viewing guide, by Ben Dowell
The Equalizer
Sky Witness/Now, 9pm
Remember The Equalizer? Edward Woodward, fighting crime the British way, with restraint, a fancy Jaguar and cool gadgets, plus two so-so films starring Denzel Washington in the same role? Well, there’s now a TV reboot with Queen Latifah as the goodie vigilante Robyn McCall (Woodward and Washington were Robert). Like all good renegade heroines, she has recently retired from the CIA after a bungled operation she doesn’t like discussing and which makes her reluctant to take up a job in a private security firm offered by another of those TV action thriller favourites, the smoothie-chops former boss (Chris Noth’s William Bishop). The fun, if that’s the word, begins when she comes across a woman who has witnessed a murder only to become the prime suspect and the target of a rich arch-baddie and his menacing henchmen. Helping their cause are Melody (Liza Lapira), a crack sniper/general badass, and the hacker whizz Harry (Adam Goldberg). To prove that Robyn is also a normal person she has a daughter (Laya DeLeon Hayes), with whom she has many earnest discussions about racial politics. It’s standard action thriller fare with twists that seasoned TV viewers will probably see a mile off, perfunctory fight scenes and even a moment when Robyn runs away from a building that explodes. Some mileage is made from the sass and attitude of our new Equalizer, with perhaps the best moment coming when she interrupts some bad guys doing some torturing and who demand to know who she is. “Neighbourhood watch,” she replies, before kicking butt. As you have probably clocked by now, this is undemanding put-your-brain-in-a-jam-jar viewing; less creative reboot, more popcorn drama by numbers.
How Healthy Is Your Gut?
Channel 4, 8pm
Gut problems are the third most common reason for staff absence and are costing British businesses billions in sick leave as well as causing people embarrassing personal afflictions such as bloating and flatulence. So the TV presenter Sabrina Grant thinks it’s time to take action. Her film explains why the gut affects our moods, energy, sleep and general wellbeing as she puts six fantastically unselfconscious volunteers with various complaints on regimes ranging from a bone broth diet, colonic hydrotherapy and a ten-night intense detox programme. These treatments — like Grant’s cheery, honest and likeable style — can work wonders.
Rommel
PBS America, 8.30pm
A thorough if strangely misty-eyed biography of the great Nazi military commander subtitled The Soldier, the Son and Hitler follows his extraordinary career, culminating with his tactical brilliance with the Afrika Corps in the deserts of North Africa. But it’s as much a portrait of the man, the husband to Lucie (who died in 1971) and father to Manfred, his only son, who died in 2013 and contributes to this film. Of course the general, who stood up to Hitler and refused to join the Nazi party, is hailed as one of the better Germans during the conflict, but let’s be honest: he hardly has much competition.
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Write Around the World
BBC4, 9pm
The latest celebrity-gets-cushy-travel-job show finds Richard E Grant talking about the books that were inspired by various places. He starts in southern Italy, with Charles Dickens, Elena Ferrante and Robert Harris on the agenda, and also stays at the hotel where Patricia Highsmith was inspired to create Tom Ripley after seeing a solitary young man sauntering along a beach. As ever Grant is an acquired taste, and the way he acts as if he’s the first person in human history drawn to the feel and smell of books may grate.
The Boy Who Can’t Stop Dancing
Channel 4, 11.05pm
Working-class Liverpool lad Tom Oakley has cystic fibrosis — and a passion for dancing that is unquenchable. This moving film has an almost cinematic arc (it’s hard not to think of Billy Elliot) as we meet him in lockdown and follow his dream to secure a place at Rambert dance school. Will he make it through the auditions? And if he does, what will life hold for him if he has to leave his loving family and supportive girlfriend behind? You might want to keep some tissues handy.
Catch-up TV, by Joe Clay
Les Dawson: The Lost Tapes
ITV Hub
Les Dawson, a comedian who once memorably described his face as like “a bulldog chewing a wasp”, is remembered in the year in which he would have celebrated his 90th birthday, with a treasure-trove of previously unseen family home movies and archive footage. Dawson’s second wife, Tracy, and his youngest daughter, Charlotte, have given the programme-makers access to a unique collection of tapes, recordings and diaries stored in the attic of his house in Lytham St Annes. As well as family memories, well-known fans including Brendan O’Carroll (Mrs Brown), Jason Manford, Omid Djalili and John Thomson, and lifelong friends including Ruth Madoc and Gloria Hunniford, celebrate the talent that made him “the comedian’s comedian”, aided by clips from the television archives. Joe Clay
Film choice
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Almost Famous (15, 2000)
GREAT! Movies, 9pm
The writer-director Cameron Crowe peaked with this nakedly autobiographical reminiscence about life on the road as a teenage music journalist with bands such as the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were amalgamated into the fictional Stillwater, with the lead singer Russell Hammond winningly played by Billy Crudup (Brad Pitt was originally chosen but dropped out) and Patrick Fugit cast as William Miller, the adolescent reporter pursuing him. The movie has taken some justifiable hits since, especially concerning its depiction of Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane as a “manic pixie dream girl” (exists only to help men to “find themselves”). But no one could begrudge a film that contains the iconic Tiny Dancer singalong scene. Hairs on the back of the neck. (162min) Kevin Maher
Nuns on the Run (15, 1990)
Film4, 12.25am
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane don habits to escape mobsters in the writer/director Jonathan Lynn’s crime comedy, which owes a considerable debt to Some Like It Hot. Brian and Charlie (Idle and Coltrane) work for the notorious gangster “Case” Casey (Robert Patterson). When he discovers that they want out, he decides to bump them off, but not before they have helped him to rob a local triad. However, the duo get wind of his plan and make off with the money themselves. But their escape plan goes awry and they have to seek refuge in a nuns’ teacher training school. Hilarity ensues. It was a big success in the US, where it became the most successful British comedy since A Fish Called Wanda. (88min) Joe Clay
Radio choice, by Debra Craine
Africa’s Vaccine Ambitions
BBC World Service, 8.06pm
While we congratulate ourselves on the efficacy of our Covid vaccine programme, spare a thought for Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people that only makes 1 per cent of the vaccines it needs. Africa depends almost entirely on Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for life-saving pharmaceuticals, but the global pandemic has taught a harsh lesson on the dangers of relying on outsiders. Numerous vaccine clinical trials have been conducted on the continent yet African nations are at the back of the queue when it comes to Covid jabs. Rhoda Odhiambo meets key figures in the fight to establish vaccine manufacturing facilities in Africa.