CRITICS’ CHOICE
Natural history selfies
Animals With Cameras (BBC1, 8pm)
At the end of last year, BBC4’s Turtle, Eagle, Cheetah — A Slow Odyssey turned its titular stars into camera operators, showing us their world through their eyes. The same approach is adopted in this series, in which Gordon Buchanan and his team equip animals — like the earlier trio, they are part of scientific projects — with lightweight cameras, partly to answer researchers’ questions and partly just to obtain captivating footage. The opener features meerkats in the Kalahari, revealing the underground labyrinth of their burrows and newly born pups; an orphan chimp in Cameroon, with the camera used to see if she has the jungle skills to cope with freedom; and penguins in Patagonia, with exhilarating images of the tactics used to catch fish. Although animal-cams threaten to put him out of a job (in his role as a lensman, at least), Buchanan remains cheery throughout and jokes that the series boasts “the most diverse crew ever”.
John Dugdale
Special Needs Employment Agency (C5, 10pm)
Channel 5 copies BBC2’s Employable Me in this series about disabled people who are given a chance to show they can cope with full-time jobs, thanks to a dedicated agency. Tonight, Alex, who has a form of amnesia, has a trial at an artisan bakery; Molly, with learning difficulties, is hired by a dress shop during the school proms season; and Andrew, who has Aspergers, is given a gig at a garage. (JD)
The Young Offenders (BBC3, from 10am)
A spinoff from Peter Foott’s 2016 feature film, this sitcom follows teenage friends Jock (Chris Walley) and Conor (Alex Murphy) as they navigate the pitfalls of their neighbourhood in Cork (not least of which is the local psycho, played by Shane Casey). For a show that has such wisdom as “girls are just guys with tits”, it is sweet and tender, while Hilary Rose as Conor’s fishmonger mother is a delight. (VS)
Hairy Bikers’ Mediterranean Adventure (BBC2, 8pm)
Si King and Dave Myers have it large in the Balearic Islands on this leg of their cheery sun-sea-and-sand trip. They start in Menorca’s capital, Mahon, home of mayonnaise, before revealing how to tell the difference between a cuttlefish and a squid. In Majorca they meet the Michelin-starred British chef Marc Fosh, and encounter tumbet, a traditional ratatouille-style dish topped with potatoes. (VS)
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Banged Up Abroad (National Geographic, 9pm)
Taking a time-out from a boring job, Matt Schrier photographed rebel fighters in Syria, but he was kidnapped by al-Qaeda en route to his return flight and detained with another American, Theo. When Theo wasn’t up to the physical challenge of an escape attempt, Matt faced a dilemma: stay with him, or flee alone. Theo survived, but his voice is strikingly absent from this gripping docudrama. (JD)
FILM CHOICE
Hoffa (1992)
Sky Cinema Thriller, 6.15am
Starring Jack Nicholson as the infamous labour-union kingpin Jimmy Hoffa, Danny DeVito’s biopic lacks cohesion but is not short of salty toughness. The latter trait is something it is likely to share with Martin Scorsese’s current work in progress, The Irishman, a mob movie that will feature Al Pacino as Hoffa.
Sausage Party (2016)
Sky Cinema Comedy, 2.50pm/10pm
Despite being a cartoon, this picture of supermarket foods as cheerful live beings is not meant to be served to children: its produce is exuberantly rude. Some of the jokes are bargain-bin stuff, but many are choice items for consumers with a taste for good-hearted lewd wit. Co-dirs: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Stranger By The Lake (2013)
Film 4, 1.30am
Alain Guiraudie’s impressive (and sexually explicit) thriller hangs around in a bucolic gay cruising site in the company of a man (Pierre Deladonchamps) who makes risky choices after witnessing a heinous event. Although the ending may be a bit shaky, the story’s slow- rising tension is rewarding in itself, as is the languorous, sun-dried atmosphere the film summons up.
Edward Porter
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Radio pick of the day
Drama: The Red (Radio 4, 2.15pm)
In Marcus Brigstocke’s debut radio drama (first broadcast last year), Rufus Jones and David Calder star in a tense two-hander about family, alcoholism and a 1973 bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. There is a more jocular take on booze consumption in The Inimitable Jeeves (R4 Extra, 9.30am), with the 1973 pairing of Richard Briers as Wooster and Michael Hordern as the gentleman’s gentleman.
Andrew Male
Sports choice
ODI Cricket (SSME, 11am)
WSL Chelsea v Manchester City (BT Sport 1, 6.45pm)
Super League Warrington v Leeds (SSME, 7.30pm)
You say
Coronation (BBC1) was very interesting, but the Queen came over as snooty and irritable. It was quite revealing.
Violet Salter
Britain’s Favourite Dogs (ITV) was an unbelievable waste of prime time TV. What’s next, a three-hour show about budgies? Utter tripe.
Iain Pemberton (dog lover)
Where has Father Brown’s bike gone?
Karen Tess
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