Viewing guide, by Joe Clay
Big Cats
BBC One, 8pm
“I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat,” said Edgar Allen Poe, who knew a thing or two about crafting enigmatic prose. This magnificent three-part series has helped to increase our understanding of a family of animals that we know remarkably little about, despite inviting some of them to share our homes. Tonight’s final episode focuses on the passionate folk who have devoted their lives to learning more about cats, going to extraordinary lengths to get close to them. People such as Professor Alan Wilson from the Royal Veterinary College in London, who has spent the past five years studying cheetahs in an effort to find out what these speedsters — said to be the world’s fastest land animal with acceleration quicker than a Ferrari and a top speed twice that of Usain Bolt— are really capable of. Wilson has developed a high-tech collar that records the cheetah’s speed, position and G-force while they’re hunting. He tracks them in a plane he built and learnt to fly, packing it with state-of-the-art equipment to record the data. Now that’s dedication to the cause. We also meet the woman trying to prove that lions aren’t only the strongest big cats, but also the cleverest; we meet the species of cat that thrives in the shadow of the biggest industrial complex in Africa; and we find out about the challenges involved in tracking the elusive smaller members of the cat family, such as ocelots. And at a time when nearly half of all wild cats are threatened with extinction, there is also a conservation slant to the episode. The message is cautionary, but also positive — the tide may be turning. Further recommendations
Spend time with cheetahs on the Central Plateau in Namibia in Turtle, Eagle, Cheetah: A Slow Odyssey (iPlayer, to January 27)
Death in Paradise
BBC One, 9pm
During a beachside sermon delivered by the charismatic faith healer Steadman King, a 56-year-old woman with failing eyesight dies after taking a sip of holy water. “Poor woman,” says DI Mooney (Ardal O’Hanlon) with a sigh. “She came here expecting a new lease of life — she ends up dead.” There’s strong evidence to suggest that the woman was poisoned, but other members of the congregation who drank from the goblet are alive and well. “I give them their lives back,” says King. “I do not on any account take them away.” There’s a new member of the team helping out — a sleepy police dog with a serious lack of work ethic.
A House Through Time
BBC Two, 9pm
The house at 62 Falkner Street in Liverpool gives up its final secrets as the historian Dr David Olusoga explores its history from 1945 to the present. During this period the area of L8 in which the house was situated was a mixed neighbourhood, in ethnicity and income. The house was divided into rented rooms and Olusoga follows some of the stories of those who lived there, meeting the son of a couple who stayed in the attic. Olusoga also reveals the arrival of a famous neighbour in the 1960s and how the house survived the threat of demolition.
Britannia
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Jez Butterworth’s anachronistic romp through our ancient history is deliciously overblown, a heady brew of crazed mysticism, quality actors delivering fruity dialogue and extreme violence. Tonight’s second helping begins with Mackenzie Crook’s spooky druid, Veran, conversing with the severed head of a Roman legionnaire. Like Game of Thrones, it’s hard to keep track of all the warring tribes as David Morrissey’s invading Roman army realise that Britannia is very much divided. Game of Thrones fans might also recognise something of the dynamic between Arya and the Hound in the passive-aggressive relationship between feisty Cait and rogue druid Divis.
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Great Art
ITV, 10.45pm
Rembrandt: The Late Works was a 2014-15 exhibition 15 years in the making, organised by the National Gallery in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, examining the themes that preoccupied Rembrandt as he grew older: self-scrutiny, experimentation, light, observation of everyday life and even the work of other artists. The Great Art cameras had exclusive access to both galleries to document the work that went into preparing the exhibition, interwoven with Rembrandt’s life story. This edifying film explores each of the exhibition’s key works — many of which were considered career-defining — through contributions from and leading art critics, including Rachel Campbell-Johnston of The Times.
Catch-up TV, by Chris Bennion
My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw
BBC iPlayer, to February 7
It only takes about two minutes of this documentary on George Bernard Shaw by the actor Gabriel Byrne to realise that you are about to watch something very good. Byrne, marvelling at a puppet of the playwright, quotes one of Shaw’s self-aggrandising statements with wicked relish. Byrne is terrific company as he visits Shaw’s old haunts to get a measure of “the forgotten man of Irish literature”. He’s a fascinating, slippery character — Shaw called GBS “the most fictitious character I have ever created” — and Byrne’s passion radiates off the screen.
Film choice, by Wendy Ide
Pulp Fiction (18, 1994)
Film4, 9pm
Quentin Tarantino is as profligate with his flowery dialogue as he is with the baroque violence in this hugely influential American crime picture. Convoluted in structure and playfully non-linear, if the film is occasionally a little too pleased with its own wit, that’s perhaps a small price to pay for writing and direction of this distinctive quality. John Travolta’s career was rehabilitated by his role as the heroin addict hitman Vincent Vega and a legendary dance sequence with Uma Thurman. His co-stars include Samuel L Jackson, Harvey Keitel and Bruce Willis. Tarantino is yet to top it, but there’s no shame in that. (154min)
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Look Back in Anger (PG, 1958)
Talking Pictures, 11.35pm
Richard Burton’s casting as the angry young man Jimmy Porter has generally been seen as a misstep. While Tony Richardson wanted to keep Kenneth Haigh, who had played Porter with aplomb in Richardson’s Royal Court production of John Osborne’s play, the money men wanted someone with a name. Thus, Burton, too old, too handsome, too physically imposing for Porter, took the role. However, there is now an undisputed pleasure in seeing one of the great British actors in one of the great British roles. Mary Ure remained from the stage as his downtrodden wife, Alison, while Claire Bloom is the bourgeois Helena, to whom Porter takes an instant dislike. (98min) Chris Bennion
Sexy Beast (18, 2000)
Film4, midnight
Just when you thought you couldn’t take another generic British gangster movie, along came the debut feature film from Jonathan Glazer. Ray Winstone is suitably sun-baked as Gary, a former gangster who has retired to rural Spain. His peaceful existence is interrupted by Ben Kingsley, delivering a huge, scene-stealing performance as Gary’s former colleague Don Logan. Don is planning a bank job and he needs Gary on his team. He is not a man who takes no for an answer. Kingsley is magnificent, a ball of sociopathic malice. It’s his nerve-shredding turn that elevates this movie from a good film to a great one. (88 min)
Radio choice, by Catherine Nixey
Afternoon Concert — Opera Matinee: Rossini’s Moses In Egypt
Radio 3, 2pm
The Old Testament has many strengths, but as Rossini correctly spotted, one of its weaknesses is that it is light on love stories. So when the composer came to adapt the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, he introduced a little operatic va-va-voom in the form of a love story between Pharaoh’s son Amenofi and the Israelite Elcia. Amenofi loves her so much that he tries to prevent the Israelites from leaving. Imagine how different history might have been had he succeeded. The premiere in Naples was not an unmitigated success: if parting the Red Sea is tricky for an Old Testament prophet, it’s almost as hard for a set designer and the Neapolitans made their disdain for Rossini’s version clear. Here, Enrique Mazzola conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and chorus; Andrew Foster-Williams sings Pharoah and Clarissa Costanzo sings Elcia.
Assignment: Paralympic Sport — Fair Play?
World Service, 8pm
Classification in paralympic sport has become a fraught issue, with some people describing it as akin to doping. The idea of paralympic classification is simple: all athletes should compete against those with similar disabilities. But its implementation is fiendish: how do you measure such things? And are some athletes exaggerating their disability — as is claimed — to get into a more favourable class? Here, Jane Deith speaks to athletes, coaches and officials who are concerned that the system is being abused.