PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV
BOARDERS, 9PM, BBC3
DANIEL LAWRENCE TAYLOR, who created the Bafta-nominated comedy Timewasters, takes the clichés of Britain’s ‘street smart’ black youth and throws them into a private-school setting, where he also has plenty to say about the privileged elite. Five talented black teenagers (Sekou Diaby, Josh Tedeku, Jodie Campbell, Myles Kamwendo and Aruna Jalloh, pictured) win a scholarship to attend St Gilbert’s boarding school. ‘Don’t be who they expect you to be,’ says the charity leader who helped to get them there. Easier said than done when the posh kids think you sell drugs, among all the other racist profiling. The
RAMBLING ALONG Perfect Pub Walks, 9pm, More4
BILL BAILEY delivers a good twist on the celebrity walking genre with this cosy new series. It’s about men talking about big stuff and maybe having a pint, too – guest number one is Alan Davies, who joins Bill in the Peak District (pictured).
PHYSICS GENIUS Einstein And The Bomb, Netflix
HIS name is now shorthand for genius, but Albert Einstein questioned his own wisdom in cracking equations that ultimately opened the door to the development of nuclear weapons. This head teacher at St Gilbert’s expects them to assimilate, to become ‘Gilbertines’, but no one watching this is going to want that to happen. You’ll want them to succeed for being themselves, especially when the behaviour of the well-to-do students leaves a lot to be desired. Shot through with humour and wit, the six-part series sifts through the stereotypes while charting a path – of documentary marries archive footage to dramatic reconstructions of key moments to tell the story of Einstein’s life, focusing on the German-born physicist’s relationship with the Nazis and his role in the grades, sex, discipline and cliques – familiar to this kind of coming-of-age school setting. We also get us some more interesting subplots, including one of the newcomer’s search for clues to a secret society. creation of the A-bomb. Working well as a companion piece to 2023’s epic, multi-award-winning movie Oppenheimer, this is an intelligent and frequently chilling look at the price of scientific advancement. Ridley’s Aidan McArdle plays Einstein in the reconstructions.
SCARY DOCUMENTARY Total Trust: Surveillance State – Storyville, 10pm, BBC4
BOTH fascinating and profoundly horrifying, this new documentary illustrates the ways smart technology has enabled China to monitor citizens’ loyalty. If this is the present, what is the future?