PICKS OF THE DAY
Film: Olympus Has Fallen, Film4, 9pm
Action thriller starring Gerard Butler (left), Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart. When the White House is targeted by a group of terrorists, it’s up to former bodyguard Mike Banning (Butler) to save the day in this fast-paced thriller. He gets the chance to redeem himself when he becomes trapped inside as he tries to help US president (Eckhart) who is being held hostage. Butler isn’t quite spot on with the quickfire gags, but he is solid and capable as our hero.
History: Raiders Of The Lost Past With Janina Ramirez, BBC4, 8pm
Dr Janina Ramirez (above) looks back at the amazing unearthing of three pre-war treasures, and the explorer-archaeologists who discovered them. This time, she focuses on the discovery of a 40,000-yearold artwork known as The Lion Man, found by archaeologist Robert Wetzel in a remote cave in Nazi Germany just before the Second World War.
Documentary: The 80s - Music’s Greatest Decade? With Dylan Jones, BBC2, 11.15pm
New series. The journalist and author celebrates the music of the decade, arguing that this maligned era is one of the most inventive periods of pop culture and hearing from leading musicians and producers who were at the forefront of this. In the first programme he asserts that the 1980s, unlike other decades, was undefinable by significant monolithic movements such as punk, disco or Britpop, and unleashed a myriad of new genres and tastes in just 10 years. Featuring interviews with Chic’s Nile Rodgers, girlband Bananarama (left), Bobby Gillespie, Mark Ronson, music producer Trevor Horn and Jazzie B.
Comedy: Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, BBC2, 10pm
New series. The outspoken and controversial comedian returns with the programme in which he tries to make sense of the modern world while poking plenty of fun at it. Frankie (above) tackles the biggest issues troubling the planet, making a string of bold and often outrageous statements which he then picks apart with the help of a variety of celebrity guests who all offer their humorous opinions for consideration.
Music: King Arthur, Sky Arts, 9pm
A production of the five-act opera that was a collaboration between poet, literary critic and playwright John Dryden and English composer Henry Purcell, sung in English with German dialogue. The plot is based on the battles between King Arthur’s Britons and the Saxons, rather than the legends of Camelot and includes such supernatural characters as Cupid and Venus plus references to the Germanic gods of the Saxons, Woden, Thor, and Freya (right).