PICK OF THE DAY

Virginia McKenna’s Born Free

7PM, CH4

Fifty years ago, the actress, author and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna and her husband, Bill Travers, starred in Born Free, as Joy and George Adamson, who famously raised Elsa the orphaned lion cub. The film changed the way the world looked at wild animals, and transformed Virginia and Bill’s lives for ever. This delightful documentary follows Virginia (right) as she returns to Kenya to retrace her steps in the company of her eldest son, Will, who was just five when the film was made. ‘It was unreal,’ she says of her time living with lions. ‘It was so exciting.’

Horizon: The Wildest Weather In The Universe

8PM, BBC2

Supersonic winds, vast storm systems, temperatures so high that it’s believed that it rains liquid lava droplets, or that precious stones, such as diamonds and rubies, fall from the heavens… This illuminating documentary reveals what science is discovering about the weather on other planets.

Great Canal Journeys

8PM, CH4

‘Canals wind through our lives, carrying our treasured memories.’ Timothy West and Prunella Scales return with a new, three-part series of canal adventures. They begin in Bristol and the West Country, boarding a variety of vessels to travel through scenery both familiar and unknown, and visiting their childhood homes.

Tutankhamun

9PM, ITV

It’s 1918, and Carter resumes his quest to find the hidden tomb, before the arrival of Lord Carnarvon’s ebullient daughter, Evelyn, causes him to be distracted – much to Maggie’s dismay. But then, at last, the discovery he’s been waiting for puts affairs of the heart well and truly on the back burner…