Satellite choice

FUN FAMILY FILM The Secret Life Of Pets, 2pm,p 8pm,p Skyy Animation

FULL of excitable,excitable adorable characters, this animation is best in show. Max is the Jack Russell who, with his pals, has a big day out in the Big Apple.

FREEVIEW MOVIE Shallow Hal, 6.45pm, Film4

SUPERFICIAL city man Jack Black is only interested in dating physically perfect women, but his outlook is changed when a self-help guru hypnotises him into seeing inner beauty.

CYCLING Six Day London, 7.30pm, Eurosport 1

OLYMPIC gold medallist Katie Archibald, who was last year’s winner, and Neah Evans, her runner-up are among those taking part in this exciting track event from London’s Olympic Park.

PIONEERING WORKS The Race Underground, 7.50pm, PBS America

IT’S easy to forget what an undertaking it was to build an underground railway in the late 19th century, especially one using the new technology powered by electricity. This classy film relates the building of the first subway in the U.S..

NEW U.S. REALITY Meet The Putmans, 8pm, TLC

TWENTY-FIVE members of the Putman family live in one house, with two bathrooms. The logistics of that defy comprehension — 15 of them are children — but their intense, apparently happy lives make a compelling subject for this new U.S. reality series.

HOLY VIEWING Retreat: Meditations From A Monastery, 9pm, BBC4

THIS ultimate experiment in ‘slow TV’ takes us inside three monasteries in three days. The first destination is Downside Abbey in Somerset, where monks (including Dom Michael, pictured) go about their business in silence, except when that business involves singing or prayer. Continues daily.

STAND-UP COMEDY Jack Whitehall: At Large, Netflix

THE comedian riffs on that most British of subjects — class — and his attempt to ‘break America’ in this enjoyably self-mocking standup performance from London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

HISTORY ON FILM 1917: One Year, Two Revolutions, 9pm, National Geographic

COLOURISED footage brings this new account of revolution in Russia to eerie life, particularly the moments when the big players — such as Lenin — arrive. The film focuses on the unrest between February and October 1917, and draws on accounts written by a journalist.

CLASSIC CHILLER Alien, 9pm, Film4

SIMPLE and effective sci-fi horror, an influential film that gave us a powerful heroine in Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and a dreaded villain in the acid

blooded, multi-jawed alien.

GRITTY DRAMA The Deuce, 10pm, Sky Atlantic

IT TURNS out Candy didn’t hit rock bottom last week — that happens tonight. Bobby, meanwhile, recovering from his heart attack with a steady diet of booze, cigarettes and angry looks, chooses a new line of work that could put him in the ground sooner than he thinks.